by

On June 11, 1843 Joseph Smith preached a sermon at the Temple stand in Nauvoo. From the History of the Church version of his words, we have the pithy phrase that “Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundation of the world, in the priesthood, for the salvation of men, are not to be altered or changed.” [n1] This was included in the Teachings of the President manual a couple years back, and I’ve seen a few folks wave this about lately to show how the church is bull crap, neener, neener, neener. [Deep breath]



We are going to go back to the sermon reports. WVS has kindly gathered those together for us (thanks!). But first I want to talk about the work “ordinance” and how JS used it. [edit: n2] A great example is the foundation of our articles of faith: “We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. We believe that these ordinances are 1st, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; 2d, Repentance; 3d, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; 4th, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” [source – note that I accidentally had the wrong link when first posted]. John Wesley, of Methodist fame, wrote that believers were required to attend “all the ordinances of God,” namely, public worship, the Lord’s Supper, family and private prayer, fasting, and a few other items. [n3] Note that “laws and ordinances” is a legal doublet (laws = ordinances), and that redemption is contingent on the ordinances of faith and baptism. Now JS does also refer to the “ordinances of the temple,” but it is clear that what we mean by ordinances today is not an exact translation for what JS meant in 1843.

In the summer of 1843 JS is sort of rebooting the temple. He had revealed the temple liturgy to a few folks in May 1842 and then revealed a sealing text later that summer. Things stalled for several reasons, but when Hyrum came aboard the polygamy band wagon, the temple quorum got together and re-endowed everyone a few weeks before this sermon. Women joined the temple quorum later in 1843 and JS finished the complete temple liturgy at that time.

The most comprehensive reports of the sermon are Willard Richards’ and Wilford Woodruff’s. Note that these are not shorthand transcripts. WVS is the pro here, but we should take these reports as trying to capture the sense of what is going on. JS is talking about building a temple and bringing people to it. From Richards we have: “Ordinances were instituted in heaven before the foundation of the world of in the priesthood, for the salvation of man. not be altered. not to be changed. all must be saved upon the same principle.” I think it is a wild misreading to assert that JS is talking about some platonic ritual forms that must not be changed. No, Richards captures the idea that before the world, God established the basis and principles–“upon the same laws ordinance”—by which people are saved. How is this manifest according to Joseph Smith? Per Woodruff: “the ordinance of the baptism for the dead as well as the other ordinances the Priesthood.” JS’s logic here was to make a point about the work of the temple and how all people can be saved (universalism, FTW).

But can we learn anything from how JS managed the liturgies of the church? Well sure. We learn that he was constantly revising them. As did Brigham Young, and Wilford Woodruff, and Heber Grant, and David McKay, and Spencer Kimball, and Ezra Taft Benson, and Gordon Hinkley, and Russel Nelson.

________________________