The Mormon Temple Part 1

When sharing your faith with a Latter-day Saint, it helps to know what their church has taught on several basic topics. For this reason, Mormonism Research Ministry has provided its Crash Course Mormonism. Crash Course Mormonism includes concise articles highlighting what LDS leaders and church manuals have taught on issues that will probably come up in a typical conversation.

You can find these informative articles at CrashCourseMormonism.com. That's CrashCourseMormonism.com. Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a Biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now, your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. Why are Latter-day Saints anxious to build temples? Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism. I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry.

And with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. Well, if you've ever driven through the state of Utah, going down the I-15 corridor, north to south, or even south to north, you'll probably notice a lot of ornate buildings. These are temples that are built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are not where Mormons go on Sunday to worship. That would be done in a chapel. But temples have a particular reason for being built, and this is what we want to talk about this week. George Q. Cannon, on December 3, 1871, and this is recorded in the Journal of Discourses, volume 14, page 320, he said, Why is it that we are so anxious to build temple?

Hence the question that I asked at the beginning of this show. He goes on to say, It is that we may attend to ordinances necessary for the salvation of the living and the dead, that we may be baptized for our ancestors who died without having the privilege of hearing and obeying the gospel. Now, you've heard us many times on this show criticize The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its insistence that what they believe and what they do is patterned after the first century church. They use the word restored. They have what they call a restored gospel. In other words, they argue that the gospel, as we outside of the LDS church believe, is not really the true gospel. It was necessary for God to call Joseph Smith to restore what was there originally, as they believe in the first century church. The temple would also be what they call a restoration. Now, you're going to hear us say, probably several times throughout this series, that what Latter-day Saints do in their temples is not even close to what Christians did in the temple.

Why? Because when a Jewish believer came to faith in Christ, they realized that it was not with the blood of goats and calves, but with Christ's own blood. He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption for them. You do not see anywhere in the New Testament the Christians making it a point or being anxious to build temples. They just did not do that. It was not something that Christians concern themselves with. So if, in fact, temple worship is a restoration, as Latter-day Saints are led to believe, why is it so conspicuously missing from not only history, but from the New Testament? When George Cannon says this in 1871, why is it that we are so anxious to build temples? I remember when we started to do open house outreaches, when a temple is about ready to be opened, they'll open this up for the public. They can go through the temple and without really knowing much of what's going on in there, because they don't tell you.

But you can see how beautiful the building is. But our first temple outreach we did was in 1993. That was a while back. It was number 45. The San Diego Temple was number 45. Well, by the year 2026, they will have more than 250 temples.

So that is amazing in about a 40-year span to have built so many. So they're still anxious to build temples. And for many Latter-day Saints, it's the reason why they are Latter-day Saints. Because it's supposedly at the temple where they can be sealed, not only to their spouse, but to their children forever, and that they have the opportunity to be able to help their ancestors have a second chance of salvation. But Eric, don't you find it conspicuous that you have George Q. Cannon, who was a member of the First Presidency, saying that it's that we may attend to ordinances necessary for the salvation of the living, that would be living Latter-day Saints, as well as for the dead.

And of course, in that context, it would be the relatives of that particular member. This is what Latter-day Saints do in their temples. Most of what is done in any temple owned by the LDS Church throughout the world are ordinances for the dead, giving the opportunity for dead ancestors to hear the restored gospel as it's understood in spirit prison where they are residing. We don't see any of this in the New Testament. And this is why I think it's important to keep stressing this, folks.

This is not a restoration at all. This is entirely unique to the LDS Church. You do not see anywhere in history, or as I said, anywhere mentioned in the New Testament, where Christians were, as George Q. Cannon says, anxious to build temples. In fact, I'm going to suggest that 100% of the work that was being done in the Jerusalem Temple was done on behalf of the living. But in Latter-day Saint temples, it's been estimated that more than 95% of all the work that's being done is done on behalf of the dead. This is why Latter-day Saints spend so much time with genealogy. They're very good at this, but they're responsible to find out the names of people who have lived in their families so they can go and do this work that will allow these spirit missionaries to visit them in spirit prison. This is a doctrine of the church.

So 95% of the work being done for the dead, I don't know if a lot of people realize that, Bill. Now a Mormon might argue, well, Bill, they didn't need to be anxious about building temples because at that time the Christian church was very small and very centrally located in Jerusalem, and so they had a temple there. Well, let's think through that argument, should a Latter-day Saint be thinking that way? Do you really suppose for a moment that if the Christians living in Jerusalem felt that they had to go to the temple in Jerusalem to perform these supposed ordinances, that the Jewish religious leaders would allow this band of heretics to come into their building to do something that they don't even recognize?

It's ridiculous to even assume such a story. There is no way, for instance, a group of Christians in the first century, after going to their local church and having a night where we all go to the temple, and they do this in the context of Mormonism, and let's say they want to go to the temple to be baptized for the dead, could they go to the Jerusalem temple and say, yeah, we have a group of about 30 or 40 people here from our local church, is it okay if we use your facilities to baptize for our dead? Do you really think that if such a scenario was even remotely possible, that the religious leaders, the protectors of that temple, would allow something like that to happen?

Not very likely. Now, you have this statement made by an LDS apostle by the name of Mark E. Peterson in a publication titled Why Mormons Build Temples on page three. This is what Peterson says. In biblical times, sacred ordinances were administered in holy edifices for the spiritual salvation of ancient Israel. The buildings thus used were not synagogues nor any other ordinary places of worship. They were specially constructed for this particular purpose. Following the pattern of biblical days, the Lord, again in our day, has provided these ordinances for all who will believe and directs that temples be built in which to perform those sacred rites. First of all, let's go back to what Peterson said at the beginning of that citation. In biblical times, sacred ordinances were administered in holy edifices.

Really? There were holy edifices, like temples, in biblical times? I don't think so. It's not that archaeologists have failed to find what they say are temples built in other areas outside of Jerusalem. Take, for instance, the temple that was discovered at Arad, which is down in the Negev Desert. But were those legitimate buildings?

Archaeologists don't go that far. They would say no, certainly there are buildings that have been found that seem to be patterned after the temple in Jerusalem, but they were not recognized by the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible had a very specific location where that temple was going to be, and we find that this is mentioned in 1 Kings 11 36, and another reference is made in 1 Kings 14 21.

What do those passages say, Eric? 1 Kings 11 36 says, Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name. And then 1 Kings 14 21 says, Now Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen. Out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there.

The city that God chose. Now there was also a temple built by Jeroboam in Bethel. That was not recognized by the God of the Bible, but yet even though someone may build these buildings does not automatically mean that those buildings were sanctioned by the God of the Bible.

Now maybe these people were well-meaning, maybe they were just corrupt. Their motive is really irrelevant when you have scriptural support for the fact that there would be one temple, and that would be in Jerusalem. Bill, another passage that ought to be considered is in John chapter 4 when Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman.

The Samaritans were very big on worshiping there in Samaria. This is what the woman said to Jesus in verse 19 of chapter 4 of John. Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. And of course she's referring to Mount Gerizim, which is in that location. You can still go visit Mount Gerizim to this day.

You can drive up to the top of it and look down and actually see the portion which was known as ancient Shechem. But Jesus is correcting this woman who felt that what she was doing was accepted. She was no doubt well-meaning, as we could assume, perhaps, that a lot of these other buildings that were scattered around Israel were done by well-meaning people. Maybe they were corrupted.

Again, it doesn't matter. The fact is those buildings were not recognized as the proper place. So why would we assume that the buildings that the Latter Day Saints are building all over the world would be accepted as the proper place? And again, that's not even touching the subject of what they are doing in those buildings, which we want to continue looking at in tomorrow's show. on Mormonism.