Without exception, Latter-day Saints on our Church History Tours gasp for joy and exclamation when they see the Nauvoo Temple for the first time. It is such an impressive temple and represents so much of sacrifice and renewal for our people. The most obvious symbols on this temple are the moonstones, the sunstones and the starstones. At first glance, a person quickly assumes the obvious meaning of these as representing the three degrees of glory. That is only partially correct. Let’s explore.
The Nauvoo Temple was built after the pattern given to the Prophet Joseph in a vision. He referred to that vision a number of times in various conversations with fellow saints. Here is an example of a meeting with the chief architect of the temple, William Weeks:
“In the afternoon, Elder William Weeks (whom I had employed as architect of the Temple), came in for instruction. I instructed him in relation to the circular windows designed to light the offices in the dead work of the arch between stories. He said that round windows in the broad side of a building were a violation of all the known rules of architecture, and contended that they should be semi-circular — the building was too low for round windows. I told him I would have the circles, if he had to make the Temple ten feet higher than it was originally calculated; that one light at the center of each circular window would be sufficient to light the whole room; that when the whole building was thus illuminated, the effect would be remarkably grand. I wish you to carry out my designs. I have seen in vision the splendid appearance of that building illuminated, and will have it built according to the pattern shown me.”[i]
The stylized crescent moonstones sit at the base of the pilasters, 30 in number, and the sunstones are placed at the top of the pilasters. Then above the sunstones are the inverted star windows, in red, white and blue and the inverted starstones in the soffit or eves of the roof of the temple. Do these stars represent the telestial kingdom, as referred to in the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians?[ii] Symbols can be very broad in their meaning and can represent a number of things—such is the case with these inverted stars.
Would it surprise you to know that this beautiful, stained glass star is a symbol of Jesus Christ? In Revelation 22:16 we read:
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Jesus is the bright and morning star. The morning star, Venus, appears on the horizon as a perfect inverted five-point star. This same symbol appears in cathedrals and ancient structures all over Europe. The inverted star was combined with the cross and place on doors, windows, banners and even battle armor. Early Christians regarded it as a symbol of Christ. The famous Amiens Cathedral in France (1230 A.D.) and the Marktkirche in Germany (1350 A.D.) still have the massive stained glass inverted stars.
The military’s highest award, the Medal of Honor, is an inverted star—and what a glorious symbol, for giving the last full measure—one’s life for his friends.
As we travel all over colonial America, we often see the inverted stars adorning period homes. Even the early American Flag used the inverted five-point stars until 1876.
[Insert Nauvoo_inverted_stars_0005 here]
When I look at those beautiful inverted stars on the Nauvoo Temple, I rejoice in thinking about the “bright and morning star” even Jesus Christ—the perfect adorning symbol on the temple.
And now you can picture this.
Notes:
[i] Lundwall, N.B., Temples of the Most High, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1941, p. 46 (emphasis added).
[ii] See 1 Corinthians 15:40-42.
