The End of the Old Testament

The very last few verses of scripture in the Old Testament are rather interesting to me because it contains a prophecy of an event to proceed the coming of Christ but as well its a hidden message. In Malachi 4 verses 5-6 it reads,

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn 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."

What does he mean by "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children"?

I think a good scripture worth referencing is in Matthew 16:19 "And I will give unto thee [peter] the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

The turning of hearts is contained in the power and authority Christ speaks of to "bind on earth and bind in heaven." It is when a marriage or sacred ordinance of God is preformed it is sanctioned by God because it was done by His authority in His name.

In today's marriage vows anyone who has been married in a civil marriage has heard these closing words, "till death do you part" The meaning of this is that you are married until death separates you. And that's it. You are no longer married to that person. How sad this is, to love someone so much that you dedicate your life to them and in an instant they are gone, lost forever to us. But thankfully not lost to God. This however is not the design and plan of God. He does not want to see this happen to us. He want's us to be happy and have an eternal family. This is why he has fulfilled this prophecy.

On April 3rd, 1836 Joseph Smith the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery were praying in the Kirtland, Ohio temple when the following occurred, "...Another great and glorious vision burst upon us; for Elijah the prophet, who was taken to heaven without tasting death, stood before us, and said:

Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi—testifying that he [Elijah] should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come—

To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse—" (Doctrine and Covenants 110:13-15)

It is true, I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ that God has sent his servants to restore the Priesthood onto the earth so that family's can be sealed forever, for "time and all eternity" and death shall not part us from our loved ones. I know that my family will be eternal as long as we do our best to keep the commandments of God, He has promised it to be so.