2009
Temple Ordinances and Blessings
July 2009


“Temple Ordinances and Blessings,” New Era, July 2009, 11

What Joseph Smith Taught

Temple Ordinances and Blessings

Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord restored temple worship in the latter days.

Joseph Smith learned the importance of building temples early in his ministry, and through him the Lord commanded the Saints to build temples in Kirtland and then Nauvoo. Each of these temples required great sacrifice by the Saints, but the Prophet taught them what that sacrifice was for. Here are some of Joseph Smith’s teachings on the ordinances and blessings of the temple.*

The Ordinances of the Temple

“The Temple of the Lord … will be so constructed as to enable all the functions of the Priesthood to be duly exercised, and where instructions from the Most High will be received, and from this place go forth to distant lands.”

“What was the object of gathering the … people of God in any age of the world? … The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation. …

“… It is for the same purpose that God gathers together His people in the last days, to build unto the Lord a house to prepare them for the ordinances and endowments, washings and anointings, etc. One of the ordinances of the house of the Lord is baptism for the dead.”

The Blessings of the Temple

“If a man gets a fulness of the priesthood of God, he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.”

“The order of the house of God has been, and ever will be, the same, even after Christ comes; and after the termination of the thousand years it will be the same; and we shall finally enter into the celestial Kingdom of God, and enjoy it forever.”

  • From Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 415–19.

Photograph by Welden Andersen