Liberty Jail: Seedbed for Eternal Temple Blessings

Authors

Steven L. Olsen

Keywords

Liberty Jail, Joseph Smith, Eternal Temple Blessings

Abstract

The difficult Missouri winter of 1838–39 exacerbated an emerging existential crisis for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its founding prophet, Joseph Smith. Latter-day Saints were being driven from their homes and killed by armed militias who justified their aggression with the “extermination order” of Governor Lilburn W. Boggs. This forced evacuation also dispossessed the Latter-day Saints of their “land of promise” and “center place of Zion”—the capital of their millennial utopia that was named for the primordial patriarch Enoch’s “City of Holiness,” whose inhabitants’ righteousness was sufficient, according to Joseph’s visions, to effect its translation into heaven, where it became God’s “abode forever.”

Recommended Citation

Olsen, Steven L. (2024) "Liberty Jail: Seedbed for Eternal Temple Blessings," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 63: Iss. 2, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol63/iss2/9