The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints builds temples all around the world where faithful members go to learn more of Jesus Christ and his plan, receive ordinances for themselves, and perform vicarious work for their deceased ancestors. These temples are beautifully constructed both inside and out. They are designed to direct our thoughts heavenward and seal families together for eternity. The redemptive work that is performed here is not to be found anywhere else on the earth. All people are invited to experience for themselves the grandeur and blessings of temple work by qualifying themselves to enter the House of the Lord. In the meantime, I'll be taking you through the A to Z of our temples.
GILBERT ARIZONA TEMPLE
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| The magnificent Gilbert Arizona Temple |
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| The Baptistry at the Gilbert Arizona Temple |
It is to be noted that the Baptism Font in all temples rests on the backs of twelve oxen. A popular explanation for this is that the twelve oxen represent the twelve tribes of Israel, however, I am of the personal belief that oxen are associated with the specific tribe of Ephraim, which is the gathering tribe. We gather God's children by offering our dead the ordinance of baptism by proxy.
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| The Foyer in the Gilbert Arizona Temple |
Upon entering a temple, members will approach a front desk like this one where they will be requested to present their temple recommend to a patron for checking. Only members who have previously been interviewed and found to be practising certain standards of worthiness will be issued a temple recommend. Recommends are valid for 2 years.
However, once a temple has completed construction, the general public are invited to attend an Open House where they may go inside the temple and look around for themselves. Guided tours are usually offered. Open Houses usually last for 2-3 weeks, after which a church authority will hold a special dedicatory service. Once a temple has been dedicated, only those possessing a valid temple recommend may enter.
Here is a 5-minute video showing an example of some of the activities and cultural performances that took place on the dedication of the Gilbert Arizona Temple:
I'm finding that my eyes are drawn to the lighting fixtures. It's interesting that some of the temples have very elaborate chandeliers while others have very simple fixtures, such as the ones shown here. I would ask if there was a particular significance to that, but my guess is that the answer is no, it's whatever goes well with the architecture. Am I correct there?
ReplyDeleteHi John, I would say you are spot on with that explanation. It simply has to fit in with the rest of the room or space it's in. However, some temples are much larger and grander than others, in certain parts of the world. I think this could be due to the budget allocated for the construction of the temple and also trying to build the temple with certain local flavours. Thanks for your visit, John.
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