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.[6]
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:
"Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God."[7]
Latter Day Saints see temples as the fulfillment of a prophecy found in Malachi3:1 (KJV): "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 (RLDS Church) 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 (announced in his Manifesto of September 1890) 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."[8]
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." (Doctrine and Covenants LDS 109:5). All Latter Day Saint denominations with temples still consider them to be special houses of the Lord.
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 (unfinished) 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.
Upon completion (or after the completion of significant renovations), temples are open to the public for a period of time (an "open house"). 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;[13] 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 (Switzerland–1955 and England–1958); the Pacific Islands (New Zealand–1958); and Washington, D.C.(1974) when membership alone might not have justified the effort.
Temple growth continued in the 1980s, church presidentSpencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) directed the church to build smaller temples with similar designs. Before this time, all but the Swiss Temple were at least 45,000 square feet (4,200m2), and the average size of the first 20 temples was 103,000 square feet (9,570m2). The new temples varied in size but were generally less than 25,000 square feet (2,300m2) allowing temples to be built where there were fewer members. As a result, the first temples in South America (Brazil–1978); Asia (Japan–1980); and Latin America (Mexico City–1983) were built and the number of temples doubled from 15 to 36. Church president Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) also accelerated the construction of temples through the use of an even smaller standardized base design[14] and set a goal to have 100 operating temples before 2001.[15] 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.
The Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) performs temple ordinances in its Independence, Missouri, meetinghouse, their only building still in active use,[16] though the church also believes in the principle of constructing special temples such as the ones in Kirtland and Nauvoo. Cutlerites do not designate their meetinghouse as a temple per se, but they believe that it serves precisely the same purpose and that the ordinances performed there are equally as valid as ones done in any pre-1844 temple.[17] These sacred services of the Cutlerites are not open to the public, and participants are forbidden to discuss them outside the room in which they are performed.
Cutlerite meetinghouses are constructed with a main-floor chapel that is always open to the public unless baptisms for the dead are being performed; a second-floor room, which is closed to the public at all times, is reserved for the ordinances of the endowment. Cutlerites do not use the term "endowment" to refer to these rituals; they generally refer to them as "the priesthood ordinances". A rectangular-shaped baptismal font is accessed through a trap door beneath the floor of the main-floor chapel, which is used for baptisms of both the living and the dead. Eternal marriages are not performed by the Cutlerites, as they have always rejected that particular doctrine.[17]
Community of Christ (formerly the RLDS Church) currently maintains one temple. Unlike those of the LDS Church, the temple is open to the public. Many religious functions take place including communion and a daily prayer for peace.
During its 1994 World Conference, Community of Christ dedicated the Independence Temple located in Independence, Missouri. The Community of Christ describes this temple as a house of worship and education "dedicated to the pursuit of peace".[18] The church holds a Daily Prayer for Peace at 1:00p.m. Central Time in the temple's 1,600 seat sanctuary.
From around 1901 to 2024, the temple built in Kirtland, Ohio, was owned and maintained by Community of Christ. This was the first temple built by the Latter Day Saint movement and the only temple completed in the lifetime of Joseph Smith. The LDS Church and Community of Christ announced on March 5, 2024 that ownership of the site had transferred to the former as part of a $192.5 million acquisition of historic sites and objects.[19][20]
During the life of Joseph Smith, a few years before the Kirtland temple was built, Smith dedicated a location in Independence, Missouri, for the building of a special temple, which was to be the center of a New Jerusalem. However, hostile action by non-Mormon citizens resulted in the expulsion of all Latter Day Saints from the area in 1833, and the planned temple did not proceed beyond the laying of cornerstones. As of 2011, the lot for this temple is owned and maintained by the Church of Christ (Temple Lot). The Temple Lot church endeavored to construct a temple beginning in 1929, as a result of a revelation that apostle Otto Fetting was said to have received from John the Baptist. A hole for the proposed temple basement was excavated, and architects' drawings were done, but no further work was completed due to a chronic lack of funding and the expulsion of Fetting and his followers (about one-third of the Temple Lot organization at the time) from the Temple Lot church. In 1946, the City of Independence had the hole filled in, and the lot today is mostly covered with grass, with the Church of Christ's meetinghouse and a few trees at the northeast corner.[23] Today, the Temple Lot church has no plans to build a temple but sees itself as the steward of the lot until the various Latter Day Saint factions unite around the time of Jesus Christ's Second Coming.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) endeavored to construct a temple in the mid-1840s in Voree, Wisconsin, according to a rather elaborate plan devised by their prophet James J. Strang. Poverty and factional infighting among the Strangites prevented the temple from progressing beyond the planning stage.[24] The church has made no attempt to build temples since Strang's death.
Performing ordinances in other buildings
Building currently known as the Endowment House, Spring City, Utah.
From 1855 to 1889, the LDS Church performed ordinances in the Endowment House to allow members to receive the endowment during construction of temples in Utah. Before the Endowment House was built, the Council House was similarly used, between 1850 and 1855.
Historically, there were other locations where ordinances for the living were performed, both indoors and out, as recorded in pioneer journals. One of these is a building known as the Endowment House in Spring City, Utah, built by Orson Hyde.[25] The building is still standing at 85 West 300 South.
The Endowment House in Salt Lake City was razed in 1889 after church president Wilford Woodruff learned that plural marriages were being performed there without the authorization of the First Presidency.
↑ Hill, Victoria (January 23, 2023). "Plans announced to rebuild, relocate Anchorage Alaska Temple". KUTV. Retrieved July 6, 2024. (The Anchorage Alaska Temple is being relocated and resized. While the new temple is under construction, the existing temple is open and will be decommissioned and demolished after the new one is dedicated).
↑ Hill, Victoria (January 23, 2023). "Plans announced to rebuild, relocate Anchorage Alaska Temple". KUTV. Retrieved July 6, 2024. (The Anchorage Alaska Temple is being relocated and resized. While the new temple is under construction, the existing temple is open and will be decommissioned and demolished after the new one is dedicated).
↑ Recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, Smith wrote that the Lord commanded the Saints to "establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;" (see Doctrine and Covenants88:119–120)
↑ Hinckley announced the use of smaller standardized temples in 1997 ( Gordon B. Hinckley. "Some Thoughts on Temples, Retention of Converts, and Missionary Service". 167th Semiannual General Conference, October 1997. Retrieved 2006-10-30.). The base design is about 10,700 square feet (990m2), and temples built from the design are generally between 10,000 and 18,000 square feet (930 and 1,700m2). These temples generally do not include a large laundry facility, do not provide members with the ability to rent temple clothing, nor provide a cafeteria for members (Almanac, 2000).
In Mormonism, the endowment is a two-part ordinance (ceremony) designed for participants to become kings, queens, priests, and priestesses in the afterlife. As part of the first ceremony, participants take part in a scripted reenactment of the Biblical creation and fall of Adam and Eve. The ceremony includes a symbolic washing and anointing, and receipt of a "new name" which they are not to reveal to others except at a certain part in the ceremony, and the receipt of the temple garment, which Mormons then are expected to wear under their clothing day and night throughout their life. Participants are taught symbolic gestures and passwords considered necessary to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven, and are instructed not to reveal them to others. As practiced today in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the endowment also consists of a series of covenants that participants make, such as a covenant of consecration to the LDS Church. All LDS Church members who choose to serve as missionaries or participate in a celestial marriage in a temple must first complete the first endowment ceremony.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, an ordinance is a sacred rite or ceremony that has spiritual and symbolic meanings and act as a means of conveying divine grace. Ordinances are physical acts which signify or symbolize an underlying spiritual act; for some ordinances, the spiritual act is the finalization of a covenant between the ordinance recipient and God.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the second anointing is the pinnacle ordinance of the temple and an extension of the endowment ceremony. Founder Joseph Smith taught that the function of the ordinance was to ensure salvation, guarantee exaltation, and confer godhood. In the ordinance, a participant is anointed as a "priest and king" or a "priestess and queen", and is sealed to the highest degree of salvation available in Mormon theology.
The Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) is a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement headquartered in Independence, Missouri, United States. The church derives its epithet from its founder, Alpheus Cutler, a member of the Nauvoo High Council and of Joseph Smith's Council of Fifty. Cutler justified his establishment of an independent church organization by asserting that God had "rejected" Smith's organization—but not his priesthood—following Smith's death, but that Smith had named Cutler to a singular "Quorum of Seven" in anticipation of this event, with a unique prerogative to reorganize the church that no one beyond this group possessed. Hence, Cutler's organization claims to be the only legitimate Latter Day Saint church in the world today. Currently, it has only one branch, located in Independence. The Cutlerite church retains an endowment ceremony believed to date to the Nauvoo period, practices the United Order of Enoch, and accepts baptism for the dead, but not eternal marriage or polygamy.
The Latter Day Saint movement is a religious movement within Christianity that arose during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century and that led to the set of doctrines, practices, and cultures called Mormonism, and to the existence of numerous Latter Day Saint churches. Its history is characterized by intense controversy and persecution in reaction to some of the movement's doctrines and practices and their relationship to mainstream Christianity. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the different groups, beliefs, and denominations that began with the influence of Joseph Smith.
Washing and anointing is a Latter-day Saint practice of ritual purification. It is a key part of the temple endowment ceremony as well as the controversial Second Anointing ceremony practiced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Mormon fundamentalists. It was also part of the female-only healing rituals among Latter-day Saints until at least the 1940s.
The Nauvoo Illinois Temple is the 113th dedicated temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The intent to build the temple was announced on April 4, 1999, by church president Gordon B. Hinckley during general conference. It is the third temple built in Illinois.
The Kirtland Temple is the first temple built by adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement, located in Kirtland, Ohio, and dedicated in March 1836. Joseph Smith, the movement's founder, directed the construction following a series of reported revelations, and the temple showcases a blend of Federal, Greek Revival, and Gothic Revival architectural styles. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1977. Prior to March 5, 2024, the temple was owned and operated by Community of Christ for over a century before ownership transferred to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
John Alpheus Cutler was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement who founded the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) in 1853. He had previously served in several church positions under Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, as well as captain of Smith's personal bodyguard and "Master Builder and Workman on all God's Holy Houses." Following the death of Joseph Smith in June 1844, Cutler at first followed the Twelve Apostles under Brigham Young, but later left Young's church to reorganize the Church of Jesus Christ, with himself serving as its first president. Cutler claimed that this was the sole legitimate continuation of Smith's organization, and he served as its leader until his death.
In temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an ordinance room is a room where the ceremony known as the Endowment is administered, as well as other ordinances such as Sealings. Some temples perform a progressive-style ordinance where patrons move from room to room, each room representing a progression of mankind: the Creation room, representing the Genesis creation story; the Garden room represents the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived prior to the fall of man; the World room, where Adam and Eve lived after the fall; the Terrestrial room; and the Celestial room representing the Celestial Kingdom of God, or more commonly, heaven. There is also an additional ordinance room, the Sealing room, and at least one temple has a Holy of Holies. These two rooms are reserved for the administration of ordinances beyond the Endowment. The Holy of Holies is representative of that talked about when the temple is discussed in the bible.
The St. George Utah Temple, formerly known as the St. George Temple, is a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in St. George, Utah. Completed in 1877, it was the third temple constructed by the church and the first in Utah, following the westward migration of Mormon pioneers from Nauvoo, Illinois, after the death of church founder Joseph Smith.
On December 27, 1832, two years after the organization of the Church of Christ, the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, stated he received a revelation that called upon church members to restore the practice of temple worship. The Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio were commanded to:
"Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God."
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord. Temples are considered by church members to be the most sacred structures on earth.
In the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, an endowment refers to a gift of "power from on high", typically associated with the ordinances performed in Latter Day Saint temples. The purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during the life of movement founder Joseph Smith. The term has referred to many such gifts of heavenly power, including the confirmation ritual, the institution of the High Priesthood in 1831, events and rituals occurring in the Kirtland Temple in the mid-1830s, and an elaborate ritual performed in the Nauvoo Temple in the 1840s.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the life and influence of Joseph Smith:
The Pioneer Style was a popular style of Utahn architecture most utilized during the years 1847 to 1890. The pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly referred to as Mormons, trekked west into the Utah Territory to seek refuge from religious persecution in the mid-Western and Eastern United States. Because the Latter-day Saints were some of the earliest and significant settlers in the Utah area, the foundational architecture in Utah is largely influenced by these early settlers. Architecture in Utah is highly religious, consisting of temples and church meetinghouses, and European-influenced due to the origins of many of the settlers. Members of the Church valued the institution of education, an idea they carried with them from the Northern States, which resulted in many schools being established for their children. Entertainment was another highly appreciated and valued aspect among the early members of the Church which resulted in the establishment of many theatres and music halls.
The architecture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes the design and use of the church's temples, meetinghouses, historic sites, and other buildings and facilities. The LDS Church is known for its unique and often imposing architecture. The church's architecture differs based on the uses of individual buildings and varies in style throughout the world.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints —there have been numerous changes to temple ceremonies over time in the church's over-200-year history. Temples are not churches or meetinghouses designated for public weekly worship services, but rather sacred places that only admit members in good standing with a recommendation from their leaders. LDS Church members perform rituals within temples. They are taught that God has deemed these ordinances as essential to achieving the faith's ultimate goal after death of exaltation. They are also taught that a vast number of dead spirits exist in a condition termed spirit prison for whom when the temple ordinances are completed will have the option to accept the ordinances and be freed of their imprisonment. These temple ordinances are performed by a living church member for themself and "on behalf of the dead" or "by proxy".
Elwin C. Robison, The First Mormon Temple: Design, Construction, and Historic Context of the Kirtland Temple, Provo, Utah: BYU Press, 1997. ISBN0-8425-2333-2
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