Mormon Temples

The Mormon Church always holds an open house before a temple is dedicated to the Lord. By attending the open house, friends of other faiths can see how beautiful and sacred a temple is. Visitors can feel the Lord’s spirit there.

Each temple contains the following rooms:

• Entry foyer
• Welcome desk
• Waiting room
• Baptistry
• Dressing rooms (where patrons change into white clothing)
• Bride’s dressing room
• A chapel
• Endowment rooms
• The Celestial room
• Sealing rooms
• Service rooms, such as laundry, cafeteria, and offices

Temple Ordinances

Baptism for the Dead

Several high ordinances are performed in temples. When a person joins the Church, he or she is baptized in a baptismal font located in a Mormon meetinghouse. However, Mormons perform ordinances for the dead, and baptisms for the dead are performed only in temples. Mormons know that the dead live on. (See 1 Corinthians 15:29.) At death, the spirit is separated from the body, and the spirit goes to the Spirit World to await resurrection. In the Spirit World people have the same personalities they had on earth, with the ability to learn and to make choices. There, people who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ have an opportunity to do so. Mormons perform ordinances for them that can only be performed in the body. The dead can accept or reject those ordinances at will.

The temple baptistry is always located in the basement of the temple, below ground to symbolize the death and resurrection of Christ, and the burial of the old person and rebirth of a new person in Christ. The baptismal font rests on the backs of twelve oxen, as did the laver in Solomon’s temple. There are special dressing rooms for the baptistery, and an area where confirmations are performed. “Confirmation” is the bestowal of the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands by one holding priesthood authority. It is sometimes called the baptism by fire.

Worthy Mormons age 12 and over may be baptized for the dead. Children who participate receive a special recommend from the bishop, certifying their worthiness. A conditional recommend to do baptisms does not admit a person to the other areas of the temple. A “temple recommend” is required and must be obtained through a worthiness interview with one’s bishop and then with one’s stake president.

The Endowment

After a brief ceremony symbolizing washing and anointing, a temple patron can perform his or her own endowment. A person only goes through the temple once for himself, and from then on in behalf of the dead. An endowment is a gift, and the temple endowment is a gift from God of protection and power through the atonement of Jesus Christ. It is a step toward exaltation in the highest kingdom of heaven. The endowment ceremony is performed in an endowment room. Larger temples might have three or four endowment rooms, which look like small, but beautiful, auditoriums. Patrons watch a film on the creation and the Plan of Salvation. They covenant to keep the commandments of God and to build up His kingdom on earth. They pray for the sick and afflicted and reflect personally upon their faith and blessings. A veil separates the endowment room from the celestial room of the temple. At the conclusion of the endowment session, which is always the same, and which takes about 90 minutes to complete, the patrons enter the celestial room where they can greet family members or sit and meditate.

The temple is a place of purity, free from the cares of the world. The temple is filled with light. Satan has no power there, so it is the perfect place to contemplate one’s problems and challenges and to receive revelation through the Holy Spirit in order to cope with or solve those problems.

Sealings

Mormons believe that family members can be sealed together in an eternal covenant, so that the family bond continues for eternity. Eternal marriages are performed in the sealing rooms of the temple. A sealing room has a beautiful altar at the center and mirrors on the walls that reflect each other into infinity. Chairs for guests line the outside of the room. All guests must have temple recommends and dress in their Sunday best to attend a sealing. The bride and groom wear white and hold hands across the altar while kneeling there to say their vows. The ceremony is similar to other religious marriage ceremonies, except that the vow is for eternity and the promises are relevant to heaven as well as to the couple’s union on earth. After vows are exchanged, the bride and groom may kiss and exchange rings and then greet those attending the sealing. Families then gather outside the temple for photographs.

When a child is born to a couple that has been sealed in the temple, the child is considered “born in the covenant” and automatically sealed to its parents. However, sometimes a family either converts to the Church or later becomes worthy to be sealed in the temple. Then, conditional recommends are issued to the children and the whole family dresses in white and goes to the sealing room. Husband and wife are sealed to each other and then the children are sealed to them.

To read about a family whose adopted children were sealed to them, click here.

Temples Dot the Earth

Temple covenants and access to a temple are so important and life-changing that the Church wants all members to live close by a temple. Therefore, under Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, a program of temple-building was undertaken. By building smaller temples, more could be built. Some poorer families in the Church previously may have been able to get to a temple only once in a lifetime, to seal the family together. Now, they may be able to attend more often. Over 150 temples are in full service, are under construction, or have been announced for locations worldwide. (Read about the temples of the world at MormonTemples.com.)