The Keys of Elijah
Oher extremely important events now being fulfilled are based on the coming of Elias, Moses and Elijah with the keys of their dispensations . . . The keys of Elijah’s work and ministry are extremely interesting. His coming was the fulfilling of the promise made through Malachi. It is the planting in the hearts of the children the promises made to their fathers, that in these last days, the children should do the work which was denied the fathers upon which their salvation depends. Many members of the Church have thought that the keys restored by Elijah were keys pertaining to the dead, and therefore Elijah practiced in his day ordinances in behalf of the dead. This is an error. There was no work performed for the dead by Elijah or any other prophet before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The keys held by Elijah were the keys of the sealing power by which all ordinances are sanctioned and approved and upon which the eternal seal of authority is placed. These powers were exercised in early dispensations in behalf of the living. Elijah exercised such authority, and we learn from the Prophet Joseph Smith that he was the last of the prophets in old Israel to hold this divine authority in this fulness. It was for this reason that he was sent to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in April, 1836, to confer that authority. Since or Savior opened the door for the dead, this power becomes valid for the dead who accept the Gospel as well as for those who receive the Gospel in this mortal world. (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Signs of the Times: A Series of Discussions [Independence, Miss.: Press of Zion’s Printing and Publishing Co., 1943], 160-61, emphasis added)