I- Indonesia Tsunami 2004
In 2004 there was an earthquake 100 miles off the coast of Indonesia. The tide drew back from the shore pulling boats, bodies and debris out in the ocean exposing coral to the open air. Two massive waves towering over two stories high traveled 100 miles in twenty minutes to collide with the shore. In the lower regions the waves penetrated the shore as much as 25 miles inland. There were approximately 160,000 casualties. Natives of Indonesia were taught by their fathers to run to high ground if they saw the water retreat from the shore. Consequently many native Indonesians were saved by lessons taught them by their fathers.
Today we will talk about our Patriarchal Fathers.
II- Joseph Smith: “Search the scriptures—search the revelations which we publish, and ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to manifest the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to His glory nothing doubting, He will answer you by the power of His Holy Spirit. You will then know for yourselves and not for another. You will not then be dependent on man for the knowledge of God; nor will there be any room for speculation. No; for when men receive their instruction from Him that made them, they know how He will save them. Then again we say: Search the Scriptures, search the Prophets and learn what portion of them belongs to you and the people of the nineteenth century [21st now]. You, no doubt, will agree with us, and say, that you have no right to claim the promises of the inhabitants before the flood; that you cannot found your hopes of salvation upon the obedience of the children of Israel when journeying in the wilderness, nor can you expect that the blessings which the apostles pronounced upon the churches of Christ eighteen hundred years ago, were intended for you. Again, if others' blessings are not your blessings, others' curses are not your curses; you stand then in these last days, as all have stood before you, agents unto yourselves, to be judged according to your works. (Smith Jr., Joseph. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (p. 9-10). Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition).
III- Coming of Elijah
A- “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall seal the heart of the Fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their Fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” (RE Malachi 1:12, emphasis added).
B- Elijah opens the conduit between Heaven and Earth to remain open permanently. The “Fathers” are Patriarchal, not Earthly. Before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, the Lord sends Elijah to seal the hearts of Patriarchal Fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the Patriarchal Fathers. It’s an act of mercy and warning, because if He failed to send Elijah first, He would smite the Earth with a curse immediately.
IV- Signs the Coming of Elijah Draws Near. (Joseph Smith spoke of it as a future event near the end of his life).
A- Denver Snuffer Jr. email response:, “I received an inquiry about my comment in the Ephraim talk about God’s hand “the second time.” The inquirer referred to a letter Joseph wrote, directed my attention there, and asked about the “second time.” My response appears below:
God may yet set His hand a second time in still another generation (or generations, depending on the reaction today), if the work required is not done today. When God begins to speak, we are obligated to inquire, listen and heed. At present I do not expect any success in the present generation. This world is so captured by a faithlessness and hardness that even the trump of an angel would fail to reach those alive today. If mankind knew what He offers now, we would all make the necessary sacrifice to receive it.
Joseph spoke as the Elias sent to prepare [like John the Baptist]. He accomplished all that was required in his day. But he did not accomplish what might have been done if those who lived in his day had been faithful. There will come another with the Spirit of Elijah, whom Joseph foretold [this comes up again later]. When that window opens it will require better response than in Joseph’s day, or another generation will pass away un-redeemed, but not un-warned. Right now the question is whether we are willing to still receive what Joseph in the spirit of Elias gave us. Hence the present series of talks. They are designed to let us remember. Before the Spirit of Elijah will be permitted to be heard, we must remember. God cannot give more when we forget what we already have received.
Then still another will come who is the Messiah. But all these are part of “the second time” in the Lord’s economy. Likewise, they will all minister to a “generation” in the language of prophecy, while in the reckoning of men it involves generations [note the difference]. (Email Response “Second Time blogpost,” Denver Snuffer Jr., July 16, 2014,emphasis added).
B- Foreword to the New Scriptures: 2019 “This edition of scripture stands as a witness to the whole world; it is the sign that the moment has arrived when the things that have been prophesied of in scripture will now occur in a single generation. Mankind doesn’t have to accept the witness, they don’t even have to notice the witness; it’s only required that God send the witness. If He sends the witness, God has done His part. These scriptures are a new witness of Him and a sign of His invitation to renew communication with mankind” [This is one way we acknowledge Joseph Smith’s contribution]. (RE Old Covenant Foreword, third paragraph, copyright 2019).
C- Denver Snuffer Jr., 2019 “We have yet to take the Spirit of Elias [Joseph Smith] seriously enough to move on to receive something further. But we are now facing a crossroads in which it may be possible to restore again and continue the work and move forward. Moving forward successfully however, will require the Spirit of Elijah. This time the Spirit of Elijah is not to prepare a people so that they might ascend into heaven but instead to prepare a people so that those who come will not utterly destroy them. There must be a people prepared to endure the burning that is to come. Just as Enoch’s people were prepared, shielded and brought worthy to ascend so as not to be destroyed by the flood, the Spirit of Elijah must prepare people in order for them to endure the day that is coming that shall burn the wicked as stubble. That will be people living in a place of peace and they will be the only people who are not at war one with another. They will be people who accept a body of teachings and allow them to govern their daily walk; both with each other and with God, so that they receive “commandments, not a few” and “revelations in their day” because that is what the people of Zion must necessarily be willing to do” (Zion’s Return, Part 1, Denver Snuffer Jr., emphasis added).
D- 2023-Q&A with Denver, Question I posed: “Question 4: There’s a chance we were getting close to gaining the spirit of Elijah. And I was curious as to where you think… It's been almost four years. How much closer do you think we are?
DS: Umm… Closer still. Okay, look: Joseph Smith makes a passing reference to three different kinds of spirit. There's a spirit of Elias, there's a spirit of Elijah, and there's a spirit of Messiah. Now, there are those who say that Joseph was an ignorant farm boy (as he confessed that he was) and that he didn't understand that Elias was simply the Greek form of the name Elijah—and so Joseph didn't know what he was talking about. I rather favor the other view, which is that Joseph found the term useful to illustrate a point and that he wasn't giving you a language course. He was trying to inform you about the manner in which restoration of material rolls forth.
● The spirit of Elias, as he defined it, was a forerunner that would deliver a message that warns you of things to come.
● The spirit of Elijah is where you begin to have a restoration that includes fulsome enough material to seal people up unto salvation against the day of the harvest.
● And the spirit of Messiah is when the Lord Himself comes and returns.
And he commented about how David had failed to get the greater spirit [ “Although David was a king, he never did obtain the Spirit and power of Elijah and the fullness of the Priesthood: and the Priesthood that he received, and the throne and kingdom of David is to be taken from him (because he never obtained the power to seal) and given to another by the name of David in the last days, raised up out of his lineage, TPJS.339]. So the question needs to be answered and the question needs to be understood in the context of the talk and the vocabulary that Joseph was employing at the time. And the answer I would give is that everything that the Lord has intended to accomplish, He has set about achieving the steps necessary to move everything forward. And that if the Lord were to command that a temple be built, we have everything that would be needed in order to fulfill, at our end, what Heaven expects to take place here, from Heaven's end. And that, should we get the command, we won't have anything at our end that impedes getting that done” (Conference Q&A, 5/21/2023).
V- What the Spirit of Elijah accomplishes-Denver Snuffer Jr.
“It will be the place from which the first preparations for the Second Coming begin. At that location a small group will be prepared to endure this opening. They, and those called to join with them, will escape being ―utterly wasted‖ at the unveiling of our Lord in glory at His return. It is Elijah who will restore the hearts of the fathers to the children or, in other words, he will reestablish the lost corridor between heaven and earth that connects those in heaven with those on earth.144 This fiery path needs to be opened beforehand. The path, once it opens, will allow men on the earth to be prepared for the coming again of those who are Zion above. Well, Elijah answers to this. Joseph continued in this March 10th discussion teaching: ―in the days of Noah God destroyed the world by a flood & has promised to destroy it by fire in the last days but before it took place Elijah should first come & turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children &c now comes the point what is this office & work of Elijah, it is one of the greatest & most important subjects that God has revealed, He should send Elijah to seal the children to the fathers & fathers to the Children. … I wish you to understand this subject for it is important & if you will receive it this is the spirit of Elijah that we redeem our dead & connect ourselves with our fathers which are in heaven & seal up our dead to come forth in the first resurrection & here we want the power of Elijah to seal those who dwell on earth to those which dwell in heaven.‖145 This quote divides mankind into three groups: First, us, the living, are required to do work using Elijah‘s guidance. Second, the ―fathers which are in heaven‖ to whom we must have a bond to avoid being wasted at the Lord‘s return [These are the men who obtained promises from God for themselves and their posterity. We access those blessings by adoption.] Third, ―our dead‖ who are intended to benefit from our connection and qualify to be resurrected into a saved line of priestly authorities stretching through us to the ―fathers which are in heaven.‖ We must be sealed to ―the [Patriarchal] fathers which are in heaven‖ in order to be saved. ―Our dead‖ must be redeemed and sealed to us, that they may also inherit eternal life with us. Doing a sealing between our dead and ourselves, however, is not enough and only connects two of the three groups together. Until we are also connected to the third group, that is ―our fathers which are in heaven,‖ we remain vulnerable to being ―utterly wasted at His coming. Joseph knew what he was talking about. He used the correct terms and outlined the correct path. We have just ignored it” (The Mission of Elijah Reconsidered, Denver Snuffer Jr., pp.29-30, emphasis added).
VI- Elijah and the Showdown, A Type (RE 1 Kings 4:12-40)
A- “Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord, and the God that answers by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
B- “And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God and you may turn their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God . . .” (RE 1 Kings 4:18-19).
1- Twelve stones= Tribes of Israel
2- Twelve barrels of water poured over the sacrifice a metaphor for how Israel diluted their covenant with God.
3- Fire from Heaven is a metaphor for consequences for broken covenants.
a. “ . . . The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word. The earth mourns and fades away; the world languishes and fades away; the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left . . .” (RE Isaiah 7:1).
C- Nephi’s account of when Babylon is destroyed for misdirecting mankind. She falls into the pit she dug for others.
D- “And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters, and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters. Nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw. And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together in multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth. And they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.
And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon that great and abominable church, insomuch that there were wars and rumors of wars among all the nations and kindreds of the earth. And as there began to be wars and rumors of wars among all the nations which belonged to the mother of abominations, the angel spake unto me, saying, Behold, the wrath of God is upon the mother of harlots, and behold, thou seest all these things. And when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots — which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose foundation is the Devil — then at that day the work of the Father shall commence in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants which he hath made to his people who are of the house of Israel” (RE 1 Nephi 3:28-29).
Addendum: This is the rest of Denver’s response to the email of the young father asking about the Lord setting His hand a second time.
“I got a response saying the writer was trying hard, but seemed to be
spending too much time with things like changing diapers to get any real breakthroughs. I responded:
changing diapers and being a husband and father are EXACTLY what will bring about both what you seek and what God wants to happen as well.
Daily, small acts of service to others, and in particular inside the family, are what we lack. We need better husbands and better fathers, more loving marriages and healthy families most of all. I will not get to that topic for two talks. But it is coming.
Too much attention is being paid to matters outside the family, where we have no control. It is family life, above all, where God’s great work gets done” (Email Response “Second Time blogpost,” Denver Snuffer Jr., July 16, 2014,emphasis added).
Provo Fellowship
Scott Roderick
3/18/24