The Strength of the Salt Lake Temple

I had the opportunity to do an endowment session in the Salt Lake Temple this morning for the last time before it closes for five years.  It was an impressive site to see the 6:00 a.m. session nearly full—meaning hundreds of people were there that early—as we worshiped together and expressed our gratitude for those incredible pioneers who erected the temple over a forty year period.  The building is remarkable in so many ways, from its incredible magnitude to the most intricate details on the doorknobs saying “Holiness to the Lord” to the majestic celestial room that must have taken thousands of hours to carve and paint.  The careful craftsmanship everywhere is a testament to the love and devotion these honored pioneers had for the Lord. 

As I pondered there the significance of this building, the word that came to mind was strength.  It is a symbol of the strength of those pioneers, and it is a fortress that gives us strength in our lives.  So many times I have been strengthened by the Spirit there as I have sought for help and direction.  All temples are a source of strength and power, and I believe that in that temple in particular we receive the fulfillment of this blessing of the Lord: “And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:22).  Brigham Young apparently said of the Salt Lake Temple, “We are building this temple to stand through the millennium.”  The Church’s efforts in these coming years is a commitment to make that happen, but more importantly this and other temples can provide us with a spiritual foundation and power that will give us the strength to stand faithful through the Millennium.              As I descended from the celestial room thinking about this magnificent temple, I passed two paintings that I love of Orson Hyde in his trip to the Holy Land to dedicate that place.  The feeling came to me that there will indeed be a temple there in Jerusalem someday as well.  We don’t know when or how that will happen, but I felt strongly that it will come to pass at some future day.  In his dedicatory prayer in 1841 this apostle included this as what he was consecrating the land for: “For rearing a Temple in honor of Thy name.”  I have written before about the prophecies, including from the Prophet Joseph Smith, that there will be a temple built up again in Jerusalem before the Second Coming of the Savior.  How that will unfold is yet to be seen, but at some future day believers in Christ will, just as they did for the Salt Lake Temple, combine their faith in rearing a house to the Lord.  And from there the waters will go forth, whether symbolic or real, to “heal” and bring life to whatever that place touches (Ezekiel 47:9).