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Latter-day Saint Temples/Ordinances revealed
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Contents
Questions
== Critics claim that the LDS temple ordinances were either made up by Joseph Smith or borrowed, by him, from an earthly source.
Detailed Analysis
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Below are statements from the LDS Church's website indicating that the temple ordinances were 'revealed' by the Lord and 'restored' from antiquity.
- Apostle Russell M. Nelson, “Prepare for Blessings of the Temple,” Ensign, March 2002.
- “The temple endowment was given by revelation. . . . Temples, ordinances, covenants, endowments, and sealings have been restored, precisely as prophesied. . . . A review of the Old Testament and the books of Moses and Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price may be especially enlightening after one is more familiar with the temple endowment. These books of ancient scripture underscore the antiquity of temple work and the enduring nature of its ordinances.”
- Temple Preparation Seminar Manual, 2003 / Lesson 3.
- “the Lord has always commanded His people to build temples. He has revealed the work to be done in temples. . . . Temple work in its fulness has been restored in our day through the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
- Apostle Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, September 1993.
- “Isn’t it marvelous to ponder how much the Prophet Joseph Smith learned throughout the extended process of restoring the holy apostleship, the holy priesthood, the holy endowment, the holy sealing power.”
- Temple Preparation Seminar Manual, 2003 / Lesson 6.
- President Harold B. Lee: “The temple ceremonies are designed by a wise Heavenly Father who has revealed them to us in these last days.”
- Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, 2002 / “Taught from On High,” adapted from The Holy Temple by Apostle Boyd K. Packer.
- Apostle John A. Widtsoe, “The endowment and the temple work as revealed by the Lord to the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
- Apostle Marion G. Romney, Ensign, March 1971.
- Prophet Joseph Smith: “What was the object of gathering the Jews, or the people of God in any age of the world? . . . . [T]o build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house.”
- Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, 2002 / “Come to the Temple,” adapted from The Holy Temple by Apostle Boyd K. Packer.
- “In the temples members of the Church who make themselves eligible can participate in the most exalted of the redeeming ordinances that have been revealed to mankind. There, in a sacred ceremony, an individual may be washed and anointed and instructed and endowed and sealed.”
- Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, ch. 44, 2007.
- “During the Prophet’s ministry, all things were restored that were necessary to lay the foundation of the greatest dispensation of all time. The priesthood, with its essential keys, was restored; the Book of Mormon was translated; the Church was organized; and doctrines, ordinances, and covenants were revealed, including the ordinances and covenants of the endowment and the marriage sealing.”
- “Endowed with Covenants and Blessings,” Ensign, February 1995.
- It was through the Prophet Joseph Smith in the nineteenth century that the Lord restored again to earth the holy ordinances of temple covenants and blessings. The following recollection of President George Q. Cannon of the First Presidency describes the intense interest that members of the Church had in the 1840s when the blessings of the temple were again made available to mankind:
- “When the Prophet Joseph [Smith] first communicated that the Lord had revealed to him the keys of the endowment, I can remember the great desire there was on every hand to understand something about them. When the Prophet would speak about his desire to complete the temple in order that he might impart unto his fellow servants that which God had delivered to him, a thrill went through the congregation and a great desire for this filled their hearts” (Gospel Truth, Discourses and Writings of President George Q. Cannon, 2 vols., comp. Jerreld L. Newquist, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1974, 1:228).
- Apostle Mark E. Peterson, Ensign, January 1972.
- “As the gospel was restored in these last days, temple building and temple ordinances also were restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
- D&C and Church History Teacher’s Manual, 1999, Lesson 18.
- “Explain that the Kirtland Temple was not like today’s temples, where saving ordinances are performed for the living and the dead. The Lord restored temple ordinances a few years later while the Saints were in Nauvoo.”
Answer
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== Notes ==
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