Great urgency exists to perform temple ordinances during the sixth seal.¹ Much work must be completed before the Second Coming, which is near, even at the door.² Doctrine and Covenants Section 2 addressed this urgency as the first recorded revelation of this dispensation in 1823.³ This section states that the earth would be utterly wasted at the Second Coming if Elijah failed to restore the keys of the sealing power.⁴ Fortunately, Elijah did restore those keys at the Kirtland Temple in 1836.⁵ After he did so, Joseph Smith became increasingly concerned about the urgency of temple work to seal both the living and the dead so that all people could qualify for exaltation in the celestial kingdom.⁶

For example, in January 1841, members of the church broke protocol and began to perform vicarious baptisms for the dead in the Mississippi River before they could complete the Nauvoo Temple.⁷ In the October 1841 general conference, the Prophet said: "Those Saints who neglect it in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation."⁸ In September 1842, Joseph Smith wrote that temple work "seems to occupy my mind, and press itself upon my feelings the strongest."⁹ In the same letter, the Prophet said, "the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children¹⁰ [because] we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect."¹¹

The urgency to perform temple work exists in the sixth seal because a tremendous amount of temple work must be done in a relatively short period of time before the morning of the first resurrection resumes for exaltation-worthy saints at the Second Coming.¹² The law of earthly ordinances¹³ requires that all exaltation-worthy saints receive the sealing ordinance before they can be resurrected in the morning of the first resurrection.¹⁴ This poses a problem for millions of exaltation-worthy people that have died without receiving the sealing ordinance when they lived upon the earth.¹⁵ Many have never had the opportunity to be sealed even though the sealing ordinance has been performed for the living since the days of Adam.¹⁶ The sealing ordinance was performed in the ancient church of Jesus Christ on the eastern hemisphere, but only briefly before the Great Apostasy.¹⁷ Among the Nephites on the western hemisphere, the sealing ordinance was performed for approximately 200 years.¹⁸

Vicarious ordinances for the dead have had an even shorter history. Salvation for the dead through vicarious ordinances began for the first time after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.¹⁹ Millions of exaltation-worthy people must rely on living proxies to vicariously perform temple ordinances on their behalf.²⁰ The vast majority of vicarious ordinances that must be performed before the Second Coming have been, and will be, performed during the sixth seal.²¹

Since the number of vicarious temple ordinances is immense and the Second Coming is near at hand, temple work has become the single greatest responsibility for members of the restored church of Jesus Christ in this dispensation.²² Time is running out for these saviors on mount Zion²³ to perform the necessary vicarious ordinances²⁴ before the morning of the first resurrection resumes for exaltation-worthy people at the Second Coming.²⁵

There is also an urgent need for temple work on behalf of living members of the church during the sixth seal so they can receive the seal of the living God described in Revelation 7:2-3.²⁶ Both the living and the dead must receive the temple sealing ordinance to be numbered among the 144,000 Servants of the tribes of Israel identified in Revelation 7:4-8.²⁷ As much as possible, these sealings must be accomplished in the sixth seal, before the spiritual darkness of the First Woe threatens elect members of the church during the seventh seal.²⁸ The Lord has mercifully extended the end of sixth seal as far as possible to allow many of the 144,000 Servants to be sealed in their foreheads as a symbol that they are worthy to stand with Christ in the flesh on heavenly mount Zion at the Second Coming²⁹ and to descend with him in glory.³⁰