Raleigh North Carolina Temple
For over 150 years the Mormon Church has had a presence in North
Carolina. It began with a lone missionary, Jedediah M. Grant, preaching
the message of the restored gospel and truthfulness of the Book of Mormon
in 1838. Today there are more than 40,000 Latter-day Saints living in
North Carolina, the Raleigh North Carolina Temple will serve about
27,000 of these Saints. The temple is the 68th
operating Mormon temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The temple features art glass windows and a white marble exterior.
The classic modern design features a lone spire topped with a gold
statue of the angel Moroni.
The Raleigh North Carolina temple includes a celestial room, two ordinance rooms, two sealing rooms, and a baptistery. Mormon temples are considered a "house of the Lord."1 Within the walls of the temple sacred ordinances are performed which tie families together.
In the ordinance rooms members of the Mormon Church make sacred
covenants with God, called the endowment. The two-way promise involves
obedience, sacrifice, and service on the part of the members for which
God promises eternal life with Him. The celestial room is an elegant
peaceful room representative of Heaven.
Sealing rooms are special rooms where a man and woman are married
and sealed together for not only time but all eternity as well. These
special priesthood blessings are conditional upon the couple's faithful
obedience to the gospel and continued love for each other.
In the baptistery baptisms are performed vicariously for the dead,
youth as young as twelve may enter the baptism and be baptized for
those who have died. Baptisms for the living are done within regular
Mormon Church buildings reserving temples for proxy work for those who
have passed on.
God is not a respecter of persons so he has made it possible for
those that did not have a chance to receive those sealing and baptismal
ordinances while living on earth can receive them by proxy in temples
today.
Groundbreaking services for the Raleigh North Carolina temple were
held on February 6, 1999. After the temple was completed about 31,000
people toured the temple during the open house. Visitors were surprised
to see the many pictures of Jesus Christ. Wake County Commissioner
Yevonne Brannon commenting on the pictures of the Savior said, "The
artwork was simply stunning," she exclaimed. "I felt myself drawn to
each painting and found myself wanting to linger in front of every
scene so I could contemplate the meaning of what was being portrayed.
But how could I selfishly do that with so many people behind me?"2
Before the first session Elder Ballard, one of the Twelve Apostles,
talked to a group of reporters. He described "how the Church shares
goals with other religions, such as safeguarding 'values, family,
fidelity, and the responsibility of parents for their children,
teaching them correct principles, guiding, loving, and showing the way,
not letting them get gobbled up by the ravages of the world.'"2 It is because of this
belief in families that LDS (Mormon temples)
are built.
During the dedicatory prayer of the Raleigh North Carolina temple on the 18th
of December 1999, President Hinckley said, “We pray for all who enter
Thy house that they may be pure and clean in heart and hand. May they
here ‘feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou
hast sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness’.” 3
For more information about Mormon temples visit the sites below:
Temple (Mormonism) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BBC - Religion & Ethics - Mormon Temples
Manhattan Mormon Temple New York City.com : Arts & Attractions ...
LDS (Mormon) Temple resources
USATODAY.com - Mormons open temple doors to share beliefs
Mormon Temple: Information From Answers.com
Mormanity: Mormon Temples and "Secrecy"
(1) Bible Dictionary, Temple.
(2) Church News, 25 December 1999.
(3) News of the Church,” Ensign, Mar. 2000, 74
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