The Kirtland Temple: still a symbol of early Mormonism.

And from there Latter-day Saints were endowed and empowered.

KJZZ television, in cooperation with the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints presents this weekly series highlighting the research of scholars and historians as they prepare for the publication of the Joseph Smith Papers. And now your host, Glenn Rawson.

The Saints’ time in Kirtland was a formative period.

It’s a time when doctrine, organization, and even the culture of the Church grew and developed.

The Kirtland House of the Lord, built between 1833 and 1836, became the hub, the center, if you will, of Church activity and aspirations.

It was from there that many blessings were given to the Saints. They had looked forward to it for so long

and they were not disappointed.

When most people think about the Kirtland Temple or the House of the Lord, as they call it most often back then.

They think of two events, and those are the day of the dedication of the temple on the twenty seventh of March 1836.

And that's because of these amazing spiritual manifestations that attended that event.

And the other day that’s most associated with Kirtland Temple is the 3rd of April 1836.

And that's the day that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey had this vision where they saw the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ appearing in the temple and accepting it as his house. And if we go back to the records of the time, we get a different view of what exactly the Mormons thought of these events as they unfolded.

And through Joseph Smith's journal, we get a very good look at what Joseph Smith was thinking and doing at this time. For Joseph Smith and the Early Latter-day Saints, the

primary purpose for the Kirtland Temple was to hold a special, solemn assembly in the temple in which

the ordained priesthood officers of the Church would receive an endowment of power from on high.

Joseph Smith received a revelation

that said, “you shall go to the Ohio.

And there I will give you my law and I will endow you with power from on high.”

And they moved to Ohio. The next year, 1832,

There's a revelation that says commands them to build a house of the Lord in Kirtland.

They should hold a solemn assembly inside this temple.

So this is what Joseph Smith is trying to get everybody ready for. He’s not—we focus so much on the dedication, but he's not dedicating the temple in order to have this wonderful dedication meeting. The point is dedicate the temple so it can be used to hold the solemn assembly to receive the endowment of power.

Now, one source of confusion is the meaning of the term endowment.

That’s a word that changes over time and gains new meaning and changes meaning. If we rewind and we go back here to the completion of the Kirtland temple and use of the Kirtland Temple,

the word endowment simply means a tremendous spiritual outpouring of divine power and spiritual gifts similar to the day of Pentecost in the New Testament.

This Pentecostal season in the temple began as early as January of 1836. It was in a meeting on the third floor in the West Schoolroom. Joseph had just received a blessing from his father, Joseph Smith Sr.,

when a remarkable vision was opened to him.

The heavens were opened upon me, upon us,

and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God and the glory thereof. Whether in the body or out, I cannot tell.

“I saw the transcendent beauty of the gate that through which

the heirs of that kingdom will enter,

which was like unto circling flames of fire.

Also the blazing throne of God.

Whereon was seated the Father and the Son.

I saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold.

I saw Father Adam and Abraham and Michael and my father and mother and my brother Alvin that had long since slept.”

Alvin died in 1823, remember.

A heroic figure for young Joseph.

Not in real time. This is a pretty figuration,

his father’s sitting next to him in the room or close.

And so this is what will be. “I saw my father, mother, and my brother Alvin that has long since slept and marveled how it was that he had obtained this inheritance.

How was he in the Celestial kingdom, in that kingdom—

seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand the second time together, Israel, and had not been baptized for the remission of his sins.”

So Joseph asked the question after seeing something he didn't expect. And the Lord said and such

so many words in some ways, ‘I was hoping you would ask me.’

“Thus came the voice of the Lord to me, saying, all who have died with a knowledge,

the sense of it is without a knowledge, but who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the Celestial Kingdom

of God. Also, all that die henceforth without—”

You can see the without inserted there, recognizing, ’oh,

we meant without. We should have got that in’— “without a knowledge of it,

who would have received it with all their hearts shall be heirs of this kingdom.” And this is the key point doctrinally: “for

I, the Lord judge all men according to their works,

according to the desires of their hearts.” But what we know from Joseph in this journal entry is that God sees death is no problem at all.

And he has ways and plans for the salvation of his children who've never heard the gospel here. This is apparently Joseph's first

inclination of that. Oliver was totally overwhelmed with that vision of January 21st, he wrote in his journal.

“The vision was too glorious to be described”

in December of 1832,

Joseph Smith received a revelation that we know today is Section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants. In that revelation, the Lord said, “tarry ye,

tarry ye in this place, and call a solemn assembly, even of those who are the first laborers in this last kingdom.

Now, a solemn assembly is just that. It’s a solemn assembly of the Lord's people for a specific sacred purpose.

It would be in the solemn assembly where the long promised endowment of power would be received.

Now, there's also a little bit of confusion about this term, solemn assembly, because it can be used in other contexts.

You can have more than one solemn assembly, but as William W. Phelps explains in a letter,

They're having solemn assemblies all through this period, leading up to the solemn assembly,

the solemn assembly of the 30th of March 1836

is only for ordained priesthood officers. Men who are new members of the church who have not yet been ordained to any priesthood office cannot attend the solemn assembly. Women and children aren’t there.

Now we look at the dedication. You've got all the ordained priesthood officers arranged in the pulpits on the east and west end of the temple. If you’ve got any of the male members of the Church, female members of the Church, children, some children are there.

Interested people from the community can attend

the dedication services. So this is a different meeting.

In that same revelation, Section Eighty-eight of the Doctrine and Covenants, It states the following:

“Prepare yourselves and sanctify yourselves.

Yea, purify your hearts, and cleanse your hands and your feet before me, that I may make you clean.”

This was the charge that drove Joseph in the spring of 1836.

Now, Joseph Smith is very specific about where he wants to get with these priesthood brethren to have them ready and prepared for the solemn assembly and these are outlined very clearly in his journal. He's working on four things. The first is that all the brethren have to be in harmony. There has to be love and unity. There can't be any bad feelings

or else they will not be able to receive this endowment.

Now, the second thing is that they need to be fully organized

and they have to be purified, have to be purified in their hearts. And they have to be ritually purified with the washing.

And then the anointing comes along with that washings and anointings. The fourth thing they have to do to be prepared is to receive special instruction,

and that includes their study of Hebrew.

So the Elders School and then an associated Hebrew school.

And both of those are explicitly integral to their preparations for the solemn assembly.

Those are the four things that Joseph Smith is working on in the months leading up to the completion and dedication of the temple and the solemn assembly.

They were commanded to love one another

and to cease finding fault with another and above all things, to clothe themselves with the bond of charity.

There were evidently unkind feelings among the brethren that had to be resolved before they were considered worthy to receive the endowment of power.

OK, so the brethren all had to get in harmony. Now, there were a lot of things they needed to get worked out.

For example, when the 12 apostles were out in the field in mid 1835,

there was a report that Orson Hyde and William McLellin had complained to some members in New York about

the quality of Sidney Rigdon’s instruction in the school and in Kirtland. So that report comes back. And when the 12 come back to Kirtland, that's brought up. And that needs to be worked out because it’s looked bad on to be complaining about fellow brethren.

And so apostles Orson Hyde and William McLellan apologize for that. Now, there’s another—one more problem that needs to get solved, and that's between the traveling high council or the 12 Apostles and the Standing High Council in Kirtland,

which is presided over by the First Presidency.

And the 12 feel like it was unfair the way that the high council in Kirtland had believed some of the reports from their missionary work, their proselytizing out in the East,

and that they should have trusted more in their integrity.

There's some bad feelings there. And so Joseph Smith holds a meeting on the 16th of January,

and all these grievances are aired.

And Joseph Smith apologizes to the 12 and says, brethren, in the future, this is not going to happen.

Now, what comes after that is some general meetings of confession and forgiveness,

where all these brethren get up in front of each other,

confess their faults toward one another.

And this is very emotional.

And this is something that Joseph Smith pushes

the Church to go through.

And it's very you know, it’s emotional and it’s a real experience to prepare them to have their hearts humble and pure and clean and have complete harmony with each other.

They had been commanded twice in the revelation to “organize yourselves.”

That became Joseph’s charge then to set the priesthood quorums in order.

So now all of the ordained priesthood officers in the church are in harmony, but they are not complete, that is there are lots of posts, offices in the church that are not filled. So there are several appointments of presidents with counselors. So full presidencies. And then within the quorums and councils,

beneath the presidencies,

there's a precise arrangement from top to bottom by seniority of age. So now all of the Church’s,

councils and quorums and other bodies are fully staffed

and fully organized. And now they still need to

understand how they all fit together and who’s above who and how they relate to each other.

This needs to be worked out as well.

Joseph's charge then, is to assist the brethren in sanctifying themselves,

in making themselves pure before the Lord.

In another meeting leading up to this, where Joseph Smith meets with the 12 apostles, he tells them ’brethren to get prepared for the endowment. You must be clean every whit.′

The idea was to repent completely of all your sins

and be completely purified and sanctified to receive this endowment.

Now, this started with confessing and forgiveness that was part of achieving harmony in the church.

And so they are confessing their sins and repenting,

they’re being forgiven.

And then when they're purified in their hearts,

they're ready to be washed, to be ritually purified.

Now, at the end of several meetings held to have all the brethren sanctified internally and ritually purified in preparation for the endowment,

Joseph Smith, in his journal for January 30, recorded for the end of the day, “I returned to my house, being weary with continual anxiety and labor in putting all the authorities in and in striving to purify them for the solemn assembly according to the commandment of the Lord.”

So you see, he really sees himself as following these early revelations to have the Church completely organized and purified and in harmony.

The revelation went on to say,

“Call your solemn assembly as I’ve commanded you.

And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach ye Words of

wisdom. Yea, seek ye out of the best books, words of wisdom. Seek learning, even by study and also by faith.”

Education, then, was to be the key to power for the elders of Israel.

Now, Joseph Smith himself organized the Elder School,

and on the day that he organized it, he explained to them that this was part of their preparation for this solemn assembly in the House of the Lord.

So they receive 11 weeks of instruction in Hebrew,

three from Joseph Smith and eight from Joshua Seixas.

And this school met generally every day of the week, except for Sunday. So this was a considerable amount of Hebrew study.

And Joseph Smith was eager and enthusiastic about it, as well as several other brethren.

And they did see this as part of their training for

the endowment they would receive in the solemn assembly, and that it would supplement their ability to go forth into the world after the endowment with more knowledge and with empowered proselytizing

potential.

It wasn’t just the Elders School or the School of the Prophets that was held in the attic rooms of the temple.

Loche Mackay of the Community of Christ talks about other educational things that happened there and why they were so important.

As you know, I think many of the Latter-day Saints in 1830s

Kirtland were struggling with poverty,

and they believed that as a result they were at times taken advantage of by the more learned.

So they're turning to education to protect themselves.

They opened what they called the Kirtland High School on the third floor of the temple, 1836 and 37.

Their students ranged from age six, where they were learning what they called the first principles of education—

how to read and write—all the way up to 30-year-old Wilford Woodruff in the classical department, which was Latin and Greek languages.

They also had an English department.

It's not just English, but geography and grammar and arithmetic.

Church leadership quorums filled those rooms in the evenings.

High priests on Monday night, 70s on Tuesday nights, Elders on Wednesday nights.

Finally, Joseph Smith Junior’s office, third floor west. And the prayer of dedication for the temple was also written in that west office

and then delivered here.

Now, Joseph Smith got the Church in harmony.

He got the brethren organized. He got them purified.

They finished the temple and they dedicated it. But, the

school term in the Hebrew school for which they had contracted Joshua Seixas wasn’t over yet.

They still had two more days of instruction after the dedication.

So they're not completely ready for the solemn assembly yet.

The temple was dedicated March 27th, 1836.

The dedicatory prayer was given to Joseph by revelation.

He stood and read that before the Saints.

Later it would be canonized as Section 109 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Joseph would have been sitting second row from the top in the center as he stood to read the prayer of dedication again March 27th of 1836.

Imagine for that dedication service, 900 to a thousand people filling this room.

900 to 1000, according to Joseph, was as many as could be comfortably situated

children on the laps of adults. Every seat and aisle were crowded.

And again, their service lasted for seven to eight hours. Sidney Rigdon preached for two and a half hours.

Joseph's prayer, dedication, 20, 25, 30 minutes long.

The period surrounding the temple dedication, just an incredible spiritual highlight.

They talk about pillars of fire on the roof of the temple, angelic choirs singing along with them during their service as they talk about this room being filled with the sound of a mighty rushing wind.

The temple is dedicated.

And then two days later, on March the 29th,

the Elders School is ended and the final preparations

for the solemn assembly are made.

Then on March the 30th,

the priesthood gathered to the temple for an all night session. And the endowment of power.

Now he goes into the temple with the First Presidency and the presidency from the Missouri church.

And also with the Bishoprics. Joseph Smith receives a revelation that they're to stay in the house all night

and that they are to wash each other's feet

so that they will be prepared to

start the foot washing in the solemn assembly on the next day, so they stay in the temple all through the night and it is effectively for them their solemn assembly.

And there is the outpouring of the Spirit and there’s prophesying and other gifts.

Now, the next morning, all of the priesthood officers from the Church that are in the area come in to the lower court of the House of the Lord.

And Joseph Smith organizes them and they begin their foot washing

for them. In Joseph Smith’s Journal, it records for this day, the 30th of March 1836, quote, “I then observed to the quorums that I had now completed, the organization of the church,

and we had passed through all the necessary ceremonies that I had given them, all the instruction they needed.”

The time when you will be endowed is now within the next few days,

this is going to be a period of jubilee. Now he retires.

The brethren stay in the house for the rest of the night for the solemn assembly.

Well, the spiritual gifts began to be manifest. There's prophecy.

They're speaking in tongues and they're visions of the Savior. Others have visions of angels.

And this is the endowment.

It came that night in the solemn assembly. Joseph Smith wasn't there. His journal records the events as they reported to him and his journal records

it was a day of Pentecost and a solemn assembly, indeed.

And the very next day,

some of the brethren start leaving on their missions

because the endowment empowers them to go forth into the world with this new level of proselytizing power.

So that was the endowment.

April the 3rd, 1836. We're now one week later past the solemn assembly. And Joseph and all the Saints are gathered together in the temple for a meeting.

And wonderful things happen. Visions, visitations.

Joseph's Journal of the events of that day become a valuable contemporary record. Joseph’s scribe told the following

“he attended at the Lord’s House.

This talks about how he attended meetings there. There was preaching. He received the sacrament.

The 12 apostles administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper that day.

And then he and Oliver Cowdrey, you can see, oh, Cowdrey right there, went

toward the pulpit. The curtains were lowered. So they were separated from the rest of the congregation.

And they bowed themselves, “bowed himself with Oliver Cowdrey in solemn but silent prayer to the Most High.”

And after rising from prayer, the following vision was open to each of them or both of them. I think that was both of them.

“The veil was taken from their minds, and the eyes of their understanding were opened.

They saw the Lord standing upon the bass work of the pulpit.”

If we want to know where which pulpit the Savior stood on,

it says right in verse two, if they stood up, facing the front, the Savior would have stood on one of these two pulpits.

If they stood up facing the back, he would have stood at the pulpit in the back.

And then they describe him and they identify him for Jews, with “I am,” with the “Jehovah,”

with other symbolism for Christians.

“I’m the first in the last.” “I’m He who was slain.”

And we have Paul, of course, recording and some of the same words about his eyes, his hair, his voice. We have the same identification in the New Testament for the Savior that Joseph Smith gave Him.

This is the culmination. And notice this:

That's the last entry in the journal.

It's as if Joseph is saying, we documented it.

We’ve documented it. We started with the revelation that said, build the temple. We built it, falteringly, granted, but we did it. We did it. And in the process, we sanctified ourselves

and we presented ourselves in solemn assembly.

This journal is a document, a testimony that we did the things that D&C 88 told us to do.

And as Joseph Smith presenting himself there that day with Oliver Cowdery saying, Lord, here we are. We’ve done it. We've done exactly what you asked us to do.

Now we're ready for the promised blessings. And that's what the revelation says.

The Lord comes to accept the temple.

“His countenance shown above the brightness of the sun,

and his voice was as the rushing,

the sound of the rushing of great waters.

Even the voice of Jehovah saying I am the first and the last.”

And here I have to emphasize the verb tense, I just love the way He emphasizes this. “I am he who liveth.

I am he who was slain. I am your advocate with the father. Behold, your sins are forgiven you.”

And here He accepts the temple. He forgives their sins.

They are clean before Him. And they’ve rent the veil.

He accepts the temple. He promises very specific blessings. How the gospel will spread forth from the temple to foreign lands,

as He had prophesied earlier on.

And then the vision closes here. After this vision close

the heavens were opened, “again opened to them,

and Moses appeared before them and restored the keys of gathering Israel.

You notice that Joseph has sent missionaries locally, but this will be the beginning of missionaries going globally.

He'll find Heber Kimball in the temple not long after this and whisper in his ear,

“Time for you to go on a mission to England.”

That'll be the beginning of the global great commission,

fulfilling the great commission of Christ to take the gospel global. So, the keys for gathering Israel are employed almost immediately by Joseph Smith as a result of this receipt of these keys from Moses. Elias appears and gives Joseph the keys of gospel of Abraham,

saying that in “thee and thy seed all the nations of the Earth will be blessed.”

So Joseph will use those keys to try to exalt and seal the human family. And then finally, the keys of sealing ancestors and descendants families in this endless chain brought back by Elijah the prophet. Listen to the last couple of verses: “Therefore, into your hands, the keys of this dispensation are committed.

Now, you know that the great, dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the door.”

So this is as if Joseph now has everything he's going to need

to do the work that he was originally commissioned to do.

He's got the keys. We say that he was endowed with power.

He was indeed.

The impact upon the world of the events that happened in the Kirtland Temple—well, they’re immeasurable.

Joseph Smith himself gave the following prophecy:

“The sound will go forth from this place into all the world,” and then he said,

“the occurrences of this day shall be handed down upon the pages of sacred history to all generations.”

Next week on the Joseph Smith Papers, Zion and Zion’s Camp:

The people, the place,

the principle, and Zion’s redemption.

I’m Glen Rawson.