During the intense persecutions of the Latter-day Saints in Missouri in late 1833, the Prophet Joseph Smith received the 101st section of the Doctrine and Covenants. This revelation explained that the persecutions had been allowed to take place because there had been “jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes . . . among them;” and, “by these things they polluted their inheritances.”[1]
After completing his list of grievances against the saints, the Lord offers words of consolation.
In verse 22: “Behold, it is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places.”[2]
This riveting phrase, “stand in holy places” is repeated in the 45th and the 87th sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, with the additional, sweet characterization, “and shall not be moved.”[3] These verses relate to the last days, with the admonition to “not be moved” by the storms and the destructions associated with the second coming of Jesus Christ. This emphasis gives a special, powerful meaning to the idea of “standing in holy places.”
We should stand in holy places for our physical and our spiritual protection. With the stakes so high why would we not, each day of our lives, do our utmost to indeed, stand where the Lord would have us stand?
I love the art piece on the front of your Education Week brochure. The home is shown, backed up by the chapel, which is further backed up by the temple. And, with a little imagination, we might say they are all backed up by the beautiful, blue skies of heaven. We certainly know through modern scriptures and prophetic instruction, that heaven stands squarely behind the home, the church and the temples.
I will address your Education Week theme, “Stand in Holy Places,” in the context of each of these three structures, home, chapel and temple.
Regarding our homes, President James E. Faust pointed out in his April 2005 General Conference talk, “Surely a . . . holy place on earth ought to be our homes.” We spend a great portion of our lives in our homes, and we should strive to create an atmosphere that, “feels holy.” Attitudes of love, service and spirituality promote such an atmosphere, while attitudes of fault-finding, selfishness and contention preclude the development of any possible sense of holiness in our home or anywhere else for that matter.
We and our families deserve such a sanctuary from the buffetings of the world. School, work and even the playground can be places of most unholy circumstances. Walking in the front door of our home should provide an immediate contrast to the rest of the natural-man world. This sounds utopian, but it is possible, if there is concerted effort on the part of all family members to make the home environment different from the outside world environment.
Smiling faces, encouraging words, expressions of love, expressions of sincere interest in the other family members and good music are all elements of a home which will actually make it feel holy. It can be very humble in appearance and circumstance, but that just doesn’t matter. The most memorable parties of my youth were not held in the biggest and most expensive homes in town, but rather in the smaller, even crowded homes where family love was the order of the day, every day. I did not realize it then, but on reflection, I would call those homes “holy places.” The others were just “nice houses.”
Five years ago, when we were selling our home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and preparing to move to Africa for our assignment in the area presidency, we had an interesting experience. We left for a few days and turned our house over to a real estate lady to sell. After she had sold the house she told us that normally when she held an open house on a weekend, she could hardly wait to lock up at the end of the day, and get out and go home. However, in the case of our home, she found a special feeling, so she just closed up and sat there for a while in order to enjoy the spirit present.
We had dedicated and blessed our home when we first moved in and had tried to keep contention out of the house. Consequently, even when we weren’t home a special feeling prevailed. We like to think that there was a bit of holiness present in that home, and that it was a holy place in which we could stand and feel protected from the more grinding influences of the world about us.
Satan hates holiness in homes. He assaults homes whenever he can. Several years ago when our children were young we moved into a new home in Virginia, but we failed to dedicate it right away. We built bedrooms for our two oldest sons in the basement, but they were not comfortable downstairs. They heard strange sounds and were scared to go to bed at night. There was not a good spirit about that house.
We belatedly dedicated and blessed our house, and immediately the atmosphere changed. That house became a home. Our homes should provide our most available “holy place” in which we can regularly stand.
Our chapels should certainly be “holy places” in which we can take refuge. This is why we build attractive, inviting structures, and dedicate them to the Lord’s purposes. They provide places for those to, “gather together,” who would “worship the Lord according to the restored gospel.” President Gordon B. Hinckley has stated, if he were a bishop, he would focus on developing the spirituality of his ward, and one of the first items he would emphasize would be weekly attendance at sacrament meeting.
Why would he put so much emphasis on being together in a church meeting? When we gather together in worship services we draw strength from one another. This strength flows from shared testimonies as well as from the gospel knowledge gained through shared lessons. We grow spiritually as we accept and magnify callings, and we strengthen our Christian character as we provide charitable service to one another. That is what “gathering together” is all about.
People may attempt to grow spiritually in isolation from others, but I have found it to be virtually impossible to do so. During one portion of my military career I had very little opportunity to associate with other Latter-day Saints. I tried to read the scriptures and stay close to the Lord, but I was amazed at the negative spiritual impact of an extended period of spiritual isolation. I understand fully why it is the Lord’s will that we “gather together.” We draw immense spiritual strength from just associating with one another.
That is why it is so important to reach out to members who are not attending church regularly. They need to feel the warmth of being with fellow Latter-day Saints. If our chapels do not have a sense of reverence and a spiritual warmth about them, we need to do all in our power to provide such a feeling. Without an atmosphere of love of the Lord, as well as a love of the members, there is little hope that our chapels will qualify as “holy places” in which we can stand. For those unable to attend the temples, the chapels are probably the best they have in terms of a holy place where they can go and enjoy shelter and sanctuary.
Several years ago before sisters married to non-members went to the temple, we had a very spiritual sister in our ward who would talk about our chapel in special terms. When people were noisy and irreverent, she would remark, “shh, this is my temple. I like to come here in reverence and feel the spirit.” Our chapels are dedicated to the Lord and deserve respect and reverence.
During our three years in Southeast Africa, Sister Oaks and I were constantly impressed with the African saints’ worshipful attitude in all church meetings. In three years in a wide variety of meetings in some 21 different countries, we never witnessed irreverent behavior.
We went to Sitima Village in Malawi to meet with the branch president. Three hundred and twenty six people showed up, so we held a fireside in and around their dirt floored, mud walled, tin roofed building. It was very crowded. Our backs were to the wall and we had children sitting on our feet, with sweat running down their bare chests. Although they didn’t understand a word we said, they sat quietly for over an hour. They knew reverence.
Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles commented following a recent trip to East Africa, “those people come to church to worship.” Our chapels and those who come to worship in them deserve our reverence.
A final comment on chapels; one Sunday morning Sister Oaks and I were traveling through Eastern Colorado and planned to stop for church in Holly, Colorado. We did not expect any problem locating the chapel. When we found it, it was a remodeled house with a small parking lot. As we drove in to the lot, the spirit washed over us both, simultaneously but independently, and we knew we were in for a special, spiritual treat in that humble chapel. We were not disappointed. Our chapels are indeed holy ground on which we are blessed to stand.
Of course, any discussion of holy places must include and dwell on Latter-day Saint temples. In fact, at the very top of the list of holy places to stand are the temples of the Lord. Have you stopped and considered how fortunate you are to live in an age when the holy temples are more numerous and more accessible than they have ever been in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ?
Temples have often been the objects of great sacrifice, both in the matter of building them and in the matter of attending them. President Hinckley has made it a life project to bring the temples to the people, but there are still many cases where it takes real sacrifice for the saints to get to the nearest temple. In East Africa, the saints in Tanzania rode 3 days and 3 nights each way in a bus without air-conditioning in order to get to the temple in Johannesburg. They would stop on the side of the road to cook their meals, and then they would get back on the bus and drive on.
The Kirtland Temple is one of my favorite temples, even though it is not a functioning temple as we understand them. In fact, the Church does not even own this temple. The Community of Christ or the former Reorganized LDS Church owns it and conducts tours through it. But when you stand in that temple and look at the pulpit where Jesus Christ stood before Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and restored critical keys, it is both humbling and uplifting.
One afternoon after we had gone through the Kirtland Temple on a tour, I asked the guide why he did not tell the tour group about the appearance of Christ on the pulpit. He shrugged and said, “no one would believe me if I said that.” I didn’t say anything, but I wanted to shout, “we believe it!” We do believe it, and we glory in it. Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in that beautiful temple, along with Moses, Elijah and Elias. Grand, dispensational keys were restored: keys for the gathering of Israel and keys for the redemption of the dead. On that spot and on that day, Christ gave great impetus to the restoration process. That is what happens in the Lord’s holy places.
This first temple of the dispensation of the fullness of times was built at great sacrifice on the part of the saints there in Kirtland. To this day when the sun hits it right, you can catch the sparkle reflecting from the bits of china which the sisters donated to be ground up and placed in the plaster walls. It is beautiful. The saints were deeply in debt. They were struggling to build communities. Many had been sent on to Missouri. The Lord knew they wouldn’t be in Kirtland long. Why did he direct them to such sacrifice? In fact, he directed them in strong words in the 95th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Verse two of that section reads: “Wherefore, ye must needs be chastened and stand rebuked before my face; for ye have sinned against me a very grievous sin, in that ye have not considered the great commandment in all things, that I have given unto you concerning the building of mine house.”
What was the purpose of that temple? How many baptisms were done there? None. How many endowments were performed for the living or the dead? Very few that we know of. Verse 4 of the 95th section states, “for the preparation wherewith I design to prepare mine apostles to prune my vineyard for the last time,” that is what that temple was built for.
The Lord wanted it built so he could appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery along with ancient prophets and restore dispensational keys and to prepare his apostles for their critical pruning work.
The Lord proved in the sacred grove he doesn’t have to have a temple available in order to appear to men. But he proved in Kirtland that he prefers for sacred, sanctifying events to occur in dedicated, holy temples. Hence these edifices are being built around the world at a breath-taking rate in order that the sacred events of baptism, endowment and sealing might be performed in the appropriate way under the hands of proper priesthood authority in a holy sanctuary.
The sacred grove was sanctified by the presence of the Father and the Son for their visit with Joseph Smith. The temples are sanctified by the sacrifice required to build them, and by the prayers of dedication, but most importantly, by the sacred, eternal ordinances that are performed within their walls. Thus they become “holy places” in which we can stand. And we do much more than stand. We, “prepare for the revelation which is to come, when the veil of the covering of my temple in my tabernacle, which hideth the earth, shall be taken off, and all flesh shall see me together.”[4] What a marvelous promise, “we prepare for revelation in the temple.”
We also store up eternal blessings which we cannot fully appreciate in this life. As we turn our hearts to our fathers and perform for them ordinances of eternal import, ordinances which they cannot do for themselves, having passed beyond the veil, we complete rites which are absolutely critical to their eternal progress.
Elder Todd Christofferson, of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy, tells of a beautiful experience which highlights the importance of these ordinances. While he was serving as the executive director of the Church Family History Department, in response to fasting and prayer, it was revealed to him that, “conditions on the other side of the veil are less than desirable for even the good people who have not received the priesthood ordinances within the temple.”
Focus for a moment on what this means. You and I have the power, every time we go to the temple to do work for the dead, to improve the conditions of existence for someone on the other side. We do not know any further details, but we don’t need to know any more than what we have stated above. We just need to go and “stand in these holy places” we know as the temples of the Lord. In so doing, we provide relief for souls who have waited for many, many years.
There are books full of beautiful stories of temple sacrifice, of the pain and privation people endure to get to the nearest temple. I heard a sweet, sweet story just a few weeks ago down in Panama. I was attending a stake conference with an Area Seventy, Elder Luis Duarte, and he was talking about the importance of temples when making our decisions regarding where to be married. He was very poor when he and his wife were planning to get married. They lived in Honduras, and the nearest temple was in Mexico City. Together, they had $90.00, just barely enough to fly to Mexico and to return. They had no money for a wedding dress, a wedding ring, or a wedding reception. A friend donated a cake that said, “Happy Birthday” on the top, and that was it. But they had taken care of the most important matter, they had sacrificed enough to be married in the temple. All of the other frills would be added on later. They stood in the most important holy place on a most important day. They stood in the house of the Lord.
We stand in these places to bless those who have gone before through the vicarious ordinances we perform, but we also bless ourselves in dramatic fashion. First we perform our own temple ordinances for our own eternal security and peace, but also we bring upon ourselves blessings of inspiration, peace and even revelation by being obedient to promptings of the spirit of Elijah.
There is one final aspect of holy places upon which I would like to briefly dwell. In this era known as the last days, there are satanic influences all about us, waiting to draw us in and tar us with dark, earthy stains. We cannot go into places of suggestive, seductive music, and entertainment, or places of mind bending refreshments without being affected in unholy ways.
Elder Henry B. Eyring related an instructive story during a visit to South Africa for an area training meeting. While he was working in an office, some acquaintances came by and asked him to go to lunch. He agreed, and en route they walked into a small shop that was much less than he expected, with foul, offensive pictures on every wall. Although he immediately turned and walked out he, could not get the corruptive images out of his mind, despite his fervent prayers. After a few days the spirit spoke to him, saying, “you did not pray to be led not into temptation.”
In this world of evil and designing men, we are surrounded with disreputable places from which we should pray every day to be led. There are innumerable combat stories of men and women being miraculously led to safety on the battlefield. This life is a war, with eternal consequences, and we should pray constantly to be led by the holy spirit through its minefields and pitfalls. Avoiding unholy places is an important part of putting on the whole armor of God, and securing his divine protection.
Unfortunately, despite our prayers and best avoiding efforts, sometimes our work, our schooling or other circumstances may necessitate our being in conditions of language and images that are less than we would desire. In such cases, the whole armor of God is of utmost importance. We can, in fact, take our “holy place” with us. By our own high standards of language, entertainment and general behavior we can actually raise the decency level of some less desirable places. We should not seek these places out, with the hope we can lift them a bit. That is dangerous. But when there is no choice, we can cloak ourselves in the Lord’s protective shielding and survive.
The best way I can explain this principle is to consider Arnold Friberg’s painting of Abinadi in King Noah’s court, Chained and destined for death, but standing with great dignity, commanding courage and even holiness in an unholy place, Abinadi’s conduct and preaching played the key role in one of the greatest missionary moments in recorded scripture. Alma the senior, was converted by Abinadi’s words and conduct and thus launched on his lifetime course of teaching, baptizing and leading saints on gospel paths.
As we are raised up and frequently stand in the holy habitats of home, church and temple we can build a holy, Christ-like character that will protect us and insulate us from the ungodly assaults of Satan. By standing in holy places, thinking virtuous thoughts and doing our utmost to abide by the eternal laws of the gospel, we can prepare ourselves to, “not be moved,” by the tumults of the world. We can endure “until the day of the Lord come," to ever, “worship the Lord, according to his everlasting gospel,” and even to, “receive revelation.”
These lofty goals are attainable and certainly worthy of our diligent, lifelong pursuit. May we ever be so engaged, I humbly pray, in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, of whose life and death and life I testify, amen.
Notes
[1] Doctrine and Covenants 101:6
[2] Doctrine and Covenants 101:22
[3] Doctrine and Covenants 45:32, 87:8
[4] Doctrine and Covenants 101:23