Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Duane Crowther on Isaiah 2:2 being about a future Temple in Jerusalem, not Salt Lake City



And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. (Isa 2:2)

Isa 2:2-5 is a common “proof-text” used by some Latter-day Saints as a direct prophecy of the then-future temple in Salt Lake City. As I have discussed before, this is not what Isaiah is discussing; instead, per the context (v. 1), he is discussing the future temple in Jerusalem (see: The LDS use of Isaiah 2:2-5; cf. Sidney B. Sperry on Isaiah 2:2-5). Duane Crowther, a rather conservative Latter-day Saint writer wrote the following against this long-standing though very errant reading of the text. Commenting on Isa 2:2, we read:

This prophecy, together with Mic. 4:1-2, is often quoted by Latter-day Saints as pertaining to the Salt Lake Temple, which is also high in the mountains and has been visited by the people of many nations. While an interesting parallel can be drawn between the prophecy and the Salt Lake Temple, there is no scriptural evidence that Isaiah was speaking of it rather than the temple in Jerusalem. The reader should note that—

a. The preceding verse clearly defines this prophecy as the word of Isaiah concerning Judah and its capital, Jerusalem. (1)
b. The following verse, which is clearly a portion of the prophecy, gives a chronological clue as to when the prophecy will be fulfilled. This is to take place at a time when the Lord will (1) judge among the nations, (2) rebuke many people, and the people will (3) beat their swords into plowshares and (4) cease from waging war. (4) It would seem that this is clearly a prophecy of events immediately preceding the millennial era and of the millennium (see Is. 11:6-9, 65:25), rather than the past seventy years.
c. “Mountain(s) of the Lord’s house” is a phrase which seemingly refers to the dwelling place of God. D& 133:13 clearly uses the phrase in referring to Jerusalem: “And let them who be of Judah flee unto Jerusalem, unto the mountains of the Lord’s house.”
d. Isn’t the Salt Lake Temple an arbitrary selection as the fulfillment of the prophecy? Why not the temples in Mani, Logan, St. George or Idaho Falls, which all have been visited by people of many nations and which are relatively high above sea level? (Duane Crowther, Prophets and Prophecies of the Old Testament [Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers, 1966], 361)