The “holographic” revelation of the design of the Kirtland Temple

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Lord not only ordered Moses to construct the tabernacle in the wilderness but, as recorded in Exodus 25-27, gave him specific instructions on Mount Sinai as to its details.

“Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount,” he said to Moses (Exodus 25:40).  The sanctuary should be constructed “according to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle” (Exodus 25:9).

The Lord also gave specific directions to King David for the building of the temple that his son Solomon eventually constructed in Jerusalem:  “The Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern” (1 Chronicles 28:19).

So, too, in the Restoration.  The Lord revealed the details of temple construction to his modern servant, Joseph Smith:

“The Church,” said Brigham Young, “through our beloved Prophet Joseph, was commanded to build a temple to the Most High, in Kirtland, Ohio.  Joseph received not only revelation and commandment to build a temple but a pattern also, as did Moses for the tabernacle and Solomon for his temple; without a pattern, Joseph could not know what was wanted, having never seen a temple and having not experienced its use.”

I’m not sure whether this episode is generally known among members of the Church, but here’s the account given by Frederick G. Williams, a counselor to Joseph Smith in the First Presidency, to Truman Angell — eventually himself the architect of the temple in Salt Lake City — about a remarkable revelation given (almost three years before the temple was actually built) not only to Joseph Smith but to the entire First Presidency of the Church at that time:

“Joseph received the word of the Lord for him to take his two counsellors, Wiliams and Rigdon, and come before the Lord and he would show them the plan or model of the House to be built.  We went upon our knees, called on the Lord, and the Building appeared within viewing distance, I being the first to discover it.  Then all of us viewed it together.  After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the Building seemed to come right over us, and the Makeup of this Hall seemed to coincide with what I there saw to a minutia.”

As I’ve noted before, many of the Prophet’s revelations were shared experiences.  Among other things, that fact makes them much, much more difficult to dismiss as merely the product of his personal imagination or psychological dysfunction.

Posted from Victoria, British Columbia