This lecture not only lays the groundwork for Elijah and Elias but exposes the incorrect doctrines being taught from those who claim they have the power of Elijah in our day, while they can't all be right, they can all be wrong. It also explains the long forgotten teaching "the doctrine or sealing power of Elijah is as follows if you have power to seal on earth & in heaven then we should be Crafty, the first thing you do go & seal on earth your sons & daughters unto yourself, & yourself unto your fathers in eternal glory." Also teaches, “The spirit of Elias is first, Elijah second, and Messiah last” or in other words work to be accomplished by those operating under the mandate of Aaronic, Melchizedek and Patriarchal divisions of labor.
March 10 1844:
A discourse given March 10, 1844 on the difference between the spirit and office of Elias and Elijah as recorded by Wilford Woodruff in his diary.
There is a difference between the Spirit and office of Elias and Elijah. It is the spirit of Elias I wish first to speak of. And In order to come at the subject, I will bring some of the testimony from the Scripture[s], and give my own. In the first place suffice it to say, I went into the woods to enquire inquire of the Lord, by prayer, his will concerning me, and I saw an angel, and he laid his hands upon my head, and ordained me to be a priest after the order of Aaron, and to hold the keys of this priesthood, which office was to preach repentance [p. 1918] and baptism for the remission of sins, and also to baptize; but I was informed that this office did not extend to the laying on of hands for the giving of the Holy Ghost; that, that office was a greater work, and was to be given afterwards; but that my ordination was a preparatory work, or a going before, which was the spirit of Elias; for the Spirit of Elias was a going before, to prepare the way for the greater, which was the case with John the Baptist, he came bawling through the wilderness “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight,” and they were informed if they could receive it, it was the Spirit of Elias, and John was very particular to tell the people “he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of this that light.” [John 1:21-26]
He told the people that his mission was to preach repentance and baptize with water; but it was He that should come after him, that should baptize with fire, and the Holy Ghost. If he had been an impostor, he might have gone to work beyond his bounds, and undertook to have performed ordinances which did not belong to that office and calling, under the Spirit of Elias. The spirit of Elias is to prepare the way for a greater revelation of God, which is the priesthood of Elias; or the priesthood that Aaron was ordained unto; and when God sends a man into the world to prepare for a greater work holding the keys of the power of Elias, it was called the doctrine of Elias, even from the early ages of the world.
John’s mission was limited to preaching and baptizing; but what he did was legal, and when Jesus Christ came to any of John’s disciples, He baptized them with fire and the Holy Ghost. We find the Apostles endowed with greater power than John; their office was more under the Spirit and power of Elijah than Elias.
In the case of Philip when he went down to Samaria, when he was under the Spirit of Elias he baptized both men and women; when Peter and John heard of it, they went down and laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. This shows the distinction between the two powers. [Acts 11:5-11] When Paul came to certain disciples, he asked if they had received the Holy Ghost. They said no! Who baptized you then? We were baptized unto John’s baptism. Not so my friends if you had you would have heard of the holy ghost.. No, John did not baptize you [if you had you would have heard of the holy ghost] , for he did his work right
What I want to impress upon your minds is, the difference of power in the different parts of the Priesthood, so that when any man comes among you saying “I have the spirit of Elias” you can know whether he be true or false, for any man that comes having the spirit and power of Elias, he will not transcend his bounds. John did not transcend his bounds, but faithfully performed that part belonging to his office, and every portion of the great building should be prepared right, and assigned to its proper place, and it is necessary to know who holds the keys of power, and who does not, or we may be likely to be deceived. That person who holds the keys of Elias hath a [p. 1919] preparatory work— but, if I spend much more time in conversing about the Spirit of Elias I shall not have time to do justice to the Spirit and power of Elijah. This is the Elias spoken of in the last days, and here is the rock upon which many split, thinking the time was past in the days of John, and Christ, and no more to be; but the spirit of Elias was revealed to me, and I know it is true, therefore I speak with boldness, for I know verily my doctrine is true.
Now for Elijah, The spirit, power and calling of Elijah is, that ye have power to hold the keys of the revelations, ordinances, oracles, powers and endowments of the fullness of the Melchizedeck Priesthood and of the kingdom of God on the earth, and to receive, obtain and perform all the ordinances belonging to the kingdom of God even unto the turning of the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the hearts of the children unto the fathers, even those who are in heaven. Malachi says “I will send Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come, and he shall turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” [Malachi 1:84]
Now what I am after, is the knowledge of God, and I take my own course to obtain it. What are we to understand by this in the last days? In the days of Noah, God destroyed the world by a flood, and he has promised to destroy it by fire in the last days; but before it took place, Elijah should first come, and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children &c. Now comes the point. What is this office and work of Elijah? It is one of the greatest and most important subjects that God has revealed. He should send Elijah to seal the children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children. Now was this merely confined to the living, to settle difficulties with families on earth? By no means, it was a far greater work. Elijah! What would you do if you were here? Would you confine your work to the living alone? No, I would refer you to the Scriptures, where the subject is manifest that is, without us they could not be made perfect, nor we without them; the fathers without the children, nor the children without the fathers.
I wish you to understand this subject, for it is important, and if you will receive it, this is the Spirit of Elijah, that we redeem our dead, and connect ourselves with our fathers which are in heaven and seal up our dead to come forth in the first resurrection; and here we want the power of Elijah to seal those who dwell on earth to those who dwell in heaven. This is the power of Elijah and the keys of the kingdom of Jehovah. Let us suppose a case; suppose the great God who dwells in heaven, should reveal himself to Father [Alpheus] Cutler here, by the opening heavens, and tell him, ‘I offer up a decree that whatsoever you seal on earth with your decree, I will seal it in heaven,’ you have power then, can it be taken off? No, then what you seal on earth by the keys of Elijah, is sealed in heaven, and this is the power of Elijah, and this is the difference between the Spirit and power of Elias and Elijah. For while [p. 1920] the spirit of Elias is a forerunner, the power of Elijah is sufficient to make our calling and election sure, and the same doctrine where we are exhorted to go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, but of laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead &c. [Hebrews 3:15-17] We cannot be perfect without the fathers &c. We must have revelations from them, and we can see that the doctrine of revelation as far transcends the doctrine of no revelation, as knowledge is above ignorance; for one truth revealed from heaven is worth all the Sectarian notions in existence.
This spirit of Elijah was manifest in the days of the Apostles, in delivering certain ones to the buffetings of Satan that they may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus; they were sealed by the spirit of Elijah unto the damnation of Hell until the day of the Lord, or revelation of Jesus Christ. Here is the doctrine of election that the world has quarreled so much about; but they do not know anything about it. The doctrine that the Presbyterians and Methodists have quarreled so much about, once in grace always in grace, or falling away from grace, I will say a word about, they are both wrong, truth takes a road between them both; for while the Presbyterian says ‘once in grace you cannot fall,’ the Methodist says ‘you can have grace today, fall from it tomorrow, next day have grace again, and so follow on changing continually’, but the doctrine of the scriptures, and the Spirit of Elijah would show them both false, and take a road between them both, for according to the scriptures, if men have received the good word of God, and tasted of the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, it is impossible to renew them again, seeing they have crucified the son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame, so there is a possibility of falling away, you could not be renewed again, [Hebrews 2:18] and the power of Elijah cannot seal against this sin, for this is a reserve made in the seals and powers of the Priesthood. I will make every doctrine plain that I present, and it shall stand upon a firm basis, and I am at the defiance of the world, for I will take shelter under the broad cover of the wings of the work in which I am engaged. It matters not to me if all hell boils over, I regard it only as I would the crackling of the thorns under a pot.
A murderer, for instance, one that sheds innocent blood, cannot have forgiveness, David sought repentance at the hand of God carefully, with tears for the murder of Uriah, but he could only get it through hell; he got a promise that his soul should not be left in hell. Although David was a king he never did obtain the spirit and power of Elijah and the fulness of the Priesthood; and the priesthood that he received, and the throne and kingdom of David is to be taken from him and given to another by the name of David in the last days raised up out of his lineage, Peter referred to the same subject on the day of Pentecost, but the multitude did not get the endowment that Peter had, but several days after the people asked what shall we do. Peter says ‘I would ye had done it ignorantly’ speaking of crucifying the Lord &c. He did not say to them ‘repent [p. 1921] and be baptized for the remission of your sins’ but he said ‘repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord’. Acts 3.19 [Acts 2:18] . This is the case with murderers, they could not be baptized for the remission of sins, for they had shed innocent blood.
Again, the doctrine or sealing power of Elijah is as follows;— if you have power to seal on earth and in heaven then we should be crafty
I asked a short time since for the Lord to deliver me out of the hands of the Governor of Missouri, and if it needs must be to accomplish it to take him away; and the next news that came pouring down from there was that Governor [Thomas] Reynolds had shot himself, and I would now say ‘Beware oh earth how you fight against the Saints of God, and shed innocent blood, for in the days of Elijah his enemies came upon him, and fire was called down from heaven and destroyed them’.
The spirit of Elias is first, Elijah second, and Messiah last. Elias is a forerunner to prepare the way, and the spirit and power of Elijah is to come after, holding the keys of power, building the Temple to the cap stone, placing the seals of the Melchizedek priesthood upon the house of Israel, and making all things ready, then Messiah comes to his temple, which is last of all. Messiah is above the spirit and power of Elijah for he made the world, and was that spiritual rock unto Moses in the Wilderness. Elijah was to come and prepare the way and build up the kingdom, before the coming of the great day of the Lord, although the spirit of Elias might begin it.
I have asked of the Lord concerning his coming, and while asking the Lord he gave me a sign and said, ‘in the days of Noah I set a bow in the heavens as a sign and token that in any year that the bow should be seen the Lord would not come, but there should be seed time and harvest during that year, but whenever you see the bow withdrawn, it shall be a token that there shall be famine, pestilence, and great distress among the nations, and that the coming of the Messiah is not far distant.’
But I will take the responsibility upon myself to prophecy in the name of the Lord, that Christ will not come this year as Father [William] Miller has prophesied, for we have seen the bow, and I also prophesy in the name of the Lord, that Christ will not come in forty years, and if God ever spoke by my mouth He will not come in that length of time. Brethren when you go home write this down that it may be remembered. [p. 1922] Jesus Christ never did reveal to any man the precise time that he would come, go and read the Scriptures, and you cannot find anything that specifies the exact hour he would come, and all that say so are false teachers. There are some important things concerning the office of the Messiah in the organization of the world, which I will speak of hereafter. May God Almighty bless you, and pour out his spirit upon you, is the prayer of your unworthy servant. Amen. (
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