The Nauvoo Temple and Doctrine & Covenants 124

By Hollie Wells

We recently studied Doctrine & Covenants 124 as a church in the Come, Follow Me curriculum. It’s impossible to study and discuss this section without talking about the Nauvoo temple, in which the Saints were given the commandment to build it. 

The Nauvoo temple is often called the first “modern” temple, however it was not the first temple to be built in this “modern” or current dispensation. The main feature that grants this temple that title is the baptismal font that was included in the designs and construction. It was the first temple where baptisms for the dead were performed. The Nauvoo temple also served as the inaugural site where early versions of the ordinances we participate in today were performed, although proxy work for the endowment and sealings were not performed until the St. George and other Utah temples. 

In Doctrine & Covenants 124, the Lord teaches the Saints that Baptisms for the Dead is an ordinance that belongs to His house (verses 29-30) and that as soon as a temple font could be completed, they were no longer authorized to perform these baptisms in the river or anywhere outside the temple. Something beautiful that I learned in my recent study was that the Saints built a temporary, rudimentary baptismal font in the basement, underneath the construction of the temple, so they could be obedient to God’s direction as quickly as possible. Similarly, there was an upper room in the Red Brick Store where endowments were performed until the temple could be completed and dedicated. The Saints were eager to start performing these ordinances, and it proved a wise decision not to delay, as the temple was burned and destroyed by mobbers only two years after it was dedicated. 

This section of the Doctrine & Covenants has a verse that has clarified how I understand modern temple work. In verse 41, the Lord says, “I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times.” These hidden things encompass a lot of what has been restored in the church, but I had never thought of it in the light of temple work. I often study Old Testament temple practices and try to find as many similarities as I can. They do share many practices and principles, but modern temple ordinances do not necessarily fit on a one-to-one  ratio with how temples operated in ancient Old Testament times.

There are definitely similarities– more than we likely know about at this time– but our temple work today is unique for this time. We know that ordinances, specifically baptisms, for the dead have occurred in previous dispensations (see 1 Corinthians 15:29) but we don’t know about work for the dead beyond that. Although the endowment draws on the past, we do not necessarily know if Saints in ancient times received the exact same ordinance. There is a lot we do not know about revealed temple ordinances, and perhaps we may never know. However, I trust that God knows what He is doing and He has a perfect plan to bring about a generation of priests and priestesses in our modern day.