The Temple

Volume Two—Chapter Eighteen THE TEMPLE

#Introduction

Each time I approach a gospel concept with the intent of creating a written summary, I find myself asking the questions: “What is the very essence of this topic? How does the Lord intend this subject to impact the lives of his children here on earth? What things, among all those written and said about this topic, would he have us keep foremost in our minds? What aspects of this concept are most important for us to know?” I have repeatedly asked these questions about the temple, the house of the Lord, in this dispensation.

On one level, most major gospel doctrine concepts have one grand central purpose. The Lord intends that they assist and enable us to one day return to him—to reside with him forever. And this certainly must be true of the temple. But how is the temple unique in this? What particular essential functions does the temple have in our lives? How does the Lord hope the temple ordinances and setting will impact us? How will the temple materially impact our chances for celestial salvation?

In this chapter, I will suggest three separate functions or purposes of the temple: (1) The temple experience is a metaphor or foretaste of the celestial heaven. (2) The temple is the place where we enter (directly or vicariously) into the highest and most sacred covenants available to us here on earth. (3) Our response to temple ordinances can qualify us to receive the endowment of divine power and protection which the Lord yearns for us to possess and which enables us to return to our celestial home.

#Foretaste of Celestial Heaven

The Lord has given us a secondary name for his temple. It is “house of the Lord” (D&C 84:31). Taking this name as a cue, what is one important reason the Lord wants us to go to the temple? One may appropriately answer, “Because that’s where we can draw closest to God.” But why does he want us to draw close to him? What lasting impact does he hope that temporary intimacy will have?

When you stop to ponder the temple, it is obvious that every experience we have in the temple is replete with celestial trappings. The temple is the closest thing to the celestial environment we will experience here in mortality.

For example, in the temple we worship with our fellow saints in a spirit of fellowship, cooperation, and common purpose. Often our fellow temple patrons will include friends, family, and acquaintances, with whom we share a warmth, love, and a yearning to be together forever. There exists a feeling of sacred serenity, harmony, and silence. As we enter the sturdy and permanent walls of the temple we leave behind the cacophony, chaos, and uproar of the world’s wickedness, adversities, anxieties, and dangers. Once inside, we can feel safe, secure, warm, and comfortable (D&C 45:66- 67). We are surrounded and cared for by loving temple workers who seek only for our personal welfare and comfort while we’re there. It is a place of refuge and escape. It has an air of permanence and security. While we are there, our associations seem to be stable. All patrons have qualified to be there by their righteousness. All share a common primary interest in eternal truths and eternal issues. We are safe from gainsayers, naysayers, and persecutors. There is no reason to question each other’s motives. We can rely upon and trust one another. All are dressed in white and members of a society without class or distinction. There we do not discriminate between rich and poor (4 Nephi 1:3). While there we enjoy a cast of inspired and competent leaders. We are even, in a literal sense, in the presence of God—at least his Spirit is more than willing to reveal him to each of us depending upon our responsiveness.

Here is where the Lord takes advantage of a most important fact. He knows well that within each of us there exists a giant struggling with celestial homesickness. Most of us have noticed, perhaps particularly in our mature years, sudden, fleeting, and almost startling, recollections of our former celestial home. These seem to come unexpectedly, from time to time, darting through the veil.

In recent weeks I have felt these recollections in a few specific situations. Just a few days ago, I found myself contemplating a wonderful young couple that has lived in our ward for the last four years with their three beautiful children. They just announced they are leaving our ward and moving away from Salt Lake City. I may not see them again here in mortality. I don’t like that feature of this mortal experience. I yearn for our associations here to be permanent, reliable, and unchanging. Just today I attended the funeral of a dear friend and contemporary. I have known him since high school. We were the same age in school. As might be predicted, many of our mutual classmates attended the funeral. I hadn’t seen some of them for almost fifty years. I was moved to tears by the poignancy of seeing them all again. I realized that I love and miss them terribly. I don’t want to be separated from them. I want to have access to all of them forever.

I have come to realize that true reminiscence is an emotion with intimate divine connections. As we reminisce over things in our past, they are separated from the mundane and day-to-day issues with which they were originally associated. We see them in a truer perspective. I believe the Lord allows reminiscence to provide us a glimpse of our need for celestial companionship and love.

I believe the Lord hopes the temple experience will jog and enhance our premortal, celestial memories. He anticipates that the happenings in the temple will implant an ever growing yearning to return to our celestial home.

#Covenants

As we worship in the temple by participating in the ordinances available there, we enter into covenants with the Lord. We have considered in some detail the phenomenon of covenants and covenant making and the role of covenants in our mortal and eternal lives.1

I will briefly review. A covenant is a two-way promise between God and man. The terms of covenants are created or authored by God. He asks us to enter into covenants with him because he knows intimately our human nature. He knows that covenants will help us return to him. Covenants are not equally difficult to keep and equally binding. Rather, he provides us a system of covenants in a sequence from the most basic and simple to the most sacred, complex, and challenging. The most basic covenant is the baptismal covenant. Where upon the earth do we enter into the most sacred and binding covenants available to us? In the temple. The most sacred covenants are those associated with the endowment session, eternal marriage, and having one’s calling and election made sure.

For reasons that may in part be beyond our understanding, the Lord requires all ordinances offered in the temple to be participated in personally or performed vicariously for, all who would come to Christ and seek to abide in his celestial presence in the eternities.

The Lord’s commanding us to enter into and strive to keep covenants is one “technique” the Lord uses to lead us back to our celestial home. As we succeed in keeping the simpler covenants, we are encouraged and enabled to keep the more complex. The latter are entered into in the temple.

#Endowment of Power

There is a word we often use in connection with our experience in the temple that holds the key to the third essential purpose of the temple. When we attend a “session” in the temple, we call it an “endowment session.”

The word endowment is used commonly among LDS people. “Endow” is originally from the Greek verb enduo, meaning “to be clothed.” This word has evolved to mean the bestowal of a gift of great proportions. Secularly, it often refers to an especially significant bestowal to a university or other charitable organization. An endowment enables the recipient organization to better carry on with its avowed functions and purposes.

In the Church, we often use the word to refer to what goes on in our temples. When we make good on the sacred covenants we enter into there, the Lord has promised us a special endowment or blessing. This special blessing or endowment is unique to the temple. Hence, we often refer to our covenant-making experience in the temple as our endowment or our temple endowment in hopes we will eventually, in fact, receive it.

What is the endowment? Exactly what gift or endowment does the Lord gives us in the temple? To be more precise, what endowment does he give when we keep those covenants we make in the temple? We will explore this most important question.

Endowment of power. A few interesting scriptural clues help us identify the exact nature of this gift. During those forty days between the Lord’s resurrection and his ascension, it is likely Christ’s apostles received this endowment. In Luke 24:49 Jesus’s apostles were instructed to remain in Jerusalem “until ye be endued [endowed] with power from on high” (italics mine). The Savior was eager for them to receive this endowment—this power—prior to his leaving them. He knew they would need it as they embarked on their responsibilities in building his earthly kingdom. They could not and would not be successful without this special endowment.

In 1831, when the Lord first commanded the saints to move from New York to the Ohio Territory, the Lord said to them, “Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high” (D&C 38:32, emphasis added; see also verse 38). The Lord intended that they would build a temple in Ohio. Later, when the Lord was instructing the saints concerning the construction of the Kirtland Temple, he said, “Yea, verily I say unto you, I gave unto you a commandment that you should build a house, in the which house I design to endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high” (D&C 95:8). Even later, on the occasion of the disbanding of Zion’s Camp, the Lord explained it was necessary to “wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion . . . until mine elders are endowed with power from on high” (D&C 105:9, 11). It seems likely the early Church, in this dispensation, could not have survived without this endowment of power.

This power was referred to by the Lord when he was giving instructions for the formation of Zion’s Camp. The Camp was to march to Missouri to succor those saints who had been expelled from Jackson County. He said, “Behold, I say unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power” (D&C 103:15, emphasis mine). Just two verses later, the Lord said, “For ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched-out arm” (D&C 103:17).

It was commonly (and mistakenly) believed at the time that this power, to be given in connection with Zion’s Camp, was the same as force. Hence, Zion’s Camp was to be an armed camp. It was anticipated that weapons would be necessary in providing the necessary help to the Missouri saints. The scriptural account of Zion’s Camp, however, suggests otherwise. Even when it became evident that Zion’s Camp would not be redeemed by force, the Lord, likely referring to both the participants of the Zion’s Camp march and the Missouri saints, said, “And inasmuch as they follow the counsel which they receive, they shall have power after many days to accomplish all things pertaining to Zion” (D&C 105:37).

Surely some of the participants in the Zion’s Camp march received this endowment of power, in spite of their apparent failure to accomplish their mission of restoring the saints to their properties in Jackson County. These Zion’s Camp marchers became the important early leaders of the Lord’s earthly kingdom. They had received or would receive something very special from the Lord in spite of the ostensible failure of the Zion’s Camp project to accomplish its avowed mission.

Apparently, the march itself was an extraordinary act of obedience and submission, perhaps on a par with keeping one’s temple covenants. It qualified those brethren who participated for an endowment of special power. The endowment of power the Lord had in mind for the members of Zion’s Camp is likely the same endowment of power we may receive as we keep our temple covenants.

Precise definition of the endowment. So, this endowment is power, but power to do what? You already know the Lord and his motives. If you obtain this power, it is likely you will better be able to return to him. We may expect the temple endowment from the Lord to enable us as individuals to progress spiritually more effectively and more surely even in the face of hardship. We may also expect this endowment to enable us to serve others more consistently even when it is difficult. The temple endowment, whatever it is, should enable and empower the recipient to press ahead and persist faithfully, in spite of adversity, without despair or discouragement. And this endowment, this power, must be essential for our spiritual success.

So, just exactly what is the nature of this endowment—this power—the Lord has made available to his obedient saints? We may identify in scripture at least two major endowments or gifts the Lord proffers to those who make and keep their temple covenants:

1. The endowment of character. In this telestial world, we live outside the presence of God. Many adversities we encounter are not individually orchestrated by him. They are simply a part of this mortal experience. These adversities are not doled out fairly according to some kind and just system. They simply occur, sometimes in seemingly cruel and destructive ways and patterns. Actually, the major adversity is our own natural self. It is genuinely difficult to consistently obey. Our natural self drags us in another direction. How are we to survive spiritually and be productive in this harsh mortal environment?

To enable and empower us, the Lord has provided a special endowment for us. It can only be received as a spiritual gift by those diligently striving to keep their most sacred covenants and to overcome their most severe challenges. It is the power, courage, and strength to persist in the face of adversity, under difficult circumstances. It is the gift of character. Character may be defined as the ability to do the truly difficult thing when it is the right thing, the correct thing, the true thing.

This gift is entirely tangible, literal, and real. We may, however, view it metaphorically as the warm and tangible embrace of the Lord. It is his assurance that he knows you intimately and is aware of your circumstances. It is his consuming love. It has the power to surround and comfort and buoy you up. Is this blessing not empowering?

We know that spiritual gifts—increments of God’s attributes—are available to those who are obedient. This gift of character or courage, which has its origins in the Lord’s loving embrace, is reserved for those who are diligent in the face of their most difficult challenges. The highest form of this gift is granted particularly to those who are obedient to the highest covenants made in the temple. This special gift was obviously available to those brethren who were especially obedient during the Zion’s Camp experience. They heroically braved the elements and the hardships and were endowed with power. Subsequently, some of them would lead the Church through times of trouble and strife.

2. The endowment of protection. For his people who worship him in his holy temple, the Lord has also promised physical protection and security. In a metaphorical sense, the temple is a place of refuge from the storms of this tempestuous life. In his inspired prayer of dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph said:

We ask thee, Holy Father, to establish the people that shall worship, and honorably hold a name and standing in this thy house, to all generations and for eternity; That no weapon formed against them shall prosper; that he who diggeth a pit for them shall fall into the same himself; That no combination of wickedness shall have power to rise up and prevail over thy people upon whom thy name shall be put in this house; And if any people shall rise against this people, that thine anger be kindled against them; And if they shall smite this people thou wilt smite them; thou wilt fight for thy people as thou didst in the day of battle, that they may be delivered from the hands of all their enemies (D&C 109:24-28).

As with all of the Lord’s blessings, this protection may also come directly from the Lord, via his Spirit, or through the agency of his earthly servants. The following story is a most interesting illustration of this point.

By September 1846, most of the Saints had crossed the Iowa territory from Nauvoo under terrible hardship, and they were preparing to winter at Winter Quarters. It was a time of great deprivation and suffering. The student of church history will recall that before that winter would end, some six hundred would die of exposure and starvation at Winter Quarters.

On September 25, prior to the tragic winter, Brigham Young received word of the so called “Battle of Nauvoo” from a group who had just come from there. After most all the saints had left Nauvoo, those who remained were the poor, the widowed, and the orphans who lacked the resources to leave and to travel across Iowa. Mobs finally came in and drove them out, picking up the men and throwing them in the river, driving the women and children across the river with bayonets, threatening to kill them if they returned. When Brigham Young heard of the plight of these unfortunates, he gathered the brethren. Even though they were in the most destitute and terrible of conditions themselves, he said to them: “The poor brethren and sisters, widows and orphans, sick and destitute, are now lying on the west bank of the Mississippi, waiting for teams and wagons and means to remove them. Now is the time for labor. Let the fire of the covenant, which you made in the house of the Lord burn in your hearts like flame unquenchable” (Journal History, 28 September 1846, as cited in The Iowa Mormon Trail: Legacy of Faith and Courage, 163).

Brigham Young didn’t appeal to the brethren in Winter Quarters by speaking of the suffering of those beleaguered few. Rather, he reminded them of the covenants they had made with God in the house of the Lord. He continued: I want every man who is able to rise up with his teams and go straightway. . . . This is a day of action and not of argument.” Before too many days had passed, almost a hundred wagons were moving east to go and rescue the poor (Ibid.).

Indeed, each of us should feel “the fire of the covenant” and seek after the protection and needs of our fellow saints. Keeping the most sacred of our covenants— those we make in the temple—instills in our heart the desire to succor those in the Lord’s kingdom. And each of us, in turn, is the benefactor of that divine protection and succor.

#Zion’s Camp—Was It a Failure?

We often look at the strange project known as Zion’s Camp and assume it was a failure. How could it have been a God-inspired effort, we reason, when its members returned home without any obvious success? Not only were they unable to rescue the Missouri saints, they were forced to surrender their arms. And to add even further to their discouragement, they were beset by a cholera epidemic which claimed the lives of a few. The endowment of power the Lord intended members of Zion’s Camp to receive had nothing to do with any rescue by force of the Missouri saints. It had everything to do with the endowment of power several of the members of the Camp received as a result of their dutiful and faithful response to the rigors of that difficult experience. The Lord said of those who would receive his endowment, they must be “taught more perfectly” (D&C 105:10). The Zion’s Camp march was the very experience that provided this teaching. Those who persisted diligently on the march received the endowment of the Lord’s encompassing love which instilled in them the gift of character or courage. It armed them to be able to lead the Church through much adversity.

We often, somewhat superficially I’m afraid, refer to the benefits of Zion’s Camp as providing its members with “leadership experiences and skills.” But the blessings of Zion’s Camp ran deeper than this. Those blessings came in the form of a sacred spiritual endowment bestowed by the Lord. It resulted in future leaders with character who would never despair in the face of hardship or be cowed by adversity. Also these leaders were blessed with the divine assurance of the Lord’s protection. This endowment is “the armour of light” at noon-day mentioned by the apostle Paul (Romans 13:8-12) and “the spirit of power” foretold by Lehi (see 2 Nephi 3:5).

#Alternate Definition of the Endowment

Some may define the endowment more generally since every blessing the Lord provides his people is, in its own way, empowering. I will digress for a moment to review one particular aspect of spiritual growth. We earn gifts of the Spirit through our efforts to obey. In return for our obedience, the Lord provides blessings to us that are grander than our relatively paltry efforts.

Could it be that the endowment that is contingent upon our obedience to the highest covenants entered into in the temple is simply the Lord’s willingness to provide any gift of the spirit in greater abundance to those who have received their temple covenants and are diligently obedient to them? This is certainly a plausible, more general, definition of the temple endowment.

#The Endowment Today

Today this endowment of power awaits those who are faithful in keeping their temple covenants. It also awaits those who are able to overcome life’s most difficult challenges and adversities. The blessings that accrue to the most obedient are commensurate with that high degree of difficulty. The Lord has warned those who do not persist in righteous obedience: “If any man shall seek to build up himself, and seeketh not my counsel, he shall have no power” (D&C 136:18-19). He will thus be denied the endowment of power.

We are not obligated to live spiritually naked and alone, without divine support in this telestial world. Rather, our Savior wishes us to constantly feel his loving support as we struggle through mortality. This support comes in the form of his endowment of power, his endowment of character and protection from physical harm. It was received by some who participated in the Zion’s Camp march. It is received today by those who diligently strive to keep their covenants with the Lord, particularly their temple covenants.

Please review chapter 3, Covenants and Covenant Making.