(10) Mr. Uriah Smith evidently
appreciates the high importance and paramount position of the Lord’s Holy
Temple in connection with religious worship. I continue to quote him.
“This building” (Solomon’s Temple) “answers
in every respect to the definition of the term, and the use for which the
sanctuary was designed. (1) It was the earthly dwelling-place of God. ‘Let them
make me a sanctuary,’ said He to Moses, ‘that I may dwell among them.’ Ex. 25:8.
In this tabernacle, which they erected according to His instructions, He
manifested His presence. (2) It was a holy, or sacred place,--‘the holy
sanctuary.’ Lev. 16:33; (3) In the Word of God it is over and over again called
the sanctuary. Of the one hundred and forty instances in which the word is used
in the Old Testament, it refers in almost every case to this building.
“The tabernacle was at first constructed
in such a manner as to be adapted to the condition of the children of Israel at
that time. They were just entering upon their forty years’ wandering in the
wilderness, when this building was set up in their midst as the habitation of
God, and the center of their religious worship. ***
After entering the promised land, this
temporary structure in time gave place to the magnificent temple of Solomon. In
this more permanent form it existed, saving only the time it lay in ruins in
Daniel’s day, till its final destruction by the Romans in A.D. 70.” “Thoughts on
Prophecies of Daniel” p. 167.
(11) With this beautiful description
in mind, and the fact that certain Temples, as previously referred to, are to
be again established on earth before the second coming of the Lord, surely is
evidence enough to destroy all private claims, however, sincere, regarding the
fulfillment of this 1843 prophecy through this supposed exclusive Heavenly
built Temple. Now the Word of the Lord, through Malachi, also tells us of a
Latter Day Temple:
(1) “Behold, I will send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly
come TO HIS TEMPLE, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in:
behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
(2) “But who may abide the day of his coming?
and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and
like the fullers’ soap:
(4) “then shall the offering of Judah
and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in
former years.” Mal. 3:1, 2, 4.
The prophetic Micah also tells us of Latter
Day Temples to be built on this earth, some of them in the mountains, in Zion
and Jerusalem; in other words in America and Jerusalem. Some of the Latter Day
Saints’ Temples are built “in the top of mountains.” I quote:
(1) “But in the LAST days it shall
come to pass, that the mountain” (the headquarters or highest point) “of the
house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it
shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
(2) “And many nations shall come, and
say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of
the God of Jacob; And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his
paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from
Jerusalem.” Micah 4:1, 2.
The following revelation was given to
Joseph Smith:
“For it is ordained that in Zion, and
in her Stakes, and in Jerusalem, those places which I have appointed for
refuge, shall be the places or your baptisms for your dead.” D. C. 124:36.
Now there appears to be only one way
out of this difficulty and that is: let the Word of God have its own course,
and acknowledge that His Sanctuary for the Gentiles and the House of Joseph has
been restored in A.D. 1843 according to the appointed time, on earth
where it belongs.
Now then in conclusion, when we consider
there were no prophets sent or temples built in Palestine or elsewhere in or
near 1843, even to the present time, with the exception of the Latter Day
Saints’, and that a temple with its blessings and ordinances was built and
restored in America to the Gentiles, thru the Prophet Joseph Smith at the
appointed time, the reader is left to draw his own conclusions, concerning the
Divine calling of Joseph Smith. But remember this one thing, that the prophecies
of God never fail to come true.
Furthermore, that His prophets and
people will always be persecuted, for He says: “I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. * * * If they have persecuted me, they
will also persecute you.” John 15:19, 20.
The baseless prejudice waged against
Joseph Smith is therefore one of the characteristics that surrounds a true
prophet. Behold! the Lord has again established His Holy Temple with men, and
He is bidding His children to draw near Him. (Francis M. Darter, “The Time
of the End”: Mysteries of Daniel Unveiled [Los Angeles: Wetzel Publishing
Company, 1928], 209-12)