Spencer W. Kimball: Temple Work

Temple Work

The Temple Endowment

The temple is a holy place. The words "the Lord's house" appear on each of the temples. A temple is the Lord's house, and when we enter his house, we enter as his guests. Thus, we should do everything possible to keep the Lord's house holy, unpolluted, clean, and sweet. (77-01)

Every time a temple is dedicated to the Lord the darkness pushes farther back, prison doors are opened, and light comes into the world. (56-03)

As I awakened this morning and began to attain consciousness after the night, I saw the dawn advancing, and my thought first came to the holy temple which was to be dedicated this day. I thought, "No food today. Shoes must be shined, clothes pressed, and I must have a clean mind." All the way to Zollikofen I desired to say no word, and when I came into this room and sat by the president [McKay] and all he said was in sacred whispers, I knew then that I had been feeling some of the feeling he has felt. "Holiness to the Lord, Holiness becometh the Saints of the Lord." (55-12)/

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. (75-16)/

The endowment teaches of man's journey. The temples are reserved for sacred ordinances pertaining to the living and the dead. Worthy members of the Church should go to the temples as often as possible to participate in this important work. One of the ordinances performed in the temple is that of the endowment, which comprises a course of instruction relating to the eternal journey of a man and woman from the pre-earthly existence through the earthly experience and on to the exaltation each may attain. (77-01)

The pioneers desired the endowment. My grandfather, Heber C. Kimball, wrote in his journal that during the last days of February 1846, groups were going through the Nauvoo Temple night and day, "way into the night and way into the day," he said. He indicated that Brother Brigham took a group through, Brother Willard took a group through, and he took a group through, and so on. The faithful Saints then were so anxious that they should receive the numerous blessings and ordinances which are given in the temple that they virtually lived in the temple those last few hours before they crossed the plains. Today we should begin to act with that same fervor and desire. (77-01)

All through Europe the past five months I have been encouraging the Saints to prepare their lives and put their houses in order and find the way to the holy temple. I told them in Germany the other day, "You can go to the temple." I knew their poverty and some of them, I know, would have difficulty going. And then I said to them, as they had a look of questioning in their faces, "You could walk to the holy temple." There was a little laughter. And then I said, "I am not facetious. You could all walk to the holy temple and it wouldn't be nearly as far as many of our ancestors walked to go to a place where there was not a temple, but where there was a barren, desert ground on which a temple could be built, and then they worked forty years to build the temple so they might enjoy all these privileges." I am sure that they do not fully understand yet, nor can they until they have come and tasted of its sweet spirit. (55-13)

The endowment is for those mature in the gospel. Because of the sacred nature of the endowment and the other ordinances performed in the temple, those who go to the temple to receive them must be prepared and worthy. People who are converted to the Church often feel enthusiastic about going to the temple immediately after their baptism. But it takes time for them to adjust their thinking to things of an eternal nature, and it takes time for them to adjust their lives so that they are prepared and worthy when they do attend the temple. Thus, we have counseled stake presidents and bishops not to recommend people to go to the temple to receive their endowments until they are sufficiently mature in the gospel. We have established a policy that new converts should prepare themselves for at least one year after baptism before receiving these additional ordinances and blessings. (77-01)

It is not proper to go to the temple for the purpose of getting the strength to live righteously, but rather to acquire the strength and determination to live the commandments so that there can be total worthiness when you go to the temple. Certainly one will not want to go into the holy precincts and make any promises or covenants which he or she will not keep. It would be terrible to mock the Lord. It is well to gain control of appetites, passions, urges, desires first, then go into the temple to make them firm and to prepare for the eternities. (6/16/58)

Temple ordinances are futile without righteousness. But all these ordinances are futile unless with them there is a great righteousness. ... So we go out into every field to perfect our lives. It is not enough to pay tithing and live the Word of Wisdom. We must be chaste in mind and in body. We must be neighborly, kind, and clean of heart. Sometimes people feel if they have complied with the more mechanical things that they are in line. And yet perhaps their hearts are not always pure. ... With hearts that are absolutely purged and cleaned, and living the more mechanical things, we are prepared to come into the holy temple, ... where perfection should be found. Here we receive extension of our glimpses we have had of the eternities. In our lives we have had little glimpses when the curtain has been moved a little. And here our vision will be extended until our knowledge and understanding will be greatly increased.

As we come here we will want to be sure that we are prepared for this great experience. Self-mastery is another name for the gospel of Jesus Christ. ... When all of these ordinances are performed, then the self-mastery must accompany them. No one can be exalted in the kingdom of our Father without the ordinances. Neither can they be exalted without the righteousness; and sometimes people receive these ordinances unworthily, and at the least jeopardize their eternities. And then, as you know, in the world many people feel if they are just good they will receive all the blessings of eternity. Neither is complete in and of itself. They are joined together in one union which makes perfection; and to that end temples are built so that these final ordinances may be performed for the children of our Heavenly Father. (55-13)

Personal performance of ordinances is required of those warned. I talked to a man just a few days [ago] about this important thing. His wife had died. He was getting up in many years, and I said, "Your time is short; you're in your eighties now. You can't hope to live very much longer. Why don't you become active and do the things you need to do to get a temple recommend and go and do your own work in the temple while you're still alive to do it." "Oh," he said, "God is kind; he wouldn't take my wife away from me." And I said, "No, the Lord will never take your wife away from you, but you're the one who threw her away. You're the one that had the opportunity in your grasp. You could have been living the commandments all these days. You could have had her tied to you for all eternity, so that all the people in the world couldn't undo it. Nobody could; not even the devil with all his helpers could ever undo what you had done in that holy temple and with the accompanying faithfulness that followed it." "Oh," he said, "God is just; he wouldn't take my wife away from me." And I repeated again, "No, the Lord won't beat you or he won't curse you. He has just simply given us laws, and if we won't follow the laws, then we pay the penalty, and it is all charged against us, not the Lord." (74-05)

Temple participants must be worthy. Some of the ancient temples were desecrated by the actions of outsiders. The temple of Solomon, for example, was desecrated by those without authority who walked into the temple, robbed it of its precious treasures, and took those treasures to foreign lands for use in idolatrous practices. But the possible actions of outsiders are not the only potential pollutants of holy places.

Holy temples may also be defiled and desecrated by members of the Church who go into the temple and make covenants unworthily or which they are not prepared or willing to accept and carry forward. When people go to the temple and then make light of its sacred principles, they are defiling it. When unrepentant people accept the holy ordinances without full determination to prove worthy of them, they are helping to violate the sacredness of the holy temple and they are desecrating holy places.

When promises are made and covenants are entered into without serious or pure intent to magnify them, pollutions may occur in the holy temples. It is not only a matter of receiving a recommend to enter the temples of the Lord, but it is also a matter of one having a pure, sweet, and repentant spirit as well. (77-01)

When the bishop is ordained he becomes judge of his people. He holds the keys to the temples and none of his ward members may enter one without the turning of the key by the bishop. (MF 326)

This thought impressed itself upon me each time as we have gone through this holy house, and I hoped that only men and women and children who were clean in their lives would pass its portals and come here to do the work. Far rather would I see the temple half filled with worthy workers than to see the temple filled with those who were unworthy. But it is my hope that this building will be used to its capacity. (45-04)

Temples should be kept busy. In the book of Revelation, it speaks of serving the Lord "day and night in his temple." (Revelation 7:15.) So, I am looking forward to the day when a temple will not close. They won't have any holidays, ever, and there won't be any night or day. The temple will have its lights on all night long and will be going night and day and full all the time. When vacation times comes, they let people go on vacations but they don't let the temple go on vacation. (76-58)

Ordinance workers have human frailties. And the matter of proxy work is as old as the earth. It is in everyday life. And be too smart always, son, to confuse the mistakes of men with the program. Because some old man gets in a rut and repeats the temple ordinance prayers without feeling, you will be too wise and discerning to charge his failure to the program. (5/31/48)

PTemple garments afford protection. I am sure one could go to extreme in worshiping the cloth of which the garment is made, but one could also go to the other extreme. Though generally I think our protection is a mental, spiritual, moral one, yet I am convinced that there could be and undoubtedly have been many cases where there has been, through faith, an actual physical protection, so we must not minimize that possibility. (5/31/48)

Changes in temples are made with authority. This holy temple will have changes, as has been stated this morning. I hope the people will realize that such changes as come are made by those who hold the keys that Peter held, that Joseph Smith held. I hope that all will be received with thanksgiving and gratitude and peace and joy. (55-13)

Ordinance work outside temples is exceptional. As a tentative and emergency situation, and by authority of the prophet of the Lord, we could be baptized [for the dead] in the Mississippi or in the ocean, or other places. We could be married for eternity in a faraway home or mountain top, properly approved and designed and set apart, but only in an emergency. The temple is necessary for these holy purposes. (75-16)

Temples will be built to meet the demand. It isn't a matter of just saying, "Well, we'll build one here, and one there," a geographical location. It's a matter of bringing temple work to the people that want it. (76-60)

Temple Ordinances for the Dead

The work for the dead is urgent. Recently I have felt impressed to share some thoughts about the work for the dead because I feel the same urgency for it that I do about the missionary work, since they are basically one and the same. Thus, I said to my Brethren of the General Authorities, "This work is constantly on my mind, for it must be carried forward." ...

Missionary work is not limited to proclaiming the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people now living on the earth. Missionary work is also continuing beyond the veil among the millions and even billions of the children of our Heavenly Father who have died either without hearing the gospel or without accepting it while they lived on the earth. Our great part in this aspect of missionary work is to perform on this earth the ordinances required for those who accept the gospel over there. The spirit world is full of spirits who are anxiously awaiting the performance of these earthly ordinances for them. I hope to see us dissolve the artificial boundary line we so often place between missionary work and temple and genealogical work, because it is the same great redemptive work! (77-01)

There is an urgency to engage more fully in the redeeming of our kindred dead through more frequent temple attendance. All those who possess temple recommends should use them as often as possible to engage in baptisms, endowments, and sealings for the dead. Other members of the Church should concern themselves seriously with preparations to qualify for temple recommends that they, too, might enjoy these eternal blessings and also act as saviors on Mount Zion. There is an ever-increasing burden of temple work to be done by the Saints, and we should rise to meet this challenge. (78-27)

Many dead wait. One of the important phases of gospel living is to involve ourselves in temple and genealogical effort. We know full well that the spirit world is filled with the spirits of men and women who are waiting for you and me to get busy in their behalf. It is a grave responsibility that the Lord has placed upon our shoulders, one that we cannot avoid and for which we may stand in jeopardy if we fail to accomplish it. (78-04)

Some of us have had occasion to wait for someone or something for a minute, an hour, a day, a week, or even a year. Can you imagine how our progenitors must feel, some of whom have perhaps been waiting for decades and even centuries for the temple work to be done for them? I have tried, in my mind's eye, to envision our progenitors who are anxiously waiting for those of us who are their descendants and are members of the Church on the earth to do our duty toward them. I have also thought what a dreadful feeling it would be for us to see them in the hereafter and have to acknowledge that we had not been as faithful as we should have been here on earth in performing these ordinances in their behalf. (77-01)

The dead may accept or reject. Isn't it a beautiful program, a selfless program whereby we do work for those who cannot do it for themselves? Baptism is a human and mortal experience, and to receive the Holy Ghost is an experience of mortality, and the sealing in the temple is a mortal experience. All are designed to prepare us for that long eternity. ...

So the program is this: we do our own work in the temple, then we do the work for the dead. We do not know for sure what those spirits are thinking, whether they will receive it or not, but we will do the work and put it in the bank for them so that if they get ready for it, they can withdraw it. (75-43)

"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Matthew 22:32.) There are no dead except those who have chosen to be dead as to the law, dead as to the benefits, dead as to the blessings, dead as to the eternal nature of the gift.

Temple sealings are for yours and my great-grandparents ... back through the thousands of years, good people who could never find a temple, though they traversed the entire earth; good people who could not seal themselves up to eternal blessings, though they may have neared perfection in their lives. (73-06)

Vicarious work is for those who had no opportunity in life. Bill was not wedded. He had at this time no wife for eternity. However, as important and necessary as it is to be married in the celestial order here on earth in mortality, provisions will be made to take care of this matter for those who, through no fault of their own, failed in this sacred requirement. ... They will not be deprived of any blessings which they might have received if they had lived up to all of the commandments with which they could comply. (52-04)

It must be remembered that vicarious work for the dead is for those who could not do the work for themselves. Men and women who live in mortality and who have heard the gospel here have had their day, their seventy years to put their lives in harmony, to perform the ordinances, to repent and to perfect their lives. (MF 314)

The righteous will be bound together. Through the priesthood's new and everlasting covenant of marriage, all the elect children of God who are gathered together out of the earth may be sealed together in family units into the lineage of Abraham, or, in other words, into the organized eternal family of God. (77-01)

Genealogical Research

Genealogical research is an "offering in righteousness." We have asked the members of the Church to further the work of turning the hearts of the children to the fathers by getting their sacred family records in order. These records, including especially the "book containing the records of our dead" (D&C 128:24), are a portion of the "offering in righteousness" referred to by Malachi (3:3), which we are to present in His holy temple, and without which we shall not abide the day of His coming. (77-01)

Now, my brothers and sisters, I rejoice with you in our temple-building activities and in the far-reaching program to glean the records and vital statistics from the world and bring them into our libraries where they are available to us. But we must never become complacent and satisfied with merely providing these beautiful edifices and wonderfully abundant research facilities. Full satisfaction can come only in their use to the utmost capacity for the searching after and redemption of our kindred dead. It is a responsibility which we cannot shirk, and we lie in jeopardy every hour that we leave this work and let it run. (77-29)

Research is aided from the spirit world. I am sure that the veil is thin. My grandfather, being one of a family, searched all his life to get together his genealogical records; and when he died, in 1868, he had been unsuccessful in establishing his line back more than the second generation beyond him. I am sure that most of my family members feel the same as I do-that there was a thin veil between him and the earth, after he had gone to the other side, and that which he was unable to do as a mortal he perhaps was able to do after he had gone into eternity. After he passed away, the spirit of research took hold of men-his family in the West and two distant relatives, not members of the Church, in the East. For seven years these two men-Morrison and Sharples-unknown to each other, and unknown to the members of the family in the West, were gathering genealogy. After seven years, they happened to meet and then for three years they worked together. The family feels definitely that the spirit of Elijah was at work on the other side and that our grandfather had been able to inspire men on this side to search out these records; and as a result, two large volumes are in our possession with about seventeen thousand names. (45-04)




(Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, edited by Edward L. Kimball [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982], 543.)