| Temples are not regular places of Sunday worship for | | | | where Church members make formal promises and |
| members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day | | | | commitments to God. They are also the place where |
| Saints. They are quite different from the thousands of | | | | the highest sacraments of the faith occur - the |
| regular chapels or meetinghouses all over the world | | | | marriage of couples and the "sealing" of families for |
| that are used for Sunday services. | | | | eternity. |
| Anyone, regardless of religion, may enter a Latter-day | | | | Temples serve as the only place where ceremonies |
| Saint meetinghouse and attend services. However, | | | | such as baptism and eternal marriage can be |
| because of the sacredness of temples as "houses of | | | | performed in behalf of those who have died -a |
| the Lord," only members of the Church, who are in | | | | practice that Latter-day Saints believe was followed in |
| good standing are allowed to enter the temples. A | | | | New Testament times but that later was lost. |
| member must be observing the basic principles of the | | | | Temples point Latter-day Saints to Jesus Christ and |
| faith and attest to that fact to his or her local leaders | | | | their eventual life with Him, their Heavenly Father and |
| once every two years in order to enter a temple. | | | | their family members on the condition of faithfulness to |
| The sacredness of the temple anciently can be seen | | | | Christ's teachings. |
| in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old | | | | In a modern-day revelation, Joseph Smith received |
| Testament, Moses had the children of Israel carry with | | | | direction to build a temple in Kirtland, Ohio (dedicated in |
| them the Tabernacle (a large, portable temple) as they | | | | 1836). Later he was instructed to build a temple in |
| wandered in the wilderness. King Solomon built and | | | | Nauvoo, Illinois (1846). So important were temples to |
| dedicated the great temple that was destroyed by the | | | | early Church members that within days after arriving in |
| Babylonians in 586 B.C. It was rebuilt and later | | | | Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young selected the site of |
| substantially expanded, but again destroyed by the | | | | the Salt Lake Temple. |
| Romans in A.D. 70. The great Western Wall can still | | | | There are 134 temples throughout the world either in |
| be seen in Jerusalem today, and even after millennia, | | | | operation, under construction or announced. On most |
| remains a sacred site for Jews. The New Testament | | | | temples there is a golden statue of a man in flowing |
| gives an account of Jesus Christ clearing the temples | | | | robes, with a long horn pressed to his lips. The statue |
| when its sacredness was violated by people using its | | | | depicts the angel Moroni, an ancient prophet and a |
| courts as a common market. | | | | central figure in the Book of Mormon. The statue is |
| Latter-day Saint temples are considered houses of | | | | symbolic of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus |
| God, a place of holiness and peace separate from the | | | | Christ to the world. |
| preoccupations of the world. They provide a place | | | | |