FOOTNOTES

[1]. For a concise treatment of Infant Baptism, see the author's "The Articles of Faith," Lecture VI, 13-17; and for treatment of Baptism for the Dead, see Lecture VII, 18-33.

[2]. Acts 10:42; II Tim. 4:1; I Peter 4:5.

[3]. Rom. 14:9.

[4]. Luke 20:36, 38.

[5]. Doctrine and Covenants 19:10-12.

[6]. I Peter 4:6.

[7]. I Cor. chap. 15; see specifically verse 29.

[8]. This passage has been the subject of much controversy. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his masterly Commentary of the Scriptures, says: "This is certainly the most difficult verse in the New Testament; for, notwithstanding the greatest and wisest men have labored to explain it, there are to this day nearly as many different interpretations of it as there are interpreters." Yet, notwithstanding its enigmatic meaning, this passage of scripture is part of the prescribed burial service in the Episcopal Church, and is duly spoken by the priest at every funeral. But wherein lies the difficulty of comprehension? The passage is of plain import, and only when we attempt to make it figurative do difficulties arise. It is plain that in Paul's day the ordinance of baptism for the dead was both understood and practised, and the apostle's argument in support of the doctrine of a literal resurrection is sound: If the dead rise not at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?

[9]. Read Doctrine and Covenants 128:12, 13.

[10]. I Cor. 11:11.

[11]. See the author's "The Articles of Faith," Lectures IV and XII, portions of which are included in the present treatment.

[12]. John 14:1-3.

[13]. I Cor. 15:40-42.

[14]. Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 76.

[15]. Doctrine and Covenants 76:51-70.

[16]. Doctrine and Covenants 76:71-79.

[17]. Doctrine and Covenants 76:81-86.

[18]. Doctrine and Covenants 76:98-101.

[19]. Doctrine and Covenants 131:1; see also II Cor. 12:1-4.

[20]. See Doctrine and Covenants 76:86-88.

[21]. See the author's treatment of "Marriage" in "The Articles of Faith," Lecture XXIV, pp. 455-460.

[22]. Heb. 13:4.

[23]. Gen. 2:18, 24; 1:27; 5:2; 9:1, 7; Lev. 26:9.

[24]. Doctrine and Covenants, 49:15-17.

[25]. Doctrine and Covenants 132:7.

[26]. Doctrine and Covenants 132:15-17.

[27]. Doctrine and Covenants 124:30-34.

[28]. See Matt. 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-40.

[29]. Matt. 22:33, 34.

[30]. Luke 20:39.

[31]. Matt. 22:31, 32.

CHAPTER V
MODERN DAY TEMPLES—THE TEMPLES AT KIRTLAND AND NAUVOO

As to general design, and indeed as to details of plan and construction of the earlier sanctuaries, much has been preserved to us through the pages of sacred writ. From the Biblical record alone it would be possible to practically reproduce the Tabernacle of the Congregation and the later Temple of Solomon; though, had we no information to supplement the Biblical account, we would know but little as to procedure requisite to the administration of ordinances specifically pertaining to temples.

Regarding the plan of building and the structural design of temples, we find no close similarity, far less of aught approaching identity, in these holy houses as erected in different dispensations; on the contrary we may affirm that direct revelation of temple plans is required for each distinctive period of the Priesthood's administration, that is to say for every dispensation of Divine authority. While the general purpose of temples is the same in all times, the special suitability of these edifices is determined by the needs of the dispensation to which they severally belong.

There is a definite sequence of development in the dealings of God with man throughout the centuries; and it is this unity of order and purpose that constitutes the eternal unchangeableness of the Supreme Being. Today is no mere repetition of yesterday; on the contrary, every today is a sum of all precedent time, so that in each succeeding age the Divine plan is farther advanced, and the grand finale in the great drama of human salvation is brought nearer.

From the days of the ancient Tabernacle of the Congregation, and thence onward to the meridian of time, animal sacrifice was required as an ordained rite of propitiation and worship; and such was in prototype of the sacrificial death predicted as part of the mission of the Son of Man. The temples of the Hebrews who were living under the Mosaic law, provided, therefore, for the slaughter of animals, for the ceremonial dividing of the carcasses and for the due disposal of the blood, for the convenient immolation of the offerings, and for numerous other details of ceremony associated with worship under the law of Moses.

The Latter-day Saints are one with other Christian sects in the unreserved acceptance of the doctrine that the atoning death of Christ terminated the Mosaic rites of sacrifice involving the ceremonial shedding of blood, that, in truth, the prototype was consummated in the reality. The temples of today are provided with no altars of sacrifice, no courts of slaughter, no shambles red with the blood of beasts, no pyres on which carcasses are burned, no censers of incense to becloud the fumes from burning flesh.

Even among the temples of the present dispensation there is a graded variety in the details of construction. The first temple of modern times was in a measure incomplete as compared with the holy houses of later construction. The fact was doubtless known to the Lord, though wisely hidden from common knowledge, that the Kirtland Temple would serve but for the beginning of the re-establishment of those distinctive ordinances for which temples are essential. Even as the Tabernacle of old was but an inferior type of what would follow, designed for temporary use under special conditions, so the earlier temples of the latter-day dispensation, specifically those of Kirtland and Nauvoo, were but temporary Houses of the Lord, destined to serve for short periods only as sanctuaries.

Scarcely had The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints been organized when the Lord indicated the necessity of a temple, in which He could reveal His mind and will to man, and in which the sanctifying ordinances of the Gospel could be administered. In a revelation given as early as December, 1830, the Lord said: "I am Jesus Christ the Son of God: wherefore gird up your loins and I will suddenly come to my temple."[[1]] In February 1831, the Lord further indicated His purpose thus: "That my covenant people may be gathered in one in that day when I shall come to my temple. And this I do for the salvation of my people."[[2]] More definite instructions as to the practical labors incident to the procuring of a site and the rearing of a temple soon followed.