Friday, May 24, 2019

Early Latter-day Saints, Temple Theology, and Revelation 11:19; 12:1, 5


In my work on Mariology, I have discussed the identity of the “woman” in Rev 12:1 (e.g., Refuting Taylor Marshall on the Bodily Assumption of Mary Interestingly, many early Latter-day Saints tied this passage and v. 5, speaking of the Man Child and the woman fleeing into the wilderness as a symbolic prophecy of the Church being “hidden” due to the Great Apostasy, only to return from the wilderness due to the Restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith (see D&C 5:14; 33:5; 109:73 for allusions to such) as well as tying this, and related (11:19; 12:5) texts to Latter-day Saint temple theology.

In his recent (and highly recommended) biography of Brigham Young, Thomas G. Alexander wrote the following about the construction of the Nauvoo temple and how Rev 11:19; 12:1, 5 played a role informing the symbolism thereof):

Perhaps because of the Mormons’ general belief that Christ’s Second Coming and the Millennium were close at hand, on the exterior of the temple, artisans reproduced in graphic form some features of John’s Revelations. The temple’s pilasters consisted from top to bottom of starstones, sunstones, and moonstones in an apocalyptic motif. Construction foreman Wandle Mace wrote that the stones were placed in the same order as those surrounding the woman described in Revelation 12:1, which said: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under het feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” She bore, in Revelation 12:5, “a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne.” Significantly, John wrote in verse 11:19, immediately preceding 12:1, that “the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” (Thomas G. Alexander, Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith [Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019], 63)

In a sermon delivered April 6, 1853, Brigham Young tied Rev 12 to the Great Apostasy and Restoration, with a focus on v. 5, speaking of the Man Child (and the “woman”) fleeing into the desert:

If Jesus could not lay his head in an unholy, polluted temple, how can the Latter-day Saints expect that the Holy Spirit will take and abide its residence with them, in their tabernacles and temples of clay, unless they keep themselves pure, spotless, and undefiled?

It is no wonder that the Son of Man, soon after his resurrection from the tomb, ascended to his Father, for he had no place on earth to lay his head; his house still remaining in the tressession of his enemies, so that no one had the privilege of purifying it, if they had the disposition, and otherwise the power, to do it; and the occupants thereof were professors in name, but hypocrites and apostates, from whom no good thing can be expected.

Soon after the ascension of Jesus, through mobocracy, martyrdom, and apostacy, the Church of Christ became extinct from the earth, the Man Child—the Holy Priesthood, was received up into heaven from whence it came, and we hear no more of it on the earth, until the Angels restored it to Joseph Smith, by whose ministry the Church of Jesus Christ was restored, re-organized on earth, twenty-three years ago this day, with the title of "Latter-day Saints," to distinguish them from the Former-day Saints.

Soon after, the Church, though our beloved Prophet Joseph, was commanded to build a Temple to the Most High, in Kirtland, Ohio, and this was the next House of the Lord we hear of on the earth, since the days of Solomon's Temple. Joseph not only received revelation and commandment to build a Temple, but he received a pattern also, as did Moses for the Tabernacle, and Solomon for his Temple; for without a pattern, he could not know what was wanting, having never seen one, and not having experienced its use. (JOD 2:30-31)