Friday, August 08, 2025

Salt Lake Temple Foundation


The Second Coming of Jesus Christ, according to scripture, is linked to the ancient Israelite marriage custom. The Second Comming is the final marriage feast where the groom (Jesus Christ) is finally united and eternally sealed together with His bride (the Church). But according to tradition, after the engagement, the groom spent a year away from his betrothed building a house for their family to live. The day of the wedding was unknown until the father of the groom inspected the home and declared it accepted.

The house of the Lord Jesus Christ is the temple. In Bible times the temple was built in Jerusalem to one nation, kindred, tongue and people. But in the Last Days, the mountain of the Lord's House and the everlasting covenant would be established to all nationd, kindreds, tongues and peoples. The Salt Lake Temple built in Utah, built in the tops of the mountains, is the House of the Lord Jesus Christ.

10 years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, President Buchanan sent Johnstons Army in 1857 to occupy Utah, assert federal authority. and quell a falsely perceived inserection. Not wanting temple square to be occupied, Brigham Young had the all the stones and foundations of the Salt Lake temple up to that point cast into its excavation, covered with dirt. and the ground plowed to appear like a farmers field.

After Jonston's Army passed through and established a camp in another area of the valley, work eventually resumed on the Salt Lake temple. However, when the foundation was reexcavated, the builders discovered many cracks. Undaunted, Brigham Young ordered the entire sandstone foundation removed and replaced with a granite (dolomite) foundation including an unusual detail featuring 16 inverted arches. Brigham Young said at the time that he desired the Salt Lake Temple and its foundation to last through the Melennium.

Years later, Elder Boyd K Packer was recounting this history and the temple's mysterious 16 inverted foundation arches in a 1993 talk entitled. "The Temple, the Priesthood". Elder Packer said, "sixteen large inverted granite arches were built into the new foundation. There is no record as to why they did that. That manner of construction was unknown in this country then. But, if someday per chance there'd be a massive force wanting to lift the temple from beneath, then we shall know why they are there."

Today, we finally know why God inspired and showed Brigham Young to place these inverted arches in the temple's foundation. At 7:09 a.m. MDT on March 18, 2020, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, with an epicenter 6 km (3.7 mi) north-northeast of Magna, Utah. The result of the shaking was the angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake temple dropped his trumpet. All public church gatherings were suspended on March 12, 2020. March 16, and 20 saw missionary work curtailed and some missionaries sent home early. Two weeks later, on March 25, the First Presidency announced all temples would close.

Damage to the Salt Lake City temple foundation was extensive enough that experts worried. a more serious earthquake would completely destroy the temple. So, while all the other lds temples eventually reopened, and resumed normal operation, the Salt Lake temple has remained closed and us undergoing a massive 7-year long seismic upgrade.

The temple itself has been literally lifted up by its foundation with the help of its 16 inverted arches using state-of-the-art hydraulics and the massive edifice with foundation has been placed on a base-isolation technology system. The technology to lift an entire building and its foundation didn't exist in Brigham Young's day or even in Elder Packer's day. But Brigham Young, in 1853, said the Lord showed him the completed temple in a vision before any stones had been laid.

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