Paul, Rome, and the Temple

Ten and a half years ago I attended a session of general conference with my wife-to-be in the conference center.  It was a historic conference because five temples were announced, two of which were the Rome, Italy temple and the temple in the greater Kansas City area.  I thought at the time how we were closing in on the two important religious centers of the last days: Jackson County, Missouri and Jerusalem.  The Kansas City Temple, dedicated in 2012, is only about 15 miles from Independence and is thus the closest temple to where the New Jerusalem is to be built up.  The Rome Temple is about 2500 miles from Jerusalem, but it is now the closest temple to Jerusalem where a temple is to be reared in the last days.  It has been a long time coming, but this weekend is the historic dedication of the Rome temple.  It is hard to overstate the symbolic significance of a temple being placed in the city where the ancient apostles preached and in many ways the center of modern day Christianity.  The importance of this event is signified by the fact that all twelve apostles and the whole First Presidency are there in Rome this weekend to be a part of the dedication.
               One of the reasons that Rome is so significant is because of the apostle Paul’s visit there.  Towards the end of one of his missionary journeys, “Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome” (Acts 19:21).  After he made it to Jerusalem and when he was in prison there, we read, “And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome” (Acts 23:11).  There was an urgency for him to make it to Rome so that he could there bear witness of the Savior.  Unlike Jonas who ran from the mission he was given by the Lord, Paul was committed with all of his heart to go to Rome as the Lord commanded him.  We don’t know much about what Paul did in Rome, but the scriptures do confirm that he got there, and surely he preached of Christ’s life and sacrifice (Acts 28:16).  Likely there he fulfilled at least in part these words of the Lord: “He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).  He indeed went before the Gentiles in Rome, and likely the equivalent of kings there as well.  So it is significant that at the temple complex there is a Christus status as well as one of each or the original twelve apostles with the exception of one apostle, Paul.  Paul was put in the place of Judas, a fitting replacement given Paul’s missionary labors in Rome.  I guess we could say that he is finally back in Rome after two millennia.