Children in the Millennium

My parents’ first child died after having been born prematurely and living only a few hours.  This was many years ago, and little could be done for her.  So we grew up knowing that we had an older sister that we would one day meet.  I remember hearing my mom mention that she was told that one day she would be able to raise this little girl in the Millennium, but I’ve never really known where that doctrine came from.  There are two verses in the Doctrine and Covenants which suggest that there will be children who will be raised in the Millennium.  The first says this about those who are not burned at the Second Coming but have been wise and not deceived: “And the earth shall be given unto them for an inheritance; and they shall multiply and wax strong, and their children shall grow up without sin unto salvation” (D&C 45:57-58).  Another verse similarly refers to children in the Millennium. The Lord said, “Wherefore, children shall grow up until they become old; old men shall die; but they shall not sleep in the dust, but they shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye” (D&C 63:51).  From these two verses we see that there indeed will be children in the Millennium.

               So where will these children come from in the Millennium?  Orson Pratt said, referring to D&C 45:58, “The Saints will undergo when they are changed in the twinkling of an eye, from mortality to immortality; but so great will be the change then wrought that the children who are born into the world will grow up without sin unto salvation.”  So here he suggests that children will actually be born in the Millennium to mortal parents who will have had some kind of transfiguration come upon them. This is I think supported by another scripture about the Millennium: “In that day an infant shall not die until he is old; and his life shall be as the age of a tree” (D&C 101:30).  This verse implied that there will be infants in that day and since they will not die, they will be raised up until they are adults.  It appears that parents will still be able to have children, and those children will all be raised to maturity without the temptations of Satan to lead them away from the gospel path.

What these scriptures don’t say, though, is whether some of these children being raised will be those who died as little ones in mortality before the Second Coming.  But that is the interpretation that Elder LeGrand Richards seemed to take from D&C 63:51.  He said this, “There are those of us who have laid away our little ones in the grave, and we had that responsibility. A little daughter was born to us over in Holland while I was president of the mission there, and we kept her until she was three and a half years old. My wife has said time and time again that she knew the angels brought that spirit to her because she felt their presence, and yet we laid her away in the grave. If we had to feel that that was the end, we would have given anything in this world to have her back again. And then we come to this great knowledge that we have in the restoration of the gospel, that she will be ours in the eternal world and we will have the joy of seeing her grow up without sin, unto salvation. Sometimes I have thought that probably some of these choice spirits did not need the experience here in mortality like other children, and that is why the Lord has seen fit to call them home” (italics added).  He believed that he would have the opportunity of raising his daughter in the Millennium.    

              There is much that we don’t know about the Millennium and how life will be then, and whether or not my parents will have the opportunity to actually raise the daughter they lost in mortality I’m not sure we can definitively say.  But we do know that the promise of the sealing power of the temple is sure: that baby girl who died after only a few hours on earth will be part of our family forever.