Multiplying Temples

Modern Mormonism asserts that temple work for the living and the dead is the principle mission of the church to which all other ends and means are subordinate. Therefore, it is reasoned, we must build temples all over the world to facilitate access. History shows, however, that rather than having originated with Joseph Smith, this position emerged gradually as Joseph’s temple doctrine was forgotten.

To understand the development of multiplying temples, you have to understand temples not in their modern context, but how they were revealed in Joseph’s day. Then, temple construction was commanded one at a time, with specific purposes in mind. There was no general program for ordinances for the dead, except baptism. There was no endowment as we have it today. The purpose of the Kirtland temple was not to expose members to a symbolic lecture or to make promises to God. It was to provide a Pentecostal experience for outgoing missionaries. Similarly, the purpose of the Nauvoo temple was to provide a place for Elijah to return and restore the high priesthood and sealing powers.¹ Temples were not spaces dedicated for repetitive experiences, but places set apart for an explicit one-time event.² After all, the purpose of these events was to dispense knowledge that would empower the people to come into the consistent presence of God in the normal course of their lives. In contrast to the modern temple experience, this did not necessitate numerous buildings or numerous visits to buildings. In Joseph’s day, this experience was extended to geographically dispersed members through the physical gathering, not the building of many temples. With Joseph’s death, the purpose of the Nauvoo temple was lost. Brigham Young did not know or understand what had been revealed to Joseph about its purpose. He repurposed the attic of that temple to reveal the original version of the endowment we practice today. That endowment, which was carried to Utah, was not an event. It was a repetitive experience.

Where Joseph gathered the saints and brought them into access to revelatory events for which a temple had been constructed, Brigham sent out the saints to establish colonies to which temples could be brought to provide repetitive experiences. Even still, the tradition of gathering was strong enough that all saints were commanded to gather to and around Utah. Therefore, the idea of building a temple outside of Utah did not emerge for decades after the Nauvoo exodus. This changed with the Hawaii, Cardston, Mesa, and Idaho Falls temples, all overseen under the radical administration of Heber J. Grant, the first president of the church who had not known Joseph.³

At the outset of President McKay’s administration, the idea of building temples outside of Utah-Zion⁴ was foreign. However, in an attempt to bolster flat conversions to the church, President McKay revoked the commandment to physically gather. International missionary areas had been burned over. Anyone willing to accept the gospel had already been converted and imported to Utah. As with many dramatic experimental changes during President McKay’s administration, building temples around the world was not about bringing temple blessings to global saints, but about increasing the number of converts, in this case by keeping strong members in their country of origin.

Today, the initial purpose of multiplying temples has been forgotten to history, replaced with a man-made doctrine that views the temples as ends instead of means.