The first temple built in this dispensation was not supposed to be built in Kirtland, Nauvoo, or Salt Lake City. The first temple was intended to be built in Zion, the New Jerusalem planned by the Saints in Jackson County, Missouri. The Lord gave the command to build the temple in an 1832 revelation (see Doctrine and Covenants 84:1-5). The Saints committed themselves to build the temple and went to work. Unfortunately, horrific persecution from the other settles in Jackson County forced the Saints to leave under the threat of their lives in the fall of 1833. In the years following, the Saints found themselves as refugees in Missouri, driven from place to place until they were forcibly evicted from the state under the threat of an extermination order.

After the Saints arrived in Nauvoo and began to rebuild their lives, the Lord addressed the question of His command to build the temple in Zion. Recognizing the terrible suffering of the Saints and their sincere desire to build the temple, the Lord declared, “it behooveth me to require that work no more at the hand of those sons of men, but to accept their offering.” The temple would still be built, but for this time, the Savior was relieving the Saints of the command to build the temple at that time.