September 29–October 5: “It Is Thy House, a Place of Thy Holiness”

Doctrine and Covenants 109–110The doors to the Kirtland Temple weren’t supposed to open until eight o’clock on the morning of March 27, 1836. But Saints who were hoping to attend the dedication services started lining up as early as seven. An overflow location and then a second session were needed to accommodate everyone. And it wasn’t just the living who were eager to be present. Multiple witnesses saw angels inside the temple and even on the roof, during and after the dedication. It really did seem that “the armies of heaven” had come to “sing and [to] shout” with the Latter-day Saints (“The Spirit of God,” Hymns, no. 2).Why the great excitement—on both sides of the veil? After centuries, there was a house of the Lord again on the earth. The Lord was fulfilling His promise to endow His Saints “with power from on high” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:32). And this, He declared, was only “the beginning of the blessing” (Doctrine and Covenants 110:10). The era we now live in—with accelerated temple work and ordinances available to millions of the living and the dead—had its beginning in Kirtland, when “the veil o’er the earth [was] beginning to burst” (“The Spirit of God”).See also Saints, 1:232–41; “A House for Our God,” in Revelations in Context, 169–72.