Lessons on the Temple
Lesson No. Thirteen
The Temple Endowment is a Gift of the Most Important Knowledge and Greatest Power
In the temple we learn the plan of salvation – The dictionary definition of “endowment” is a gift. This is the way it is commonly used when we read a newspaper article and learn that a wealthy donor has endowed the university with a gift of money so the university can fulfill its mission and purpose.
In the temple our Heavenly Father endows his children with a gift far more precious than money. It is a gift of knowledge and power that is intended to enable us to finish our mission of the earth, return to his presence and to become like him.
The way we become like our Father in Heaven is called the plan of salvation. In the temple we learn more about the plan of salvation than anywhere else, and we learn in ways we only learn there.
The temple endowment – In 1831 while the Prophet Joseph lived in New York the Lord said:
“And that ye might escape the power of the enemy and be gathered unto me a righteous people, without spot and blameless—Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high” (D&C 38:31-32).
Joseph did as he was commanded and moved to Kirtland, Ohio and there the Kirtland Temple was built. There the Lord began to reveal the law and ordinances and power related to temple worship. In Nauvoo on May 3, 1842 in the upper room of the Prophets Red Brick Store Joseph first introduced the Temple Endowment. Joseph instructed that when the Nauvoo Temple was completed that the temple endowment should be given to righteous latter day saints. Now the temple endowment is given to worthy latter day saints throughout the world.
It is important to remember that the temple endowment includes all of the blessings, knowledge, and power received during the endowment session, the initiatory ordinances, and the sealing ordinances.
The gift of knowledge - Brigham Young said: “Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father passing the angels who stand as sentinels being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens pertaining to the holy priesthood and gain your eternal exaltation despite heaven and hell.”
Only exalted beings can come into the presence of the Father. The temple endowment gives us the knowledge necessary to be resurrected to the highest glory in the celestial kingdom.
The gift of power - President James E. Faust in speaking of the temple said: “We can see in vision the countless couples in their youth and beauty coming to be married. We see clearly the unspeakable joy on their countenances as they are sealed together and as there is sealed upon them, through their faithfulness, the blessing of the holy Resurrection, with power to come forth in the morning of the First Resurrection clothed with glory, immortality and eternal lives” (Ensign, August 2001, p. 2).
Testimony – The sealing ordinance gives us power to be resurrected to the highest glory where the union between husband and wife continues with an eternal posterity.
It is significant that when the Lord ministered in the spirit world that he gathered the righteous spirits which would have included Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and many others, and he taught them, and by an ordinance “gave them power to come forth, after his resurrection from the dead, to enter into his Father’s kingdom, there to be crowned with immortality and eternal life” (D&C 138:51).
If we are true to our temple covenants the day will come when we will, with our companion and our family, “come forth in the morning of the first resurrection clothed with glory, immortality and eternal lives” (James E. Faust, Ensign, August 2001, p. 2).