“Covenants, Power, and Promises,” Liahona, Oct. 2025.
Covenants, Power, and Promises
The temple is central to the power and protection promised to the faithful before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Illustration of Joseph Smith by Dan Burr
In May 1833, my fourth-great-grandfather Asahel Perry and some friends traveled from northern New York to Kirtland, Ohio. They weren’t members of the newly restored Church, but they wanted to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith. They arrived just in time to attend the first council held to discuss the building of the Kirtland Temple.
After beginning the council, the Prophet presented the business of building the temple. Then he called upon those present to express their feelings related to such a large undertaking. Most responded that the Church was too poor to tackle such a task. They proposed construction of a smaller, less-expensive building.
During the ensuing discussion, Grandpa Perry and his friends huddled, took out their money, and added it up. Did they have enough to pay for their return trip and contribute to the temple’s construction? A few minutes later, my grandfather approached Joseph Smith, pulled out a five-dollar gold coin, and presented it to the Prophet. (Such a coin today would be worth hundreds of dollars!)
Joseph stood before the council and held up the coin. Then, speaking energetically, he said that “the work had commenced and the House [of the Lord] would be built according to the pattern presented” by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Perry family soon joined the Church in Kirtland, received their temple blessings a few years later in the Nauvoo Temple, and later crossed the plains to Utah.
By the time the Kirtland Temple was dedicated in 1836, it was too small to hold all the Latter-day Saints who wanted to attend its dedication. As the Church grew, so did the numbers of Saints who had to attend meetings outdoors. President James E. Faust (1920–2007), who served as my stake president when I was a young man and as a mentor when I was called as a General Authority in 2007, made this observation regarding the Church’s second temple:
“Before the Nauvoo Temple was completed in 1846 the Saints would meet outside, often near the temple, to hear Joseph and the other Church leaders speak. Sometimes thousands attended those meetings”—sometimes even in inclement weather.
“As [Elder] George A. Smith observed in his humorous way, ‘In the days of the Prophet Joseph … [the Church] flourished best out of doors.’”
We are grateful that in our day, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is flourishing outdoors, indoors, and throughout the world. That flourishing includes the construction of temples at an unprecedented pace “according to the pattern presented”—a pattern that has always included blessings, consecration, faith, and sacrifice.
A Glorious Light—Kirtland Temple, by Glen S. Hopkinson, may not be copied
Why So Many Temples?
“Our predecessors have prophesied that temples will dot the landscape of North and South America, the isles of the Pacific, Europe, and elsewhere,” President Eza Taft Benson (1899–1994) said several decades ago. “If this redemptive work is to be done on the scale it must be, hundreds of temples will be needed.”
President Russell M. Nelson said we are building temples at an unprecedented pace today “because the Lord has instructed us to do so. The blessings of the temple help to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. These blessings also help to prepare a people who will help prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord!”
In his dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith prayed “that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power. …
“And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:13, 22; emphasis added; see also verse 23).
When I read those verses, I think of Nephi’s vision of the latter days. Note the similar wording: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14; emphasis added).
I believe that latter-day temples play an essential role in the fulfillment of Nephi’s prophecy and are central to the protection and power promised to the faithful before the Second Coming.
Several years ago, while I served as the bishop of a university ward, I was particularly impressed by one young woman in my ward. She still impresses me. You know her as President Emily Belle Freeman, Young Women General President. In a recent general conference address, she taught that through the temple, Jesus Christ lifts us to a higher spiritual plane.
“Each time I cross the threshold of His house, I experience deeper covenant relationship with Him,” President Freeman said. “I am sanctified with His Spirit, endowed with His power, and set apart to build His kingdom.”
Promised Power
President Nelson has spoken often about the power of Jesus Christ available through temple covenants. “Yoking yourself with the Savior means you have access to His strength and redeeming power,” he said. President Nelson has also taught:
“As we keep our temple covenants, we gain greater access to the Lord’s strengthening power. In the temple, we receive protection from the buffetings of the world.”
“[The Savior’s] essential ordinances bind us to Him through sacred priesthood covenants. Then, as we keep our covenants, He endows us with His healing, strengthening power. And oh, how we will need His power in the days ahead.”
“The moral and spiritual power that our people need right now and for the days ahead is the power of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We gain access to Their power by making and keeping covenants with Them.”
Heavenly power matters, brothers and sisters, because we live in a very wicked world. Without that power, we will not be able to “abide the day of his coming” or “stand when he appeareth” (Malachi 3:2). We do not know when that day will be, but His messenger has already been sent to “prepare the way” for His coming (Malachi 3:1). Meanwhile, the world is not gliding calmly toward that day.
We need the power promised to the faithful to help us:
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Let God prevail in our lives.
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Repent and draw closer to the Lord.
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Bless, comfort, lead, and minister.
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“Withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better” (see Mosiah 3:19).
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Find peace and joy in Christ as we walk the covenant path.
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Prepare “against the day of burning” and “the calamity of the wicked” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:46).
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Accomplish the Lord’s work before His Second Coming.
Photograph of dome of Tucson Arizona Temple by James Whitney Young
Sentinels of Salvation
Heavenly Father’s work and glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Each temple stands as an earthly sentinel of God’s plan of salvation, pointing to the Savior’s central role in that work and glory.
Armed with His power, every covenant-keeping man and woman—married or not—who faithfully keeps temple covenants will be blessed in this life and in the life to come.
President Nelson has promised: “The end for which each of us strives is to be endowed with power in a house of the Lord, sealed as families, faithful to covenants made in a temple that qualify us for the greatest gift of God—that of eternal life. The ordinances of the temple and the covenants you make there are key to strengthening your life, your marriage and family, and your ability to resist the attacks of the adversary. Your worship in the temple and your service there for your ancestors will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path.”
As an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I testify that these things are true.