“Let us return to the matter of the ministering of angels. In doing so, let it be remembered that we have but one gospel and its principles apply to all in the same manner. If angels came in Bible or Book of Mormon times to aid parents in protecting, directing, and correcting their children, they must come in like manner today. It is not required that they speak with thunder nor is it required that they cause the ground to quake. But that they come and that they get the attention of those to whom they come is as much a part of the gospel as baptism, the sacrament, and long meetings.”
“The same principle holds for the Bible-believing world. In the Book of Malachi (which should have been translated ‘The Book of Angels,’ because that is what Malachi means), we are told that Elijah the prophet is to come and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers and that if this does not happen there was no purpose in creating the earth in the first place (see Mal. 4:5-6).
“Well Elijah came, and because he came the right rests with our righteous fathers on the other side of the veil to come and minister to wayward children today just as they did in Alma’s day. If there is a God, a prophet named Elijah, and the word of the Bible is to be believed, then our pain is shared by our families on the other side of the veil. They have been granted power, beyond that which we have, to do something about it. Having made covenants that bind us to generations past and future, we are not going to be left to walk alone.”
Joseph Fielding McConkie, Professor of ancient scripture at BYU in and address given at the Evergreen International 20th Annual Conference, September 18, 2010
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