The Book of Mormon mentions synagogues at least a dozen times. Alma 16:13 speaks of synagogues “built after the manner of the Jews.” Alma 21:4 mentions synagogues “built after the order of Nehors.” Mention is also made of sanctuaries, temples, and churches. The datings of the references mentioning synagogues range from 559 B.C. to A.D. 34.

2 Nephi 5:16 tells s that Nephi built a temple “after the manner of the temple of Solomon” not more than twenty years after the migrant party landed in America. The church, as an institution, is mentioned repeatedly throughout the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants, spanning the time period from Adam to Moroni, who died and supposedly left his record in A.D. 421.

Obviously this is confused and extravagant thinking, as any one will know who has any awareness of historical and Biblical values, but since this is not a doctrinal paper, we will not discuss at any length the implications of these several institutions.

Reference to synagogues in the Book of Mormon is completely illogical. When Nephi and his party left Jerusalem in 600 B.C. the temple was still intact. This temple was restored under Ezra in 536 B.C. by the remnant that returned form Babylon. In 168 B.C. this same temple as profaned by Antiochus, who offered a sow as a sacrifice on the great altar and poured the broth on the sacred precincts. The temple of Herod was built just before the Saviour was born.

The synagogue did not become an established institution until the Jews were dispersed and the temple was not accessible to them. Buildings known as synagogues were not built until many years after the synagogue, as a voluntary gathering together of the pious Jews, became an established institution. The synagogue was not a substitute for the temple, except in part. Sacrifices could be offered only in the temple. The synagogue was rather a gathering place for the reading of the Scriptures and prayer. It was particularly associated with the activities of the sect of the Pharisees.

Nephi and his successors in America could have known nothing of synagogues either as a gathering or a building, as they were not known until long after Nephi is supposed to have left for the New world. Neither could these early Americans have known the Greek word “synagogue” or the Anglo-Saxon word “church,” or, for that matter, the latin word “sanctuary.”

The temple and the church could not coexist in God’s spiritual order. The temple in Jerusalem ceased to exist as a spiritual element in Israel after the death of Christ. At that time the veil of the temple was “rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” This rending of the veil was a symbol of the removing of the ancient barrier which had separated the common worshiper from the immediate presence of God and was a signal to the whole world that there was now no barrier between God and man. The work of Christ in redemption was not available to all.

The function of the sacrifice and the priest who offered it ended with the supreme sacrifice which put away sin “once for all.” The new order was the church. Jesus said, while He was still with His disciples, “on this rock I will [future tense] build my church.”

The church did not exist before this time either as a concept or an institution. Church buildings did not exist, nor were they important, until they became necessary as places of gathering. Even the word “church” as applied to a building is a misnomer.

Mormons do not understand this principle of grace or the principle of free access to the presence of God without the intermediacy of an earthly priest. By contrast, Mormon temples are places of secret rites unavailable to the uninitiated.

Mormons have always had an obsession for temple building, and one of Joseph Smith’s greatest blunders was made when he had his Book of Mormon characters building a temple soon after they landed in America. The dating of this episode is between 570 and 588 B.C. less than twenty years after they landed in America. We quote:

And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore it could not be built like Solomon’s But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceeding fine.

Here Joseph Smith tripped badly. In the previous verse, he has Nephi saying:

And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores which were in greatest abundance.

This is typical of the extravagant and unguarded statements in all of Joseph Smith’s writings. In one verse there was an abundance of all of the materials used in Solomon’s temple, and some extras, like iron and steel, were thrown in; in the next verse he says that these were not found in the land.

The most glaring improbability and implausibility was the building of such a temple when there could be no practical use for it. By this time in the story half of the original company had apostatized, leaving Nephi with no more than a dozen adults of both sexes, a few teen-angers and small children. By the most liberal allowance of increase, five couples could not have produced more than fifty children in twenty years. For this group, with five men to help him. Nephi constructed a building requiring many specialized skills.

Solomon’s temple required seven years to build and required a crew of 10,000 loggers, 70,000 common laborers, 80,000 stone-quarriers and 3,300 supervisors. This temple was to serve a nation of several million worshipers.

At this time same Smith has Nephi making swords of steel (long before the invention of steel anywhere in the world) to arm his soldiers for defense against his brother’s tribe, who had become apostates and were a bloodthirsty people. The apostate brother’s nation could have grown to no more than forty, as there were only four couples in the party. It is quite obvious that Joseph Smith’s imagination was completely out of control when he wrote this senseless rubbish.