Joseph Smith's Vision of the Celestial Kingdom in the Kirtland Temple — January 21, 1836

On January 21, 1836, Joseph Smith and fifteen other Church leaders gathered in his office on the top floor of the nearly completed Kirtland Temple for an anointing meeting. What Joseph experienced that night became Doctrine and Covenants 137 — the first canonized record of a vision of the celestial kingdom.

As the anointing ordinance was performed, the heavens opened. Joseph described what he saw:

'The heavens were opened upon us, and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I cannot tell. I saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter, which was like unto circling flames of fire; Also the blazing throne of God, whereon was seated the Father and the Son. I saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold. I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept.'

Seeing Alvin — his beloved older brother who had died in 1823 without being baptized — in the celestial kingdom prompted a second revelation: that those who would have received the gospel had they lived, and who died without a knowledge of it, would be heirs of the celestial kingdom. This principle underpins the entire doctrine of salvation for the dead and the practice of temple work.

In the same vision, Joseph saw the Twelve Apostles weeping in foreign lands, saw the Savior standing among them, and then watched as they eventually arrived at the gate of the celestial kingdom where Father Adam greeted them.

Heber C. Kimball, told of the vision by Joseph himself, preserved additional details: that Father Adam opened the gate to the Twelve and embraced them one by one; that the Savior then embraced each and crowned them.

This vision — January 21, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple — launched what historians call the 'Pentecostal season' of the Restoration: fifteen weeks in which more Saints witnessed visions, angels, and the gifts of the Spirit than at any other period of Church history.