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Joseph,
Joseph, Joseph
The
Temple Has Returned to Nauvoo
by
Scot Facer Proctor
Photo Essay
Two: Interior Views of the Nauvoo Temple from the Official Collections
of The Church
Used
by Permission of Intellectual Reserve
All
Photographs Copyright 2002 Intellectual Reserve
Creation
Room, Garden Room and World Room
Creation
Room (Click to enlarge)
Why this yearning
sense of urgency for Joseph to complete the temple? He gives his
reasons. To the sisters of the Relief Society, he said, "The
Church is not now organized in its proper order, and cannot be until
the temple is completed." To the elders he had said, "You
need an endowment, brethren, in order that you may be prepared and
able to overcome all things."
Mural
of the Cosmos in Creation Room (Click to enlarge)
Brigham Young
defined endowment: "Your endowment
is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which
are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable
you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels
who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words,
the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain
your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell."
Beautiful
Mural in Creation Room (Click to enlarge)
The Lord said
that until the temple was built, there was no place on earth where
he could come and restore the fulness of the priesthood. (D&C
124:28) "For," said he, "I deign to reveal unto my
church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation
of the world." (D&C 124:41)
Garden
Room (Click to enlarge)
Ordinances in
the temple were to be done for the living and for the dead. Because
God is no respecter of persons, those who have passed from this
life without opportunity to be taught the true gospel and given
the saving ordinances receive their opportunity in the world of
spirits. As the Doctrine and Covenants explains, messengers are
commissioned to "go forth and carry the light of the gospel
. . . even to all the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached
to the dead."(D&C 138:30)
Beautiful
Mural in Garden Room (Click to enlarge)
The temple would
be the place reserved for humanity to do the work by proxy for those
who had passed away, including baptism for the dead. This is one
of the mysteries of God known in ancient times that had passed from
the earth until the Restoration. The Apostle Paul had asked the
Corinthians, "Else what shall they do which are baptized for
the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized
for the dead?" (1 Corinthians 15:29)
Mural
Detail in Garden Room (Click to enlarge)
The Saints felt
such anxiety about completing the temple and receiving their ordinances
that as conflicts began to heat up with their neighbors and they
feared that they would again have to abandon their homes, instead
of stopping work on the temple, they stepped up their labors.
Abundant
Wildlife on Mural in Garden Room (Click to enlarge)
At one point,
Brigham Young said, "Such has been the anxiety manifested by
the saints to receive the ordinances (of the Temple), and such the
anxiety on our part to administer them, that I have given myself
up entirely to the work of the Lord in the Temple night and day,
not taking more than four hours sleep, upon an average, per day,
and going home but once a week."
World
Room (Click to enlarge)
After the temple
was completed, temple work was done round the clock until the Saints
were forced to leave. Joseph would not live to see this day.
Detail
of Meadow in Mural of World Room (Click to enlarge)
What shall I
talk about today? I know what Brother Cahoon wants me to speak about.
He wants me to speak about the coming of Elijah in the last days.
I can see it in his eye. I will speak upon that subject then. The
Bible says, "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 the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
Mural
in World Room (Click to enlarge)
Now, the word
turn here should be translated bind, or seal. But what is the object of this important
mission? or how is it to be fulfilled? The keys are to be delivered,
the spirit of Elijah is to come, the Gospel to be established, the
Saints of God gathered, Zion built up, and the Saints to come up
as saviors on Mount Zion.
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© 2002 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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