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ALEX - I have been asked if there are any answers to the following claims I have been given to show the LDS temple is in fact biblical.
The LDS church claims that its temples and temple practices are patterned after God’s instructions, as given to the Israelites in the Bible. But contrary to what many Mormons believe, Modern LDS temples bear little, if any resemblance to the Temple in the Bible.
God gave His people VERY specific instructions as to how His “sacred sanctuary” should be built. In Exodus 25, God instructed that the inside of the Temple must have two rooms: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. The holy place had the following furnishings: The Golden Lamp-stand, the table of the bread of the presence, and the altar of incense. No more, no less. The Most Holy Place, separated from the holy place by a floor-to-ceiling curtain, was furnished with the Ark of the Covenant, also known as the “mercy seat”.
The construction of modern LDS temples, however, do not follow these exact instructions given by God, nor do they contain the rooms, or furnishings commanded by Him.
THE BIBLE ONLY AUTHORIZES ONE TEMPLE:
At any given time in Jewish History, there was only ever 1 authorized Temple for Israelite worship, and one set of sacred furnishings. While there were synagogues all over the world, Jerusalem was and is the only authorized place for the Jews to build a physical Temple. In fact, building a temple anywhere other than this uniquely sanctioned place of worship was considered an act of blatant rebellion against God.
This is why the Temple is commonly referred to in the Bible as the [singular] “house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:7. In contrast, the LDS church boasts more than 140 Temples in operation around the world today, none of which are within more than 1000 miles of “God’s holy mountain” in Jerusalem.
THE BIBLE STRICTLY LIMITS TEMPLE ACCESS:
The Bible provides strict rules concerning who was and was not allowed to enter the Temple. Of all of Israel, only direct descendants of Aaron were allowed to enter the Temple. And of those descendants, only the men were permitted to enter. And while these “priests” could enter the Holy Place to carefully perform specific religious ceremonies, it was the one High Priest alone who was authorized to enter the Most Holy Place, and even then, just once a year.LDS Temples, however, permit both men and women who are not in the bloodline of Aaron to enter the Temple, dishonoring God’s specific instructions given in the Bible.
THE BIBLE PRESCRIBES SPECIFIC PRACTICES:
Not one of the Temple ceremonies commanded in the Bible is currently practiced in LDS Temples. The Old Testament Temple was established to both provide a visual representation of God “dwelling in the midst of His people”, and to be the center of the Israelite sacrificial system. Some of the ordinances prescribed in the Bible were:
The lighting of the lamp stand (Exodus 27:20-21)
The anointing of the sacred furnishings with oil (Exodus 30:22-38)
The lighting of Incense (Exodus 30:1-10)
The offering of Grain (Leviticus 2:1-16)
And most importantly:
The animal sacrifices offered to God as blood atonement for the sins of the people.
None of these ceremonies, which were the primary reasons for the creation of the OT Temple, are currently practiced in LDS Temples.
THE BIBLE PROHIBITS ADDITIONAL PRACTICES
Not a single one of the ordinances that are currently practiced in LDS Temples were ever allowed in the Old Testament Temple. Consider some of the most important ceremonies performed in modern Mormon Temples:
Baptisms: No baptisms ever took place inside the Old Testament Temple. First, the wash basin described in the Old Testament was never used for baptism, but for regular ceremonial cleansing of the priests (Exodus 30:21). Furthermore, the wash basin was not even in the Temple, because its purpose was to cleanse the priests BEFORE they entered (Exodus 30:18).
Marriage Ceremonies: Weddings were never performed in the Temple of the Bible. Not only is Temple marriage completely absent from the Bible, as already stated, women weren’t even allowed into the Temple for their weddings to have been performed there.
Works For The Dead: One of the primary functions of LDS Temples is to perform rituals on behalf of the dead. But the Old Testament Temple had no such purpose, and not a single verse in the Bible commands these works of the dead to be performed anywhere, let alone in the Temple of God.
Modern LDS Temples and temple practices are not found in the Bible. Therefore, the LDS Church cannot claim any biblical authority for either construction of, or the ordinances performed in modern Temples. Simply put, LDS Temples are not Biblical.
Any help answering these statements is much appreciated.
JOEL - For the most part they are right in saying that our modern day temples are not identically Biblical. There are some important reasons for that. For one, they only believe in the Bible. And that pretty much covers most of it.
Our temples today are Biblical in the sense that they are sacred places of worship where people can go to feel the presence of God; the same as it was for the temples in the Bible. Also when God wants to communicate with the mortal leaders of His children, He will do it from within the temple; both Biblical and modern-day.
But the temples in biblical times were built and used for different purposes and for a different dispensation of people compared to our temples today.Although both are structures built under the direction of the Lord, there is a difference between the law of Moses temples and modern temples.
The law of Moses temples were operated by men born to the Aaronic or Levitical Priesthood and were led by a high priest, who was a literal descendant of Aaron. That high priest was the only person who entered the most sacred room on only one day a year—the Day of Atonement. It was just outside of the temple on an altar that sacrifices prescribed in the law of Moses were offered.
For the majority of the Old Testament times Israel was living under the lesser Aaronic priesthood, with its accompanying ordinances, and not the higher priesthood of Melchizedek, with its accompanying ordinances (which we now have and other prophets before Moses had).
Because they were living under the lesser Aaronic priesthood, the ordinances that they performed were only pertaining to the lesser priesthood, and were outward and pertained to carnal commandments. This lasted 1200-1300 years, until the time of Christ, and is why we don’t see much of the higher ordinances in the Old Testament.
According to latter-day revelation from God, our modern temples are built and operate under the direction of a living prophet who holds the keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood, that were first restored to Joseph Smith, and therefore we can practice the higher ordinances associated with that priesthood (Sealings, marriages, baptism for the dead, etc).
One of the main roles of the Moses temple was performing animal sacrifices on behalf of those who brought the animals. Because we no longer live under the law of Moses(and have not since the atonement of Christ), animal sacrifices are of course no longer required, because they were a representation of the death and atonement of Jesus Christ which was to come in the future. Even other Christians today should recognize that animal sacrifices are no longer needed.
The coming of Jesus marked the fulfillment of the Law of Moses and the beginning of a new Gospel and doctrine and a change for the reason and purpose for the temples we build today.
The people who made up that list of requirements for a temple, which you provided, do not believe in latter-day revelation or other scriptures; they only believe in the Bible, and so will therefore not understand the reason why we build temples and have some seemingly non-biblical ordinances that are performed in them. We don't really claim Biblical authority for the building of our temples today; we claim direct authority from God through our prophets and higher Melchizedek Priesthood.
Having said all that our temples, like the Biblical ones, do have a Holy of Holies(2 Chron 5), a veil(2 Chron. 3), a font riding on the backs of 12 oxen(2 Chron. 4:2-6.), altars (Ezra 3), making covenants, communicating with God, washings and anointings (Lev 8), Temple robes worn by patrons(Lev 8), and for being taught the doctrines of God.
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