Background:

Recently President Nelson invited the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to use the full name of our church in our daily referencing of the church. A few of my friends have taken this pronouncement in different ways. Most have started the journey of changing our historical habits of calling ourselves Mormons. A few have recoiled at President Nelson’s invitation as an attack on statements of our previous prophets. One friend at work went on a deep dive about how our name came to be ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.’ If all goes well, he expects his work to get published in BYU Studies this year. I will let that story be told in his paper.

Some have discussed how President Nelson has had these views for over 20 years based on his April 1990 conference talk as if it diminishes his voice as the prophet now. Often revelation is a ratification of His servant’s ideas¹. From Joseph Smith to President Hinckley to Russel M. Nelson the Lord has worked with his Latter-Day prophets to reveal his purpose.

While not as direct as President Nelson’s call to reference our church with its revealed name, President Hinckley has a similar example from his time in leadership in the church. This post will provide the chance to share that story.

Small Temples to the World

President Hinckley shared about his and the leadership’s revelation on small temples in 1997. It is fascinating to see how temple sizes had been small in the past and most likely were small based on then Elder Hinckley’s inspiration. This post will provide space to discuss how inspiration and agency provide us and His prophets space to govern and receive revelation.

The Revelation and Announcement

On June 6, 1997, President Hinckley was in Colonial Juarez meeting with a small group of saints that were isolated from a temple. He said,

There came to my mind an idea I’d never thought of before. It was inspired of the Lord to build a temple there, a small one, very small, six thousand square feet with facilities.²

As a church, we heard his message at the October 1997 Conference where he said,

But there are many areas of the Church that are remote, where the membership is small and not likely to grow very much in the near future. Are those who live in these places to be denied forever the blessings of the temple ordinances? While visiting such an area a few months ago, we prayerfully pondered this question. The answer, we believe, came bright and clear.

Notice the clear statements about the revelatory experience that President Hinckley is sharing with us. The Lord revealed through inspiration and clear and bright answers.

The Experiential Inspiration

Almost 25 years before the revelation President Hinckley lead the Temple Committee for the church. At that time he wrote in his journal;

The Church could build [many smaller] temples for the cost of the Washington Temple [then under construction]. It would take the temples to the people instead of having the people travel great distances to get to them.

President Hinckley’s experience and reason allowed him to understand an essential principle about temples. In 1973, he did not claim a revelation on how temples should be built. However, I think his journal entry shows that he was thinking about the topic profoundly and must have been reasoning with the Lord throughout this process. Once again we see the interaction between a future prophet, the church, and God. Over 20 years before President Hinckley’s revelation he was reasoning about the size and reach of temples. It looks like then Elder Hinckley took time to work out his beliefs and that he eventually received a confirmatory revelation.

The Work

The intervening years between his early thoughts on temples and the 1997 revelation are much more interesting than I had previously realized. The following graphic uses data retrieved from ChurchofJesusChristTemples.org³. Notice that time is on the x-axis and the y-axis is the square footage of the temples. Each point shows the temple’s announcement date and the vertical lines mark key historical events related to President Hinckley. The blue line provides a rolling average of temple square footage through time.

I hope it is clear that temple sizes started to decrease soon after Gordon B. Hinckley took the lead of the Temple committee. In fact, at least ten temples were announced in the early 1980s that were around the size of the small temples built in the late 1990s. After the Colonia Juarez Temple, the next two smallest temples were built in the 1980s. In both periods, most of the very small temples were built outside of the United States.

The following image provides a closer view of the small temples announced since 1972 and has the same features as the above graphic.

I believe that President Hinckley did receive a revelation in 1997 and that his thoughts and actions up to that point provided the poignancy of the revelation. It is also interesting to note that the temple sizes have grown since his death. As a living church, we have prophets and apostles that work as His agents to build Zion. Revelations often are located within and for a specific time. As the Lord and His church move towards Zion revelation will continue to come for His people and may change according to the living’s needs.

Conclusion

In 1973 Bruce R. McConkie shared an insightful message on Agency or Inspiration. In that message, he clearly states that we are agents first. God wants us to govern ourselves. As we counsel with Him then we can receive revelation, the ratifying seal, that we are moving towards Him.

There’s a fine balance between agency and inspiration. We’re expected to do everything in our power that we can, and then to seek an answer from the Lord, a confirming seal that we’ve reached the right conclusion;

Later in the same devotional, he shares the quote from Joseph Smith about governing - ‘I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.’ Upon which he then builds as he states that the process of governing ourselves is bigger than the reference to its members.

Now, that’s the order of heaven. That’s how the Almighty operates. That’s how the Church is supposed to operate. We’re supposed to learn correct principles and then govern ourselves. We make our own choices, and then we present the matter to the Lord and get his approving, ratifying seal.

President Hinckley and President Nelson have spent their lives learning correct principles, and the Lord has allowed them and us to practice governing under those principles. With the name of the church, the size of the temples, or any other vital applications of His principles we get to govern ourselves. He will be there to help us understand our future potential and inspire us in our current decisions while we counsel and govern with Him.

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