Temple (Latter Day Saints)
In the Latter Day Saint movement, a temple is a building dedicated to being a house of God and is reserved for special forms of worship. A temple differs from a church meetinghouse, which is used for weekly worship services. Temples have been a significant part of the Latter Day Saint movement since early in its inception. Today, temples are operated by several Latter Day Saint denominations. The most prolific builder of temples of the Latter Day Saint movement is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Several others within the movement have built or attempted to build temples. The Community of Christ operates one temple in the United States, which is open to the public and used for worship services, performances, and religious education. Other denominations with temples are the Apostolic United Brethren, the Church of Christ, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
History
The Latter Day Saint movement was conceived as a restoration of practices believed to have been lost in a Great Apostasy from the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Temple worship played a prominent role in the Bible's Old Testament, and in the Book of Mormon.On December 27, 1832, two years after the organization of the Church of Christ, the church's founder, Joseph Smith, reported receiving a revelation that called upon church members to restore the practice of temple worship. The Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, were commanded to:
Latter Day Saints see temples as the fulfillment of a prophecy found in : "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." It is believed to emphasize that when the Jesus comes again, he will come "to his temple."
As plans were drawn up to construct a temple in Kirtland, the decision was made to simultaneously begin work on a second temple at the church's colony in Jackson County, Missouri. Surviving plans indicate that both temples would have the same dimensions and approximately the same appearance and both were to be at the "centerplaces" of cities designed according to Smith's plan for the City of Zion.
Conflict in Missouri led to the expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County, preventing any possibility of building a temple there, but work on the temple in Kirtland continued. At great cost and sacrifice, the Latter Day Saints finished the Kirtland Temple in early 1836. On March 27, they held a lengthy dedication ceremony and numerous spiritual experiences and visitations were reported.
Conflict relating to the failure of the church's Kirtland Safety Society bank, caused the church presidency to leave Kirtland and move the church's headquarters to the Mormon settlement of Far West, Missouri. Far West was also platted along the lines of the City of Zion plan and in 1838 the church began construction of a new, larger temple in the center of the town. They may also have dedicated a temple site in the neighboring Mormon settlement of Adam-ondi-Ahman. The events of the 1838 Mormon War and the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri left these attempts at temple-building no further progressed than excavating foundations.
In 1839, the Mormons regrouped at a new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois. They were again commanded to build a "House of the Lord"—this one even larger and greater than those that went before. Plans for the temple in Nauvoo followed the earlier models in Kirtland and Independence with lower and upper courts, but the scale was much increased.
New conflicts arose that led to Smith being killed, along with his brother Hyrum, at Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844. The Nauvoo Temple stood only half finished. Eventually, this temple was finished and dedicated. Some temple ordinances were performed before most of the Latter Day Saints followed Brigham Young west across the Mississippi River.
Smith's death resulted in a succession crisis which divided the movement into different sects. The concept of temple worship evolved separately in many of these sects and until the 1990s only the sects claiming a succession through Brigham Young continued to build new temples. In April 1990, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints began to construct the Independence Temple, which was dedicated in 1994. The RLDS Church—now called the Community of Christ—owned the Kirtland Temple from 1901 to 2024, which it used for worship services and special events but also open to visitors, including various Latter Day Saint denominations interested in the building's historical significance.
In the late 1880s and in 1890, a desire to continue the ordinance work in temples was a significant consideration preceding Wilford Woodruff's decision that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would discontinue its practice of polygamy. In 1887 the US Congress passed the Edmunds–Tucker Act, which disincorporated the church and directed federal officials to begin seizing its assets, potentially including its temples. After a conversation with Woodruff, Logan Temple president Marriner W. Merrill stated that the contemplated public announcement prohibiting additional polygamist unions was "the only way to retain the possession of our temples and continue the ordinance work for the living and dead which was considered of more importance than continuing the practice of plural marriage for the present."
Purposes
Temples have held numerous purposes in the Latter Day Saint movement, both historically and their differing expressions today. These purposes include:- A House of the Lord —Smith reported a revelation in 1836 explaining that the recently dedicated Kirtland Temple was built "that the Son of Man might have a place to manifest himself to his people.". All Latter Day Saint denominations with temples still consider them to be special houses of the Lord.
- A House of Learning—The Kirtland Temple housed the "School of the Prophets."
- Center of the City of Zion—Latter Day Saints often view temples as central to the establishment of Zionic communities. Examples include those in Kirtland, the original Independence Temple, the unfinished temples in Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman, the original Nauvoo Temple, along with the Salt Lake, St. George Utah, Mesa Arizona, Laie Hawaii temples, and others.
- Headquarters of the church—the Kirtland Temple served as the headquarters of the early church from its completion in 1836 through the end of 1837.
- Sacred spaces for special ordinances—Beginning in Nauvoo, temples were spaces in which to perform special ordinances such as the endowment and baptism for the dead—see Ordinance.
LDS Church
Upon completion, temples are open to the public for a period of time. During the open house, the church conducts tours of the temple with missionaries and members from the local area serving as tour guides, and all rooms of the temple are open to the public. The temple is then dedicated as a "House of the Lord", after which only members in good standing are permitted entrance. Thus, in the LDS Church, temples are not churches or meetinghouses but rather places of more consecrated worship.
History
In 1832, shortly after the formation of the church, Smith said that the Lord desired the Latter Day Saints build a temple; and they completed the Kirtland Temple in 1836. Differing from other churches in the Latter Day Saint tradition, members feel that the first endowment ceremonies were performed in Kirtland, Ohio, although the endowment performed in Kirtland differed significantly from the endowment performed by Smith in Nauvoo. The construction of the Nauvoo Temple and the teaching of the full endowment by Smith are seen as the final steps in restoring the church founded by Jesus Christ following the Great Apostasy. Because it is an integral part of their worship, Mormon pioneers, upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, began plans to build temples there, and built the Endowment House to allow members to receive the endowment until the temples were completed.Construction
Initially, the church constructed temples in areas where there were large concentrations of members: Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Hawaii, and Alberta. In the mid-20th century, because of the importance of temples in the theology, the church tried to balance density with the travel requirements that attending the temple imposed upon members. Thus, temples were built in Europe ; the Pacific Islands ; and Washington, D.C. when membership alone might not have justified the effort.File:DCTemple.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Washington D.C. Temple viewed while driving south on the Capital Beltway.
Temple growth continued in the 1980s, church president Spencer W. Kimball directed the church to build smaller temples with similar designs. Before this time, all but the Swiss Temple were at least, and the average size of the first 20 temples was. The new temples varied in size but were generally less than allowing temples to be built where there were fewer members. As a result, the first temples in South America ; Asia ; and Latin America were built and the number of temples doubled from 15 to 36. Church president Gordon B. Hinckley also accelerated the construction of temples through the use of an even smaller standardized base design and set a goal to have 100 operating temples before 2001. Between the brief building period from 1998 to 2001, 38 of these standardized temples were constructed and dedicated, meeting Hinckley's goal and, during his service as president, the number of temples more than doubled from 47 to 124.