Chapter 23—"There Is None to Stretch Forth My Tent"
God judges us according to His laws, which cannot change. He uses imagery of builder’s tools (a square, compass, and level) to measure the straightness and exactness of what we build. Ezekiel was told to
mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house with every going forth of the sanctuary. (Ezekiel 44:5)Dimensions of the tabernacle—the divine proportions of order and creation—were recorded in tractate Middoth, meaning measurements or mysteries. “Distortions in the temple indicated rebellion against the divine plan, the Hebrew word translated ‘distortion,’ awon, being from the same root as the word translated ‘iniquity’ . . . Through corrupt trade and many iniquities and distortions, the holy places became unholy and were destroyed with fire.”
Unjust business deals and sin corrupt His holy place. Jesus commands us to “make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise” or trade (John 2:16). “By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth . . . [but] your heart has grown proud” (Ezekiel 28:5, NIV). “By the multitude of thy merchandise, thy inner parts were filled with iniquity and thou hast sinned” (Ezekiel 28:16, Douay-Rheims). “By all of your iniquity and unrighteous businesses you defiled your sanctuaries” (Ezekiel 28:18, ISV). Simply put, “Businessmen and merchants will not enter the places of my Father” (Gospel of Thomas 64:12).
‘Build a House unto Me’
In Zion, all shall “be holiness unto the Lord . . . and in that day there shall be no more Canaanite in the house of the Lord” (Zechariah 14:21). Canaan means merchant, trader, or ‘the land of purple,’ tying these sins to Thyatira. Famous for purple dyes, Thyatira followed a corrupt gospel and priesthood but refused to repent. Failing to preserve His doctrine, they were in Satan’s grasp (Revelation 2:18–29).
To reject God’s order destroys creation. When the earth was “without form and void,” tohu and bohu, it was “empty and desolate,” without light and knowledge. Isaiah uses these words in a context of measuring a house. Tohu lacks beauty or order on the outside, and bohu lacks strength and order on the inside, having “disorder in the internal makeup of the measured house.” Genesis, Abraham, and the endowment detail the order of creation because knowing of “an ordered cosmos helped to create one.” Order is the fingerprint of God. God’s house measures fasting, prayer, faith, learning, order, wisdom, higher prayer, glory, and having no lust, pride, or light-mindedness (D&C 88:118–121).
Measuring is a divine duty. “The title Messiah had two meanings: ‘the anointed one’ and ‘the measurer’.”
John was called to “measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein” (Revelation 11:1). He was to do it “presumably because the dimensions were wrong.” Though they built a temple, God sent one ‘with a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand’ (Ezekiel 40:3) to examine their work—but their temple lacks divine proportions so it must be destroyed. Tell them “about the house that they may be ashamed of their distortions/iniquities and measure ‘the proportion’ or ‘the plan’ . . . The ‘seal of proportion’ had been corrupted through unjust trade and the holy places had been destroyed as a result.”
The Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand . . . Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: and the high places of Isaac shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. (Amos 7:7–9)What we build on the foundation He laid will be measured, tested, and judged. Mighty works, miracles, visions, and knowledge of mysteries abound in His house. To “be a good house, worthy of all acceptation . . . [it must] be built unto my name . . . [You] shall not suffer any pollution to come upon it. It shall be holy or the Lord your God will not dwell therein” (D&C 124:23–24). Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) so woe “to him who builds his house without truth” and will not come to Him. Knowing just how rapid apostasy occurs, Paul warned, “Let every man take heed how he buildeth” (1 Corinthians 3:10).
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss. (1 Corinthians 3:10–15, NIV)Hay, wood, and stubble are flammable, offering no protection against a fiery judgment. Vanity and idolatry fuel the fire (Isaiah 44:9–20). While the foolish build that which fire can easily destroy, the wise build with exactness according to what God revealed, but most build shoddy works that cannot withstand trial or temptation. They modify Christ’s gospel into a counterfeit version that is eagerly embraced. All “shall come to the fiery trial of proof, and many shall be offended and shall perish; but they who remain in their faith shall be saved” (Didache 16:5).
Being cleansed by the burning fire of God’s Spirit brings eternal glory, but His wrathful fire shuts us out of His presence. If His spirit cannot dwell among us, neither can His personage because His power is manifest only to those whom He pronounces clean and worthy. Without His presence they built their house, not His.
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:16, ESV)“Let us become spiritual, let us become a temple perfect unto God” (Barnabas 4:11). Those who overcome are “a pillar in the temple of my God” (Revelation 3:12). “You are God’s temple [if] God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16, ESV). Jesus set the example. We become a house of God through being “worthily initiated” and “consecrated to God,” and “able to see God. But this cannot happen to him who has not made his soul, as I said before, a sanctuary.”
Let us enquire whether there be any temple of God. There is; in the place where he himself undertakes to make and finish it . . . Give heed then that the temple of the Lord may be built gloriously. How? Understand ye. By receiving the remission of our sins and hoping on the Name we became new, created afresh from the beginning. Wherefore God dwelleth truly in our habitation within us. How?
The word of his faith, the calling of his promise, the wisdom of the ordinances, the commandments of the teaching, He Himself prophesying in us, He Himself dwelling in us, opening for us who had been in bondage unto death the door of the temple . . . and giving us repentance leadeth us to the incorruptible temple. For he that desireth to be saved looketh not to the man, but to Him that dwelleth and speaketh in him . . . This is the spiritual temple built up to the Lord. (Barnabas 16:6, 8–10)The faithful pray that God’s “will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (3 Nephi 13:10). They seek a “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10), but men built their own city with no foundations like the “great and spacious building” which “stood as it were in the air” (1 Nephi 8:26). God’s house is built through faithful sacrifice, obedience, holiness, knowledge, and understanding. A deeper meaning of the Hebrew word for understanding, tavun (H8394), is ‘to build.’ Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding build God’s house. Understanding comes as we gain light and knowledge, even through the veil. Knowledge, da’at (H1847), is a tent door in ancient Hebrew pictographs, one that many refuse to knock at or enter. That Lehi “dwelt in a tent” testifies of his spirituality and knowledge of the mysteries (1 Nephi 2:15–16).
The elect build “a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” (1 Peter 2:5). Those who build what He requires “shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). History proves that having a physical temple does not guarantee God will dwell there. False religions also have temples so the Lord carefully distinguishes the call to build a house for Him to dwell—but they have denied that His presence is even necessary.
I will tell you likewise concerning the temple, how these wretched men being led astray set their hope on the building, and not on their God that made them, as being a house of God. (Barnabas 16:1)In 1833, the Lord commanded His house be “built unto my name in the land of Kirtland” (D&C 105:33), meaning ‘land of the church.’ God had great plans for Kirtland: “A commandment I give unto you, that ye shall commence a work of laying out and preparing a beginning and foundation of the city of the stake of Zion, here in the land of Kirtland, beginning at my house” (D&C 94:1). Without His house, there is no Zion. It must be built “speedily” or vengeance would come (D&C 97:11, 22). In 1836, the Lord personally appeared to accept Kirtland’s house of God.
I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house. Yea, I will appear unto my servants and speak unto them with mine own voice if my people will keep my commandments and do not pollute this holy house. (D&C 110:7–8)A spirit of division and apostasy almost immediately followed His glorious acceptance of the Kirtland temple in 1836, and the saints fled to Far West. In 1838, the Lord again commanded His house be built “for the gathering together of my saints that they may worship me” (D&C 115:8). Though they dedicated land and laid cornerstones, Far West’s temple was never built and the saints were again forced to flee.
In 1841, He again commanded them to “build a house unto my name . . . a good house, worthy of all acceptation, that the weary traveler may find health and safety while he shall contemplate the word of the Lord and the cornerstone I have appointed for Zion.” He gave “sufficient time to build a house to me” and reiterated they must allow
[no] pollution to come upon it. It shall be holy or the Lord your God will not dwell therein . . . Build a house to my name for the Most High to dwell therein. For there is not a place found on earth that he may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the priesthood. (D&C 124:22–23, 33, 24, 27–28)Once lost, priesthood cannot be received without restoration and a return to what God revealed. Because Gentiles reject the fulness, there still is not a house for the Most High to dwell, even though God promised that the power needed would be given if they were obedient.
It is my will that you should build a house. If you keep my commandments you shall have power to build it. If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness. Now here is wisdom, and the mind of the Lord—let the house be built, not after the manner of the world, for I give not unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world. (D&C 95:11–13)What was to be His house “was profaned because of our sins . . . surrendered because of our iniquities.” Mankind has “forgotten his Maker” yet “built temples” in abundance (Hosea 8:14, Douay-Rheims). “Ephraim built many altars [that] became altars for sinning” (Hosea 8:11, NIV). Although over 200 LDS temples exist today, Christ has not appeared to accept another temple since Kirtland. God’s house ‘lies in ruins’ because what they covenanted to do is not done. “This people say the time is not come” yet for Zion to be built while they are preoccupied with their own houses (Haggai 1:2). This attitude also prevailed at the Restoration. “The Saints were becoming slothful and covetous and would spend their means upon fine houses for themselves before they would put it into a House of the Lord.”
Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? . . . Consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little . . . Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. (Haggai 1:4, NLT, 5–6, ESV, 8, KJV)While increasing the number of temples or assuming that His spirit attends a temple puts minds at ease, the reality is that if He is not appearing in His temple, it is not a house of God. It is a solemn responsibility to receive His presence.
Understand that the Lord has not promised to endow His servants from on high, only on the condition that they build him a house; and if the house is not built the Elders will not be endowed with power, and if they are not, they can never go to the nations with the everlasting gospel.Ascending must be our highest priority if we seek the highest glory. God’s work is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). But they “corrupted the covenant . . . [and] caused many to stumble,” robbing God of glory so He “regardeth not the offering anymore” (Malachi 2:8, 13). Those who “vow and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing” will be cursed (Malachi 1:14).
Our failure to receive power in the priesthood robs God of glory. “Where is my honor?” He asks (Malachi 1:6, ESV). Honor, equated with power and glory, “comes from the Hebrew kabod, which means glory,” so the question is, “Where is my power or glory?” We honor God as we ascend to receive power and “keys of the holy priesthood” (D&C 124:34). Without ascending, we “have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood” (Nehemiah 13:29). In 1873 Young declared,
The Priesthood has left the people but, in the first place, the people left the Priesthood.God cannot dwell among greed, pride, or selfish indulgence, even if the land was meant to become Zion. He cannot dwell in a temple of unsanctified, idolatrous people, even if that temple was dedicated to Him. His priesthood cannot remain with the unholy, even if men ordained them.
We must become Zion and separate from all contamination to receive His presence. “The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation” (Psalm 132:13). The righteous are “weeping for Zion” to come (D&C 21:8), but because most choose to be like the world, the faithful “feel more like weeping over Zion than we do rejoicing over her.”
Satan leads many to think Zion is already here and prospering so they will not perform the required works to build God’s house.
“Some may pretend to say that the world in this age is fast increasing in righteousness; that the dark ages of superstition and blindness have passed,” but we are just as blinded by Satan’s sophistry as other generations. In 1883 President John Taylor boldly asserted that “the church was operating on a ‘higher plane’ than in Kirtland.” In Kirtland, Christ personally accepted a house of God, and visions, dreams, gifts of the spirit, and angelic manifestations were abundant. Since then, these spiritual outpourings have only decreased, but members believe they have progressed beyond the Restoration. We must realize that error and ignorance give Satan power over us.
While God defines Zion in terms of clean hands, pure hearts, and a oneness with Him, today’s church has redefined it. LDS apostle Jeffrey Holland declared, “The two centerpieces of Zion [are] a temple and a church-owned university.” Professor Nibley was dismayed by what he saw at church-owned Brigham Young University: “They go not to get an education, but to learn to acquire wealth, to earn more money.” This is not the education that brings Zion. In fact, it opposes Zion. Plentiful property, beautiful homes, and great wealth are of no worth to the Lord, who only requires a pure heart and sanctified soul. Without living the law of consecration—a celestial law—Zion cannot be a reality. We are warned against believing “flattering words” proclaimed by “foolish and blind guides” (Helaman 13:28–29) who declare that ‘all is well.’ Not understanding what Zion really is, or what it takes to obtain it, hinders us.
Zion is the great moment of transition, the bridge between the world as it is and the world as God designed it and meant it to be . . . Zion is any community where the celestial order prevails.So “let them repent of all their sins and of all their covetous desires before me” (D&C 117:4). A house truly worthy of His presence still must be built. He promises to “manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house” if it is holy (D&C 110:7). A temple becomes defiled if its watchers make deals with the exchangers or remain asleep. The moneychangers are in leadership, so God is not pleased. His people must
remember the Lord their God, and mine house also, to keep and preserve it holy, and to overthrow the moneychangers in mine own due time. (D&C 117:16)
Setting Up Stakes
Things of the world are nothing compared to the Lord’s promise to “open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (3 Nephi 24:10). But we must leave behind the world and attend to “the more weighty matters.”
“There is none other place appointed . . . for the work of the gathering of my saints” than what God reveals (D&C 101:20). In 1833, Jackson County, Missouri was appointed. “There is none other place . . . until the day cometh when there is found no more room for” the faithful in this wicked world. “Then I have other places which I will appoint . . . They shall be called stakes, for the curtains or the strength of Zion” (D&C 101:21).
Stakes mark limits, set boundaries, fasten to solid ground. God prepared the heavens, set up stakes, and waited for creation to obey. God “shut up the sea with doors . . . and said, Hitherto shalt thou come but no further” (Job 38:8, 11). “He gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command when he marked out the foundations of the earth” (Proverbs 8:29, NIV). He made “sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail. They may roar, but they cannot cross” (Jeremiah 5:22, NIV).
But men have set up stakes of their own. John the Baptist retained God’s power and authority by not transgressing bounds, but latter day leaders (like many before) “sought smooth things and preferred illusions,” thereby “abolishing the ways of righteousness and removed the boundary with which the forefathers had marked out their inheritance . . . They transgressed the Covenant and violated the Precept.”
It is impossible to possess God’s holy priesthood if we vary from His decrees and move, or remove, His bounds. “Men will set up stakes and say thus far we will go and no farther,” or “set up stakes that hinder” people from coming “up into the presence of God [to] learn all things,” but
to all those who are disposed to set up stakes for the Almighty, he will come short of the glory of God. To become a joint heir of the heirship of the Son, he must put away all his traditions . . . [and be] administered to by one having the same power and authority as Melchizedek. It is the constitutional disposition of mankind to set up stakes and set bounds to the works and ways of the Almighty . . . Those who limit the designs of God . . . cannot obtain the knowledge of God . . . They will drink in the damnation of their souls.The LDS define stakes by physical boundaries, but God defines it by adhering to spiritual bounds, fastening ourself to righteousness and truth like a tent peg secures its cover. God “stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22).
God “hath made the earth by his power. He hath established the world by his wisdom and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding” (Jeremiah 51:15). His stakes secure the tent or curtain that conceals (and one day reveals) God. Holy stakes merge and secure heaven to earth, creating Zion. God set stakes “to be a cornerstone of Zion” and “for the curtains or the strength of Zion” (D&C 101:21). Jesus urges, “Spare not” to “lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes,” to “enlarge the place of thy tent. Let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations” (Isaiah 54:2, 3 Nephi 22:2).
Holiness is imparted as hearts become pure and we gain knowledge of God who “will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths” (Micah 4:2). Faith, godliness, holiness, and spiritual conversion build the house God seeks, the house God awaits.
Verily I say unto you, that it is my will that a house should be built unto me in the land of Zion, like unto the pattern which I have given you. Yea, let it be built speedily by the tithing of my people.
Behold, this is the tithing and the sacrifice which I, the Lord, require at their hands, that there may be a house built unto me for the salvation of Zion—for a place of thanksgiving for all saints, and for a place of instruction for all those who are called to the work of the ministry in all their several callings and offices; that they may be perfected in the understanding of their ministry, in theory, in principle, and in doctrine, in all things pertaining to the kingdom of God on the earth, the keys of which kingdom have been conferred upon you.
And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it; yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God. But if it be defiled I will not come into it, and my glory shall not be there; for I will not come into unholy temples. (D&C 97:10–17)The test of God’s holy house, compared to man’s temple, is if “all the pure in heart” see Him there. But if we “do not do the things that I say” and “build a house unto His name,” He will not fulfill the promises we expect (D&C 124:47). “How shall your washings be acceptable unto me except ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name?” (D&C 124:37). He gave mankind the earth to build a house for Him to dwell but the Gentiles have failed to build it.
Where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? (Isaiah 66:1)Without this endowment of His power, people “become weak” and “the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them; yea, it had withdrawn from them because the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples—therefore the Lord did cease to preserve them by his miraculous and matchless power, for they had fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness . . . except they should cleave unto the Lord their God, they must unavoidably perish” (Helaman 4:24–25).
God will “cast off” unholy temples and people. “They were found transgressors, therefore they must needs be chastened” (D&C 101:41). “In the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them” (Helaman 15:3). “All those who will not endure chastening, but deny me, cannot be sanctified” (D&C 101:5). The commandment to build God’s house speedily “was not complied with by the leaders and Church in Missouri, as a whole; notwithstanding many were humble and faithful. Therefore, the threatened judgment was poured out to the uttermost, as the history of the five years following will show.” Since then, God has repeatedly commanded that His house be built—but it has not. Vengeance will again come—first to “those among you . . . who have professed to know my name and have not known me and have blasphemed me in the midst of my house” (D&C 112:26).
You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought. (Haggai 1:9–11, ESV)By breaking the covenant bond, they severed themselves from that which merges heaven and earth and keeps creation in order. “In Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). “For the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out of mine house” (Hosea 9:15).
My tabernacle is laid waste and all my cords are broken . . . There is none to stretch forth my tent any more and to set up my curtains. (Jeremiah 10:20, Webster’s)In D&C 101 the Lord gave a parable of twelve olive trees that thrive in peace, having power in Melchizedek priesthood. These olive trees represent twelve stakes in the last days. Once planted, these holy stakes are fixed, sure, and will never “be removed” (Isaiah 33:20). To these stakes “the people of God” will gather to “build unto the Lord a house whereby He [will] reveal unto his people the ordinances of his house and glories of his kingdom and teach the people the ways of salvation.”
The Lord revealed some of the doctrinal treasures for these olive trees/stakes in the early years of the Church. “There are few, if any, revelations given to the Church—and to the world if the world will receive them”—greater than what is given in D&C 88. Joseph referred to this revelation as the “Olive Leaf which we have plucked from the tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us.” How have we treated this gift?
When His holy stakes are secure, the Lord gathers “all things in one. The Lord hath brought down Zion from above. The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath” (D&C 84:100). We must become a house of God, a tabernacle where He can dwell, for Zion to come. Much depends on it.
Awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled. (Moroni 10:31)
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