Temple Attendance
Let us be a temple-attending
people. Attend the temple as frequently as personal circumstances allow. Keep
a picture of a temple in your home that your children may see it. Teach them
about the purpose of the house of the Lord. Have them plan from their earliest
years to go there and to remain worthy of that blessing. -- Howard W. Hunter
C.T.R.
"Current Temple Recommend"
Passport to Exaltation
"I make you a promise that if you will go to the House of the Lord, you will be
blessed, life will be better for you... partake of all of the marvelous
blessings that are yours to be received there. Now is the time to get your lives
in order that you may be worthy to go to the House of the Lord. Get a temple
recommend. Get it now. If every man and woman... would make that resolution and
go to work to be worthy of a temple recommend, your lives would be blessed, your
homes would be blessed, you would feel the spirit of the Lord in your homes."
- President Gordon B. Hinckley -
You Are Invited
...to spend a half day (or even a full day) in the temple each month Here is
what monthly temple participation will do for you:
1. If a man, you will become mighty; if a woman, powerful. (D&C 109:22)
2. It will serve as great "insurance protection" for your marriage. (D&C 132:19)
3. The blessings of the Eternal Gods will be called down upon you, and
great spiritual growth will be yours. (D&C 109: 12&14)
4. Unseen angels will watch over your loved ones when Satanic forces tempt
them. (Acts 27:23)
5. Your families will draw close to the Lord and there will be no empty chairs
in the Celestial Kingdom. (Hymn #301)
6. Your children will all go on missions. (D&C 109:58)
7. You children will get married in the temple. (Conference Talks)
8. The veil will be thin, you will have great spiritual growth, and many
spiritual experiences will distill upon you. (D&C 138)
9. You will be prepared for exaltation--with a celestial body, a celestial mind,
and a celestial personality. (3 Nephi 12-20, 3 )
10. You will become receptive to divine guidance and you will receive spiritual
perception to help you grapple with your problems and cares. (D&C 38:30) (D& C
3:1-3)
11. You will see clearly how to make critical decisions that weigh heavily on
your mind. (D&C (109:42)
12. You will become Christlike. (D&C 109:22-25)
John H. Groberg and a Temple Recommend
Stories from LDS Church History
David Kenison,
In recent years, Church members have been encouraged to be worthy of, and carry,
a temple recommend, even if they are unable to use it frequently. In the press
conference held the morning after Pres. Howard W. Hunter was ordained president
of the Church, he commented:
"It would be the deepest desire of my heart to have every member of the Church
be temple worthy. I would hope that every adult member would be worthy of - and
carry - a current temple recommend, even if proximity to a temple does not allow
immediate or frequent use of it. Let us be a temple-attending and a
temple-loving people.
Let us hasten to the temple as frequently as time and means and personal
circumstances allow. (See _Ensign_ July 1994, p. 5)"
This was not always such a clear instruction to Church members. Elder John H.
Groberg, who became a member of the First Quorum of Seventy in 1976, served
earlier in his life as a mission president in Tonga. He recalls an experience he
had in 1967. The year before, a group of Tongans had traveled to the New Zealand
temple at great personal expense. Now a year later, an older brother came for an
interview to have his recommend renewed.
President Groberg asked if he planned to go to the temple again. The response
was negative - the brother had sold all his possessions to go the previous year,
and did not expect to ever have the opportunity again. So why did he want a
recommend? He indicated that he wanted to have a valid recommend when he died,
which he did not expect to be long. What good would the recommend do him then,
asked President Groberg. It would just "molder in the dust" along with the
brother's body when he died. The response from this great Tongan Saint was
profound:
"Oh, President, you don't understand. When I answer all the questions from my
heart and you give me a recommend, it is recorded on my heart and that is never
destroyed. I know the paper will disintegrate, but my worthiness won't. You see
why I want to always have a current temple recommend?"
Elder Groberg recalled, "I saw. He got his recommend that year and the next and
then he journeyed to loftier places with a valid recommend engraved in his
heart."
(See Groberg, John H., _The Fire of Faith_, pp. 280-81)
Gems from the
Teachings of Church Leaders
Neal A. Maxwell on Blessings of Temples
-----------------------------------------
"Temple attendance is not a guarantee that we will become better, but it
provides a powerful and pointed invitation to become better. The ways of the
world receive constant reinforcement - should not the ways of heaven?
"Temple work is not an escape from the world but a reinforcing of our need to
better the world while preparing ourselves for another and far better world.
Thus, being in the Lord's house can help us to be different from the world in
order to make more difference in the world.
"Temple work builds within us the spirit of gratitude for our past blessings
even while preparing us to receive further blessings now and in the future."
(Neal A. Maxwell, _Not My Will, But Thine_, p. 133)
[Teachings Archive:
http://www.ldsworld.com/gems/teachings/
]
I found my notes on a lesson
that I gave on the temple, and it had some good quotes...Contributed by: Evelyn,
Iowa
PREPARING FOR THE TEMPLE
D&C 128:19-23 - Let the mountains shout for joy. - Theme of that section is the
salvation for the dead, and a "welding link between the fathers and the
children."
Psalm 27:4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I
may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord, and to inquire in his Temple."
Endowment - confused and bewildered? The spirit is the teacher--if we go to the
temple and just sit, without making an effort to learn, we will miss most of the
greatest blessings the temple has to offer. Elder David B. Haight taught, "When
you return [to the temple] come with an open, seeking, contrite
heart, and allow the Spirit to teach you by revelation what the symbols can mean
to you."
Joseph Smith prayed in dedicatory prayer that all who came to the temple might
"grow up in thee, and receive a fullness of the Holy Ghost." - We learn and grow
as a gradual process into the principles of revelation.
Endowment is a gift - self perpetuating at university. Temple's symbolic nature
allows us to continue receiving blessings through many years. Christ said ,"The
water that I shall give...shall be...a well of water springing up into
everlasting life." John 4:14
"Those who go through the temple and come out feeling that the service is
unbeautiful have been so occupied with the outward form as to fail to understand
the inner meaning....Temple worship implies a great effort of mind and
concentration if we are to understand the mighty symbols that pass in review
before us....To the man or woman who goes through the temple, with open eyes,
heeding the symbols and the covenants, and making a steady, continuous effort to
understand the full meaning, God speaks his word, and revelations come...The
endowment that was given by revelation can best be understood by revelation, and
to those who seek most vigorously, with pure hearts, will the revelation be
greatest." Elder John A. Widstoe.
Why are the symbols of the temple so different from anything we have experienced
in the Church before?
-Forces us to ask questions.
What does that mean? Why do we do that?
-Danger not that we ask questions but that we stop thinking.
VEIL THIN: We do not learn the meanings of the great exalting symbols of the
gospel. Rather we "remember their meanings, for we were taught the power that
lies behind them before our births. The veil to remembrance is very thin in the
temple.
POWER OF SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE:
- Paul tells us that crossing of Red Sea was a symbolic baptism for Israel.
After baptism we are given the gift of the Holy Ghost, who serves as a guide
throughout our lives. This gift remains with us as long as we are worthy. The
Pillar of Fire or cloud in Exodus suggests to our mind the Holy Ghost, who will
guide us just as the pillar guided the Israelites across the wilderness.
-Manna symbolized the word of God (Deut 8:3) Had to gather every day--shouldn't
we? Isn't effort required to gather sufficient to feed our families and selves
from the "bread of life" of scriptures and modern prophets? Christ called
himself the "bread of life."
-Do we not follow modern prophets through the wilderness of modern life, and
seek to overcome the fleshpots of Egypt?
SYMBOLS:
-White clothing - purity and cleanliness. Equality, reflection of all colors as
we should reflect all the multi-faceted beauty of the Savior's gospel light.
-Mirrors
-Rooms
-Lights
Gives some symbols easy to understand, some more difficult. All you see is
opportunity for insight and edification.
WORD STRIPS:
What can this teach me?
What can I learn from this part of the ordinance?
How are these words and these images relevant to my life?
Why is the Lord showing me this?
Why does the Lord ask me to do this?
Joseph Smith said, "The endowment you are so anxious about, you cannot
comprehend now, nor could Gabriel explain it to the understanding of your dark
minds; but strive to be prepared in your hearts, be faithful in all things."
HOW TO UNDERSTAND:
In 3 Nephi 17 the people did not understand much of what the Savior taught. He
gave a formula for understanding:
1. Go into your homes
2. Ponder the things which I have said,
3. Ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand.
4. Prepare your minds for the morrow
5. I come unto you again.
Brother Wilcox had pondered and sought guidance about one of the symbols of the
temple for 20 years. Then the truth rose quietly and beautifully in his mind in
the midst of a session.
James E. Talmage: No jot, iota, or tittle of the temple rites is otherwise than
uplifting and sanctifying.
Qualities of spirit to help understand temple:
- Humility
- Hungering after righteousness (Class experience)
- Avoid things offensive to spirit (prepare night before and day of)
- Work for our own ancestors
PROMISES:
"All who faithfully attend temple work will have unseen angels watch over their
loved ones when satanic forces tempt them. Vaughn J. Featherstone
"We talk about security in this day, and yet we fail to understand that...we
have standing the holy temple wherein we may find the symbols by which power
might be generated that will save this nation from destruction." Harold B. Lee
As Christ said ,"The water that I shall give...shall be...a well of water
springing up into everlasting life." John 4
-------------------------
John declared that the faithful "shall inherit all things" (Revelation 21:7) and
modern scriptures confirm that the faithful will eventually receive "all that
[the] Father hath" (D&C 84:38). Faithfulness certainly includes following the
command to attend the temple.
We also know that we *cannot* be exalted without having done our temple
ordinances. So certainly the possibility of exaltation is THE blessing of the
temple.
There are also MANY promises made in the temple ordinances themselves,
especially the initiatory, but it would not be appropriate to specify those
here.
Also the term "temple blessings" is often used synonymously with "temple
ordinances."
"In November 1974 President Spencer W. Kimball dedicated the Washington, D.C.,
Temple. Many of the General Authorities were present. Elder and Sister Packer
were among them when, on 22 November 1974, the prophet testified: 'The day is
coming, not too far ahead of us, when all the temples on this earth will be
going night and day. There will be shifts, of course, and people will be coming
in the morning and in the hours of the day and throughout the day and we will
have no vacations for the temples. But there will be a corps of workers night
and day almost to exhaustion, because of the importance of the work and the
great number of people who lie asleep in the eternity and who are craving,
needing, the blessings we can bring them.'"
Church History and Modern
Revelation
This is the chief purpose of a temple, that the fullness of blessings pertaining
to the exaltation may be given to those who are worthy, both the living and the
dead.
********************
Answers to Gospel Questions, Volume 4, by Joseph Fielding Smith. [The last two
paragraphs in particular address particular blessings from temple attendance.]
The Importance of Temple Marriage
Question: "What does a young woman or a young man do who marries outside of the
temple of the Lord?"
Answer: Unless young people who marry outside the temple speedily repent, they
cut themselves off from exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God. If they
should prove themselves worthy, notwithstanding that great error, to enter into
the celestial kingdom, they go in that kingdom as servants.
What does that mean? The revelation tells us they go into that kingdom to be
servants to those who are worthy of a more highly exalted position--something
with greater glory. They are servants to them. They don't become sons and
daughters of God. They are not joint heirs with Jesus Christ. They do not obtain
the kingdom, that is, the crown and the glory of the kingdom of God. They who
are married in the temple for time and eternity, if they are true and faithful
to their covenants, enter into that kingdom. They are heirs of that kingdom,
joint heirs with Jesus Christ, sons and daughters of God, entitled to the
fullness of the kingdom.
HAVE NO CLAIM UPON EACH OTHER
When they marry outside of the temple, they cut themselves off. If they are
content with that kind of marriage outside, when they come forth in the
resurrection, they have no claim upon each other, or their children upon them,
and there will be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Those who are married in the temple for all time and eternity obtain the
blessing of eternal lives. I put stress on eternal lives. Eternal life is God's
life, that is, to be like him. Eternal lives means eternal increase--the
continuation, as the revelation says, of the seeds forever. To be married
outside of the temple is for time only. Death separates--that is an eternal
separation, unless in the meantime they repent and are fortunate enough to go to
the temple and make amends.
Children born to them under the covenant--that is, to parents married in the
temple--are entitled to blessings which children outside of the covenant are not
entitled to receive. The Lord speaks of marriage outside of the temple as
"entering into the deaths--eternal deaths." That doesn't mean they are going to
die again. Every soul will get the resurrection. But after the resurrection
comes the segregation into kingdoms--celestial, terrestrial, telestial, and then
to be cast out--which will come to some--with the devil and his angels. Where
they go, I don't know. The Lord has spoken of it as outer darkness. So the Lord
prepares places for all. Eternal deaths means that they are separately and
singly forever. They have no increase. The Lord calls that death. They do not
continue--that is, they do not continue through posterity--they come to an end.
****************
Book of Mormon Symposium
Through the ordinances and covenants of the temple, we learn what we have to do
to be saved. The scriptures say, "It is impossible for a man to be saved in
ignorance" (D&C 131:6). Ignorance of what? The Lectures on Faith says ignorance
of what God is like (see Lecture 7:99-104). This knowledge, ultimately, can only
be received after reception of the temple ordinances. The Prophet Joseph Smith
taught that the temple blessings make us eligible to learn "the mysteries of the
kingdom even . . . the knowledge of God . . . .
And without the ordinances . . . the power of godliness is not manifest to men
in the flesh" (D&C 84:19-21). Through the temple ordinances, we make covenants
that, if kept, show to God that we can be trusted with his knowledge and his
power. The covenants of the temple ordinances are, therefore, the keys that open
the doors to the revelations of godliness if we desire them, ask for them, and
are worthy. Without the temple covenants we do not get this kind of knowledge.
*****************
Book of Mormon Symposium
Scripture tells us that Abraham "sought for the blessings of the fathers, and
the right to be ordained to administer the same" (Abraham 1:2). He was not
seeking land, and he was not seeking priesthood office, as we sometimes hear. He
was seeking, as President Ezra Taft Benson says, priesthood blessings, meaning
temple blessings (8). The most important part of the Abrahamic covenant, both
for Abraham and for us, is the gift of temple covenants and blessings.
In the book House of Glory by Michael Wilcox , he said is how we frequently say
we're "getting a name
to take to the temple." But we're not taking a name - we're taking a person.
He says if someone was our ancestor, "would it not be a glorious thing to
enter a temple and say to them: "Here are my eyes; together we will look upon the
beauty of the Lord's house. Here are my ears; let us hear the words of eternal
life. Here are my lips; we will make sacred covenants. Here are my hands;
together we will receive the gifts of life everlasting. Here are my knees; kneel
with me at the altars of salvation, there to become one with all those we both
love. I will remember you."
We must never forget that we do the work for real people who had joys and
sorrows just as we do. They faced the challenges of their lives with courage and
dignity. They loved their families and made sacrifices for their God. We do not
do the work for names but for lives, and in doing it our souls are bound to them
and theirs to ours. That is why it is so glorious.
They are dead to this world but are alive in the world of spirits, alive to
God, and alive in our hearts. "The spirits of the just," Joseph Smith taught,
"are...enveloped in flaming fire,...are not far from us, and know and understand
our thoughts, feelings and motions."
(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 326)
In the temple, where the veil is thinnest, the welding link of love is forged."
Elder Melvin J. Ballard taught, "Why is it that sometimes only one of a city or
household receives the Gospel? It was made known unto me that it is because the
righteous dead who have received the Gospel in the spirit world are exercising
themselves, and in answers to their prayers elders of the Church are sent to the
homes of their posterity..., and that descendant in the flesh is then privileged
to do the work for his dead kindred. I want to say to you that it is with
greater intensity that the hearts of the fathers and mothers in the spirit world
are turned to their children now in the flesh than that our hearts are turned to
them."
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