Doctrine and Covenants 109-110

THE TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH OF THE INDEPENDENCE AND KIRTLAND TEMPLES

 

This painting by the amazing Walter Rane is from JosephSmith.net.

The early Saints were commanded to build a temple in Independence, Missouri, in 1831.

They had no idea what a temple was. Nobody in America had a temple. Nobody in Europe had a temple. No religion on earth was still operating a temple like the one Jesus Christ taught in as a 12-year-old boy. Was it a house of worship? Was it a house of education? 

So it's not too surprising that they didn't start right away, especially in Independence, which was such a rough, raw, frontier town. Bishop Partridge purchased the land in 1831. Joseph Smith dedicated it in July. The 12 Apostles symbolically laid the foundation in August. And then nothing happened. (See Independence Temple.) 

Fear, ignorance, contention, greed, poverty, land speculation--all these things got in the way of even learning what the glory of the temple would be in Independence.

But the plan didn't go away. Two years later Joseph revealed the blueprints for the city of Zion and it contained 24 temples! The vision of the Prophet was still glorious!

And still nothing happened. The Independence Saints were dealing with day-to-day terrors of mob violence, contention among their leaders, an influx of impoverished converts, the purchase and holding of land for investment by some greedy Saints. Nobody had the vision of the temple or of the unity of Zion with Heaven that it encapsulated. And few of the leaders had good feelings for Joseph Smith at the time, some highly critical of him for not moving to Independence. He received some scathing letters. 

Joseph Smith wrote in a reply to the leaders in Missouri, “The Lord approves of us [the Kirtland stake] & has accepted us, & established his name in Kirtland for the salvation of the nations. . . . The Lord commanded us in Kirtland to build a house of God, & establish a school for the Prophets, this is the word of the Lord to us, & we must—yea the Lord helping us we will obey” (Craig K. Manscill, “Hyrum Smith's Building of the Kirtland Temple,” in An Eye of Faith: Essays in Honor of Richard O. Cowan, ed. Kenneth L. Alford and Richard E. Bennett (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City, 2015), 47–67.)

But the Kirtland Saints also had no idea what a temple was. Was it the same thing as the schoolhouse they were commanded to build? Was it a meetingplace for sacrament service? Was it something else altogether? They had no access to records about what may have taken place in the temple in Jerusalem beyond what little the Bible said. 

There also was not a single Latter-day Saint architect in Kirtland. 

But here is what the Kirtland Saints did that the Independence Saints did not do: they started!

Joseph Smith called a building committee of three: Hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter. Not one of these men knew a single thing about building anything other than a log cabin. They studied it out while trying to secure funds and land.

On June 1st, 1833, when the revelation that is now Section 95 was received, rebuking them for not doing more, they suddenly understood the importance of the temple.

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I ^alove I also chasten that their sins may be ^bforgiven, for with the ^cchastisement I prepare a way for their ^ddeliverance in all things out of ^etemptation, and I have loved you—

2 Wherefore, ye must needs be chastened and stand rebuked before my face;

3 For ye have sinned against me a very grievous sin, in that ye have not considered the great commandment in all things, that I have given unto you concerning the building of mine ^ahouse;

4 For the preparation wherewith I design to prepare mine apostles to ^aprune my vineyard for the last time, that I may bring to pass my ^bstrange act, that I may ^cpour out my Spirit upon all flesh—

5 But behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many who have been ordained among you, whom I have called but few of them are ^achosen.

6 They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin, in that they are ^awalking in ^bdarkness at noon-day.

7 And for this cause I gave unto you a commandment that you should call your ^asolemn assembly, that your ^bfastings and your ^cmourning might come up into the ears of the Lord of ^dSabaoth, which is by interpretation, the ^ecreator of the first day, the beginning and the end.

8 Yea, verily I say unto you, I gave unto you a commandment that you should ^abuild a house, in the which house I design to ^bendow those whom I have ^cchosen with power from on high;

9 For this is the ^apromise of the Father unto you; therefore I command you to tarry, even as mine apostles at Jerusalem.

10 Nevertheless, my servants sinned a very grievous sin; and ^acontentions arose in the ^bschool of the prophets; which was very grievous unto me, saith your Lord; therefore I sent them forth to be chastened.

11 Verily I say unto you, it is my will that you should build a house. ^aIf you keep my commandments you shall have power to build it.

Verse 8 "referred to the revelation given initially in December 1830 (D&C 37) and expanded on January 2, 1831, commanding the Saints to 'go to the Ohio; . . . and there you shall be endowed with power from on high (D&C 38:32). This was a watershed moment for Joseph and the Kirtland Saints. This unexpected realization changed everything. Any ambiguity about the urgency of the work was eliminated" (Manscill, 49).

That very day, the committee sent a letter to the Saints, expressing the urgency which they now understood: “Unless we fulfill this command . . . we may all despair of obtaining the great blessing that God has promised to the faithful of the Church of Christ."

It still took time to raise money. Land had been purchased in early 1833. And still the committee did not know what to build. Hyrum delegated the design back to the First Presidency, Joseph Smith, Frederick G. Williams, and Sidney Rigdon. As the three knelt in prayer, the design came to them in a magnificent 3-D vision. (Is it too irreverent to say it seems similar to the way Tony Stark’s designs appear in the Marvel movies?)

When Joseph Smith shared the design with the building committee, Hyrum ran to the farmhouse and grabbed some tools to begin clearing the land. Within days, the committee went to a rock quarry and hauled some stones they thought would be suitable. They dug the trench for the foundation and laid the rocks. In the meantime, they had been making their own bricks for the temple because they could not afford to buy bricks, but when they went to lay them, they discovered they were no good. 

Hyrum found out from Brigham Young that a new convert in Canada, Artemus Millet, was a professional mason. Brother Millet came down in October for a consultation and recommended they use a different type of construction called rubble and stucco. It’s basically building with junk rocks and then covering them over. They began stockpiling supplies for Brother Millet’s return in he spring. But then they found out the Independence Saints were in crisis and Zion's Army was called out to the rescue. When Brother Millet arrived, only 10 or 15 men remained in Kirtland to help. Nevertheless, they got the walls up.

“Our women were engaged in knitting and spinning, in order to clothe those who were laboring at the building.  And the Lord only knows the scenes of poverty, and tribulation and distress, which we all passed through to accomplish it.  My wife [Vilate Kimball] would toil all summer.  She took 100 pounds of wool to spin on shares which, with the assistance of a girl, she spun, in order to furnish clothing for those engaged in building the temple.  And although she had the privilege of keeping half the quantity of wool for herself, as her recompense for her labor, she did not reserve even so much as would make a pair of stockings.  She spun and wove and got the cloth dressed and cut and made up into garments, and gave them to the laborers.  Almost all the sisters in Kirtland labored in knitting, sewing, spinning, etc, for the same purpose, while we went up to Missouri” (Heber C. Kimball quoted in Kelly, Latter-day History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 163).

As the temple went up, the money disappeared too fast. Hyrum and his committee went on multiple missions to ask the Saints scattered throughout the Eastern United States to donate. They also had to travel to buy supplies back east, and ask banks to secure loans in a very volatile economy. Just as things were looking rough something good would happen and they could limp along a little further. For example, a convert from Hyrum's missionary work several years earlier, Noah Packard, loaned the Church $1,000. Vienna Jacques, a single working woman, gained a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel on her own in Boston through reading the Book of Mormon. She moved to Ohio to join the Saints and brought $1,400 in savings with her, which she consecrated to the Church (Susan Easton Black, Who's Who in the Doctrine and Covenants, Bookcraft, 145-7).

In early 1835, another new convert, John Tanner, saved the day.  He had outlived two wives, and then married a third (having a total of 21 children!) when the missionaries found him in New York.  He was healed of an infected leg and immediately was baptized. He committed to help the church and sustain the prophet.  He was so wealthy that he used six wagons to move his family from New York to Kirtland, and provided ten more for other converts there.

The day after his arrival in Kirtland in early 1835, he met with Joseph Smith and the high council and lent them $2,000 to pay off the mortgage on the temple property, plus another $13,000 for other purposes.  He contributed to the temple building fund, and he signed a $30,000 note for merchandise to help Saints move to Kirtland.  ($30,000 in 1835 would be almost $1,000,000 today!)

He gave it all. When he moved his family from Kirtland to gather with the saints in Missouri three years later, he had to borrow a wagon.  He had very little money left.  He endured all the trials of Missouri and Illinois.  Despite his humble circumstances, a few months before Joseph Smith was killed, “John returned the $2,000 noted signed in Kirtland as a gift to the Prophet and was blessed by Joseph that he and his posterity would never beg for bread” (Garr, Cannon and Cowan, Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, p. 1219-1220).

(See Kirtland Temple.)

SACRIFICE REWARDED

Although the Kirtland Saints had to leave their temple behind after only two years of service, they took with them the blessings they had received through sacrificing to build the temple and through their participation in the temple after it was built.  The physical body of the temple decayed (later to be restored) but the spirit of the temple moved on with the Saints and is still with us today. Vienna Jacques was blessed by her covenants despite suffering poverty, persecution, a failed marriage, the exodus across the plains (driving her own wagon), and decades living alone. She died at the age of 96, and her obituary reported she had lived "true to her covenants and esteemed the restoration of the Gospel as a priceless treasure" (Black, 147). 

Take the time to prayerfully read for yourself the glorious blessings promised to those who make temple covenants in D&C 109 and 110.

Now the question to ask is, "What do I have to sacrifice to become a covenant person?" 

If you have not yet made your temple covenants, or if you have not returned for a long time, you only need to do one thing, the same thing Hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter did: Start! 

Wherever you are right now, just start. Whatever kind of family you have, whatever kind of history you have, wherever you live, whatever you own, however long you've been a member, however far away you live from a temple, just start. Whether or not the way seems impossible is entirely irrelevant. The Lord will give you the vision, the knowledge, and the means if you will just start. Don't be bogged down by the day-to-day challenges, the contentions around you, the faith crises of family members, the limitations of your budget, the judgments of others, or the wounds of your sins. Just start. The way will not be easy, but it will be opened for you. And the blessings will be as glorious for you as they were for the Saints in Kirtland.