election

Seeing the Face of God in the Temple – Part 1

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The Israelite high priest sees God face-to-face upon the Ark of the Covenant

The Israelite high priest sees God face-to-face upon the Ark of the Covenant

The Doctrine and Covenants section 93 verse 1 reads:

Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am; (D&C 93:1)

This superlative promise was one of the foundations of Joseph Smith’s restoration, and whose revelations repeated throughout his calling as God’s prophet:   [Read more…]

The Temple is a Fortress of the Lord

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Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone

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.  [Read more…]

Washing of Feet

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Jesus Washing Peter's Feet by Ford Madox Brown. 1852-56, retouched several times up to 1892. Oil on canvas 46 x 52 1/4 in Tate Gallery, London.

Jesus Washing Peter's Feet by Ford Madox Brown. 1852-56, retouched several times up to 1892. Oil on canvas 46 x 52 1/4 in Tate Gallery, London.

A reader has asked, “Do you have any insight into what happened to the washing of feet? Could the washing of feet have been preparatory to the full ordinance of washing as we now have it in the initiatories?”

The ordinance of washing of feet is still performed in the temple, for it is a restored ordinance, but it is part of the culminating sealing ordinances which are reserved for those who make their calling and election sure through faith. Temple scholar Matthew Brown has offered this:

The Lord mentioned in a revelation on 1 November 1831 that he had granted unto his disciples the authority to “seal both on earth and in heaven” (D&C 1:8). During the same month he indicated that God the Father would reveal to his servants who should be sealed up “unto eternal life” by this power (D&C 68:12). The ordinance of the washing of feet was then introduced by the Lord as the means whereby someone could be rendered “clean from the blood of this generation” (D&C 88:138-141), and when Joseph Smith administered this ordinance, he stated that those who received it were not only “clean” in a ritual sense but were also “sealed up unto eternal life” (HC, 1:323-24; see also MD, 829-32). ((Matthew B. Brown, The Gate of Heaven, 235.))

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The Culminating Sealing Ordinance of the Temple

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No, it isn’t being sealed to your spouse on wedding day, although that is a prerequisite (preparatory and required) to receive this highest and most sacred sealing ordinance. The priesthood sealing powers of Elijah, as restored in this last dispensation (D&C 110:13-16) and vested in the presiding high priest of the Church (D&C 132:7), are truly infinite in their application, being enabled to promise eternal life and exaltation to the faithful saints while yet in this life, as Peter explained to the ancient saints (2 Pet. 1; Eph. 1:13-14). Those saints who so receive are they who are of the church of the Firstborn (D&C 76:54, 94), and who may then receive the Second Comforter (D&C 88:3-5).

The Prophet Joseph Smith declared:

After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted.

When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses. ((TPJS, 149-151.))

I would exhort you to go on and continue to call upon God until you make your calling and election sure for yourselves, by obtaining this more sure word of prophecy, and wait patiently for the promise until you obtain it. ((ibid., 299.))

Dr. Andrew C. Skinner, currently Executive Director of The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU, provides more insight into these sacred principles in his recently published book, Temple Worship: [Read more…]