Virtual Temple Tour Part III: A Covenant People

To receive an “Endowment” is to be given a gift. For those attending the temple the gift is the power and promise of the blessings of Jesus Christ. Both men and women participate in the same ordinances, and therefore have the same opportunities for receiving the same blessings. Although Priesthood authority in the LDS Church is conferred to men only, the temple contains the concentration of its eternal power. “A person may have authority given to him, or a sister to her,” former LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith (Relief Society Magazine, 1959) wrote, “to do certain things in the Church that are binding and absolutely necessary for our salvation, such as the work that our sisters do in the House of the Lord.” Because the temple Endowment is considered a gift of heavenly powers, it is usually done before a Latter-day Saint goes on a proselytizing mission, gets married, or when society considers them reaching the age of an adult.

Before continuing on with temple activity, participants gather for a short time in a chapel. Depending on the amount of time needed, technical instructions will be given, families for weddings assembled, hymns sung, and individuals might read Scriptures. Once ready to move forward, guides will lead the worshipers to ordinance rooms.

Buenos Aires Argentina Temple chapel

The initiation ceremonies were done for individuals, but the Endowment is with a group split into one side women and the other men. Endowment ritual themes are broken into progressions, with older temples having separate instruction rooms to signify the differences. Older “Pioneer” temples have a Creation Room, Garden Room, World Room, and Celestial Room, among others. Often they have painted walls to match the ritual and instructional themes. Smaller and more recent temples usually only have one or two instruction rooms that restrict movement. This can speed up the ceremony and accommodate a more condensed ritual that includes film presentations. Live actors that dramatized certain parts of the ceremonies have become a thing of the past. Despite the changes and increasingly pared down ritual, the basics remain the same.

In his classic book The House of the Lord, LDS Elder James E. Talmage of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote:

The Temple Endowment, as administered in modern temples, comprises instruction relating to the significance and sequence of past dispensations, and the importance of the present as the greatest and grandest era in human history. This course of instruction includes a recital of the most prominent events of the creative period, the condition of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, their disobedience and consequent expulsion from that blissful abode, their condition in the lone and dreary world when doomed to live by labor and sweat, the plan of redemption by which the great transgression may be atoned, the period of the great apostasy, the restoration of the Gospel with all its ancient powers and privileges, the absolute and indispensable condition of personal purity and devotion to the right in present life, and a strict compliance with Gospel requirements.

The first lesson we learn in the Temple is the order of the Creation. Anyone familiar with the book of Genesis in the Bible knows the story. It teaches how light and darkness, water and land, plants and animals, and finally human men and women were physically formed. As Elder Vaiangina Sikahema of the LDS Quorum of the Seventy (GC, Oct. 2021) said, “The Lord was pleased. And He rested on the seventh day. The sequential order in which the earth was created gives us a glimpse not only of what is most important to God but also why and for whom He created the earth.”

Salt Lake City, UT Temple Creation Room

The next major event is the Fall of Adam and Eve. Once again, those who know the Bible are familiar with how Eve was tempted by a serpent to eat the forbidden fruit of good and Evil. Because of her partaking of the forbidden fruit, Adam had to do the same or forever be alone. Having tried to cover their nakedness, they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden and sent to mortality. The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi explained, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy. And the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall.” (2 Nephi 2:25-26). With the fall came the freedom to choose good and evil, with the atonement of Jesus Christ available for repentance of sins.

Idaho Falls, ID Temple Garden Room

Other instructions and ordinances continue the associated themes of the Fall and Atonement, making them more personal in application. The former LDS Prophet Brigham Young once explained:

“Let me give you a definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.” (Discourses of Brigham Young [Deseret Book Co., 1941], p. 416.)

From the quote it is implied that more than mere instructions are associated with the endowment. The ordinance also contains ritual robes and gestures associated with covenant making. Without going into detail, signs convey ideas that point toward a particular message like a wave of a hand for hello. A token is a symbol that indicates identification or authority. The rainbow after the Great Flood was a token that the Earth would never be destroyed with water. Jesus Christ showed the marks in his hands, feet, and side as tokens of his death on the cross and Resurrection.

Manti, UT Temple World Room

There are five main covenants and promises made in the temple. These include the Law of Obedience to follow the commandments, Law of Sacrifice devoting ourselves to the work of the Lord and repentance, Law of the Gospel to remain faithful to our baptismal principles, Law of Chastity to remain pure and having physical relations only to who we marry, and Law of Consecration by dedicating our lives to building up the Kingdom of God and the Church of Jesus Christ. Sister Silvia H. Allred of the LDS Relief Society General Presidency (GC, Oct. 2008) said:

The covenants we make with the associated ordinances we receive in the temple become our credentials for admission into God’s presence. These covenants elevate us beyond the limits of our own power and perspective. We make covenants to show our devotion to build up the kingdom. We become covenant people as we are placed under covenant to God. All the promised blessings are ours through our faithfulness to these covenants.

Another ancient practice in the temple is a prayer circle. Some early Christian art work portrays the faithful gathering around as they pray to heaven. Early Christian Clement of Alexandria wrote (Stromata 7:7), “So also we raise the head and lift the hands to heaven, and set the feet in motion at the closing utterance of the prayer.” In LDS temples, names of those who are in physical or spiritual need are placed on a prayer roll. During the temple ordinances a group of men and women will gather together and pray in unison for those named to be blessed by the Lord. Of course, anyone can pray individually for those they are concerned about needing a blessing.

Washington DC Temple instruction room

It is reported that when Jesus Christ finally died on the Cross that the veil in the Jerusalem temple was torn from top to bottom. This is the veil that separated the Holy of Holies where only the High Priest was to enter once a year. In the New Testament the three reports each relates it to when Jesus Christ finally dies. Each of them have important differences when writing the event. Mark places the event (Mark 15:38) between Jesus dying and a centurion noticing his death with astonishment. There is nothing to indicate the reason for the tearing. Luke places it in context of a darkened sky (Luke 23:45) right after Jesus promises one of the thieves they will meet in paradise. Directly after the rent Jesus Christ dies, with the centurion taking notice. Matthew shares context with both (Matthew 27:51), but adds an earthquake and the rising of the dead. All of these seem to point out that the line between this world and the next was no longer kept apart. The death of Jesus had paved a way for any worthy man or woman to approach the Holy. For Matthew the dead could come back from the other direction through resurrection.

Mexico City, Mexico Temple Celestial Room

Suva Fiji, Japan Temple Celestial Room

Idaho Falls, ID Temple Celestial Room

Passage from the mortal to the immortal and blessed state is what the Celestial room represents in the Endowment. It is a place that where the Holy Spirit can be felt the strongest when meditating about the rest of the ceremony. It is here that full attention can be given to personal prayer, contemplation, and revelation. There is no time limit to stay and soak up the spiritual rest in this glorious room. Reverence is maintained with whispers or silence within the sacred space. This isn’t the last of the temple ordinances. Others are related to the eternal nature of families and concern for dead relatives.