Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Rulon Killian on the Fulfillment of Malachi 4:5-6 after the Coming of Elijah in 1836

  

THE CASE OF ELIJAH

 

New witnesses are appearing nearly every day, testifying in one form or another that Joseph Smith was visited by angels.

 

The Saturday Evening Post, of January 15, 1949, is a case in point. It carries an article written by Milton Lehman, entitled “The Big Ancestor Hunt.” We don’t know who Milton Lehman is and doubt if he knows but little, if anything, about Joseph Smith. But, in practically every sentence of his article, he is unconsciously bearing witness that the ancient Prophet Elijah made a visit to Joseph Smith in 1836.

 

Lehman’s opening paragraph reads: “Although it is a rare American who knows his own great-grandfather, thousands today are eagerly tracking him down. In Pennsylvania, they search for his will in ancient court-house records. In Massachusetts, they value the pedigree more than the family silver. In New Jersey, they band together as the tombstone hounds, seeking clues to the family tree in abandoned cemeteries. From Los Angeles to Long Island, the ancestor hunters are trying to find where they came from.”

 

He goes on to say that many of the searchers are grandfathers themselves, retired, with a good income and could spend a life of ease, yet they drive themselves relentlessly in their search. “Nothing distracts them,” says he, “neither the snows of winter, nor the first robins of spring . . . even on the hottest days of summer, they crowd the reading tables.”

 

Why do they do it? None of them seem to know. They admit there is no monetary value to it, and perhaps no one will bother to read what they have collected. Yet on and on they go at their self-appointed task.

 

But someone knows. The faithful among the Latter-day Saints know why they do it. They know that on April 3, 1836, the ancient Prophet Elijah appeared to Joseph Smith in fulfillment of the Lord’s promise through the Prophet Malachi. Malachi’s prophecy reads: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of the . . . children to their fathers . . . “ (Mal. 4:5, 6) for years, faithful Latter-day Saints have been conscious of a peculiar spirit working on mankind, turning their hearts and their minds to their dead ancestors.

 

. . . 


Such an urge took hold of Artemus Ward, the man who made himself rich and famous building the elevated railroad in New York. He employed an expert genealogist full time to publish the names in a book. Before the book was finished, Ward had a stroke which rendered him unconscious much of the time until he died. Each time he gained consciousness he inquired about the book. Was it finished? Would they please hurry? The publishers doubled their efforts, threw the book together, and rushed a copy to him. He was conscious at the moment; he took the book in his hands, patted it showed it to the doctors and nurses, saying repeatedly, “The book is here. I have the book.” Shortly afterward he died, seemingly a happy man. It appears the collection of names of Mr. Ward’s ancestors, which his “heart had been turned to.” seemed more important to him than all his other early possessions combined. (New England Historical Genealogical Register, Vol. 80, page 314) (Rulon Killian, Those Foolish Mormons [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1961], 35-36, 37)

 

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Resources on Joseph Smith's Prophecies