{"id":42178,"date":"2021-11-02T15:27:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T20:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=42178"},"modified":"2021-11-02T15:27:54","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T20:27:54","slug":"this-ordinance-belongeth-to-my-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2021\/11\/this-ordinance-belongeth-to-my-house\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis\u00a0ordinance\u00a0belongeth\u00a0to my\u00a0house\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout this year, I\u2019ve talked about the development of temple doctrine as a braiding of strands<\/a> from Joseph Smith\u2019s theology and cosmology.\u00a0 That continues to be true of the 1840s, when the Latter-day Saints were working on the Nauvoo temple.\u00a0 Previously, when discussing the House of the Lord in Kirtland, I discussed the idea of\u00a0beholding the face of God<\/a>, an\u00a0endowment of power from on high<\/a>,\u00a0preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus the Christ<\/a>,\u00a0the Zion project<\/a>, and some practical functions of the temples (in connection with building Zion).\u00a0 These threads continued to have a place in the Nauvoo Temple but began to be ritualized and some meanings (such as that of the endowment of power) began to shift.\u00a0 In addition, priesthood<\/a>, binding or sealing power, and salvation for<\/a> the unbaptized deceased<\/a> were added to the braid of temples by the time that 1842 the epistles we are reading this week (D&C 127-128) were written.\u00a0 Later, binding or sealing into eternal families and the connected concept of plural marriage would likewise be woven into temple liturgy as well, though those are topics for another day.<\/p>\n

The endowment of power is, perhaps, the key example of a shift in understanding and ritualization of previous hopes for the temple and priesthood.\u00a0 Originally, the endowment of power seems to have been considered some sort of blessing from God that would be helpful in missionary work.\u00a0 In its initial rendition, this endowment seems to have been expected to be both a Pentecostal experience and an increased ability to perform miracles that was realized to some degree through ordinations to the high priesthood in 1831.\u00a0 The School of the Prophets, with its learning, rituals and spiritual manifestations, functioned as a type of endowment in the years following.\u00a0 Then, the Pentecostal experiences, visions, and transfer of keys at the House of the Lord in Kirtland, Ohio served as the most famous endowment of power that seemed to function in the ways initially envisioned when it had been promised by a revelation in early 1831.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

The endowment of power in the Nauvoo temple took a different form.\u00a0 In a revelation recorded in January 1841 (D&C 124), the Saints were commanded to build \u201ca house unto\u00a0mine<\/span>\u00a0my name, for the Most High to dwell therein.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The purposes of the building were outlined as being a place that the Lord \u201cmay come and restore\u00a0again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken\u00a0away, even the fulness of the\u00a0Priesthood.\u201d\u00a0 A significant and connected purpose for the sacred spaces was to house \u201ca baptismal font \u2026 that they, my saints may be\u00a0baptized\u00a0for those who are dead,\u00a0for this\u00a0ordinance\u00a0belongeth\u00a0to my\u00a0house.\u201d\u00a0 In addition, the Lord stated that other ordinances, such as the washings that had been performed in the House of the Lord in Kirtland, were only acceptable in a house of God:<\/p>\n

your\u00a0anointings\u00a0and your\u00a0washings, and your\u00a0babtisms for the dead and your\u00a0solemn assemblys, and your\u00a0memorials for your sacrifices, by the sons of Levi,\u00a0and for\u00a0your oracles in your most\u00a0holy<\/u>\u00a0places, wherein you receive\u00a0conversations, and your statutes, and judgements, for the\u00a0beginning of the revelations and foundation of\u00a0Zion, and\u00a0for the glory and honor and\u00a0endowment\u00a0of all her municiples,\u00a0are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which\u00a0my people are allways Commanded to build unto my\u00a0holy name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In serving as a space for all of the points listed above, the Nauvoo Temple was expected to be a place where the Lord could \u201creveal unto my\u00a0church, things which have been\u00a0kept hid from before the foundation of the world,\u00a0things\u00a0that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

In relation to the above, the form that the endowment would take was one that focused on transferring hidden knowledge.\u00a0 That knowledge was thought to provide power in its own right\u2014as Hyrum Smith stated in 1844, \u201cGreat things are to grow out of that\u00a0house; there\u00a0is a great and mighty power to grow out of it;\u00a0there is an endowment; knowledge is power, we\u00a0want knowledge. \u2026 We are now deprived of the\u00a0privilege of giving the necessary instruction,\u2014\u00a0hence we want a\u00a0house.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 The sharing of the endowment did not wait for the temple for some people, though.\u00a0 On 4 May 1842, Joseph Smith:<\/p>\n

spent the day in the upper part of the\u00a0Store\u00a0\u2026 instructing them in the principles\u00a0and order of the priesthood, attending to washings & anointings,\u00a0&<\/span>\u00a0endowments, and the communication of keys, pertaining to the\u00a0Aronic Priesthood, and so on to the highe[s]t order of the Melckisedec\u00a0Pristhood, setting forth the order pertaining to the Ancient of days &\u00a0all those plans & principles by which any one is enabled to secure\u00a0the fulness of those blessings which has <?been?> prepared for the chuch of the\u00a0first-born, and come up,\u00a0into<\/span>\u00a0and abide in the pesece [presence] of\u00a0God<\/span>\u00a0in the<\/span>\u00a0Eloheim in the eternal worlds.[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This provided the basis of the endowment ceremony, with its communication about priesthood, securing salvation and living in the presence of God.\u00a0 Using forms and methods that seem to have been adopted from Masonic rituals as the means of conveying that knowledge,[6]<\/a> this endowment would teach the Saints important knowledge that would give them power. \u00a0As Brigham Young would later put it, \u201cYour\u00a0endowment<\/em>\u00a0is, 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.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 The endowment of the Nauvoo Temple was one of using ritual to communicate knowledge of \u201cthose plans & principles by which any one is enabled to secure\u00a0the fulness of those blessings\u201d that were thought to be necessary to gain the power to enter into exaltation.<\/p>\n

Brigham Young built upon and expanded the endowment ceremony that had been presented by Joseph Smith in the Red Brick Store prior to the temple\u2019s construction. \u00a0Most of the ceremonies took place in the attic level of the temple during the winter of 1845-1846, which was partitioned into a series of rooms by canvass. \u00a0Participants took part in a ritual drama summarizing Mormon beliefs about the creation of the earth, the Fall of Adam and Eve, trials and temptations faced during mortal life, and certain pieces of knowledge they believed would be necessary to know to return to heaven.[8]<\/a> John Pulsipher summarized the ceremony when he wrote that the endowments involved \u201clearning the order of the Priesthood, the fall and redemption of man, in the Temple in the City of Joseph.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 The culmination of the ceremony involved entry into the Celestial Room\u2014a beautifully decorated room representing the highest heaven, where God dwells\u2014ritually incorporating the notion of entering the presence of God into this endowment of power.<\/p>\n

Another thread that was picked up in the early 1840s by the developing temple doctrine was salvation for the unbaptized deceased.\u00a0 Joseph Smith seemed to go back and forth<\/a> on the potential for salvation in life after death. \u00a0In the 1820s, his family was angered by the suggestion from a Protestant minister that the oldest Smith boy, Alvin, would go to hell because he hadn\u2019t become a church member.\u00a0 There are indications that the Book of Mormon would have agreed with the minister, though at least one early revelation (D&C 19) incorporated universalist ideas to state that God would not resign humans to never-ending punishment but would eventually redeem them.\u00a0 The Vision (D&C 76), with its kingdoms of glory, provided a compromise by allowing for various grades of salvation, including a place in the Terrestrial for \u201cthey who died without law.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

An 1836 vision that was experienced in the Kirtland Temple, where Joseph saw Alvin in the Celestial Kingdom, undermined the compromise of the earlier vision, since Joseph Smith \u201cmarvled\u00a0how it was that he had obtained\u00a0this<\/span>\u00a0an inheritance <in>\u00a0this<\/span>\u00a0<that> kingdom, seeing that\u00a0he had departed this life, before the\u00a0Lord <had> set his hand to gather Israel\u00a0<the\u00a0second time> and had not been baptized for the\u00a0remission of sins.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 Yet, the Prophet still stuck to the necessity of baptism for salvation.\u00a0 A year-and-a-half after the 1836 vision with Alvin, a revelation reiterated that: \u201che that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not, and is not baptized, shall be damned.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 This tension set up the need for a way to satisfy both the requirement for baptism and for the mercy of God in allowing people like Alvin the opportunity to enter the Celestial Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, that tension was resolved by the idea of baptisms for the dead.\u00a0 As Phebe Woodruff recorded in a letter to her husband:<\/p>\n

Brother Joseph \u2026 has learned by revelation that those in this church may be baptized for any of their relatives who are dead and had not a privilege of hearing this gospel, even for their children, parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, uncles, and aunts. \u2026 As soon as they are baptized for their friends they are released from prison and they can claim them in the resurrection and bring them into the celestial kingdom.[13]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Baptisms for the dead opened the way to allow for both requiring ordinances and universalist ideals of God redeeming a majority of humankind to have a place in Latter-day Saint doctrine.\u00a0 With the announcement in the 1841 revelation that \u201cthis\u00a0ordinance\u00a0[baptisms for the dead] belongeth\u00a0to my\u00a0house,\u201d[14]<\/a> this longstanding thread of Joseph Smith\u2019s theology was braided into temple doctrine through the rite of baptism.<\/p>\n

In addition to sermons throughout that year, in September of 1842, Joseph Smith wrote two epistles that gave more information about baptisms for the dead and some of how the Saints could reach beyond the veil to provide salvation to their friends and relatives. \u00a0Record keeping became crucial, since Joseph Smith spoke of the priesthood exercising a binding or sealing power through the record keeping associated with the ordinance.\u00a0 In the first September 1842 epistle (D&C 127), he wrote that the Lord wanted a recorded to keep record of the baptisms that \u201cit may be recorded in heaven; <?that?> whatsoever you\u00a0loose<\/span>\u00a0<?bind?> on\u00a0earth may be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth may be\u00a0loosed in heaven.\u201d[15]<\/a>\u00a0 In the second epistle (D&C 128), Smith commented that binding and loosing could be reinterpreted as recording.[16]<\/a>\u00a0 Hence, he stated that the records kept on earth and in heaven by the priesthood are \u201cthe sealing and binding power, and in\u00a0one sense of the word the keys of the kingdom which consists\u00a0in the key of knowledge.\u201d[17]<\/a>\u00a0 The records kept by the priesthood holders captured knowledge that provided power through witnessing in the eternities that the rite had been performed in behalf of those who had not been baptized during mortality.<\/p>\n

Thus, as the Saints built the Nauvoo Temple, more threads of Joseph Smith\u2019s doctrine began to be braided into the weave of temple doctrine.\u00a0 In particular, baptisms for the dead wove in doctrines of salvation for the unbaptize deceased, while the endowment ceremonies updated previous efforts to access an endowment of power through an endowment of knowledge.\u00a0 Both cases also display an increasing reliance on rituals and rites, since they were manifested as ordinances that would be performed in the House of the Lord in Nauvoo.\u00a0 The final layer of doctrine to be woven into temple doctrine by Joseph Smith would also be added in the 1840s with the concept of eternal families.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cRevelation, 2 January 1831 [D&C 38],\u201d p. 52, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed April 11, 2021,\u00a0https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/revelation-2-january-1831-dc-38\/4<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> “Revelation, 19 January 1841 [D&C 124],” p. 6, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 1, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/revelation-19-january-1841-dc-124\/4<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> “Revelation, 19 January 1841 [D&C 124],” p. 6, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 1, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/revelation-19-january-1841-dc-124\/4<\/a><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u201cConference Minutes,\u201d\u00a0Times and Seasons,<\/em>\u00a01 Aug. 1844, 5:596\u2013598. https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/transcript\/minutes-and-discourses-6-7-april-1844-as-published-by-times-and-seasons?print=true<\/a><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> “History Draft [1 January\u201330 June 1842][a],” p. 11, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 2, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/history-draft-1-january-30-june-1842\/13<\/a>, see also “Journal, December 1841\u2013December 1842,” p. 94, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 2, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/journal-december-1841-december-1842\/25<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> See \u201cMasonry,\u201d in Church History Topics, https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/history\/topics\/masonry?lang=eng<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Brigham Young address on 6 April 1853, Journal of Discourses<\/em> 2:31, https:\/\/jod.mrm.org\/2\/29<\/a><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> See Glen M. Leonard, Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, A People of Promise <\/em>(Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 2002), 259.\u00a0 See also Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, The Nauvoo Endowment Companies<\/em> (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2005), xv-xxv.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> A Mormon Diary as Told by John Pulsipher<\/em> 1827-1891.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> D&C 76:72-74.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> \u00a0\u201cVisions, 21 January 1836 [D&C 137],\u201d p. 136, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 4, 2021,\u00a0https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/visions-21-january-1836-dc-137\/1<\/a><\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> D&C 112:29<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Phebe Woodruff letter to Wilford Woodruff, Oct.\u00a06, 1840<\/a>, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; spelling and punctuation modernized.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> “Revelation, 19 January 1841 [D&C 124],” p. 6, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 1, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/revelation-19-january-1841-dc-124\/4<\/a><\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> “Journal, December 1841\u2013December 1842,” p. 189, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 1, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/journal-december-1841-december-1842\/66<\/a><\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> “Letter to the Church, 7 September 1842 [D&C 128],” p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 2, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-the-church-7-september-1842-dc-128\/4<\/a><\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> “Letter to the Church, 7 September 1842 [D&C 128],” p. 5, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 2, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-the-church-7-september-1842-dc-128\/5<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout this year, I\u2019ve talked about the development of temple doctrine as a braiding of strands from Joseph Smith\u2019s theology and cosmology.\u00a0 That continues to be true of the 1840s, when the Latter-day Saints were working on the Nauvoo temple.\u00a0 Previously, when discussing the House of the Lord in Kirtland, I discussed the idea of\u00a0beholding the face of God, an\u00a0endowment of power from on high,\u00a0preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus the Christ,\u00a0the Zion project, and some practical functions of the temples (in connection with building Zion).\u00a0 These threads continued to have a place in the Nauvoo Temple but began to be ritualized and some meanings (such as that of the endowment of power) began to shift.\u00a0 In addition, priesthood, binding or sealing power, and salvation for the unbaptized deceased were added to the braid of temples by the time that 1842 the epistles we are reading this week (D&C 127-128) were written.\u00a0 Later, binding or sealing into eternal families and the connected concept of plural marriage would likewise be woven into temple liturgy as well, though those are topics for another day. The endowment of power is, perhaps, the key example of a shift in understanding and ritualization of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2895,13,2900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-come-follow-me-currculum","category-scriptures","category-temples"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42179,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42178\/revisions\/42179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}