A Great Endowment

I had the opportunity to be in the temple yesterday, the 181^st anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. One of the remarkable legacies of the Prophet Joseph is the temple along with the ordinances of the priesthood we obtain therein. In Kirtland he led the Saints to build the first temple in our dispensation, where, as Elder Bednar recently taught in general conference, “Moses, Elias, and Elijah committed to Joseph the additional authority necessary to accomplish God’s work in the latter days…. Elijah committed the keys of the sealing power, providing the authority that allows ordinances performed on earth to be binding in eternity, such as joining families together in eternal relationships that transcend death.” With those keys, Joseph later revealed and administered the ordinances of the endowment and sealings to the faithful Saints in Nauvoo. Many celebrate the date May 4^th as Star Wars Day because the famous phrase from those movies “May the force be with you” sounds like “May the fourth.” As Latter-day Saints, we should remember this day as the one when true power—not the fictitious force that powered jedis—was first given in our dispensation through the temple endowment. On May 4, 1842, Joseph met with some of the Saints in the upper room of the Red Brick Store to administer the endowment for the first time. He recorded, “I spent the day in the upper part of the store…. instructing them in the principles and order of the Priesthood, attending to washings, anointings, endowments and the communication of keys pertaining to the Aaronic Priesthood, and so on to the highest order of the Melchizedek Priesthood, setting forth the order pertaining to the Ancient of Days, and all those plans and principles by which anyone is enabled to secure the fullness of those blessings which have been prepared for the Church of the First Born, and come up and abide in the presence of the Eloheim in the eternal worlds. In this council was instituted the ancient order of things for the first time in these last days.” It was the power of the covenants contained in the temple endowment that gave the Saints the strength to endure the hardships that took them from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley, or the fire of the covenant as they called it.

            In his talk Elder Bednar quoted these words of the Prophet Joseph Smith that alludes to the key part the temple plays in the restoration of the gospel in the latter-days: “All the ordinances and duties that ever have been required by the Priesthood, under the directions and commandments of the Almighty in any of the dispensations, shall all be had in the last dispensation, … bringing to pass the restoration spoken of by the mouth of all the Holy Prophets.” Elder Bednar testified regarding this restoration, “The Lord is fulfilling His promise. The Savior’s restored Church is being established throughout the world and is the instrument by which God will ‘gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.’” That gathering includes not only the physical gathering of living individuals to the gospel, but also the gathering of those who have died through proxy ordinances performed on their behalf in houses of the Lord. As we remember the life and legacy of the Prophet Joseph Smith, we give thanks for the restoration of priesthood keys he received to initiate the great work in temples in the last days.  

The Lord said a couple years before dedication of the Kirtland Temple that it was needful that “mine elders are endowed with power from on high. For behold, I have prepared a great endowment and blessing to be poured out upon them, inasmuch as they are faithful and continue in humility before me” (Doctrine and Covenants 105:11-12). That temple endowment came to us from the Lord as a great gift. It was through the Prophet Joseph Smith and has always been administered by imperfect people, but it was a blessing from the Savior to His people. For those who have received it, they will note that Joseph Smith is nowhere to be found. You will not hear his name in its presentation or learn about him in it or even be reminded that he was God’s instrument in revealing it. The endowment is about Jesus Christ and from Jesus Christ and focused on Him. It is God’s gift to all who will come in humility, willing to make and keep covenants with Him.