Temple Resources

This page provides a few resources for helping to understand temple ordinances more fully. While the scriptures should always be our primary source, and many of these are not official Church publications, studying what others have written can help us "Teach [each other] diligently" so that "my grace shall attend you ... " (D&C 88:78). The Meridian Idaho Temple's webpage is here.

• President Nelson, The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation: "I plead with you to seek—prayerfully and consistently—to understand temple covenants and ordinances. Spiritual doors will open. You will learn how to part the veil between heaven and earth, how to ask for God’s angels to attend you, and how better to receive direction from heaven. Your diligent efforts to do so will reinforce and strengthen your spiritual foundation."

• Elder Haynie, BYU Devotional, Meetings Jesus in the House of the Lord. Elder Haynie addresses how to see Christ in the temple ordinances, particularly through teaching about the temple garment.

• President Nelson, Hear Him: "We can also hear Him in the temple. The house of the Lord is a house of learning. There the Lord teaches in His own way. There each ordinance teaches about the Savior. There we learn how to part the veil and communicate more clearly with heaven. There we learn how to rebuke the adversary and draw upon the Lord’s priesthood power to strengthen us and those we love."

• temples.churchofjesuschrist.org, About Temple Ordinances ("All Church members should become familiar with the excellent materials available at temples.ChurchofJesusChrist.org." ~ Elder Bednar)

• Anthony Sweat, BYU Devotional, We Need an Endowment ("When you hear the word endowment, what comes to your mind? What do you envision? It’s likely that many of you picture a priesthood ceremony in the temple. That’s normal because that’s how we often use the word. But if I can, I want to shift our thinking to understand endowment a little differently. When Joseph Smith said we need an endowment to overcome the spiritual challenges we face, he wasn’t just saying we need a religious ceremony. What he meant was that we need an endowment of spiritual power, or a heavenly gift of divine knowledge, experience, capacity, and ability. That’s how he and the scriptures often described endowment—as a heavenly bestowal of spiritual power. To say it another way, there is a difference between an endowment and the presentation of the endowment. The endowment is a divine power, and the presentation of the endowment is an authorized religious ceremony to facilitate that power.")

• Elder David A. Bednar, Prepared to Obtain Every Needful Thing: "Across the generations, from the Prophet Joseph Smith to President Russell M. Nelson, the doctrinal purposes of temple ordinances and covenants have been taught extensively by Church leaders. A rich reservoir of resources exists in print, audio, video, and other formats to help us learn about initiatory ordinances, endowments, marriages, and other sealing ordinances. Information also is available about following the Savior by receiving and honoring covenants to keep the law of obedience, the law of sacrifice, the law of the gospel, the law of chastity, and the law of consecration."

  • • Elder L. Todd Budge, Giving Holiness to the Lord: "Sacrifice is less about “giving up” and more about “giving to” the Lord. Engraved upon the entrance to each of our temples are the words “Holiness to the Lord; the House of the Lord.” As we observe our covenants by sacrifice, we are made holy through the grace of Jesus Christ; and at the altars of the holy temple, with broken hearts and contrite spirits, we give our holiness to the Lord."

    • Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Obedience, Consecration, and Sacrifice: "And may I say ...—both by way of doctrine and of testimony—that it is his voice which invites us to consecrate of our time, our talents, and our means to carry on his work. It is his voice that calls for service and sacrifice. This is his work. He is at the helm guiding and directing the destiny of his kingdom."

• Elder Bruce C. Hafen, The Temple and the Natural Order of Marriage: "We first learn the temple’s teachings about marriage in the story of Adam and Eve—the primal story of the temple. A friend once asked me, “If Christ is at the center of the gospel and the temple, why doesn’t the temple endowment teach the story of Christ’s life? What’s all this about Adam and Eve?” I have come to feel that the life of Christ is the story of giving the Atonement. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of receiving the Atonement, amid the sometimes-formidable oppositions of mortality."