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Temples and Temple Work

Temple building and temple activity have been important and unique characteristics of the Latter-day Saints' religion since the beginning. This was likewise true of the Lord's people in earlier dispensations. Nevertheless, the later twentieth century has witnessed remarkable developments in this sacred service, an unprecedented number of temples having Been constructed around the world. At the same time, new methods have enhanced the presentation of the sacred ordinances for which temples are built. Furthermore, modern inventions have significantly expedited the demanding genealogical research required to identify persons for whom temple ordinances are to be performed. Despite these exciting developments, however, the Basic nature and purpose of temples have remained the same.

What Is a Temple?

Latter-day Saints regard their temples as quite different from ordinary chapels or other houses of worship. The scriptures, both ancient and modern, describe temples as unique places of revelation and communion between God and man.

In his inspired dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith referred to the Saints' having sacrificed and endured "great tribulation" to build that edifice "that the Son of Man might have a place to manifest himself to his people" (D&C 109:5). For a similar purpose the Lord later directed the Saints in Nauvoo to "build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein. 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." (D&C 124:27-28.)

This function of temples suggests the importance of personal worthiness as a requirement for those who enter. The Lord promised:

And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it;

Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God.

But if it be defiled I will not come into it, and my glory shall not be there; for I will not come into unholy temples. (D&C 97:15-17.)

Elder James E. Talmage of the Council of the Twelve accepted this general definition of temples as places of contact between our Heavenly Father and his children; but he also pointed out: "A temple, however, is characterized not alone as the place where God reveals Himself to man, but also as the House wherein prescribed ordinances of the Priesthood are solemnized." 1

Elder John A. Widtsoe described the temple as a "place of instruction" and explained that "if we enter the temple in the right spirit and are attentive, we go out enriched in gospel knowledge and wisdom." It is a place of peace because we may leave the "turbulent world" outside and concentrate on "things of the spirit." Temple covenants contribute to a "high resolve to lead lives worthy of the gifts of the gospel." Temple blessings are eternal in scope and conditioned only on the participant's faithfulness. In the temple "every person may receive revelation to assist him in life." 2