The Significance of Temple Building

To the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a temple is literally a house of 
the Lord.  It is not a church or chapel; nor a place for daily communion and the preaching of the 
gospel.  It is a sacred edifice built to and in the name of the Lord, where the various ordinances 
and blessings of salvation are received and where the Priesthood and its keys are and have 
been restored.

There is no reference in the Old Testament to temples among the antediluvian saints.  
The entire history of those days as it has come down to us covers but a few pages.  They may 
have had holy temples but it appears that when the Lord had occasion to reveal knowledge 
and priesthood, it was usually on the mountain tops.  Thus, we read, in the book of Moses, the 
Lord said to Enoch:

"Turn ye, and get ye upon the mount Simeon.
And it came to pass that I turned and went up on the mount; and as I stood upon the mount, I 
beheld the heavens open, and I was clothed upon with glory.
And I saw the Lord, and he stood before my face, and he talked with me, even as a man talketh 
one with another, face to face; and he said unto me: Look, and will show unto thee the world for the 
space of many generations."

Here the Lord revealed to him the history of the world to the end of time.  Likewise Moses was 
taken upon an exceeding high mountain, the name of which has been withheld, and there the 
Lord revealed to Moses his secrets down through the ages of time.  It was on top of Sinai that the 
Lord gave to Moses his revelations concerning Israel.  So it was with the Brother of Jared who 
went upon the mountain to obtain revelations from the Lord.  Moreover, because the Temple in 
Jerusalem had been desecrated, the Lord went upon the mountain to give the keys of power to his 
disciples, and thus he made of the mountain tops sacred places of temples.

After the Israelites had escaped from Egyptian bondage and were sojourning in the wilderness, the 
Lord commanded Moses to gather from the people their precious things and build for them a temple.  
As they were moving from place to place it was essential that this temple, sometimes called the 
tabernacle, be so constructed that it could be erected and taken down.  Except the fact that 
this building was made of the most priceless things that Israel possessed, and that the high 
priests officiated in it for the people in sacred ordinances, much of the history concerning it and its 
use has been lost.  However, the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith some of the purposes for which it 
was built.  We read in the Doctrine and Covenants, when the Lord commanded the Latter-
day Saints to build the Nauvoo Temple, something of the purpose of this tabernacle.  The Lord 
said by revelation

"And again, verily I say unto  you, how shall your washings be acceptable unto me, except ye 
perform them in a house which you have built to my name?
For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should 
bear it with them in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that 
those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was ..."

From this we learn that there were ordinances performed in this sacred tabernacle, for the 
benefit and salvation of the children of Israel.  This building served Israel until the erection of 
Solomon’s Temple, which was one of the most costly and magnificent of all buildings.  We can 
learn from the description of this temple that in it ordinances were performed which were too 
sacred to find place in the public annals of Israel.  In this temple, as in the temples built by 
the Latter-day Saints today, the ordinances and blessings were sacred and not publicly revealed.  
How could they be, when the decree had gone forth from the foundation of the world, that they 
were to be kept hid from the world?  

The Lord accepted the Temple of Solomon and blessed it and the officiators within it, until through 
apostasy it became contaminated.  Then in His anger, the Lord permitted this temple to be 
desecrated and partially destroyed.  When the captives who had been banished to Babylon 
returned repentant, the Lord permitted them to restore the Temple; and again it fell into decay through 
iniquity.  Then was built the Temple which stood in the days of Jesus, and where he was taken to 
be blessed.  Through the wickedness of the Jews once more the Temple was destroyed, fulfilling the 
prediction of the Lord that not one stone should rest on another.  However, the promise is made 
that in the due time of the Lord there shall stand in Jerusalem a temple more magnificent than any 
that has gone before.

The Latter-day Saints are a temple-building people.  Of necessity they have to be.  This is one of 
the marks which distinguished the Church of Jesus Christ from all other Churches.  What are 
these temples for?  The same purpose for which they were built in ancient times.  They are holy 
buildings bearing the name of the Lord, in which al the ordinances and covenants which have 
been promised to gathered Israel, are being performed.  Six hundred years before the birth of 
Jesus Christ, Jeremiah uttered the following prophecy.

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, 
and with the house of Judah;
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the 
hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they break, although I was an 
husband unto them, saith the LORD.
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the  house of Israel; After those days, saith 
the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their 
God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 
Know the LORD, for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, 
saith the LORD, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

This time has come; and it is in the Temples of the Latter-day Saints where these covenants are 
received.  Covenants and obligations that will exalt and save all those who receive and obey
 them.  It is in these Temples where the sacred marriage, according to the Lord’s divine law, is 
performed for time and for all eternity, thus ensuring the continuation of the family after the 
resurrection of the dead.  It is in these holy Temples where we go to be baptised for the 
dead.  For in the justice and mercy of our Eternal Father, the privilege of salvation must be 
offered to every soul. 

This is one of the most outstanding principles separating the Latter-day Saints from the rest 
of the world.  The Christian world, except the Latter-day Saints, have no provision whatever 
for the dead who were unfortunate in living at a time and place where they never had the 
opportunity to learn of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Lord has not condemned these 
to punishment, nor barred them from the kingdom of God.  In his great wisdom he prepared 
the way for them to have the opportunity to hear the gospel in the spirit world, and if they believe, 
the work which was not performed when they were living, may be performed by someone who is 
living and thus vicariously the dead who will believe may receive the blessings of salvation.