Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Newel Knight on the Appearance of Christ at the Dedication of the Kirtland Temple


Commenting on events on the day of the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Newel Knight (1800-1847) wrote the following:

March the 27th 1836. The lower room at the temple was dedicated to the Lord to day & the power of God, the ministering of Angels attended. Brother Frederick G Williams bore testimony to the whol Congregeation that that during the first prayer made by Phs Smith an Angel came & Sat between him & Father smith. When Bro. Williams gave a discription of the Angel & his dress, Bro Joseph Said it was Christ. This was to me a Satisfaction to [know] that the Lord did come in to the house we had labored so diligently to build unto his mame & that he had accepted it of his Saints. (The Rise of the Latter-day Saints: The Journals and Histories of Newel Knight, eds. Michael Hubbard MacKay and William G. Hartley [Salt Lake City/Provo: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center, 2019], 89; spellings in original retained)

For more on the visionary experiences involving the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, see the essay by Steven C. Harper, "A Pentecost and Endowment Indeed": Six Eyewitness Accounts of the Kirtland Temple Experience in John Welch, ed. Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844.