Editor's Note: BYU Studies is the university's flagship journal that includes many articles on Church history. To subscribe to the journal, click here. To get the current issue (44:3) containing Dr. Bennett's article, "Line upon Line, Precept upon Precept: Reflections on the 1877 Commencement of the Performance of Endowments and Sealings for the Dead," go to byustudies.byu.edu.
If revelation had stopped with the death of Joseph Smith, and the Church functioned solely upon the things that he was able to institute, we would scarcely recognize the Church as we know it today. Even those things that are considered to be central to the LDS religion, such as certain temple ordinances for the dead, would be completely missing.
If Joseph would have lived to be an old man and had some semblance of peace during his life, surely he would have instituted every ordinance of the temple. As it was, his life was cut short and his successors were called to carry off the kingdom, sometimes with the same dramatic revelatory experiences that we associate only with Joseph. This was particularly true of Wilford Woodruff.
If you ask me, in the axiomatic "spiritual giant" category, Wilford Woodruff ranks second only to Joseph Smith, especially if one looks at the sheer number of times Woodruff saw visions or rent the veil to commune with angels and spirits. These dramatic experiences often took place in the St. George Temple.
In a current article in BYU Studies, Dr. Richard E. Bennett has made significant breakthroughs in understanding the history of endowments for the dead, as well as the vital role that Wilford Woodruff played in implementing the practice.
"While most will ever associate him with missionary work, his most long-lasting contributions may well have occurred within temple walls," writes Bennett.
Some Latter-day Saints might be astonished to realize that endowments for the dead were not instituted until Wilford Woodruff was directed by Brigham Young to implement the new practice in the St. George Temple. This took place in 1877, more than three decades after the death of Joseph Smith.
According to extant manuscripts, during his lifetime Joseph alluded only briefly to other ordinances besides baptism that must be instituted for the dead. This likely means that the lion's share of responsibility to receive instruction from God on the details of work for the dead fell to others like Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff. Before reading Bennett's article, I hadn't realized just how involved other prophets had been in establishing the foundational ordinances of the Church.
That Woodruff was involved in something so foundational may explain why such dramatic visions and revelations occurred, such as when the signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as other great leaders, writers, and philosophers from Europe, appeared to Woodruff. At one point in the article, when Woodruff receives a particular revelation concerning the work for the dead, he exults, "Light burst upon my understanding. I saw an Effectual door open to me for the redemption of my dead. And when I saw this I felt like shouting Glory Hallalulah to God and the Lamb."
The article goes on to trace how this particular revelation has had a tremendous effect on LDS worship practices. "One of the most interesting things I found about Wilford Woodruff was his unbending allegiance to revealed doctrine and prophetic direction, coupled with his courage to proclaim new revelation and adaptations in policy," says Bennett. "As prophet, he was less tied to tradition and more attuned to change, where needed. His commitment to the development and growth of temple work is one of his most enduring legacies, one that changed profoundly the history of the Church."
Lately it has impressed me that even Joseph Smith's Herculean efforts would mean little if revelation had stopped with him, if other God-inspired innovators did not succeed him. Before, there was a subtle feeling that the prophets after Joseph only built on the foundation he laid; endowments for the dead reinforced in my mind that the living prophet has and does, from time to time, build a new foundation.
The all-encompassing principles of LDS theology are continuing authority and continuing revelation. Give us everything - give us Joseph Smith, give us the Book of Mormon, even give us the keys to the city of God - without the principle that legal administrators of God that can act according to spontaneous, here-and-now revelation, we would, in effect, have nothing.
During this study year, we have an opportunity to see that Wilford Woodruff was a dramatic example of the revelation principle. The more we study him in-depth, the more we will appreciate the profound innovations he instituted that affect our whole religious existence.
BYU Studies is the university's flagship journal that includes many articles on Church history. To subscribe to the journal, click here. To get the current issue (44:3) containing Dr. Bennett's article, "Line upon Line, Precept upon Precept: Reflections on the 1877 Commencement of the Performance of Endowments and Sealings for the Dead," go to byustudies.byu.edu.
