Thoughts on Temples

A couple thoughts. On temples.

Temples are earthly gates to heaven. They typically come in two forms; the form of the individual, or the form of a dedicated building.

The Testimony of Jesus is the desired end result of temple activity. The testimony of Jesus is where He, Jesus, Himself, reveals himself to the person and personally gives the individual this testimony.

When Jacob wrestled the angel, when Abraham encountered the cloud between his burnt offering, when Jesus was baptized, when Moses approached the burning bush – these were all temple experiences. This is where the gate of heaven opens and mysteries revealed. Because God appeared to Moses the place became holy , thus he removed his shoes.

The opposite is offered when one goes to a building called temple. The place is holy, not the person, and the place can hopefully pass holiness onto the person instead of the person passing holiness onto the place (as seen in the above personal experiences). Once in the temple the individual is asked to perform the inner workings on himself to receive the testimony of Jesus. As far as my knowledge extends this is a less likely way of going about opening the gate to heaven. A few Melchizedek priests from the first temple likely had the experience, and Zachariah (John the Baptist’s dad) did as well.

The only BoM temple, gate of heaven, testimony of Jesus, experiences I’m aware of happened outside temples, never in them. It wasn’t until after the Bountiful temple was destroyed that Christ appears to an entire people.

Christ was the ultimate temple experience. Because of Him the veil in the second temple, often thought of as the harlot by contemporary Judeans of the day, was rent from top to bottom. There is no separation and we can all, and are all, invited to the gate of heaven ourselves.

I hear an LDS temple has been announced for my hometown Tampa, FL as well as a temple in my current hometown Knoxville. Regardless of which type of temple/gate of heaven/testimony of Jesus experience one seeks; the religion of the fathers, or some modern version, I hope we all acquire the desires of our hearts.