Elder Richard G. Scott

In the April General Conference earlier this year Elder Richard G. Scott spoke about the temple.  He said:

I have seen that many times individuals have made great sacrifices to go to a distant temple. But when a temple is built close by, within a short time, many do not visit it regularly.  I have a suggestion: When a temple is conveniently nearby, small things may interrupt your plans to go to the temple. Set specific goals, considering your circumstances, of when you can and will participate in temple ordinances. Then do not allow anything to interfere with that plan. This pattern will guarantee that those who live in the shadow of a temple will be as blessed as are those who plan far ahead and make a long trip to the temple.

As Elder Scott suggested, one way to succeed in attending the temple regularly is to identity those things that interfere, and either eliminate them, work around them, or correct them.

So, we come to the poll below (only visible on the website).  This poll is completely anonymous.  Feel free to explain your choices, or “other” selection, in the comments, and how you plan to overcome your interferences.

Poll – Top Things that Interfere with Regular Temple Attendance?

I’m sorry for any inconvenience.  There may be others who are liveblogging the conference, and there is always the live web video stream that is available for $20.

No Liveblogging 2009 FAIR Conference

Remove your watch when you enter a house of the Lord. -Elder Richard G. Scott

This last weekend in General Conference, Elder Richard G. Scott gave an incredibly good talk about the temple and the importance of temple attendance.  I will break down more of this talk in a future post to glean more from the great insight he gave us.

One of his “interesting suggestions” for gaining more benefit from temple attendance was this -- “Remove your watch when you enter a house of the Lord.“  I immediately took notice of this counsel, as you might have also.  I have not heard the General Authorities recommend this before.  I did find it “interesting” because it is something that I have already practiced since the first time I went to the temple.  It didn’t feel right for me to wear that piece of apparel into the sacred space.

But how could something as trivial as wearing a watch affect what we gain from the temple?  While it is unlikely we can easily know why Elder Scott counseled us so, let me offer some personal reasons why I don’t wear my watch when I enter the temple, and why it might be a good idea for you too.

1. It’s a distraction

This is probably one of the biggest reasons why I do not wear my watch into the temple.  It doesn’t fit in that sacred place.  Watches are usually big, dark, and bulky, and don’t belong in the environment around us.  They are completely at odds with the symbolism we are immersed in.  When I see others wearing watches, it is a distraction to me, because it immediately draws my attention and focus away from where it should be, on the ordinance work, and learning the deeper meanings of the kingdom.

2. The temple is a timeless place

We go to the temple to get away from the world and it’s preoccupations.  We should not be worried about the passage of time, which can so quickly take us back mentally to the world from which we have left.  We should give time to consider our place in the universe, the progress of our lives, and improving the quality of our character.  Which leads us to reason #3.

3. A watch reminds us of the world

A watch reminds us what is on the outside of the temple when we should be paying heed to what is on the inside, and what is being taught to us.  A glance at a watch could easily remind us of the cares of a job, needs of a business, responsibilities, commitments, worldly struggles, whereas we are to not concern ourselves with those things while at the temple.  The temple should be a refuge from the storms in our lives, a place of peace, somewhere we go to get answers to our problems, not to be reminded of them.  A wristwatch can mix the profane with the sacred, which is an impossibility to begin with.

4. Time does not exist for God

At least not in the conventional sense.  D&C 130:7 notes that the “past, present, and future . . . are continually before the Lord.”  It also teaches that those who inherit the earth and the presence of God will likewise experience time in this continual fashion.  This is incomprehensible to us, being so inseparably connected to the passage of time in mortality.  But time is a very different concept to God.  Somehow he is transcendent to the passage of time.  Since we are striving to become like our Heavenly Parents, a watch does not fit within the pedagogical model of the temple.  A watch belongs in a different world.

5. Going without strict time commitments

Another of Elder Scott’s interesting suggestions was “Leave sufficient time to be unhurried within the temple walls. Rotate activities so that you can participate in all of the ordinances of the temple.” We should try to stay in the temple to ponder and pray instead of being rushed to meet another demands outside the temple walls.  There is so much work to be done in the temple, and Latter-day Saints “who live in the shadow of a temple” are those who can carry it out.

6. It is not temple clothing

We don’t wear other non-temple paraphernalia while in the temple for many of these same reasons.  Eyeglasses are a requisite item in order to gain as much from the temple experience as we can.  Wedding rings also fit within the symbolism of what we are in the temple.  But watches are unnecessary and extracurricular, in my opinion.

7. There are other clocks

We can check the time if we really need to know it.  There are small clocks positioned in various parts of the temple.  Or, you could just ask one of the temple workers.  I don’t believe there is a clock in the Celestial Room, perhaps for these same reasons.

8. It could interrupt a service

Many watches have alarms, “Indigo” lights, and other things that could interrupt a service.  Again, our full focus should be on what we are doing, and trying to be in tune with the Spirit so that the mysteries of God can be unfolded before us.  What we experience in the temple can’t be fully understood in a lifetime of attendance.  We shouldn’t shortchange the time we have to gain as much as we can from what the Lord has to offer.

9. We all dress the same

Allan K. Burgess once wrote:

. . . dressing alike symbolizes that all of us are equal in the sight of God. The rich and the poor, the educated and the unlearned, the boss and the worker, the General Authority and the new Church member all sit side by side in the temple and are of equal importance to the Lord. 

Hugh Nibley also once said:

Does sameness depress you? The heavenly hosts, so we are told, all wear the same simple white garment--how monotonous! We all dress alike in the temple. Are you depressed to be there? No, the difference is in the person himself. It shines through as the individual spirit. The Father and the Son glowed exactly alike. Why doesn’t one wear black and the other wear green or something like that? No. It is the outward sameness that allows inward sameness, the spirit, to shine through. Such monotony is put to shame by the multibillion-dollar fashion industry of our times. The difference is that in heaven it is the individual spirit that shines through. What do we see in the temple, when we are all dressed alike? We must go out to the parking lot to assert our individuality in Mercedes, Cadillacs, and so forth. And which is the more depressing picture? The gaudy display of vanity fair is an attempt to cover up the spiritual and intellectual barrenness of the present world we live in.

Watches can set us apart from one another, which is not what the temple teaches us.  We should not let vanity fair into the temple.

10. Elder Scott has suggested for us to do so

Some will say that this is insufficient reason, in and of itself.  But I don’t believe so.  I don’t think to pray over every item of counsel that leaves the lips of the Lord’s anointed servants in order to believe in it and do it.  If it makes sense, I do it, and I know I will be blessed.  I think this is a really good suggestion from Elder Scott, and when it comes from an Apostle of Jesus Christ I believe it is even more important that we pay attention to it.  It almost felt like Elder Scott was pleading with us to do so when he said it.

What other reasons can you think of that we might want to remove our watches when we enter the House of the Lord?  What else can be a distraction from our sacred worship there?  Anything else that we might want to be aware of as we enter the sacred space?

10 Reasons to Remove your Watch When You Enter the Temple

I will be attending the conference and liveblogging it using the innovative CoveritLive tool.  I’ll have my laptop and providing a running live commentary of the presentations as they happen, all available here at TempleStudy.com.  I’ve done this sort of thing before for FAIR Conferences, BYU Conferences, and last year’s General Conference.  You can tune in here at TempleStudy.com and get the gist of what is going on at the conference in real-time.  If there is a particular presentation that you’re interested in, you can come to the website just during that hour to participate and see the happenings live.  It won’t be a word-for-word transcript by any means, nor even a summary.  But it will be my impressions of what I think is interesting, or insightful, or worth taking note about.  You can send in your comments or questions too, and I can respond directly from the conference, all live.

I’m looking forward to the conference, and hope you will take the time to participate with me online.  If you want a reminder of the event, you can enter in your email address in the “Event Reminder” widget in the sidebar of TempleStudy.com.  An RSS feed of the event will be available at this address.  If you will be attending the conference, you can help with the liveblog and commentary.  If you have a laptop, I can invite you to be a panelist (let me know if you’re interested).  Or, if you just have a cell phone, you can add your comments by Twitter.  I propose a hashtag for this conference’s Twitterers, #mormonstudies.  Any tweets sent with that hashtag will show up in our liveblog stream here on TempleStudy.com.

Of course, the day after the Mormon Studies Conference ends is the commencement of the church-wide semi-annual General Conference (April 4-5, 2009).  I’ll be liveblogging that too, like we did last October.  I always look forward to watching General Conference, and it makes it even better being able to take notes, and communicate with others also watching Conference.  You’ll be able to watch conference live here, see our liveblog coverage, and Conference Twitter activity all here on TempleStudy.com.  The twitter hashtag that was established last October, which I imagine will be used again, is #ldsconf.  You’ll notice that some twitterers are already writing about the General Young Women Meeting right now using that hashtag.  One twitterer jetsnow notes, “President Monson gives a shout out to facebook, blogging and text messaging in the #ldsconf YW session!”  I wonder what he said!

Let me know if you have any questions about these liveblogs.  I look forward to participating in them with you.

Liveblogging Mormon Studies Conference and General Conference

Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone

Note: Below is an excerpt from a book entitled “The Incomparable Christ: Our Master and Model” by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone, an emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, that he entitled “Holiness to the Lord.”  The book was published in 1995.  It is powerful in its vision of the future need of temples as a refuge from a wicked world.  After being released from the Seventy, Elder Featherstone served as the president of the Logan Utah Temple. (The emphasis below is my own.)

The season of the world before us will be like no other in the history of mankind. Satan will unleash every evil scheme, every vile perversion ever known to man in any generation. Just as this dispensation of the fulness of times brought the restoration of all that is good and holy, so also did it bring the fulness of evil. As parents, spouses, children, and members of Christ’s church, we must find safety. Unfortunately, many will struggle mightily before recognizing this bitter truth: there is no safety in this world--wealth cannot provide it, enforcement agencies cannot ensure it, even membership in the Church will not guarantee it. 

As the evil night darkens on this generation, we must come to the temple for light and safety. Only in the house of the Lord will we find quiet, sacred havens where the storm cannot penetrate. There unseen sentinels watch over us. So it was that the Prophet Joseph pled with God during the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple: “And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house [temple] armed with thy power and that thy name may be upon them . . . and thine angels have charge overthem.” ( D&C 109:22.) The Lord has promised: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” (D&C 84:88.) Surely angelic attendants guard the temples of the Most High God. It is my conviction that as it was in the days of Elisha, so it will be for us: “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” (2 Kings 6:16.)

Before the Savior comes the world will darken. The time will come when even the elect will begin to lose hope if they do not come often to the temples. I believe that the Saints will come to the temples not only to do vicarious work but also to find a God-given haven of peace. True and faithful Latter-day Saints the world over will long to bring their children to the temple for service and for safety.

The Lord has promised that He will “suddenly come to [His] temple.” (D&C 36:8.) “The day or the hour no man knoweth; but it surely shall come.” (D&C 39:21.) We need to prepare for that day.

There are those among our youth today who will be someday called to the holy apostleship. The rest of us are walking with them daily, unaware that one day God will move His hand and the mantle of apostleship will rest upon them. We must keep those who have been so foreordained sweet, clean, and pure in our wicked world. Mothers will cradle in their arms and nurse at their bosoms babes who will yet become God’s living oracles.

There are great unseen hosts in the temple. Joseph told the brethren, “And I beheld the temple was filled with angels.” (History of the Church, 2:428.) I believe deceased prophets of all dispensations visit the temples. Those who attend the temple will feel their strength and companionship. We will not be alone in the house of the Lord.

Faithful, endowed members of the Church who keep all their covenants and properly wear their sacred coverings will be safe as if protected behind temple walls. The covenants and ordinances are filled with faith as a living fire. In a day of desolating sickness,scorched earth, barren wastes, sickening plagues, disease, destruction, and death (see Joel 2:2-6; also D&C 29 and 133), we as a people will rest in the shade of trees. We will drink from the cooling fountains. We will abide in places of refuge from the storm. We will mount up as on eagles’ wings; we will be lifted out of a wicked, insane, and evil world. We will be as fair as the sun and clear as the moon.

The Savior will come and honor His people. Those who are prepared and therefore spared on that glorious, triumphant day will be a temple-loving people. They will know Him and see Him “red in his apparel, and his garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vat. . . . The sun shall hide his face in shame, and the moon shall withhold its light, and the stars shall be hurled from their places.” The redeemed “shall mention the loving kindness of their Lord, and all that he has bestowed upon them according to his goodness.” (D&C 133:48-49, 52.) They will cry out, “Blessed be the name of he that cometh in the name of the Lord. . . . Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.” (Psalm 118:26, 28.) Then we will all join in one grand hosanna that will ring from one end of eternity to the other, a hosanna shout to God and the Lamb.

Those who live in that day--whether that be us, our children, our children’s children, or some future generation--will bow down at His feet and worship Him as the Lord of lords, King of kings. They will bathe His feet with their tears, and He will weep and bless them for having suffered through some of the greatest trials ever known to man. His bowels will be filled with compassion, His heart will swell wide as eternity, and He will love them as no mortal can love. He will bring peace that will last a thousand years, and they who have become his children of the covenant will dwell with Him.

Let us prepare this special future generation with faith to surmount every trial and every condition. We will do it in our holy, sacred temples. Come, oh, come up to the temples of the Lord and walk in His edifices wherein there is truly “holiness to the Lord.”

The Temple is a Fortress of the Lord

Between 30,000 and 50,000 people gathered to shout "Hosanna!" for the capstone-laying ceremony of the Salt Lake Temple in 1892. Photo by Charles Ellis Johnson.

This last Sunday as I participated in the Hosanna Shout at one of the dedication sessions of the Draper Utah Temple, I thought that it might be interesting to research this form of praise and worship, and how it’s been used in the past. During the services President Uchtdorf related some of the occasions on which this shout has been given, such as when Jesus rode into Jerusalem triumphantly (Matthew 21; Mark 11; John 12), or when Christ appeared to the people in the Americas in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 11). But when else has this shout been given, particularly in the latter days, and under what circumstances? 

I found that Dr. Richard Holzapfel, a scholar at Brigham Young University, already has researched and wrote about this on the Religious Studies Center Blog yesterday.  Dr. Holzapfel notes that it was precisely 173 years ago today that the Kirtland temple was dedicated, and the Hosanna Shout was given.  The majority of his post deals with the shouts that were given in conjunction with the capstone-laying ceremony and formal dedication services of the Salt Lake Temple.  Of the capstone ceremony he writes:

President George Q. Cannon, a counselor in the First Presidency, said "that there may be no misunderstanding about the manner in which the shout of Hosanna should be given when the capstone should be laid, Pres. Lorenzo Snow would drill the congregation in the shout." Then President Snow said, "This is no ordinary order, but is--and we wish it to be distinctly understood--a sacred shout, and employed only on extraordinary occasions like the one now before us." He urged them with these words: "We wish the Saints to feel when they pronounce this shout that it comes from their hearts. Let your hearts be filled with thanksgiving," adding, "Now when we go before the temple and this shout goes forth, we want every man and every woman to shout these words to the very extent of their voice, so that every house in this city may tremble, the people in every portion of this city hear it and it may reach to the eternal worlds." He finally told the congregation that the sacred shout "was given in the heavens when 'all the sons of God shouted for joy' [Job 38:7]."

President Woodruff later gave an profound insight about the sacred dedicatory services:

President Woodruff later told a congregation of Saints that "the Heavenly Host were in attendance at the [first] dedication [service] . . . and if the eyes of the congregation could be opened they would [have] seen Joseph and Hyrum [Smith], Brigham Young, John Taylor and all the good men who had lived in this dispensation assembled with us, as also Esaias, Jeremiah, and all the Holy Prophets and Apostles who had prophesied of the latter day work." President Woodruff continued, "They were rejoicing with us in this building which had been accepted of the Lord and [when] the [Hosanna] shout had reached the throne of the Almighty," they too had joined in the joyous shout.

I remember when President Hinckley said almost the same thing at the dedication of the Nauvoo Temple while I was on my mission in El Salvador.  He said that Joseph Smith and many of the early Saints and prophets were in attendance.  Surely they too joined in shouting Hosannas to God and the Lamb!

See Dr. Holzapfel’s full post entitled “Hosanna!“

The Sacred Hosanna Shout!

When you come to the temple you will love your family with a deeper love than you have ever felt before. The temple is about families. . . . It extends to parents, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, forebears, and especially our grandchildren! This is the Spirit of Elijah, which is the spirit of family history work; and when inspired by the Holy Ghost, it prompts the turning of the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. Because of the priesthood, husbands and wives are sealed together, children are sealed to their parents for eternity so the family is eternal and will not be separated at death.

Other parts of Elder Winkel’s talk are equally good:

Like you, I don’t want to lose any of my children. I want to be together forever with all of my family. The temple gives all of us extra hope of continuing and improving these relationships, even after this life. Sealings bestowed in the temple promise additional blessings.

“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared-and he never taught more comforting doctrine-that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain.” . . .

President Hinckley has told us that “just as our Redeemer gave His life as a vicarious sacrifice for all men, and in so doing became our Savior, even so we, in a small measure, when we engage in proxy work in the temple, become as saviors to those on the other side who have no means of advancing unless something is done in their behalf by those on earth.” . . .

The temple is a place to know the Father and the Son. It is a place where we experience the divine presence. The Prophet Joseph Smith made this plea: “I advise all to … search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness.”  And where shall we search? In the house of God.

The Temple is About Families