Nearly all people feel drawn to their ancestors. They are curious about the people whose lives brought them here. For some people this curiosity leads them to learn more of the life stories of their ancestors. For others, inherited traits and medical susceptibilities are a major interest. Others delight in recipes or pass-times that they may share with earlier generations.
As Latter-day Saints, we can enjoy all of these, plus we have a responsibility to see that temple ordinances are offered to our deceased kindred. Note that we say "offered", as they are free to accept or not. Likewise we can invite living people to attend church events with us, and they are free to accept or not. The gospel is a gift.
I love old family photos and stories. They help me to understand the lives of people who have passed beyond the veil. And FamilySearch Memories allow me to preserve these things and share them with cousins I do not even know, and those not yet born.
All members have access to free accounts with Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast, and some other commercial partners of FamilySearch. I love using these sites.
Ancestry has provided many breakthroughs in my research, Findmypast gives me access to British records I have found nowhere else, and MyHeritage brings my old photos to life. With it, I can instantly restore the color to faded photos, colorize black and white photos, and I can even create simple movies of ancestors telling their own stories. It is another way to share family history.
What does all this have to do with the gospel and with temple work?
The doctrine of salvation for the dead is given in the New Testament. in 1 Peter chapter 3.
17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Peter summarizes it nicely in 1 Peter 4: 6.
For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
So the purpose of Christ preaching to the spirits of the dead was so that they could progress, just like us, through faith in Christ, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Spirits can have faith and repent, but since baptism and the laying on of hands are physical things, how can they be given to spirits, who are not physical beings? The apostle Paul gives an answer.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 Paul is teaching the members of the church in Corinth that the resurrection of the dead is real and literal.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
So in New Testament times, after Christ's resurrection, Christians were being baptized for the dead. Such baptisms are often referred to as "Vicarious" or "Proxy" ordinances. Both terms mean that someone is authorized to act in place of someone else.
Here is another example to explain the idea of proxies:
In pioneer days, there was a shortage of single women out on the frontier. Through contacts with friends and neighbors, a man wanting a wife might find a willing and courageous woman half way around the world. He would write to her, and if she agreed. she could be married to him by proxy before sailing to the Americas, or Australia, or wherever. In the marriage ceremony, another man represented her husband, and took the marriage vows on his behalf. The legally-married bride could now travel to join her new husband in the wilderness.
This New Testament doctrine of ordinances for the dead, was lost in the Great Apostasy. and restored by Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and his successors as latter-day prophets. There are whole sections of Doctrine and Covenants that explain it. Initially baptisms for the dead were done in the river, but in Section 124, the Lord gave these instructions:
33 For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead cannot be acceptable unto me;
So the Nauvoo Temple was built and since then, ordinances for the dead are done in temples.
As leaders and consultants, we can help members to do this.
