Temple Worship

The Purpose of the Temple

From the beginning, God taught Adam not only how to pray, sacrifice, and keep the feasts, but also the sacred ordinances by which His children could be brought fully into His presence. The temple is where this fullness is received.

It is not merely a building for gathering, nor is it a place of public instruction. It is sacred ground, set apart and dedicated to God as a place where He may dwell among His people.

Because it is holy, nothing unclean may enter. If it is treated lightly or approached without reverence, it becomes defiled, and God withdraws His presence. Holiness is not symbolic in the temple; it is required.

Throughout History

When God's people have walked faithfully in His ways, He has commanded them to build temples. When they have departed from Him, temples have been lost—destroyed by enemies, desecrated by unfaithfulness, or simply forgotten as the knowledge of their purpose faded.

The loss of temple worship has always marked a departure from God. Without the temple, the highest ordinances cannot be performed, the fullest covenants cannot be made, and the pathway back into God's presence remains incomplete. Much of the distance between God and His children in our day can be traced to this loss.

What Happens in the Temple

Unlike ordinary worship, which prepares a person to approach God, temple worship assumes that preparation has already begun. Prayer, sacrifice, fasting, covenant meals, and revelation all lead toward the temple. In the temple, these practices are gathered together and ordered.

The worshiper does not come to observe, but to participate. Temple worship requires intentionality, cleanliness of heart, humility, and willingness to submit fully to God's will.

Sacred Instruction

Within the temple, the purpose of this world and the path set before God's children are taught in an ordered and sacred manner. The story of life is unfolded—not as history alone, but as personal calling. The worshiper is shown where they came from, why they are here, and what they are meant to become.

Covenants

Temple worship is centered on covenants. A covenant is not a contract between equals, but a binding promise made before God, entered into freely and upheld through faithfulness.

In the temple, covenants are made that order a person's life toward God, align them with His kingdom, and set expectations for conduct, devotion, and loyalty. With each covenant comes a promise from God—promises of guidance, protection, increase, and eventual return to His presence if the covenant is honored.

Heaven and Earth Meet

The temple is also a place where heaven and earth meet. Through sacred instruction and covenant, God reveals Himself more fully to those who are prepared. Revelation flows more freely in the temple because the environment is ordered, distractions are removed, and the worshiper has willingly placed themselves under God's authority.

Families and the Temple

Temple worship is not only individual but familial. The covenants made in the temple bind husband to wife and parents to children in ways that extend beyond mortality. Generations are linked together through ordinances that cannot be performed elsewhere.

A family that enters the temple together is sealed together—not merely for this life but for eternity. This is the order of heaven: families bound by covenant, united across generations, and joined to God.

Preparing One Another

Extended families have a role in preparing one another for temple blessings. Fathers teach their children what will be required of them. Mothers help daughters understand the sacredness of the covenants they will make. Grandparents share their experience and testimony. Those who have received temple ordinances encourage and guide those who are preparing.

In this way, the family becomes a school of preparation, each generation helping the next to approach the temple with understanding and reverence. When extended families gather for feasts and worship throughout the year, they are preparing one another—whether they speak of it directly or not—for the temple and all it represents.

For Those Without Access

For many families today, access to a temple is not possible. Temples are few, and those that exist may not be recognized or available. Some who read these words may not know where to find a temple or whether any true temple stands upon the earth.

This uncertainty should not lead to despair but to faith. God has promised that He will restore all things and that He will lead His children—when they are ready—to those who hold authority to perform the ordinances necessary for their salvation and exaltation.

Prepare Now

In the meantime, families should prepare. They should live the worship described throughout this site—praying, seeking revelation, breaking bread and drinking wine, fasting, and keeping the feasts. They should grow in unity, becoming of one heart and one mind within their own households and among their extended families.

They should keep their covenants faithfully, even the covenants they are able to make now, trusting that God will open the way for greater covenants when the time is right.

And they should pray. They should ask God to lead them to His temple, or to send His temple to them—to restore what has been lost and to prepare a people worthy to receive it.

Those who prepare in this way are not waiting in idleness. They are becoming the kind of people for whom temples are built. God does not give His highest blessings to those who are unprepared to receive them. He prepares His children first, through the very practices described on this site, and then He leads them forward into greater light.

A family that faithfully keeps the feasts, seeks revelation together, and grows in unity is preparing for the temple even if they have never seen one.

The Promise

The temple stands as the culmination of worship on earth. It gathers prayer, revelation, sacrifice, fasting, and covenant into a single, ordered experience. It teaches God's children how to live in His presence now, so that they may one day dwell with Him fully.

All the worship described on this site points toward this end: to know God, to become like Him, and to dwell with Him forever.

This is the promise that began with Adam and was fulfilled in Enoch's day. Enoch's people became Zion not by their own effort but by aligning themselves with heaven through the worship God had given. They received the ordinances, made the covenants, and became of one heart and one mind. And God came to dwell among them.

What was possible then remains possible now. The invitation has never been withdrawn.

The Messiah will return. God will dwell with His people. Those who have prepared themselves—individually and as families—will be received into His presence. The feasts, the prayers, the sacrifices, the fasting, and the temple ordinances are all preparation for that day.

A family that walks this path is not merely practicing religion. They are becoming Zion. And Zion is where God dwells.