The Smith Homestead at Nauvoo

The Joseph Smith Homestead in Nauvoo, Illinois

This house on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River predates the arrival of the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Nauvoo, (formerly Commerce), Illinois. After his escape from imprisonment in Missouri in 1839, Joseph Smith, the prophet, moved into this house. The house also served as the headquarters of the Church for about two years. While the Prophet Joseph was living in this house he received two revelations, one about baptism for the dead and another revealing that the Saints should build a Temple. He wrote, ""I presume the doctrine of 'baptism for the dead' has ere this reached your ears. . . . It was certainly practiced by the ancient churches; and St. Paul endeavors to prove the doctrine of the resurrection from the same, and says, 'Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?'
" . . . The Saints have the privilege of being baptized for those of their relatives who are dead, whom they believe would have embraced the Gospel, if they had been privileged with hearing it, and who have received the Gospel in the spirit, through the instrumentality of those who have been commissioned to preach to them."