Nauvoo Illinois Temple

Nauvoo Illinois Temple

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the temple is the house of the Lord--the most sacred place on earth.

 Whereas our meetinghouses are open to the public and are used for Sunday worship services and weekday activities, the temples are a holy place dedicated to our highest form of worship and is a spiritual environment set apart from the outside world.

WHY DO WE BUILD TEMPLES?

From the days of the Old Testament, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples-sacred structures where He could teach, guide, and bless them.  For example, the Lord told the Israelites to build a portable tabernacle that would be their temple while they traveled in the wilderness.  

  

When Jesus Christ was on the earth, the only existing temple was known as the Temple of Herod. Jesus was often found in this temple  After the rejection and deaths of Jesus's Apostles, there were no temples on the earth for many centuries. When the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in the early 1800's, the Lord again commanded His people to build temples  Today, the Church has 142 operating temples around the world and another twenty-eight will be completed in the year 2015. 

WHAT DO WE DO IN THE TEMPLE?

In the temple we are taught, we make covenants, and we are promised blessings. We receive ordinances that enable us to live in the presence of God.

One ordinance we receive in the temple is the endowment. The word endowment means “gift” or “bestowal.” As part of this ordinance, we are taught about the purpose of life, the mission and Atonement of Jesus Christ, and Heavenly Father’s plan for His children. We gain a glimpse of what it will be like to live in His presence as we feel the peaceful atmosphere of the temple.  In exchange for the endowment we agree to be virtuous, honest, upright. and to serve others.

Another temple ordinance is the sealing ordinance, in which husbands and wives are sealed to each other and children are sealed to their parents in eternal families. This means that if we are faithful to our covenants, our family relationships will continue for eternity.

In addition to receiving these ordinances for ourselves, we can receive them for our deceased ancestors. In this way, people who died without receiving essential ordinances such as baptism and confirmation, the endowment, and sealing have the opportunity to accept these ordinances.

The following pictures were produced by the Church for a brochure given out to visitors at the dedication of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple in 2002.  

Entry Foyer

The Baptistry
The font rests on the backs of twelve oxen, symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel.  It is a close replica of the font in the original Nauvoo Temple 

The Assembly Room patterned closely after the one in the original Nauvoo Temple

The Garden Room depicting the beauty and tranquility of the Garden of Eden

The world room which depicts the world in which we now live, complete with contrasting happiness and hardship, which are part of our growth.   

The celestial room.  The Celestial Room helps to remind us of our ultimate goal of living a life fully in accordance with God's commandments to allow us to return and live again with Him.

AT THE END OF A DAY

 We are facing the temple and behind us are the statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith as they look back on the city of Nauvoo and the Mississippi River before leaving for Carthage where they were killed by a mob.    

   

The following is a video titled "Why Mormons Build Temples"