20 January 2001
Brothers and Sisters: I humbly ask an interest in your faith and prayers, that someone might be helped by what I say, and that no one will be harmed. I am speaking to myself as much as to you.
To understand the universe we live in, it is important to have a firm grasp on three ideas:
- Righteousness: Righteousness is not arbitrary. It is built into the very nature of social existence. It is the way powerful people must act to live together in peace and happiness.
- Agency: Agency is the knowledge of choices and the power to carry out what is chosen.
- Power in the Priesthood: Power in the priesthood is the greatest prize in the universe, for it is that which creates and controls all existence.
The interconnections: Complete righteousness freely chosen by a being having agency is the only access to power in the priesthood. There is no righteousness without agency, there is no power in the priesthood without righteousness. Every agent may choose between good and evil (good is righteousness, blessing others; evil is unrighteousness, selfishness). If the agent learns to choose good and nothing but good, he or she can obtain all righteousness, and through all righteousness, obtain all power in the priesthood. That power then enables the person to do even greater works of righteousness.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ invites every human being on earth to seize his or her agency, choose and do righteousness, and to attain the full power in the priesthood that God has. If the person uses his or her agency to choose righteousness, power is delivered to the person through the New and Everlasting Covenant. The focus of that Covenant is the temple ordinances.
The temple ordinances are not an appendage to the Gospel of Jesus Christ: They are the principal focus of the work of the Church and the indispensable means to full righteousness and power in the priesthood. Missionary work, ward and stake functions, genealogy activity—all point to the temple. Because it is in the temple that the full blessings and powers of God are revealed and bestowed upon the children of Jesus Christ. We are there taught very particularly what the path of righteousness is, and if we use our agency to keep our covenants, all of them, we gain power in the priesthood that enables us to do full good in this world and empowers us as exalted beings in eternity.
It is important to understand that the war in heaven was all about power in the priesthood. Lucifer wanted that power but was not willing to use his agency to be righteous and gain that power in the regular way open to all of Father’s children. So he pretended to be able to save everyone. But his plan would not have given power in the priesthood to anyone but him. That is because he would have denied everyone their agency; thus denied, they could not choose good or evil. Not being able to choose, they could not become righteous through choosing good, and thus could not inherit power in the priesthood. Satan wanted that power for himself, but for no one else. When he said, “Give me thine honor,” he was really saying, “Give me the godly power in the priesthood, and I will save all men.” But what he proposed was impossible as well as unrighteous.
Our older brother, Jesus, agreed to come to earth, pass the test of mortality himself, then suffer and die for all men. This would fulfill the Father’s will and make the way possible for every child of Heavenly Father to inherit the full power of the priesthood. To do Father’s will, it was necessary for Jesus first to receive for himself the full power of the priesthood, for he could not be the creator of heaven and earth and be the redeemer of mankind without that power. Using that power, he created the earth and everything on it, then came to earth, chose good over evil at every choice, suffered for the sins of all men, died so that he could seize the keys of death, and now sits on the right hand of Father to plead the cause of each human being. For those who have accepted the New and Everlasting Covenant and have learned through Him how to be truly and fully righteous through the temple instruction and ordinances, to those who are valiant in fulfilling the priesthood work of the kingdom, he will have to say very little, for they will already have entered into their eternal blessings.
The temple ordinances were administered by God to Adam and Eve. They accepted the New and Everlasting Covenant, lived it and were redeemed from the Fall during their mortality. They sought to help all of their posterity gain these same blessings. But Satan came among their posterity and convinced them that the physical, social, and psychological powers of this world were all they needed to get gain, and convinced them that there was no hereafter in which to enjoy power in the priesthood. Satan’s message was: dominate others now, and I will give you power to rule over them and gain all the earthly delights you desire. Most of them bought this message, despised the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the New and Everlasting Covenant, and built evil kingdoms on this earth.
But there were righteous souls among the posterity of Adam who recognized the whisperings of the Holy Spirit as the voice of God. They chose the Gospel of Jesus Christ, entered the New and Everlasting Covenant, received their temple blessing and overcame the world.
Thus the temple ordinances were on the earth from the beginning, and every religion on earth had the beginning of its rituals in the temple ordinances. Let us point out some of the things we know about the temple ordinances in other cultures:
- The tower of Babel was a counterfeit temple. God had provided a way for all men to get to heaven, but most despised it, for it required being righteous, which they did not want to do. So they went along with those who would try to force their way into heaven using the powers of this earth and whatever help Satan could give them.
- The Egyptians stole the temple ordinances and practiced them. They did not have the power of the priesthood to make the ordinances effective, but they apparently gained some psychological comfort from the process. We can see evidences of their knowledge of the temple in the murals they left in their temples.
- There were Christians in Egypt after the time of Christ who had received the true temple ordinances from the apostles of Christ. Our friend Wilfred Griggs excavated a Christian cemetery in Fayum, Egypt, and found that a very high percentage of the bodies exhumed had on the temple garments, marks and all.
- The American Indians are heir to the temple ceremonies. A member of our stake has shared with me his experiences when he was a missionary to the Lamanites. In their kivas he saw many things which were obvious correlates with our temple ceremonies.
- Tom Rogers spent sabbatical time in India, described how the priests in the Hindu religion wear their priesthood insignia on one shoulder when they are lower priests, and change it to the right shoulder when they advance.
- My son has discovered in ancient Chinese literature a description of the four marks on the temple garment.
If you wish to see a full-blown account of the evidences of the temple ceremony in the religions of the world, please consult the works of Hugh Nibley, Temple and Cosmos, for instance. If you wish to see a summary of what we know about ancient temples, consult the first chapter of Richard Cowan’s book, Temples to Dot the Earth.
Since Satan was denied any access to power in the priesthood, he has made it his business on this earth to see that no one else get it, if possible. He has three principal strategies to accomplish this:
- Among the faithful, he tries to get them to be careless about passing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the understanding of the importance of the temple to their children. Since everyone on earth is a descendant of persons who were endowed in the temple and who had power in the priesthood, it is plain to see that Satan had done very well in fostering this carelessness.
- Satan has created false religions which do not have power in their priesthoods, and which do not demand the rigors of full righteousness. They are often comfortable religions, giving men a sense of well-being but shielding them from the true gospel and from the temple ordinances and thus shielding them from power in the priesthood.
- Satan diverts people from the eternal tasks and gets them to bury themselves in some worldly pursuit: making money, gaining political power, being artistic, being scientific, being a slave to appetite and passion. What he does is to get people so involved in these things that the spiritual side of their lives is mostly neglected. This is the case of the seed falling on good ground, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches crowd out the good seed which would have otherwise borne good fruit.
A good example of Satan’s use of false religion is the salvation envisioned by Christians in the world today. They see salvation as not having to go to hell to pay for one’s sins and to be ushered into bliss for eternity. The point of being a Christian for them is to do some good in the world and trust that God will save you from hell and give you the beatific vision.
Latter-day Saints have quite a different version of salvation. We see salvation as consisting primarily in an overcoming of all of the character weaknesses in our own souls. With help of the Holy Spirit and the ordinances of the Gospel, we work steadily, day and night, to try to perfect our character until we have attained the fulness of the stature of Christ: His character. Having His character, we can do the works of righteousness, profit from the temple ordinances, gain power in the priesthood for time and thus be ready for eternity of work in priesthood assignment in the hereafter. Salvation to the ordinary Christian is forgiveness; salvation for us is total repentance, overcoming every sin and weakness until we are made perfect through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
And how shall we become perfect? By fully utilizing the gift of the temple ordinances. Have we been through the temple and received the endowment and sealing? Well and good. But the real question is, Has the temple been through us? Is our life changing so that we are in earnest pursuit of perfection, of actually coming to the fulness of the stature of Christ?
Let us ask ourselves some questions, the answers to which will reveal something about how much the temple has been through us as individuals:
- Do we understand the overwhelming importance of power in the priesthood?
- Do we understand how power in the priesthood relates to immortality, eternal life, and eternal lives?
- Do we understand the three steps for receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood?
- Do we understand the process of gaining power in the Melchizedek Priesthood once we have received all of that priesthood?
- Do we know what the word “endowment” means, and where the real “endowment” is, the heart of the endowment ceremony?
- Have we received the special blessings of the endowment or only the promises of it?
- Do we understand and obey the law of obedience?
- Do we understand and obey the law of sacrifice?
- Do we understand and use daily and fully the law of the Gospel?
- Do we understand and live the law of chastity in heart, might, mind and strength?
- Do we understand consecration and are we actually consecrated (as different from being potentially consecrated)?
- Do we understand and use the essence of the true order of prayer every time we pray?
- Do we use the power of the priesthood every day to strengthen our family and to prosper the kingdom of God on the earth?
- Do we see every sign, token, gesture and covenant in the temple as a representation of Jesus Christ and His life and mission?
- Do we really believe that it is possible to become perfect in Christ, or do we excuse our sins and say that Christ cannot save us from ourselves?
What does the Lord want? He wants Zion. What is Zion? Zion is a people who are pure in heart, so pure that He can come and dwell personally with them. Zion is His pavilion, His dwelling place. When the pavilion is ready, He will come and dwell in it, and all who are in that Zion will see and know Him personally.
But to have Zion we must be righteous. To be that righteous we must receive and keep all of the laws of the Gospel and the temple covenants. If we keep the laws of the Gospel and our temple covenants, we will have power in the priesthood. If we have power in the priesthood, we can perfect our families and finish our preparations for Zion and for the Savior’s Second Coming.
Will the Provo Utah Oak Hills Stake soon become a Zion? We shall see. How could it be done? It could be done if a thousand people in this stake would study the temple ceremonies, pray for understanding and strength, work with all their heart, might, mind and strength to be faithful to Christ in keeping their covenants, and never let down. What this stake needs is a thousand Enochs, husbands and wives who see eye to eye in the things of God and who work together to fulfill their godly potential. Is this possible? Certainly. With man it is not possible, but through the power of God and the blessing of the temple, it is completely possible for us to become Enochs and for this stake to be Zion.
It is my prayer that each of us will look into his or her own soul, see what needs to be done, and do it. We serve a master who looked into His own soul each day of mortality and lived a perfect life in order that He might save us, to bring us to the same perfection He enjoys. This is our opportunity and calling in life, and nothing else really matters. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and all else will be added to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.