Thoughts on Temples
and Temple Work

"Temples are the Holy of Holies to Latter-day Saints. Only the faithful attend there, seeking blessings and divine inspiration. The idea of a temple which is more than a mere church meeting place is unique to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
(J. Spencer Cornwall in "Stories of Our Mormon Hymns", Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Co., 1975)

"The temple endowment relates the story of man’s eternal journey; sets forth the conditions upon which progress in the eternal world depends; requires covenants or agreements of those participating to accept and use the laws of progress; gives tests by which our willingness and fitness for righteousness may be known, and finally points out the ultimate destiny of those who love truth and live by it."
(John A. Widtsoe in "Program of the Church", Salt Lake City: Department of Education of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1937)

"I believe the Lord deliberately designates and sends a valiant spirit into a special family in a special location, even in far-off missions, for the explicit purpose of having a spirit who will accept of the gospel of Jesus Christ, hear the voice when it comes to him, and recognize it as true. Then, after becoming a member of the Church, he will gather the records that the promises to the fathers may be fulfilled."
(Eldred G. Smith in Conference Report, April 1959)

"I look upon this portion of our ministry as a mission of as much importance as preaching to the living; the dead will hear the voice of the servants of God in the spirit world and they cannot come forth in the morning of the resurrection, unless certain ordinances are performed, for, and in their behalf, in temples built to the name of God. It takes just as much to save a dead man as a living man."
(Wilford Woodruff in "Journal of Discourses", 19:228)

"Temples, according to the revelations of the Lord, are sanctuaries specially dedicated for sacred rites and ceremonies pertaining to exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God. They are separate and distinct in their purpose from the ordinary houses of worship. A church building, no matter how magnificent and costly, if its purpose is for the general gatherings of the people, is not a temple. Temples are sanctified for the purpose of performing rites for and making covenants with the pure in heart, who have proved themselves by faithful service worthy of the blessings of exaltation."
(Joseph Fielding Smith in "Doctrines of Salvation", 2:231)

"One man may explain or show a symbol to another, and this is a common, everyday practice, but no man can reveal to another the sublime, deep inner meaning of those symbols presented in the House of the Lord, for it is an individual matter, and every man must seek and obtain it for himself, and that alone, with God's help only. Nor can one acquire this knowledge outside the House of the Lord, for there we must go to commune with him about these vital things. Going there once or twice can be of little value to us, comparatively, for what can we know about those things with so little thought and contact....All must pay the same price - the brilliant mind the same as the simplest. No man, however intellectual, can know these things, but by the revelations of God, and that in temples only."
(John A. Widtsoe in Power from on High, pp.48-49)

"I do not want to go into the spirit world and meet with my progenitors and have them say to me, 'You held the keys of my redemption and my salvation and you neglected to do this work, and I am not redeemed'."
(Wilford Woodruff in "Collected Discourses", Vol.2. Burbank, California, and Woodland Hills, Utah: B.H.S. Publishing, 1987-1992)

“The House of the Lord is functional. Every element in the design, decoration, atmosphere, and program of the temple contributes to its function, which is to teach. The temple teaches of Christ. It teaches of His ordinances. It is filled with His Spirit. There is an aura of Deity”
(Edward L. Kimball, "The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball", 1982, 534–35).

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