Latter-day Temples and Temple Worship

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"Latter-day Temples and Temple Worship"

Elder Joe J. Christensen

February 11, 2003

It is a pleasure to return to this remarkable institution where a part of our heart and choice memories have been for years. While we were here, we grew to love the students, faculty, staff, and community. The focus here in the past, present, and future has been, is, and will continue to be on studentsCon providing you with the finest college educational opportunities and environment anywhere availableCand I mean anywhere.

We have watched from a distanceCoften from a very long distanceCthe continued growth and development of Ricks College under President Bennion=s leadership, and now, through this period of revolutionary change, the growth and progress into Brigham Young UniversityCIdaho, under President Bednar=s leadership. We commend all of you.

Years ago, when we had the privilege of being on this campus, we dreamed of the day when the administrative offices could be moved from the McKay Building and thus allow the library to expand. We are grateful that day has come, and among the new facilities are other magnificent buildings named for some of my heroes: Presidents John Taylor, Spencer W. Kimball, and Gordon B. Hinckley. What great examples!

For more than 100 years, under inspired prophetic guidance, Church leaders have concentrated remarkable efforts and resources on students to provide them with morally- and spiritually-based education. How blessed we are!

Today, what I have to share with you relates to the major emphasis latter-day prophets, from the beginning to the present, have placed on temples and temple worship. I will include some of the chronological history of that development and then highlight the expulsion from Nauvoo and what the reconstruction of the Nauvoo temple means to us today. Finally, and very importantly, I would like to emphasize our individual responsibility to place more of our personal emphasis on temples and temple worship.

Chronologically, section 2 of the Doctrine and Covenants is the earliest section received by the Prophet Joseph Smith. It comes from the Angel Moroni=s appearance in 1823, more than six years before the Church was organized. In it, we read:

Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood [that is, the sealing power of the priesthood which functions in temples], by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers.

If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming (Doctrine and Covenants 2:1B3, emphasis added).

In other words, without those sealing keys to bind families together for the eternities, the purpose of the whole earth=s existence would be wasted, or not achieved.

The most recent section added to the Doctrine and Covenants, section 138, the AVision of the Redemption of the Dead,@ which was received by President Joseph F. Smith in 1918, also deals with the sacred work that is accomplished only within the temples of the Church.

Before a year had passed following the formal organization of the Church in April 1830, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation that contained this declaration, AI am Jesus Christ, the Son of God; wherefore, gird up your loins and I will suddenly come to my temple@ (Doctrine and Covenants 36:8). At that time, no temple existed on the earth to which He could come. But shortly thereafter, the Lord revealed that a temple should be constructed:

Now here is wisdom, and the mind of the LordClet the house be built, not after the manner of the world, for I give not unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world;

Therefore, let it be built after the manner which I shall show unto three of you, whom ye shall appoint and ordain unto this power (Doctrine and Covenants 95:13-14).

In the subsequent, impoverished years, and with relatively few members, the Kirtland, Ohio Temple was constructed and finally dedicated March 27, 1836. In comparable terms, that accomplishment would be something like having one of your stake presidents here at BYUBIdaho receive the assignment to build a temple. The numbers of people involved and, in many cases, even your ages would be somewhat similar to theirs. That project would mean not just raising the money and writing checks, but actually making the plans, quarrying and hauling the stone, finding skilled people who could lead, and then, with your own hands, doing the work. Considering the time, place, population, and poverty of the people, the Kirtland Temple was possibly the most costly building the Church has ever built in terms of personal sacrifice, effort, and resources.

When the temple was finished and dedicated, the Lord did come to accept it just one week later, on April 3, 1836. Other prophets also appeared, including Elijah who came as prophesied and restored the sealing keys of the Priesthood (see Doctrine and Covenants 110).

Church members didn=t use the Kirtland Temple for long because before much more than a year had passed, the Prophet Joseph and many Church members were forced to flee for their lives to the Church=s secondary settling area in Missouri (Have you noticed that so often they were forced to flee in winter?).

While in Missouri, Church members laid the cornerstones of two other temples, which were never built because of intense persecution and, finally, Governor Boggs= extermination order, which made members of the Church Afair game.@ Forced to flee for their livesConce again in winterCthey trudged back to and crossed the Mississippi River, eventually arriving at the swampy, malaria-infested area of Commerce which later, as a result of their efforts, became a beautiful city named NauvooCANauvoo the Beautiful.@

Almost immediately, when the Prophet Joseph was permitted to escape from his six-month incarceration in the dungeon of Liberty Jail (what a name: Liberty Jail!), he joined the Saints in Nauvoo and turned their attention once again to the construction of a temple. The Lord revealed the following to the Prophet Joseph on August 31, 1840: AThe time has now come, when it is necessary to erect a house of prayer, a house of order, a house for the worship of our God where the ordinances can be attended to agreeably to His divine will@ (History of the Church 4:186).

During the October general conference of that same year, the proposal to build a temple was enthusiastically and unanimously endorsed by the members of the Church.

William Weeks was designated to be the architect to draw the plans, under Joseph=s inspired direction, and they proceeded with the construction of the Nauvoo Temple, which, in my opinion, was the second-most expensive building the Church has ever builtCagain, in terms of individual sacrifice, effort, and resources. They had to find and quarry the stone, locate and cut the thousands of board feet of timbers, which they found 500 miles upstream in the state of Wisconsin, and float them down the Mississippi River to be shaped and fashioned.

It was a time of immense sacrifice and toil. President Hinckley reminded us that the members were tithed, not just once, but three times: one-tenth of all they possessed, one-tenth of their increase, and then one-tenth of their time to work on the construction of the building.

The Nauvoo Temple construction attracted such attention that often several river boats loaded with curious non-member onlookers would come to see such a rare phenomenon as that beautiful building rising on that bend in the river on the western frontier of America. Most had never seen anything like it.

This monumental effort to build the House of the Lord occurred while enemies from Missouri and elsewhere continually threatened Joseph=s life. When mobsters from Missouri or wherever pursued the Prophet Joseph, he sought refuge in one place or another. In Nauvoo, we are told that occasionally it was up through a trap door into the small attic of the home of Bishop Edward Hunter. Joseph Smith was over six feet tall, and while he was in that cramped and life-threatening situation, his mind was occupied with things more important to him than his personal safety. Without even being able to stand up for hours on end, it was there in that uncomfortable setting, he wrote letters of inspiration, one of which became section 128 in the Doctrine and Covenants. Listen to what was pressing on his mind at the time: AI now resume the subject of the baptism for the dead, as that subject seems to occupy my mind, and press itself upon my feelings the strongest, since I have been pursued by my enemies@ (Doctrine and Covenants 128:1). Rather than to his own comfort and safety, his thoughts turned to the sacred ordinance work that would occur in the temple. Rather than being discouraged or depressed, he wrote positive, optimistic and even lyrical lines such as these:

Now what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth! As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!

Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! (Doctrine and Covenants 128:19,22).

In the same year of 1842, Joseph received a true intimation that he may not be alive when the temple was completed, and he invited some leaders to the second floor of the Red Brick Store where he had his office. There he shared with them the ordinances associated with the endowment (History of the Church 5:1B2).

While the construction was yet in progress, he and his brother Hyrum were murdered in the Carthage Jail in 1844. Although mourning the loss of their leaders Church members continued their efforts, under the guidance of President Brigham Young, to finish the temple so they could Abe endowed with power from on high@ (Doctrine and Covenants 105:11) and receive their sacred temple blessings. Much of this effort was carried out even though they knew that they would not be able to remain in Nauvoo for long.

By late December 1845, the Nauvoo Temple was completed sufficiently so that the blessings of the endowment could be bestowed. During this time Church members were being forced out of the area by mobsConce again in winter. But right up to the last moment, the temple was in full use. President Brigham Young recorded the following in his journal on February 3, 1846:

Notwithstanding that I had announced that we would not attend to the administration of the ordinances, the House of the Lord was thronged all day, the anxiety being so great to receive, ...the endowments until our way was hedged up, and our enemies intercept us. But I informed the brethren that this was not wise,...that I was going to get my wagons started, and be off. I walked some distance from the Temple, supposing the crowd would disperse, but on returning I found the House filled to overflowing. Looking upon the multitude and knowing their anxiety, as they were thirsting and hungering for the word.... we continued at work diligently in the House of the Lord.

Then they were forced to leave. An entry from one of the member=s diary adds to the sorrow of the scene. It reads:

The top of this hill was the last point from which I could see the Nauvoo temple. I have no words with which to convey a proper conception of my feelings when taking a last look at this sacred monument of the living faith of the Saints, and which was associated in their minds with the heavenly and holy. After the lapse of thirty-six years I can scarcely restrain my feelings when I write of it.

Elder Wilford Woodruff wrote:

The work in Nauvoo was done. Henceforth the city of the Saints was to be nothing more to them than a memory until God should determine otherwise. It brought its joys; but its history was also full of sad reminiscences, apostasy, murderous intent, and destruction.

I was in Nauvoo on the 26th day of May, 1846, for the last time, and left the city of the Saints feeling that most likely I was taking a final farewell of Nauvoo for this life. I looked back upon the Temple and City as they receded from view and asked the Lord to remember the sacrifices of his Saints (E. Cecil McGavin, Nauvoo the Beautiful [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1972], 223).

After all those years of toil, sacrifice, and anticipation, the temple was in use no more than eight weeks before the embattled and harassed members formed that trail of tears down Parley Street to the Mississippi River. Many even left the doors of their homes unlocked, forsaking all their material possessions except for what could be carried in a wagon box, and many, with their families, crossed the frozen Mississippi on ice into Iowa and the unknown.

That beautiful Nauvoo Temple was destroyed by fire, set by an arsonist in 1848, and two years later, a tornado toppled the remaining walls. Fortunately, several thousand members had received the blessings of the endowment before leaving the city, and I am confident that the blessings of their sacred temple covenants made with the Lord helped them face and overcome the trials that lay ahead. But, many additional thousands who crossed the plains in subsequent months did not have the opportunity of receiving their temple blessings and endowments in Nauvoo and they longed for the opportunity.

Nauvoo, once so vibrant and progressive, literally, almost from one month to the next, became a ghost town. In the late summer of August in 1846, Col. Thomas L. Kane, a special friend to the Church, acquired a small boat on the Iowa side and rowed across the Mississippi River to the main landing wharf at Nauvoo and visited what he called Athe deserted city.@

In a speech Col. Kane delivered to the Pennsylvania Historical Society in 1850, he shared some of his experience on that visit. Picture in your imaginations the scene he observed:

No one met me there. I looked and saw no one. I could hear no one move;...the quiet everywhere was such that I heard the flies buzz, ... I walked through solitary streets...I went about unchecked. I went into empty workshops,...The spinner's wheel was idle; the carpenter had gone from his workbench and shavings,... The blacksmith's shop was cold; but his coal heap and ladling pool, and crooked water horn were all there, as if he had just gone off for a holiday... No one called out to me from any opened window, or dog sprang forward to bark an alarm. . . . The doors were unfastened; and when at last I timidly entered them, I found dead ashes white upon the hearths, and [felt as though I] had to tread a-tiptoe, as if walking down the aisle of a country church,...

[For me as a farmer, this next part is especially gripping:]

Fields upon fields of heavy-headed yellow grain lay rotting ungathered upon the ground. No one was at hand to take in their rich harvest. As far as the eye could reach, they stretched awayCthey sleeping too in the hazy air of autumn (William Mulder, BYU Studies vol. 32 (1992), nos. 1B2, 115B16, emphasis added).

Thus, they left Nauvoo and thousands were to die along the trail west. As most of you know, the first Latter-day Saint pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. To any of us with farming experience in this part of the west, we know that the end of July is harvest time, not planting time. The pioneers worked feverishly to plant seeds with the hope of harvesting some kind of crops in a very short growing season before the arrival of frost and snow. And, to that point, they had no homes built to shelter them and their families from the approaching winter.

In spite of these difficult, and even life-threatening circumstances, four days after their arrival into the valley (and I repeat, four days after their arrival), in the dry, dusty heat of that July afternoon, President Brigham Young took some of the leaders on an exploratory excursion around the valley and, placing the tip of his cane in the ground, declared, AHere we will build a temple to our God.@ (And, did they ever! CThe walls of solid granite rise from sixteen feet wide at the base and taper to six feet wide at the square with those beautiful six spires above, which someone has described as Apoetry in stone.@) Elder Wilford Woodruff reportedly drove a stake to mark the spot where the Temple was to be built and the city and streets were laid out from that point.

Speaking of Apoetry in stone,@ do you remember during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics the frequent television reports of who had won whatever the event was by so many hundredths of a second, and over the shoulder of the commentator, the view of those six spires of the Salt Lake Temple? This most recognized symbol of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world was visible to an estimated one-half of the population of the earth. For me, the coming of the Olympics to Salt Lake City was at least a partial fulfillment of Isaiah=s prophecy: AAnd it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord=s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it@ (Isaiah 2:2).

In the October conference of 1849, Addison Pratt, James Brown, and Hyrum H. Blackwell were called to the Society Islands to preach the gospel. Since Elder Pratt had not received his endowment and there was no temple building in which to administer it, on October 21, President Brigham Young dedicated the top of Ensign Peak, just north of where the Utah State Capitol building now stands, and the first recorded endowment administered in the territory was received there. President Brigham Young left a record of the event: AAddison Pratt received his endowments on Ensign Hill on the 21^st, the place being consecrated for that purpose@ (quoted in B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930], 3:386).

(As many of you in this audience know, to this day, wherever and whenever possible, Church leaders have wanted all who have the privilege of serving as full-time missionaries to have received their endowment blessings before going into the mission field.)

The first semi-permanent building in the valley was the Old Council House which was completed in 1852. It was constructed on the southwest corner of Main Street and South Temple. The fourth floor was dedicated for the purpose of bestowing the endowments and so for the first time under a roof since the expulsion from Nauvoo, endowments were administered by Heber C. Kimball, counselor in the First Presidency, under direction from President Brigham Young. These endowments began on July 7, 1852.

The Endowment House was completed and dedicated on the northwest corner of what is now Temple Square on May 5, 1855 and it was there for the next many years the members of the Church received their endowments and live sealing blessings. My own Danish immigrant grandparents were sealed there in 1883.

The St. George Temple was finished and dedicated on April 6, 1877. At that time, President Brigham Young commissioned Elder Wilford Woodruff and others to put into writing the temple endowment and ordinances. Until then, the endowment had been administered by memory. When they finished that assignment, President Brigham Young said: ANow you have before you an ensample, to carry on the endowments in all the temples until the coming of the Son of Man@ (Wilford Woodruff, AHistory of the St. George Temple: Its Cost and Dedication and the Labor Thereon,@ in David Henry Cannon, Collection, 1883B1924, Historical Department Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).

The Logan Temple was dedicated in 1884 (My parents were sealed there many years later) and the Manti Temple was dedicated in 1888.

Since the Endowment House was ordered demolished in 1889 by President Wilford Woodruff during the difficult days of persecution due to plural marriage, and the Salt Lake Temple was not dedicated until 1893, in the intervening years, Church members in the Salt Lake Valley had to make the long trip to Logan, Manti, or St. George to attend to their temple responsibilities. To indicate how far the Church has progressed, now in Salt Lake City, we have six temples within less than an hour=s drive.

Clearly, the administrations of Presidents Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and their successors were marked by a resolute emphasis on temples and the ordinances available therein. When the history of President Hinckley=s administration of the Church is written, what do you suppose will be included as a major focus of his efforts? Unmistakably and clearly, it will be the construction of temples and the effort to bring them closer to the members of the Church. It is now estimated that 80% of the members of the Church now live within a two-hour drive of a temple! What a remarkable development!

Do you remember when President Hinckley surprised us all at the conclusion of the April Conference of 1999 with the announcement that the Nauvoo Temple would be reconstructed? From that date until the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated last June 27, 2002, as near as possible to the very hour of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum, and in just over three years, fifty-six other temples scattered around the world were completed and dedicated! Who could deny that that is a major emphasis? What a remarkable and blessed era we live in.

To illustrate how the Lord works through young missionaries, such as many of you, as well as through his living prophets, I would like to share something of the history of the architectural plans of the Nauvoo Temple, how they were preserved for more than 100 years and eventually came into possession of the Church and which the Church had at the time President Hinckley made that surprising announcement that it would be reconstructed.

As mentioned before, Brother William Weeks was commissioned as the architect and when the saints were driven from Nauvoo, he brought the plans with him. Not many years after they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, some kind of conflict arose between him and President Brigham Young. William Weeks left the Church and took his family and the architectural plans to California. As a result of his defection, his entire posterity grew up outside the Church and its blessings.

Incidentally and parenthetically, there is a message there for all of us about the importance of our remaining faithful to our covenants and what can happen to us and those who follow us if we do not.

In 1948, more than 100 years since the plans were drawn, young Elder Vern Thacker of Charleston, up by Heber City, Utah, in Wasatch County, and his companion, were serving as missionaries like many of you have served or will serve. They were doing their duty knocking on doors one very hot and dry day in the little town of Boron, California, way out in the Mojave Desert. I think it was more than a coincidence that they made contact with a Mr. Leslie Griffin, who at that time was almost seventy years of age. He told them that he was a grandson of William Weeks, the architect. Just before Elder Thacker was to be released and return to his home, Mr. Griffin went to a back room in his house and brought out the roll of the original architectural plans for the Nauvoo Temple. Brother Thacker described the roll as being about three or four feet long and ten inches in diameter. They were the original plans which had been handed down from one generation to another in his family. He requested that Elder Thacker take them to Church headquarters since he and his family agreed that it would be more appropriate for the Church to have them. Elder Thacker tucked them in the trunk of his 1935 Ford coupe and brought them to Church headquarters.

As a result, more than fifty years later, when President Hinckley made the announcement of the re-construction of the Nauvoo Temple, the plans were in possession of the Church and thus it could be restored on the original site and as near its original external appearance as possible.

I=ve thought it providential that those plans were physically located for all those years in the area of the dry climate of the Mojave Desert rather than in some humid area of the country where they may not have survived in as good a condition as they were. There is no question in my mind that the Lord=s hand was in it.

(A little aside to this whole story is that Vern Thacker used to date my wife, Barbara. I have always been pleased that he got the plans and I got Barbara.)

The sturdily reconstructed Nauvoo Temple stands today as a tangible monument reminding us, and the entire world, of the sacrifices of the Prophet Joseph Smith and all those faithful early Church members. The temple is there not just as a monument but as an active temple in which these sacred ordinances are once again blessing the lives of those on both sides of the veil.

Now, what does all this mean for us, and you, particularly, as students here at this great institution of BYU-Idaho?

We should recognize that from the time of the restoration of the Gospel, temples and temple worship have been and are a major emphasis ofallthe prophets from Joseph Smith to Gordon B. Hinckley.
We must understand that the presence of temples and the work performed in temples is essential in the restored gospel. The Lord warned the early Saints that if they did not build a temple in which to do the work for the dead, that they would beArejected as a church@(Doctrine and Covenants 124:32).
We should remember that we are instructed by the leaders of the Church to attend the temple as frequently as our circumstances permit. The Lord places the responsibility directly on our shoulders. By policy, there is no reporting system or any quotas imposed on us institutionally. But, what does it mean to attend the templeAas frequently as circumstances permit?@That frequency will vary with each person and each person=s circumstances. For me, I would not be surprised if some day at the judgment bar questions like this were to be asked of me: AJoe, how close did you live to a temple? Was your life in order so you could obtain a temple recommend? Did you have transportation or the means necessary to make the trip? Were you in good enough health? Could you possibly have better organized your time? How many hours did you spend watching television, attending athletic events, playing golf, traveling for pleasure?@ Good questions, every one.
As members of the Church today, we have major responsibilities related to the temple and family history. In the last October general conference, in his opening address, which he entitled,AOh That I Were an Angel, and Could Have the Wish of Mine Heart,@President Hinckley urged us to Autilize the temples of the Church.@ He counseled:

Go there and carry forward the great and marvelous work which the God of heaven has outlined for us. There let us learn of His ways and His plans. There let us make covenants that will lead us in paths of righteousness, unselfishness, and truth. There let us be joined as families under an eternal covenant administered under the authority of the priesthood of God.

And there may we extend these same blessings to those of previous generations, even our own forebears who await the service which we can now give.

May the blessings of heaven rest upon you, my beloved brethren and sisters. May the Spirit of Elijah touch your hearts and prompt you to do that work for others who cannot move forward unless you do so. May we rejoice in the glorious privilege that is ours.

Very likely, many of you in this audience have, in your wallet or purse, a current temple recommend, which, in my opinion, is the most precious little piece of paper one could possess.

Some of you have not yet been endowed because you have not yet been on a mission or have not yet married. Nevertheless, remember these words from President Howard W. Hunter, AWe hope that every adult member of the Church is worthy of and carries a current temple recommend. Even our young people can qualify to receive a temple recommend to do baptisms for the dead@ (see, The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, p. 240. Italics added). That counsel includes every member of the Church in this audience. Prepare yourselves for receiving a temple recommend by keeping yourselves clean and worthy, by studying the gospel and striving to have the Spirit with you. Use your recommend. Go to the temple as often as your circumstances permit and you will be more able to learn and understand the truths that are taught there.

Some few of you may not now have a current temple recommend, either for baptisms for the dead or for the other ordinances of the temple. Where that is the case, I urge you to do everything in your power to make whatever adjustments are necessary in your life in order to obtain one. Where necessary, repent fully and turn again to the Lord. A temple recommend indicates that in the opinion of those we sustain as our Ajudges in Israel,@Cour bishop and stake presidentCwe are living a committed, faithful, healthy, clean, and moral life.

My sister, just older than I, set for me a very powerful example. For many years, she had been the main caregiver for my brother-in-law who had multiple sclerosis and whose body had come to the point that he required almost around-the-clock care. One day, my sister was not feeling well, so she went for an appointment with her doctor. Stomach cancer was diagnosed. It had spread from her stomach to her liver and other abdominal organs. It was inoperable, and she was told that she likely had a very short time to live. She never returned home again. During the weeks she was in the hospital, her temple recommend expired.

When it appeared that she had just a few days left to live, while visiting with her Latter-day Saint cancer specialist she said, AI would like to be buried with a current temple recommend.@

He replied, AI don=t think they use them over there.@

ANevertheless,@ she answered, AI want to be buried with a current temple recommend.@

Her bishop and stake president came and interviewed her. She passed away a few days later and she was buried with a current temple recommend.

With that example, I hope and intend to do the same. I always want to live in such a way that I will be able to look my bishop and stake president in the eye and answer their questions honestly and appropriately. I always want to have in my possession a current temple recommend, and, as we are counseled by our leaders, to use it Aas frequently as circumstances permit.@

May the Lord=s richest blessings continue to be with all of us to this end. I testify that our Heavenly Father lives. He knows each of us by name. Jesus is the Christ and this is His Church led by living prophets. The Akeys to the kingdom,@ which the Lord gave to His apostles in New Testament times Ato bind on earth that which will be bound in heaven,@ have been restored to the earth in our day and function in the 114 temples currently in operation (see Matthew 16:13-19). To me, the most satisfying doctrine in our faith is that the love that exists between husbands and wives and parents and children was meant by the Lord to last forever. This is my testimony, which I share with you humbly and sincerely, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.