No Sacrifice is Too Great

Yesterday was a historic day in the Church as three temples were dedicated in Bentonville, Arkansas; Brasilia Brazil; and Moses Lake Washington. These became the 180^th, 181^st, and 182^nd temples. The temple in Brazil was one of the last announced by President Monson, and the other two were announced by President Nelson. Elder Bednar commented, “How grateful we should be to live in this remarkable season of the latter-day dispensation of the fullness of times. We are blessed to witness and participate in the ongoing fulfillment of prophecies that holy houses of the Lord will dot the earth.” We are indeed blessed to be “in the midst of a temple-building boom” with 48 temples under construction and 85 others announced. One of the things that impresses me about yesterday’s events is how President Nelson chose apostles to dedicate these temples with ties to the area. Elder Bednar lived in Arkansas in the 1980s and 1990s and worked at the University of Arkansas, and he was chosen to dedicate the temple there. Elder Cook was formerly the president of the North America Northwest Area which included Washington state, and he was the one to dedicate the temple in Moses Lake. And Elder Andersen was the Brazil South Area president 20 years ago and has been back to Brazil many times on assignments. So, all three had ties to the temple they dedicated, and President Nelson has shown how well he knows each of them in the way he has made the assignments to dedicate the various temples. And with so many temples on the horizon, the apostles are certainly going to be very busy trying to travel around the world to all the temples in the next few years. If all of the temples announced or under construction are built in the next five years, that would be over 26 temples per year and make about two temple dedications for every apostle each year if spread out evenly between them. Clearly the Lord sees that we need the strength and power of the temple and its covenants in the years to come!

                In 1823 when the angel Moroni came to the Prophet Joseph Smith, he quoted the words of Malachi with some alterations, saying: “Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming” (Doctrine and Covenants 2:1-3). This is strong language and suggests that without the building of temples and the ordinances that take place there—linking the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers—the whole earth would be wasted when the Savior comes again. It is that belief which motivates us to build so many temples. There are many who criticize the Church’s building of temples, suggesting that it spends too much money on such efforts, but that is simply because they cannot understand why we build them. As Paul wrote, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). To the world, it does not make sense to build so many temples, but they do not understand the ordinances and covenants that are made there. And, of course, there is precedence for giving our very best to the Lord in the building of temples, for Solomon spared no expense in building the temple of his day. As the Bible Dictionary records, there were materials of “gold, silver, iron, copper, timber, and stone” in his temple, and it took seven years in the making. No expense was spared, and “the wealth gathered by David and lavished by Solomon on the temple was enormous.” I love the language of the Lord in a modern revelation calling upon the Saints in Nauvoo to once again build a temple: “And send ye swift messengers, yea, chosen messengers, and say unto them: Come ye, with all your gold, and your silver, and your precious stones, and with all your antiquities; and with all who have knowledge of antiquities, that will come, may come, and bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth; And with iron, with copper, and with brass, and with zinc, and with all your precious things of the earth; and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:26-27). Indeed, we consecrate an enormous amount of time and means to build temples unto the Lord, but what happens there is of far greater value than some monetary sum. As President Monson summarized, “Those who understand the eternal blessings which come from the temple know that no sacrifice is too great, no price too heavy, no struggle too difficult in order to receive those blessings.”