D&C 124 was given to the Saints in January 1841. As most will remmeber this is after the Saints left Missouri and were starting out in Nauvoo.
I really think D&C 124 is one of the most amazing, and damning, of the LDS scriptures.
In it we learn that God has taken away the fulness of the priesthood and that the Saints have to do a couple things to earn it back. There are promises made and from the historical record we can see that the Saints did not keep their end of the bargain. We should assume that God did keep his end of the bargain, anything less would cause him to cease to be God.
D&C 124
27 [...] and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein.
28 For there is not a place found on earth that he may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the priesthood.
In it the Lord tells his people that they have had the fulness of the priesthood taken from them and that it can only be restored in the completed temple that they need to build.
*This is a problem for the belief that the endowment is part of the fulness of the priesthood because it was introduced prior to the completion of the temple in a regular building. This also indicates that polygamy/spiritual wifery/celestial marriage was not done using the fulness of the priesthood. In fact, the church was being run without the fulness of the priesthood and there is no indication that the fulness was ever restored.
30 For this ordinance belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to build a house unto me.
31 But I command you, all ye my saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me; and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me.
32 But behold, at the end of this appointment your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these things at the end of the appointment ye shall be rejected as a church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God.
They are told that they will have enough time to complete the temple and if they do not complete their tasks in the allotted time they will be REJECTED as a church along with their dead.
*This is a problem because the Nauvoo House and Nauvoo Temple were not completed.
Parley P. Pratt wrote that at the end of 1845, "We continued, however, our work on the Temple, a portion of which was finished and dedicated." [Autobiography of parley P. Pratt, pg.340]
Brigham Young said of the incomplete Nauvoo Temple, "We built one in Nauvoo. I could pick out several before me now that were there when it, was built, and know just how much was finished and what was done. It is true we left brethren there with instructions to finish it, and they got it nearly completed before it was burned, but the Saints did not enjoy it." [JoD 18:303-304]
The Times and Seasons printed this notice about the unfinished temple in the January 15, 1846 edition (although this article is dated Jan. 20th):
January, thus far, has been mild, which, in the midst of our preparations for an exodus next spring, has given an excellent time to finish the Temple. Nothing has appeared so much like a "finish" of that holy edifice as the present. The attic story was finished in December, and if the Lord continues to favor us, the first story above the basement, will be completed ready for meeting, in the month of February. The Font, standing upon twelve stone oxen, is about ready, and the floor of the second story is laid, so that all speculation about the Temple of God at Nauvoo, must cease.
40 And verily I say unto you, let this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people;
41 For I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times.
What were these ordinances that could ONLY be revealed in the temple? Obviously not the anything we have been doing. The Nauvoo Temple was never completed and these ordinances were never introduced.
45 And if my people will hearken unto my voice, and unto the voice of my servants whom I have appointed to lead my people, behold, verily I say unto you, they shall not be moved out of their place
They are told that if they are obedient they will not be removed from Nauvoo.
*This is a problem because the Saints did leave Nauvoo....We are taught today that they were made to leave, not by choice.
If one believes the scriptures and promises therein are from God and one believes that God does not and cannot lie then it is logical to conclude that God rejected the LDS church along with her dead back in the mid-1840s when they failed to complete the Nauvoo Temple.
D&C 124:47 And it shall come to pass that if you build a house unto my name, and do not do the things that I say, I will not perform the oath which I make unto you, neither fulfil the promises which ye expect at my hands, saith the Lord.
48 For instead of blessings, ye, by your own works, bring cursings, wrath, indignation, and judgments upon your own heads, by your follies, and by all your abominations, which you practise before me, saith the Lord.