16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (1 Corinthians 3)
33 For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy;
34 And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.
35 The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple. (D&C 93)
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (Matthew 23)
Last weekend, the LDS church held its semi-annual General Conference. In recent years, I’ve listened in on conference sessions, only to hear what some of my children who still attend are being taught, but the circumstances of last weekend made tuning-in fall very low on the priority list. I didn’t see or hear any of it, but, by way of social media, I encountered the announcement of plans to build several new temples.
Over the same weekend, a video was put up on YouTube. I got to watch it on a travel day last week, and I found it so sad that so many people were so excited to hear the news of temple construction, but were completely unaware of a video that shared such priceless information about (just a part of) what it’s like to become God’s temple.
The most important “temple work” that can be done is internal to us. There is an enormous amount of symbolism to be found in the concept and practice of temple worship, but, to be quite honest, it is a lower form of worship than what God originally intended for mankind to have.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4)
Jesus says that true worshippers “shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” Engaging in this type of worship is effectual, and God has placed, is placing, and will place everything we need in our lives to engage in this type of worship.
The video I mentioned earlier in this post was published by Rob Smith on his YouTube channel, “upwardthought”, and can be found here. It’s a long video—the longest of any on his channel (though, not much longer than a general conference session and far more spiritually satisfying—just saying). If that particular video is too long, pick a shorter one. Every video is worth watching.
I’ve recommended his books on numerous occasions. The value of the principles in his books is many times the value of the time it takes to read one. If you find value in the videos, you should consider reading his books, several formats of which can be found on his blog.
The videos and (to a greater extent) the books are tools that shed greater light on God and his goodness and love towards us. They are instruments designed to help us do the “temple work” within ourselves that will cause us to become a fit habitation for God’s spirit.
For several reasons, currently and combined, all the LDS temples in the world cannot even come close to the capability of doing the same, and adding more to the existing number will not change that fact.
There are greater sources of light, and the Lord is making those sources more widely available. We should recognize these sources and benefit from them while they are available to us.