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The Temple: Where Heaven Meets Earth
In his youth,Truman Madsen watched his grandparents take their large family to the temple almost every week. Decades later, a friend said, " Your spiritual life began with the temple and everything since has flowed from that." The messages in this book attest to his love of temples. The author of many bestselling books and CDs, Truman teaches how we can gain access to the light and truth offered in the temple. He discusses the relationship of the temple to the Atonement, Joseph Smith's contribution to our understanding of temples, and how the scriptures and the temple illuminate each other. This is a powerful book on a crucial topic by one of the greatest teachers and scholars of our time.
193 pages, Hardcover
First published July 30, 2008
44 people are currently reading
426 people want to read
About the author
Truman G. Madsen
72 books61 followersTruman Grant Madsen was an American professor of religion and philosophy at Brigham Young University (BYU) and director of the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. He was a prolific author, a recognized authority on Joseph Smith Jr., and a popular lecturer among Latter-day Saints. At one point, Madsen was an instructor at the LDS Institute of Religion in Berkeley, California.
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April 1, 2009Truman Madsen Comments:
When Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were at the pulpit at the east end of the Kirtland Temple , they heard from the Lord Himself these words: “Behold, I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house. . . . And this is the beginning of the blessing which shall be poured out upon the heads of my people” (D&C 110:7, 10).
Notice: “my name shall be here.” Solomon pled for that when he dedicated the ancient temple (see 1 Kings 8:28–29). What does it mean? There are depths beyond depths of meaning. You are required as disciples of Christ to come once in seven days and covenant anew to take upon you the name of Jesus Christ. In the house of the Lord you come to take upon you His name in the fullest sense. Why all the emphasis on fulness? Well, there is a promise that we will one day have a fulness of truth. That is temple-related. We are promised the fulness of the Holy Ghost. Joseph Smith prayed for that at the Kirtland Temple dedication (see D&C 109:15). And we are promised within the temple the fulness of the priesthood.
Likewise, we are promised that in the temple the Lord's name will be put upon us. It means at its root that we become His. The answer to “Who am I?” can never be complete unless it answers “Whose am I?” You are the son or daughter of a King—the Father Himself. Through the ordinances you are begotten spiritually through His Son. You become heir to His throne. That is a worldly way of saying it. But it is true. An old Jewish proverb says that the worst thing the evil inclination can ever do to you is to make you forget that you are the son or daughter of a king. I don't know how you can forget that in the temple. You take His name.
To receive Him fully is to receive the fulness of His Atonement. Think about it—the fulness of the at-one-ment that Jesus Christ wrought by the shedding of His own blood. The Atonement was, and is, to enable us to overcome, through His grace and healing power, three things: ignorance, sin, and death. Hence I often say that the temple is a matter of life and death.
“It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance” (D&C 131:6). This passage refers to a specific kind of ignorance. The preceding verse is talking about sealing, about coming to know by revelation through the power of the holy priesthood not only that Jesus is the Christ, but also that a relationship has been forged between you and Jesus Christ. It is a testimony that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that He is making you His. How do you come to know that? I can tell you that the promise does pertain to the temple. And we may come to a like testimony about temple sealings to our progenitors and our children.
The Savior said that He came that men “might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Life, abundant life, is pluralized in the teachings of Joseph Smith as “eternal lives” (D&C 132:24).
You are all alive in several ways and to certain degrees. You are alive intellectually: you think, you study, you teach. There is, no matter what else we do each day, the life of the mind.
Then there is the life of the heart. The word in Hebrew is leb, “heart,” the inmost throbbing center. A hard heart is different from a malleable, tender heart. Christ's heart is tender. Those who come to Him feeling mercy and gratitude for His mercy are tenderized in the very center of their being.
We seek life in another way. It is the creative life. It is lodged in the cry of ancient Israelite fathers and mothers: “Give me children, or else I die” (Genesis 30:1). This is the life of creation and procreation.
I testify that in the house of the Lord all three of these modes of life are enhanced and magnified and increased. Therein we are promised that whatever our age or the decline and disabilities that we experience here, we will one day enter in at the gate to eternal lives. On that day of renewal, we will emerge into a celestial condition, into the “fulness of the glory of the Father” (D&C 93:16). There the glorious privilege of priesthood, parenthood, and godhood come together as one. There, forever, will be the reunion of the separated. As this is the crowning ordinance of the house of God, it is also the crowning truth of the gospel.
President Brigham Young was once approached by two sisters, each of whom wanted a divorce. I paraphrase his response: “If you could only see your husband as he will be in the glorious resurrection, this very husband you now say you despise, your first impulse would be to kneel and worship him.” He said the same thing to husbands who had “fallen out of love” with their wives. Those are mighty words.
That leads me to the main and final point. I haven't yet used the expression “fulness of love.” Consider this passage in D&C section 88: “For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things” (v. 40).
In the same way, only the virtuous know true love.
In religious tradition much is said and even canonized about how God is “absolutely other.” They say that not one sentence you can utter about human beings applies in any way whatever to God; God must be absolutely different, say they, or we could not love and worship Him. Joseph Smith died to get back in the world the truth that we are in fact in the image of God. In fact, that means that as a statue exactly resembles the person it represents, so man exactly resembles the nature of the Father and the Son. That's the great and glorious secret. Man and woman are theomorphic; they are in the form of God. That is the foundation of divine-human love.
In some patterns of worship, it is thought that the way to convey our proper relationship to God is to cultivate darkness, magnify distance, use only the kinds of music, or words, or ceremonial procedures that invoke awe and even irrational fear. The testimony of the restored temple is that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ yearn not to widen that gap but to close it. In the house of the Lord we may come to Him in light, in closeness, and in holy embrace. He promises in latter-day revelation: “I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house” (D&C 110:7). That is love.
I testify, speaking as one who had to be converted to this, that the temple is many things: a house of faith, a house of study, a house of learning, a house of order, a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of glory. But, surrounding all of those, it is a house of love. None of us receives enough love in this world, none of us. We're all in a measure love-starved and love-anxious. The Father and the Son call us to come in the spirit of sacrifice and be surrounded by that holy environment which embraces us in love.
Remember that Jesus looked out over the holy city and lamented, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem , . . . how often would I have gathered [you:] together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37). He repeated those words to the Nephites, using three tenses: I have gathered you, I would have gathered you (speaking of those who were wiped away in a terrible earthquake), and I will gather you (see 3 Nephi 10:4–6).
I suggest to you that here is another symbolic allusion to the temple. The wings of a mother hen are intimate, and protective, and warm. In 3 Nephi the Savior added another phrase about the hen and her wandering chicks: “I . . . have nourished you” (10:4). The Jews speak of the temple as the navel, the emphallos, of the earth, the very place that heaven brings nutriment to earth. Jesus wept because He had been unable to gather his people. Modern revelation tells us He wanted to gather them in order to bring them into His sanctuary to reveal to them and pour out upon them the glories of His temple. But they would not. They hated their own blood. Our generation is slipping more and more into the same mud.
I have stood on the Mount of Olives . There came down on me a prophetic and anticipatory sense that a day will come when He will descend in like manner as He once ascended from that very mount. Angels heralded His birth into the world. So I speculate that a choir welcomed Him home. We have been promised that some of us may be present to welcome Him as he descends. We will sing a new song. He has already given us the words (D&C 88:99–102). Inspired knowledge and maybe even memory will enable us to sing to His glory on that occasion. The very touch of His foot, His glorified and celestial foot, will change the world and eventually the whole human family. A temple will be in place in Jerusalem by then, perhaps more than one. There and elsewhere, worthy people will recognize Him and glory in His presence. This time there will be no tears except tears of joy.
I testify that this is true. I testify that temples have been built by the sacrifice of our friends and loved ones to enable us to reach them as well as the deepest part of ourselves. Beyond that I testify that in the house of the Lord, He, the Lord Himself, will manifest Himself in mercy and in love and give us the fulness of those blessings we all earnestly yearn for.
When Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were at the pulpit at the east end of the Kirtland Temple , they heard from the Lord Himself these words: “Behold, I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house. . . . And this is the beginning of the blessing which shall be poured out upon the heads of my people” (D&C 110:7, 10).
Notice: “my name shall be here.” Solomon pled for that when he dedicated the ancient temple (see 1 Kings 8:28–29). What does it mean? There are depths beyond depths of meaning. You are required as disciples of Christ to come once in seven days and covenant anew to take upon you the name of Jesus Christ. In the house of the Lord you come to take upon you His name in the fullest sense. Why all the emphasis on fulness? Well, there is a promise that we will one day have a fulness of truth. That is temple-related. We are promised the fulness of the Holy Ghost. Joseph Smith prayed for that at the Kirtland Temple dedication (see D&C 109:15). And we are promised within the temple the fulness of the priesthood.
Likewise, we are promised that in the temple the Lord's name will be put upon us. It means at its root that we become His. The answer to “Who am I?” can never be complete unless it answers “Whose am I?” You are the son or daughter of a King—the Father Himself. Through the ordinances you are begotten spiritually through His Son. You become heir to His throne. That is a worldly way of saying it. But it is true. An old Jewish proverb says that the worst thing the evil inclination can ever do to you is to make you forget that you are the son or daughter of a king. I don't know how you can forget that in the temple. You take His name.
To receive Him fully is to receive the fulness of His Atonement. Think about it—the fulness of the at-one-ment that Jesus Christ wrought by the shedding of His own blood. The Atonement was, and is, to enable us to overcome, through His grace and healing power, three things: ignorance, sin, and death. Hence I often say that the temple is a matter of life and death.
“It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance” (D&C 131:6). This passage refers to a specific kind of ignorance. The preceding verse is talking about sealing, about coming to know by revelation through the power of the holy priesthood not only that Jesus is the Christ, but also that a relationship has been forged between you and Jesus Christ. It is a testimony that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that He is making you His. How do you come to know that? I can tell you that the promise does pertain to the temple. And we may come to a like testimony about temple sealings to our progenitors and our children.
The Savior said that He came that men “might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Life, abundant life, is pluralized in the teachings of Joseph Smith as “eternal lives” (D&C 132:24).
You are all alive in several ways and to certain degrees. You are alive intellectually: you think, you study, you teach. There is, no matter what else we do each day, the life of the mind.
Then there is the life of the heart. The word in Hebrew is leb, “heart,” the inmost throbbing center. A hard heart is different from a malleable, tender heart. Christ's heart is tender. Those who come to Him feeling mercy and gratitude for His mercy are tenderized in the very center of their being.
We seek life in another way. It is the creative life. It is lodged in the cry of ancient Israelite fathers and mothers: “Give me children, or else I die” (Genesis 30:1). This is the life of creation and procreation.
I testify that in the house of the Lord all three of these modes of life are enhanced and magnified and increased. Therein we are promised that whatever our age or the decline and disabilities that we experience here, we will one day enter in at the gate to eternal lives. On that day of renewal, we will emerge into a celestial condition, into the “fulness of the glory of the Father” (D&C 93:16). There the glorious privilege of priesthood, parenthood, and godhood come together as one. There, forever, will be the reunion of the separated. As this is the crowning ordinance of the house of God, it is also the crowning truth of the gospel.
President Brigham Young was once approached by two sisters, each of whom wanted a divorce. I paraphrase his response: “If you could only see your husband as he will be in the glorious resurrection, this very husband you now say you despise, your first impulse would be to kneel and worship him.” He said the same thing to husbands who had “fallen out of love” with their wives. Those are mighty words.
That leads me to the main and final point. I haven't yet used the expression “fulness of love.” Consider this passage in D&C section 88: “For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things” (v. 40).
In the same way, only the virtuous know true love.
In religious tradition much is said and even canonized about how God is “absolutely other.” They say that not one sentence you can utter about human beings applies in any way whatever to God; God must be absolutely different, say they, or we could not love and worship Him. Joseph Smith died to get back in the world the truth that we are in fact in the image of God. In fact, that means that as a statue exactly resembles the person it represents, so man exactly resembles the nature of the Father and the Son. That's the great and glorious secret. Man and woman are theomorphic; they are in the form of God. That is the foundation of divine-human love.
In some patterns of worship, it is thought that the way to convey our proper relationship to God is to cultivate darkness, magnify distance, use only the kinds of music, or words, or ceremonial procedures that invoke awe and even irrational fear. The testimony of the restored temple is that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ yearn not to widen that gap but to close it. In the house of the Lord we may come to Him in light, in closeness, and in holy embrace. He promises in latter-day revelation: “I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house” (D&C 110:7). That is love.
I testify, speaking as one who had to be converted to this, that the temple is many things: a house of faith, a house of study, a house of learning, a house of order, a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of glory. But, surrounding all of those, it is a house of love. None of us receives enough love in this world, none of us. We're all in a measure love-starved and love-anxious. The Father and the Son call us to come in the spirit of sacrifice and be surrounded by that holy environment which embraces us in love.
Remember that Jesus looked out over the holy city and lamented, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem , . . . how often would I have gathered [you:] together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37). He repeated those words to the Nephites, using three tenses: I have gathered you, I would have gathered you (speaking of those who were wiped away in a terrible earthquake), and I will gather you (see 3 Nephi 10:4–6).
I suggest to you that here is another symbolic allusion to the temple. The wings of a mother hen are intimate, and protective, and warm. In 3 Nephi the Savior added another phrase about the hen and her wandering chicks: “I . . . have nourished you” (10:4). The Jews speak of the temple as the navel, the emphallos, of the earth, the very place that heaven brings nutriment to earth. Jesus wept because He had been unable to gather his people. Modern revelation tells us He wanted to gather them in order to bring them into His sanctuary to reveal to them and pour out upon them the glories of His temple. But they would not. They hated their own blood. Our generation is slipping more and more into the same mud.
I have stood on the Mount of Olives . There came down on me a prophetic and anticipatory sense that a day will come when He will descend in like manner as He once ascended from that very mount. Angels heralded His birth into the world. So I speculate that a choir welcomed Him home. We have been promised that some of us may be present to welcome Him as he descends. We will sing a new song. He has already given us the words (D&C 88:99–102). Inspired knowledge and maybe even memory will enable us to sing to His glory on that occasion. The very touch of His foot, His glorified and celestial foot, will change the world and eventually the whole human family. A temple will be in place in Jerusalem by then, perhaps more than one. There and elsewhere, worthy people will recognize Him and glory in His presence. This time there will be no tears except tears of joy.
I testify that this is true. I testify that temples have been built by the sacrifice of our friends and loved ones to enable us to reach them as well as the deepest part of ourselves. Beyond that I testify that in the house of the Lord, He, the Lord Himself, will manifest Himself in mercy and in love and give us the fulness of those blessings we all earnestly yearn for.
January 7, 2012
I really like Truman G. Madsen's books and talks, so I was excited to come across a book from him about the temple.
This was an excellent book that gave me new insights and appreciation for the temple. The discussion is well supported by scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants and talks from the prophets. I read straight through the first time, and now I plan to go back and take more time to study the scriptures and talks that are cross-referenced.
I am always cautious reading books about the temple because some authors go into more detail than I think is appropriate, but Truman did an excellent job of creating interest and giving background and insight, but leaving the real learning to study and revelation.
As is self-admitted in the introduction, the chapters are adapted from different talks, so the flow suffers a little and there is some repetition, but it didn't bother me much.
This was an excellent book that gave me new insights and appreciation for the temple. The discussion is well supported by scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants and talks from the prophets. I read straight through the first time, and now I plan to go back and take more time to study the scriptures and talks that are cross-referenced.
I am always cautious reading books about the temple because some authors go into more detail than I think is appropriate, but Truman did an excellent job of creating interest and giving background and insight, but leaving the real learning to study and revelation.
As is self-admitted in the introduction, the chapters are adapted from different talks, so the flow suffers a little and there is some repetition, but it didn't bother me much.
June 17, 2015
This is a good book about the temple, its purposes and importance over the years. Reading this book made me want to study more and to be at the temple more often. The temple is Lord's house where we learn and receive power and blessings from Him. It is a place of revelation and peace and love. It is a place of light and covenants and ordinances. It is a place where earth and heaven meet. We should work to make our homes like the temple.
I think one of my most important take aways from this book was the importance of individual study, worship, and desire to understand the Lord's blessings. We can and need to seek Him in His house. We will learn of His love.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
Preface
"All the Lord's answers are in the temple."
"Modern temples restore and transcend the communion of earlier sanctuaries. They require us to bring to the altar what is deepest inside us in the spirit of consecration."
"The temple is the place where Christ's atonement manifests to us the 'peaceable things - that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth eternal life' (D&C 42:61)."
"The same God who commanded that 'Holiness to the Lord' be inscribed on every eastward spire and on every doorknob invites us to be inscribed with his name in every part of our being. His envisioned outcome is that we become as he is."
House of Glory
"'I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it' (Rev. 21:22)."
"We are to receive in temples, through temples, from temples, 'power from on high' (D&C 95:8). Christ is the source of that power. The temple is His. Every symbol in and out of that sacred structure points toward Him and, and as a cup carries water, transmits the Holy Spirit."
"Sacrifice brings forth blessings."
"'Study it out in your own minds, reach a conclusion, and then go to the Lord with it and he will give you an answer by that inward burning, and if you don't get your answer I will tell you where to go--go to the house of the Lord. God with your hearts full of desire to do your duty. When in the sacred walls of these buildings, where you are entitled to the Spirit of the Lord, and in the silent moments, the answer will come (Elder Melvin J. Ballard).'"
"The temple is so freighted with depth of understanding, so loaded with symbolic grasp of life and its eternal significance, that only a fool would attempt in mere prosaic restatement to explain it in a comprehensive way."
"The temple is a place of revelation."
"The temple is not just a union of heaven and earth. It is the key to our master of the earth. It is the Lord's graduate course in subduing the earth."
"The temple is a place of learning to know Him."
"Participating in the temple ceremonies is the only way that the knowledge locked in one's spirit can become part of this flesh."
"We want change, but we don't want it enough."
"One cannot know fully what to pray until he receives guidance from the Lord...You must listen in order to know what to say. And prayers that are all ask and no listen lack something in effectiveness. The temple is the place where we can come to understand what the Lord would have us ask. And it is the place where we can ask in silence, in joy, in earnestness."
"For all of us there is something about the temple that can change our lives. We need to reach for it, to honor it, if need be to sacrifice for it, sacrificing even our sins."
"The Lord is in His temples, where He ministers personally and manifests Himself to the faithful therein."
Foundations of Temple Worship
"We are to proceed to watch and pray that our bodies may be developed into the very likeness of our spirits, which are divine, and ultimately, then, become, as it were, a product of another birth, through which Jesus becomes, in the process of ordinances, our Father."
The Temple and the Mysteries of godliness
"According to John A. Widtsoe, the Kirtland Temple, using the measuring rod of the widow's mite cost more per capita than any other building in American religious history. An unprecedented sacrifice! That sacrifice was met, as you all know, with an unprecedented outpouring of the Lord's spirit....There was such a jubilee of feeling close to the Lord and being filled with joy that the people went from house to house to visit each other, sharing their experiences, then giving blessings to each other. One of them wrote in his journal that he thought the Millennium had come. He thought all temptation and all trial, even the desire for sin, was past."
"'We need the temple more than we need anything else (Joseph Smith).'"
"Entering into His rest doesn't mean cessation of all activities. It means the rest that comes to your soul when you get out of the spiritual wilderness and are able to know and commune with the living God."
"The Prophet did live to confer upon the Twelve all of the higher ordinances. The temple wasn't finished, and so it was performed in the upper room of Joseph's store. In a meeting that was certainly the most important summary meeting of his life, he conferred everything--keys, authorities, powers--upon them, and then commissioned Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff to see that these truths were systematized and eventually presented as they are in the temple. He then told those twelve men that upon them now rested the charge to lead the Saints to what they needed most and to eventually prepare the whole world, every man and every woman, for temples and the privilege of communion with the living God."
"'The endowment is so richly symbolic that only a fool would attempt to describe it; it is so packed full of revelations to those who exercise their strength to seek and see, that no human words can explain or make clear the possibilities that reside in the temple service. The endowment which was given by revelation can best be understood by revelation (John A. Widtsoe).'"
"Only the virtuous know true love."
"It is a house of love."
"In the house of the Lord, He, the Lord Himself, will manifest Himself in mercy and in love and give us the fulness of those blessings we all earnestly yearn for."
Blessings of the temple
"The balance staff is the temple."
"The very weight and power of the Spirit (such that we cannot deny) is there in the temple. It is there, waiting for us. We are invited to come to this sacred sanctuary in the spirit of dedication, for more."
"The temple is a powerhouse."
"Ann and I had a temple courtship. We were idealistic; the temple was to us the symbol of everything glorious in marriage and promise."
"The temple is the culminating place of kinship and love."
"The temple somehow enables us to see and feel and be filled with divine love."
"The temple is a template to help us find and recover our bearings."
"He has promised to manifest Himself in mercy unto His children throughout their lives."
House of Glory, House of Light, House of Love
"'The temples are full of telegrams from the heavenly world for you....waiting for the children of God to come up and bring their offerings of broken hearts and contrite spirits, and draw upon those treasures (Franklin D. Richards).'"
"That is the vision He offers us of the radiant beings we can become."
"It is 'as if' Christ Himself personally ministers and administers every promise and every covenant to us."
"When Thomas asked Jesus, 'How can we know the way [or the path]?' He simply replied, 'I am the way' (John 14:5-6)."
"'One afternoon in the New England Mission home, Truman invited me to join him at the close of a missionary zone leaders' meeting. He found me upstairs in our room, exhausted. As Truman left, I sank to my knees and said simply, 'If you have something you want me to say, Lord, just tell me and I'll say it. But I'm running on empty.' I had learned such prayers are answered. I started to go down, and I remember right where I was on the stairs when I had an unmistakable impression: 'Tell them they are my sons.' And in a flash I knew as never before what it means that I am His daughter. The power of that experience still resonates with me (Ann Madsen).'"
"'Eve was given the identity of 'the mother of all living' years, decades, perhaps centuries before she ever bore a child. It would appear that her motherhood preceded her maternity, just as surely as the perfection of the Garden preceded the struggles of mortality. I believe mother is one of those very carefully chosen words, one of those rich words, with meaning after meaning after meaning. We must not, at all costs, let that word divide us. I believe with all my heart that it is first and foremost a statement about our nature, not a head count of our children (Patricia Holland).'"
"So Eve is a magnificent mother, but she is more. She is the life of those around her, her husband most of all. She feeds him, clothes him, loves him. But men are alive in at least three ways other than physically: intellectually, spiritually, and creatively. Woman innately has power to enliven, quicken, nourish, and magnify all these lives. In the temple we learn from Eve many essential roles of womanhood.....She is the heroine who led the way into this obstacle course of mortality....What could be more Christlike than her sacrificial decision to seek the redemption of our Father's family rather than avoid the bitter cup?....Eve did not leave the garden for trivial, selfish gratification but to open the way for the birth and rebirth of the whole human family."
"In a temple perspective, God commands the grandeur, the celebration, and the perpetuation of marriage and family. Women and men are equal partners: a king only with a queen, a priest only with a priestess, a patriarch only with a matriarch. This the eternal truth: God glories in the sanctity and beauty of woman."
"'Sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to the glory of God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will' (D&C 88:68)."
"'Hold your soul very still, and listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. Follow the noble, intuitive feelings planted deep within your souls by Deity in the previous world. In this way you will be responding to the Holy Spirit of God and will be sanctified by truth (James E. Faust).'"
"We must show the Lord how far He can trust us. He surrounds our temple covenants with sobering requirements that we keep in our hearts that which is sacred."
"Our weekly opportunity to cleanse ourselves is at the sacrament table. How does the sacrament help us in the purifying process? It reminds us regularly of our commitment to be cleansed by Jesus' blood, shed for us in the Atonement. We all know that blood stains, but the blood of Christ purges us and purifies us."
"'Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people (Boyd K. Packer).'"
"The mysteries of godliness are locked in the ordinances of godliness."
"Taking our covenants seriously transforms us."
"The temple is the Lord's university. For entrance you do not need to have a 3.8 grade-point average. To qualify, the Lord asks only that you bring a broken heart and a contrite spirit to His altar. You must be willing to consecrate yourself, with the integrity to keep sacred things in your heart and with a tremendous desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ."
"The Savior is the ultimate and only true and living agent for change. He is the source of all change for good."
"The Lord calls His temple a 'house of prayer' and teaches us to come there for the 'offering up of your most holy desires unto me' (D&C 88:119; 95:16)."
"President Howard W. Hunter said that the purpose of the temple is to reunite the family of God."
"'Lord, what do you have for me here today?'"
"God unites us by love. Satan's whole work is to separate and isolate us by discord, anger, hate, and the clamor for rights. All of us know what isolation feels like. We need to know what the unity of love feels like. I believe that it is impossible to feel the Spirit of the Lord and not feel love. And perhaps vice versa. When we know what love feels like we cannot help loving others. Love is contagious."
"'The temple is the bridge between heaven and earth--the seen and the unseen--and the bridge is love (Carlos Asay).'"
"Covenants bind us by love (Ann Madsen)."
"How is Zion built? By producing and gathering the 'pure in heart.' Eliza R. Snow learned from the Prophet that the curse on the earth would not be lifted all at once, but that each time we dedicate a temple we life the curse a little. Our homes are mini-temples, the points of light that will recreate a little bit of heaven on earth leading to the Millennium."
"We can make our homes holy by living what we've learned in the temple. When we keep our temple covenants, they help us to cheerfully, patiently reverence one another at home. We become sanctifying influences to each other all who come there. We quietly learn to live celestially, like Christ, creating a little bit of heaven on earth. Patience and prayer are part of the process."
"Orson Pratt gives us a wonderful vision of glorified homes in the further: 'In the latter days there will be a people so pure in Mount Zion, with a house established upon the tops of the mountains, that God will manifest himself, not only in their Temple...[but] when they retire to their [homes], behold each [home] will be lighted up by the glory of God--a pillar of flaming fire by night.'"
Elijah and the Turning of Hearts
"'Be sure to tell the people to keep the Spirit of the Lord; and if they will, they will find themselves just as they were organized by our Father in Heaven before they came into the world (Joseph Smith).'"
"No one is really dead. Those who are in the spirit world are in some ways more alive than some of us here."
Purposes of the Temple
"'The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching (Joseph Smith).'"
"The temple is a kind of observatory, as Hugh Nibley has written...a place designed for us to get 'our bearings' on the universe and our own lives."
"To receive knowledge of the priesthood is one thing. To receive the priesthood itself is another. Both are a privilege of the temple."
"The temple is a place of the unifying of all ordinances through firsthand participation."
"Clearly it is intended that the pattern and order of the house of God is repetitive. There is need for continual participation."
"A temple sacrificially built and faithfully dedicated will bring down the Lord's glory."
"Only in the temple are you placed in covenant-harmony with divine powers which will eventually so infuse and fuse your love that it will be worth perpetuating forever....A marriage will not last forever based on what you feel now. You must both receive and give an ever richer quality of love. The keys and glory of that love are in the sanctuary where Jesus Christ is present from beginning to end. You cannot begin or continue with each other except with Him."
"'Next to the temple, the home is the most sacred place on earth (Harold B. Lee).'"
"'Look upon your home as a sanctuary (Spencer W. Kimball).'"
"The home is, and remains, a sanctuary only to the degree that the persons within it are consecrated....it is a place where the Lord's Spirit is recognizable....The Millennium will come, Elder George Q. Cannon once observed, only when such homes dot the landscape."
Joseph Smith and the Kirtland Temple
"The temple is indeed a house of light where the heavenly and the earthly combine."
Ancient Temples and the Restoration
"The history of the Latter-day Saints is indeed a history of temples."
"Latter-day Saints are characterized as city builders and colonizers, as founders. Their communities are seen as 'near-nation' amidst nations. But for Joseph Smith no city or nation was truly a stronghold of Zion that was not crowned by a temple."
"The fullness of the priesthood is received only by the faithful in the house of the Lord."
"The main object of gathering was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose."
I think one of my most important take aways from this book was the importance of individual study, worship, and desire to understand the Lord's blessings. We can and need to seek Him in His house. We will learn of His love.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
Preface
"All the Lord's answers are in the temple."
"Modern temples restore and transcend the communion of earlier sanctuaries. They require us to bring to the altar what is deepest inside us in the spirit of consecration."
"The temple is the place where Christ's atonement manifests to us the 'peaceable things - that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth eternal life' (D&C 42:61)."
"The same God who commanded that 'Holiness to the Lord' be inscribed on every eastward spire and on every doorknob invites us to be inscribed with his name in every part of our being. His envisioned outcome is that we become as he is."
House of Glory
"'I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it' (Rev. 21:22)."
"We are to receive in temples, through temples, from temples, 'power from on high' (D&C 95:8). Christ is the source of that power. The temple is His. Every symbol in and out of that sacred structure points toward Him and, and as a cup carries water, transmits the Holy Spirit."
"Sacrifice brings forth blessings."
"'Study it out in your own minds, reach a conclusion, and then go to the Lord with it and he will give you an answer by that inward burning, and if you don't get your answer I will tell you where to go--go to the house of the Lord. God with your hearts full of desire to do your duty. When in the sacred walls of these buildings, where you are entitled to the Spirit of the Lord, and in the silent moments, the answer will come (Elder Melvin J. Ballard).'"
"The temple is so freighted with depth of understanding, so loaded with symbolic grasp of life and its eternal significance, that only a fool would attempt in mere prosaic restatement to explain it in a comprehensive way."
"The temple is a place of revelation."
"The temple is not just a union of heaven and earth. It is the key to our master of the earth. It is the Lord's graduate course in subduing the earth."
"The temple is a place of learning to know Him."
"Participating in the temple ceremonies is the only way that the knowledge locked in one's spirit can become part of this flesh."
"We want change, but we don't want it enough."
"One cannot know fully what to pray until he receives guidance from the Lord...You must listen in order to know what to say. And prayers that are all ask and no listen lack something in effectiveness. The temple is the place where we can come to understand what the Lord would have us ask. And it is the place where we can ask in silence, in joy, in earnestness."
"For all of us there is something about the temple that can change our lives. We need to reach for it, to honor it, if need be to sacrifice for it, sacrificing even our sins."
"The Lord is in His temples, where He ministers personally and manifests Himself to the faithful therein."
Foundations of Temple Worship
"We are to proceed to watch and pray that our bodies may be developed into the very likeness of our spirits, which are divine, and ultimately, then, become, as it were, a product of another birth, through which Jesus becomes, in the process of ordinances, our Father."
The Temple and the Mysteries of godliness
"According to John A. Widtsoe, the Kirtland Temple, using the measuring rod of the widow's mite cost more per capita than any other building in American religious history. An unprecedented sacrifice! That sacrifice was met, as you all know, with an unprecedented outpouring of the Lord's spirit....There was such a jubilee of feeling close to the Lord and being filled with joy that the people went from house to house to visit each other, sharing their experiences, then giving blessings to each other. One of them wrote in his journal that he thought the Millennium had come. He thought all temptation and all trial, even the desire for sin, was past."
"'We need the temple more than we need anything else (Joseph Smith).'"
"Entering into His rest doesn't mean cessation of all activities. It means the rest that comes to your soul when you get out of the spiritual wilderness and are able to know and commune with the living God."
"The Prophet did live to confer upon the Twelve all of the higher ordinances. The temple wasn't finished, and so it was performed in the upper room of Joseph's store. In a meeting that was certainly the most important summary meeting of his life, he conferred everything--keys, authorities, powers--upon them, and then commissioned Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff to see that these truths were systematized and eventually presented as they are in the temple. He then told those twelve men that upon them now rested the charge to lead the Saints to what they needed most and to eventually prepare the whole world, every man and every woman, for temples and the privilege of communion with the living God."
"'The endowment is so richly symbolic that only a fool would attempt to describe it; it is so packed full of revelations to those who exercise their strength to seek and see, that no human words can explain or make clear the possibilities that reside in the temple service. The endowment which was given by revelation can best be understood by revelation (John A. Widtsoe).'"
"Only the virtuous know true love."
"It is a house of love."
"In the house of the Lord, He, the Lord Himself, will manifest Himself in mercy and in love and give us the fulness of those blessings we all earnestly yearn for."
Blessings of the temple
"The balance staff is the temple."
"The very weight and power of the Spirit (such that we cannot deny) is there in the temple. It is there, waiting for us. We are invited to come to this sacred sanctuary in the spirit of dedication, for more."
"The temple is a powerhouse."
"Ann and I had a temple courtship. We were idealistic; the temple was to us the symbol of everything glorious in marriage and promise."
"The temple is the culminating place of kinship and love."
"The temple somehow enables us to see and feel and be filled with divine love."
"The temple is a template to help us find and recover our bearings."
"He has promised to manifest Himself in mercy unto His children throughout their lives."
House of Glory, House of Light, House of Love
"'The temples are full of telegrams from the heavenly world for you....waiting for the children of God to come up and bring their offerings of broken hearts and contrite spirits, and draw upon those treasures (Franklin D. Richards).'"
"That is the vision He offers us of the radiant beings we can become."
"It is 'as if' Christ Himself personally ministers and administers every promise and every covenant to us."
"When Thomas asked Jesus, 'How can we know the way [or the path]?' He simply replied, 'I am the way' (John 14:5-6)."
"'One afternoon in the New England Mission home, Truman invited me to join him at the close of a missionary zone leaders' meeting. He found me upstairs in our room, exhausted. As Truman left, I sank to my knees and said simply, 'If you have something you want me to say, Lord, just tell me and I'll say it. But I'm running on empty.' I had learned such prayers are answered. I started to go down, and I remember right where I was on the stairs when I had an unmistakable impression: 'Tell them they are my sons.' And in a flash I knew as never before what it means that I am His daughter. The power of that experience still resonates with me (Ann Madsen).'"
"'Eve was given the identity of 'the mother of all living' years, decades, perhaps centuries before she ever bore a child. It would appear that her motherhood preceded her maternity, just as surely as the perfection of the Garden preceded the struggles of mortality. I believe mother is one of those very carefully chosen words, one of those rich words, with meaning after meaning after meaning. We must not, at all costs, let that word divide us. I believe with all my heart that it is first and foremost a statement about our nature, not a head count of our children (Patricia Holland).'"
"So Eve is a magnificent mother, but she is more. She is the life of those around her, her husband most of all. She feeds him, clothes him, loves him. But men are alive in at least three ways other than physically: intellectually, spiritually, and creatively. Woman innately has power to enliven, quicken, nourish, and magnify all these lives. In the temple we learn from Eve many essential roles of womanhood.....She is the heroine who led the way into this obstacle course of mortality....What could be more Christlike than her sacrificial decision to seek the redemption of our Father's family rather than avoid the bitter cup?....Eve did not leave the garden for trivial, selfish gratification but to open the way for the birth and rebirth of the whole human family."
"In a temple perspective, God commands the grandeur, the celebration, and the perpetuation of marriage and family. Women and men are equal partners: a king only with a queen, a priest only with a priestess, a patriarch only with a matriarch. This the eternal truth: God glories in the sanctity and beauty of woman."
"'Sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to the glory of God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will' (D&C 88:68)."
"'Hold your soul very still, and listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. Follow the noble, intuitive feelings planted deep within your souls by Deity in the previous world. In this way you will be responding to the Holy Spirit of God and will be sanctified by truth (James E. Faust).'"
"We must show the Lord how far He can trust us. He surrounds our temple covenants with sobering requirements that we keep in our hearts that which is sacred."
"Our weekly opportunity to cleanse ourselves is at the sacrament table. How does the sacrament help us in the purifying process? It reminds us regularly of our commitment to be cleansed by Jesus' blood, shed for us in the Atonement. We all know that blood stains, but the blood of Christ purges us and purifies us."
"'Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people (Boyd K. Packer).'"
"The mysteries of godliness are locked in the ordinances of godliness."
"Taking our covenants seriously transforms us."
"The temple is the Lord's university. For entrance you do not need to have a 3.8 grade-point average. To qualify, the Lord asks only that you bring a broken heart and a contrite spirit to His altar. You must be willing to consecrate yourself, with the integrity to keep sacred things in your heart and with a tremendous desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ."
"The Savior is the ultimate and only true and living agent for change. He is the source of all change for good."
"The Lord calls His temple a 'house of prayer' and teaches us to come there for the 'offering up of your most holy desires unto me' (D&C 88:119; 95:16)."
"President Howard W. Hunter said that the purpose of the temple is to reunite the family of God."
"'Lord, what do you have for me here today?'"
"God unites us by love. Satan's whole work is to separate and isolate us by discord, anger, hate, and the clamor for rights. All of us know what isolation feels like. We need to know what the unity of love feels like. I believe that it is impossible to feel the Spirit of the Lord and not feel love. And perhaps vice versa. When we know what love feels like we cannot help loving others. Love is contagious."
"'The temple is the bridge between heaven and earth--the seen and the unseen--and the bridge is love (Carlos Asay).'"
"Covenants bind us by love (Ann Madsen)."
"How is Zion built? By producing and gathering the 'pure in heart.' Eliza R. Snow learned from the Prophet that the curse on the earth would not be lifted all at once, but that each time we dedicate a temple we life the curse a little. Our homes are mini-temples, the points of light that will recreate a little bit of heaven on earth leading to the Millennium."
"We can make our homes holy by living what we've learned in the temple. When we keep our temple covenants, they help us to cheerfully, patiently reverence one another at home. We become sanctifying influences to each other all who come there. We quietly learn to live celestially, like Christ, creating a little bit of heaven on earth. Patience and prayer are part of the process."
"Orson Pratt gives us a wonderful vision of glorified homes in the further: 'In the latter days there will be a people so pure in Mount Zion, with a house established upon the tops of the mountains, that God will manifest himself, not only in their Temple...[but] when they retire to their [homes], behold each [home] will be lighted up by the glory of God--a pillar of flaming fire by night.'"
Elijah and the Turning of Hearts
"'Be sure to tell the people to keep the Spirit of the Lord; and if they will, they will find themselves just as they were organized by our Father in Heaven before they came into the world (Joseph Smith).'"
"No one is really dead. Those who are in the spirit world are in some ways more alive than some of us here."
Purposes of the Temple
"'The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching (Joseph Smith).'"
"The temple is a kind of observatory, as Hugh Nibley has written...a place designed for us to get 'our bearings' on the universe and our own lives."
"To receive knowledge of the priesthood is one thing. To receive the priesthood itself is another. Both are a privilege of the temple."
"The temple is a place of the unifying of all ordinances through firsthand participation."
"Clearly it is intended that the pattern and order of the house of God is repetitive. There is need for continual participation."
"A temple sacrificially built and faithfully dedicated will bring down the Lord's glory."
"Only in the temple are you placed in covenant-harmony with divine powers which will eventually so infuse and fuse your love that it will be worth perpetuating forever....A marriage will not last forever based on what you feel now. You must both receive and give an ever richer quality of love. The keys and glory of that love are in the sanctuary where Jesus Christ is present from beginning to end. You cannot begin or continue with each other except with Him."
"'Next to the temple, the home is the most sacred place on earth (Harold B. Lee).'"
"'Look upon your home as a sanctuary (Spencer W. Kimball).'"
"The home is, and remains, a sanctuary only to the degree that the persons within it are consecrated....it is a place where the Lord's Spirit is recognizable....The Millennium will come, Elder George Q. Cannon once observed, only when such homes dot the landscape."
Joseph Smith and the Kirtland Temple
"The temple is indeed a house of light where the heavenly and the earthly combine."
Ancient Temples and the Restoration
"The history of the Latter-day Saints is indeed a history of temples."
"Latter-day Saints are characterized as city builders and colonizers, as founders. Their communities are seen as 'near-nation' amidst nations. But for Joseph Smith no city or nation was truly a stronghold of Zion that was not crowned by a temple."
"The fullness of the priesthood is received only by the faithful in the house of the Lord."
"The main object of gathering was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose."
July 7, 2009
This is a deep, deep book but VERY informative. I need to re-read it 49 more times and I may finally get it.
January 30, 2016
Afflicted with various kinds of unworthiness and not too anxious to change all that. oh we talk of it and we aspire, we want change but we don't want it enough. We are like Augustine said in a prayer, "Oh God, make me clean, but not yet." we talk of sacrifice the one the lord asks of us now is the sacrifice of our sins, the hardest thing in the world to give up, but his promise is crystal clear, "If you will purify yourselves, sanctify yourselves i will bless you." And i'm afraid the postscript is : And if you don't I can't. It's when you make a covenant, and mean it, in the presence of witnesses, and even in the sense of the presence of God that the heavens begin to shake for your good, And then He promisers, "I make the same covenant with you, and i will never break it." Ultimately He asks us to give our all in covenant making with the promise that then and only then He will give His all in our behalf, As we live in righteousness, every blessing that is possible to receive will come to us in greater and greater fulfillment, The everlasting covenant, and the new and everlasting covenant centers in His sanctuary, the temple. I believe there are few, even temple workers, who comprehend the full meaning and power of the temple endowment. seen for what it is, it is the step-by-step ascent into the eternal presence. If our young people could only glimpse it, it would be the most powerful spiritual motivation of their lives. There are depths beyond depths of meaning, you are required as disciples of Christ to come once in seven days and covenant anew to take upon the name of Jesus Christ, in the house of the lord you come to take upon you His name in the fullest sense. Why all the emphasis on fulness? well there is a promise that we will one day have a fulness of truth. likewise, we are promised that in the temple the lords name will be put upon us. It means at its root that we become His. the answer to who am I, can never be complete unless it answers Whose am I. You are the son or daughter of a king the father himself through the ordinances you are begotten spiritually through His son, you become heir to His throne. The temple is many things a house of faith, a house of study, a house of learning, a house of order, a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of glory. But surrounding all of those, it is a house of Love. None of us receives enough love in this work, none of us. We're all in a measure love-starved and love-anxious, Father and Son call us to come in the spirit of sacrifice and be surrounded by the holy environment which embraces us in love. a day will come when He will descend in like manner as He once ascended from that very mount. We will sing a new song (D&C 88:99-102). God has given us a balance staff which holds the storm, That is the temple. The ultimate relationship for a man and a woman can be found in temple marriage, Women and men are equal partners, a king only with a queen, a priest only with a priestess, a patriarch only with a matriarch this is the eternal truth. The temple is the bridge between heaven and earth the seen and the unseen and the bridge is love we feel such love for the Lord Jesus Christ who's pleads our cause before the father. Elijah did something pertaining to the dead or work for the dead, Those who are in the spirit world are in a some ways more alive than some of us here. they have every feeling Intensified spiritually and as for their being dead and gone, No they are not gone either, the spirit world is not in some remote galaxy it is here, it is near. Had Elijah not come the whole earth would be cursed, or the earth would be utterly wasted at Christ's coming. Home is the place where when you have to go there, they have to take one in. One's refusal to forgive a sinner is a worse sin than whatever sin the sinner has committed. the Lord Jesus Christ He will descend to the mount His foot will touch it, It will cleave in twain and earthquake covering the whole earth and there will be a transformation of the earth preparing it for it's terrestrial condition. Jesus was indeed Son, Firstborn,Son of Man, Messiah, High Priest, and Apostle, In my Fathers house are many mansions here are hereafter there are many kingdoms and levels of spiritual attainment. when one asks will all mankind be saved? the question should properly include the corollary, To what degree? The name Yahweh the supreme or transcendent name of God is in the four hebrew letter YHWH later known as the tetragrammaton.
February 13, 2014
I love Truman G. Madsen. He has such a breadth of knowledge on such a wide range of topics.
This book delves into a number of topics relating to temples. It covers ancient temples, as well as modern. We learn about Solomon's temple, as well as Kirtland and Nauvoo. The book also explores other cultures that have traditions and practices similar to those found in the temple.
Reading this book made me realize how much I still have to learn. It is heavily footnoted with sources coming from the scriptural canon as well as apocryphal texts and even scholarly works. I learned a lot reading the book, but I have a feeling I'll learn exponentially more as I explore some of the cited works.
Definitely a worthwhile read. My mind has been expanded.
Here are just a few quotes that I pulled out. Most of the wisdom cannot be condensed into sound bytes, but here are a few that could.
"All the Lord's answers are in the temple."
"The temple is not just a union of heaven and earth. It is the key to our mastery of the earth. It is the Lord's graduate course in subduing the earth, which, as only Latter-day Saints understand, ultimately will be heaven—this earth glorified."
"I believe there are few, even temple workers, who comprehend the full meaning and power of the temple endowment. Seen for what it is, it is the step-by-step ascent into the Eternal Presence. If our young people could but glimpse it, it would be the most powerful spiritual motivation of their lives."
"The endowment is so richly symbolic that only a fool would attempt to describe it; it is so packed full of revelations to those who exercise their strength to seek and see, that no human words can explain or make clear the possibilities that reside in the temple service. The endowment which was given by revelation can best be understood by revelation."
"A woman was the first to taste death and the first to witness resurrected life. That is no coincidence. It is a lasting testimony of God's trust in woman."
"The mysteries of godliness are locked in the ordinances of godliness."
"We do not see things as they really are; we see things as we really are."
"Maybe we miss tiny bits of glory when we fail to notice sunrises and sunsets."
"God unites us by love. Satan's whole work is to separate and isolate us by discord, anger, hate, and the clamor for rights."
"Next to the temple, the home is the most sacred place on earth."
This book delves into a number of topics relating to temples. It covers ancient temples, as well as modern. We learn about Solomon's temple, as well as Kirtland and Nauvoo. The book also explores other cultures that have traditions and practices similar to those found in the temple.
Reading this book made me realize how much I still have to learn. It is heavily footnoted with sources coming from the scriptural canon as well as apocryphal texts and even scholarly works. I learned a lot reading the book, but I have a feeling I'll learn exponentially more as I explore some of the cited works.
Definitely a worthwhile read. My mind has been expanded.
Here are just a few quotes that I pulled out. Most of the wisdom cannot be condensed into sound bytes, but here are a few that could.
"All the Lord's answers are in the temple."
"The temple is not just a union of heaven and earth. It is the key to our mastery of the earth. It is the Lord's graduate course in subduing the earth, which, as only Latter-day Saints understand, ultimately will be heaven—this earth glorified."
"I believe there are few, even temple workers, who comprehend the full meaning and power of the temple endowment. Seen for what it is, it is the step-by-step ascent into the Eternal Presence. If our young people could but glimpse it, it would be the most powerful spiritual motivation of their lives."
"The endowment is so richly symbolic that only a fool would attempt to describe it; it is so packed full of revelations to those who exercise their strength to seek and see, that no human words can explain or make clear the possibilities that reside in the temple service. The endowment which was given by revelation can best be understood by revelation."
"A woman was the first to taste death and the first to witness resurrected life. That is no coincidence. It is a lasting testimony of God's trust in woman."
"The mysteries of godliness are locked in the ordinances of godliness."
"We do not see things as they really are; we see things as we really are."
"Maybe we miss tiny bits of glory when we fail to notice sunrises and sunsets."
"God unites us by love. Satan's whole work is to separate and isolate us by discord, anger, hate, and the clamor for rights."
"Next to the temple, the home is the most sacred place on earth."
October 6, 2008
This is one of my favorite books, which I know that I will refer back to again and again. It rates up there with Believing Christ, The Miracle of Forgiveness, and Jesus the Christ. So much information, and extensive footnotes directing you to lots more!
Some of my favorite quotes from this book -
"All the Lord's answers are in the temple."
"We come to comprehend more deeply in an environment that surrounds us like a cloak, our own identity, something of the roots that we can't quite reach through memory but which nevertheless are built cumulatively into our deepest selves -an infinite memory of conditions that predate memory. The temple is the catalyst whereby the self is revealed to the self."
". . . the temple is a place of learning and the only place for some kinds of learning that go directly to our spirits, to our core, to the very depths of our souls."
and this poem by Ann Madsen
In the temple
The quiet closes round me
like fog.
God's house reverberates
with silence,
filled with echoes
from the faithful
who have followed the light
to here, like a star.
White, we come clothed in white
to this place,
of radiant light.
Dear Host
of this Heavely House,
if I come,
clothed in the pure white of a new lamb,
with my heart as new,
may I, too,
be lighted?
Some of my favorite quotes from this book -
"All the Lord's answers are in the temple."
"We come to comprehend more deeply in an environment that surrounds us like a cloak, our own identity, something of the roots that we can't quite reach through memory but which nevertheless are built cumulatively into our deepest selves -an infinite memory of conditions that predate memory. The temple is the catalyst whereby the self is revealed to the self."
". . . the temple is a place of learning and the only place for some kinds of learning that go directly to our spirits, to our core, to the very depths of our souls."
and this poem by Ann Madsen
In the temple
The quiet closes round me
like fog.
God's house reverberates
with silence,
filled with echoes
from the faithful
who have followed the light
to here, like a star.
White, we come clothed in white
to this place,
of radiant light.
Dear Host
of this Heavely House,
if I come,
clothed in the pure white of a new lamb,
with my heart as new,
may I, too,
be lighted?
February 5, 2009
This is one of the best books I have read in awhile. It was both uplifting and enlightening. I've also read The Holy Temple by Boyd K. Packer which I also love, but I think Truman Madsen's book on the temple was a little easier for me to read. I really like his writing style. I feel like I'm just listening to him give a lecture and its easy to read and understand. Here is a small sample of some of the goodness that came from this book:
"All virtues spring from Christlike love. We forgive, we have mercy, we have empathy, we are willing to lift and bless and help when we are filled with that love. How can we give in to anger or impatience when our hearts are brimming with love? No wonder the scripture cries out, "Pray. . . with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love" (Moroni 7:8). We can pray daily for that sweet selflessness. Charity never stops, never fails. It reaches back to us even from beyond the veil".
"All virtues spring from Christlike love. We forgive, we have mercy, we have empathy, we are willing to lift and bless and help when we are filled with that love. How can we give in to anger or impatience when our hearts are brimming with love? No wonder the scripture cries out, "Pray. . . with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love" (Moroni 7:8). We can pray daily for that sweet selflessness. Charity never stops, never fails. It reaches back to us even from beyond the veil".
November 19, 2008
Truman and Ann Madsen both make comments throughout this book (even though it just shows Truman Madsen as the author), and they are very insightful. The Madsen's books and talks have often make me feel unworthy and insignificant because they are so perfect and amazing. However, in this book, I came away with useful knowledge (I took a lot of notes) and didn't feel quite so small. I especially loved Ann's retelling of an experience Gandhi had where he lost a sandal while on a slow-moving train. His associate went to jump off and grab it but Gandhi stopped him, then pulled off his other sandal and threw it by the other one so whoever found it would have a matching pair. Good stuff like this throughout the book! It's a worthwhile read.
February 21, 2010
A compilation of Truman Madsen's shorter works about the temple from throughout his life -- filled with informative and truly inspiring insights and experiences. Brother Madsen with his vast expanse of experience, contacts, and scholarship, quite cordially and with warm understanding and appreciation, indirectly shares his personal growth from a somewhat skeptical, youthful perspective to his vast store of philosophical knowledge. His wife, Sister Ann N. Madsen, is co-author of Chapter 5, "House of Glory, House of Light, House of Love," which was presented at the 1998 Women's Conference at BYU. The last chapter was deeper than I and was from a compilation of essays honoring Hugh Nibley.
January 10, 2011
Here's the simple truth: When Truman Grant Madsen speaks, my soul weeps.
This is a book written for believing, temple-attending Latter-Day Saints. He is more an orator than a writer, but that doesn't take away from how fantastic I find this book - the best on Latter-Day Saint temples that I have read. Nibley is more scholarly, Packer is more step-by-step, and Talmage is more ___(give me a few months)____. But Madsen takes the cake on helping you invest your heart and soul into temple worship. The first five chapters alone make this a 5-star work.
He passed away 10 months after the publication of this volume, providing a perfect capstone to all I have learned from him.
This is a book written for believing, temple-attending Latter-Day Saints. He is more an orator than a writer, but that doesn't take away from how fantastic I find this book - the best on Latter-Day Saint temples that I have read. Nibley is more scholarly, Packer is more step-by-step, and Talmage is more ___(give me a few months)____. But Madsen takes the cake on helping you invest your heart and soul into temple worship. The first five chapters alone make this a 5-star work.
He passed away 10 months after the publication of this volume, providing a perfect capstone to all I have learned from him.
February 25, 2009
I loved this book. I started it months ago, and then put it down as I needed to finish other projects.
This is a book that talks about how we can learn in the temple, and how temples were used in the past. I think my favorite chapter was one of the first two or three where he talks about the importance of Eve in the Garden of Eden, and her roll in our eternal salvation.
I love Truman Madsen, and his insights into the gospel.
This is a book that talks about how we can learn in the temple, and how temples were used in the past. I think my favorite chapter was one of the first two or three where he talks about the importance of Eve in the Garden of Eden, and her roll in our eternal salvation.
I love Truman Madsen, and his insights into the gospel.
February 25, 2014
Chapter five was my favorite and was filled with lots a wonderful information about the temple and temple worship. I also enjoyed the many things taught in the other early chapters. I found the final chapters incredibly difficult to follow and generally felt like they lacked greater background which might have helped me make sense of the information being offered.
February 18, 2014
This is my favorite book written about temples. Never have I learned so much, or felt that the author understands the obstacles one faces when beginning to learn and appreciate temple worship.
January 26, 2010
In his youth,Truman Madsen watched his grandparents take their large family to the temple almost every week. Decades later, a friend said, " Your spiritual life began with the temple and everything since has flowed from that." The messages in this book attest to his love of temples. The author of many bestselling books and CDs, Truman teaches how we can gain access to the light and truth offered in the temple. He discusses the relationship of the temple to the Atonement, Joseph Smith's contribution to our understanding of temples, and how the scriptures and the temple illuminate each other. Author: Truman G. Madsen (a book I plan to read over and over )
July 16, 2010
The book is a collection of a life spent pondering the purposes of temples in our lives. I read through the chapters with a pencil in hand. His understanding, appropriately veiled, of the purpose of the temple is deep and covers both ancient and modern temple worship.
Truman Madsen was the Stake President during the years that my husband served as a campus Bishop. Truman is amazingly gifted in his understanding of the Gospel and we miss him (he passed away recently). He and his wife, Ann are examples for every couple of what a marriage can achieve. His DVD series on the life and mission of Jesus Christ, filmed in the Holy Land, is a peaceful masterpiece.
Truman Madsen was the Stake President during the years that my husband served as a campus Bishop. Truman is amazingly gifted in his understanding of the Gospel and we miss him (he passed away recently). He and his wife, Ann are examples for every couple of what a marriage can achieve. His DVD series on the life and mission of Jesus Christ, filmed in the Holy Land, is a peaceful masterpiece.
March 24, 2015
I am not a huge fan of Truman Madsen, so this book was about what I expected. It's an interesting read and some of the things he points out are fascinating, but I felt like I really had to push through to get to those moments. He's a philosopher and sometimes his writing feels like reading that. There were some great parts, but just not enough to make me want to reread it or buy it, so only three stars this time. Also I felt like sometimes he went a little out there without a lot to back it up. He also feels a little to me like he is constantly "defending the faith" even when he doesn't really need to. I did like reading his wife Ann's thoughts in one of the chapters.
July 26, 2011
This is a powerful book about the temple from a great scholar, who loves the temple. I loved his reinforcement that the temple is the preparation we all need to enter God's presence. There were so many great quotes - the first part of the book is underlined on almost every page. The end of the book - Whew! it got pretty heavy in the doctrine and my head hurt trying to comprehend it all.
I felt inspired through most of the book though and it helped me in wanting to attend the temple more frequently and to pay much closer attention.
I felt inspired through most of the book though and it helped me in wanting to attend the temple more frequently and to pay much closer attention.
January 16, 2016
I really loved this book! I learned so much and will need to re-read and highlight the inspiring quotes. One of my favorite thoughts says, "God unites us by love. Satan's whole work is to separate and isolate us by discord, anger, hate, and the clamor for rights. All of us know what isolation feels like. We need to know what the unity of love feels like. I think it is impossible to feel the Spirit of the Lord and not feel love. Love is contagious." Great reminder of a mother and my role to build our home after the temple and the powerful feelings of love.
March 14, 2011
This is a nice book, with some good points throughout. I was a looking for a more academic read regarding The Temple as a theory, as an archetype, as a drive inherent to humans. This falls more in the realm of devotional literature, more touchy feely than scholastic. Still, I definitely underlined a few passages. I'm certain I would have gotten more out of it if I were LDS; the lingo is definitely geared toward the insider. I've read enough to get the jist, but let's face it: I will never genuinely understand what Temple Endowments or Dispensations are. And I'm okay with that.
August 11, 2010
I really enjoyed reading this book. I learned so much and, while I was reading it, gained more excitement to go to the temple. Some of my favorite things I learned: the dual meaning associated with the word "hosannah", the significance of YHWH in Hebrew and the significance of names in Jewish tradition, the connection between the amount of sacrifice to build a temple and the consecration by the Spirit that follows it's completion, and about how the essence of our homes is (or should be) next in line with the holiness of a temple. I may need to buy myself a copy of this one.
June 27, 2018
I found this book to be very interesting, especially the first part. Later on the book got to be a little deep for me. Truman Madsen has very interesting and profound insights. I really enjoyed the stories and anecdotes, particularly having grown up as a member of the LDS church. I find them interesting historically, as well as doctrinally. There was some redundancy/repetition, but I can always use a "reminder" as I forget so much of what I read. This is a great book!
January 15, 2009
This book is about temples and temple worship and is very interesting and inspiring. Madsen lets us know up front that the chapters are taken from other writings and talks he has done. The last two chapters definately needed editing. They must have been written by Bible scholars who use terms such as salvific and Christological. As I said they should have been edited to fit the vernacular of the rest of the book.
November 5, 2010
This is a hard book to review. The book is good, but all the essays in the book have been published in other places. So, the material is good, but I was disappointed in the fact that I was hoping for new material from Truman Madsen. If you have read his temple-related articles, you may not need to buy and read this. However, if you are new to Madsen's articles and thoughts on the temple, this will be a great book.
February 18, 2011
I feel like this book is more advanced than I was really prepared for. I did learn some neat things that I didn't know before, but it was hard for me to follow, especially the second half. I also feel the flow from one topic to the next was very disjointed. I am hoping for a better overview of temples from Boyd K. Packer's The Holy Temple. However, if you already know a bit about the temple and want to dig in to some scholarly thoughts, this might be a good choice for you.
January 26, 2016
This is a collection of various talks and previously written articles about the temple. As such, there was some repetition. Some of it was motivational, some of it was scholarly, and some was somewhere in between. I especially enjoyed a chapter near the end about the ancient patterns of worship, as it tied in well to my recent reading of Margaret Barker's book on the subject, plus added some interesting information about how important names were to the ancients.
August 5, 2017
This was basically taking a bunch of stuff he's said or written on the temple and mashed it all together. There were a lot of interesting points, but the book as a whole wasn't very cohesive. Then it just ended abruptly.
Currently reading
August 8, 2008Just started this book--I love anything by this author. I'll let you know how it goes. I try to read one book relating to some aspect of religion, and one "secular book" concurrently.
August 26, 2008
This book was easier to understand than some of Madsen's books have been. It is insightful and adds to my love the temples.
Read
November 1, 2008I am looking for greater insights and this is showing them to me. Not finished yet, will update review when finished.
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