The Importance of April 3, 1836

The dedication of the Kirtland Temple in this last dispensation was one of the great milestones in preparing for the second coming of Christ.  The keys that were restored by Moses, Elias, and Elijah opened the way to proclaim the gospel into all the world, and then to perfect those who respond to the clarion call of the missionaries, and then to redeem them by the sealing powers which allows families to be together forever.  April 3, 1836 brought together several very important events.  It was a Sunday, it was the Jewish Passover, and the Christian Easter.  This only happens once in every several hundred years.  It may also have been the anniversary of the Savior's resurrection from the dead.

John P. Pratt wrote two successive article in the Ensign concerning the dating of the first Easter and its relationship to the resurrection.  Click here for the first article.  Click here for the second article.


D&C 110:13–14 . The Coming of Elijah

President Joseph Fielding Smith noted:

“Edersheim in his work, The Temple, says: ‘To this day, in every Jewish home, at a certain part of the Paschal service [i.e. when they drink the “third cup”]—the door is opened to admit Elijah the prophet as forerunner of the Messiah, while appropriate passages are at the same time read which foretell the destruction of all heathen nations. It is a remarkable coincidence that, in instituting his own Supper, the Lord Jesus connected the symbol, not of judgment, but of his dying love, with his “third cup.”’

“It was, I am informed, on the third day of April, 1836, that the Jews, in their homes at the Paschal feast, opened their doors for Elijah to enter. On that very day Elijah did enter—not in the home of the Jews to partake of the Passover with them—but he appeared in the house of the Lord, erected to his name and received by the Lord in Kirtland, and there bestowed his keys to bring to pass the very things for which these Jews, assembled in their homes, were seeking.” ( Doctrines of Salvation, 2:100–101.)
(Doctrine and Covenants Institute Student Manual p. 276)