Who Shall Ascend Into the Hill of the Lord? :An Old Testament Framework for Understanding the Exclusive Nature of the Temple

Introduction: The Church and Perception

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints occupies an awkward place in the religious world. To the casual observer, we may appear to be like any other church. We worship on Sundays in normal-looking chapels, and we have a liturgy—namely the sacrament—that anyone can participate in.

This is a practice that we are comfortable talking about because it is something that we do regularly. It’s also the part of our worship that our friends can see.

LDS Temples and Exclusivity

In contrast to our chapels, there are temples—ornate, beautiful edifices. Only those who hold a current temple recommend can enter. Here, sacred ceremonies are performed. Only the initiated can participate in these ceremonies. Details are not freely discussed outside the building premises.

This part of our worship is something that many Latter-day Saints, myself included, struggle to talk about. We want to communicate the unique nature of the temple. But we want to avoid making it sound like we’re hiding something nefarious.

This difficulty is compounded by the temple’s seemingly exclusive nature.

Questions About Exclusivity

To some, that nature must mean that we have something to hide—such as concealing nefarious, even satanic rituals. On a more personal and serious level, the exclusivity of the temple and its ceremonies can feel isolating to those not of our faith.

Many Latter-day Saint weddings have family members and friends of the new couple waiting outside the temple. Because they are not members of the Church or do not hold a current temple recommend.

Both of these situations lead many to ask the same questions: Why exclusivity? Why not open the temple up to everyone? Why keep people out?

Misconceptions About the Temple

The exclusive nature of the temple—and many saints’ struggle to answer questions about it—has led some people to many erroneous and also entertaining conclusions:

• The Church is hiding nefarious satanic practices, or kidnap people or sacrifice to the devil.
• The Church intentionally excludes people because they hate sinners, the LGBT community, and/or anyone who isn’t a perfect Latter-day Saint.
• The Church does not want the public to witness their pagan, occultic, and masonic ceremonies, which prove they are most certainly not Christian.
• The exclusive nature of the temple is just fuel for a cultural superiority complex.
• The temple’s secret because it’s just downright crazy.

All these are based on real things that I saw on the wonderful wide internet.

The Problem: Lack of Framework

I feel that many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struggle to answer these questions in an informed and sensitive way because we lack the proper framework to think and talk about the concept of sacred space.

After all, we live in a world today where information is readily available and nothing is hidden. In such a world, religious spaces and ceremonies closed to the public are naturally seen as weird or cultish.

A Framework For Talking About the Temple

Turning to the Old Testament

Finding ourselves in a society that has no concept of the sacred, how do we as Latter-day Saints talk about this place that not everyone can enter—where we do things that not everyone can participate in? This is a difficult and unique predicament to be in. But fortunately, there is an answer.

That answer can be found in a beloved volume of scripture, the Old Testament—more specifically, the books of Exodus and Leviticus with their ritual purity laws. The texts of the Old Testament have unconsciously informed the way we view sacred space, which in turn informs the way we restrict access to the temple.

Purpose of the Talk

My purpose here is to build an initial framework for understanding exclusivity and sacred space based on the writings of the Old Testament.

1. I will begin by exploring Israelite and ancient Near Eastern thought on the temple as a dwelling place of a deity.
2. Then I will explore the Israelite concept of holiness and how that informed access to sacred space.
3. Finally, I will relate these concepts to the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today.

The Old Testament and Sacred Space

Understanding Israelite Thought

Before similarities can be fleshed out between Israelite sacred space theology and Latter-day Saint temple theology, this fundamental question must be answered: How did the ancient Israelites think about sacred space?

The Israelites existed in an ancient Near Eastern context, and naturally they borrowed many ideas from their neighbors. This was especially true for ideas about sacred space.

For example, in many ancient Near East societies, a temple was viewed as the dwelling place of whatever deity whose temple it was.

God’s Dwelling Place

A major part of the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, is when the gods create a temple in Babylon as a place where they could dwell and rest. The Anunnaki speaking to Marduk says:

Now Lord, seeing you have established our freedom, what favor can we do for you? Let us make a shrine of great renown. Your chamber will be our resting place wherein we may repose. Let us erect a shrine to house a pedestal wherein we may repose when we finish the work.

The Tabernacle and Temple in Israelite Thought

The Israelites thought of the tabernacle—and later the temple—as literal dwelling places of the Lord. In Exodus 25, Jehovah commands Moses to:

. . . tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. … And have them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it (Exodus 25:2, 8–9, NRSV).

The Lord Dwelling Among His People

In 1 Kings 6, Solomon is in the process of building the temple, and he receives a revelation from the Lord. The Lord says to him:

Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, obey my ordinances and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you, which I made to your father David. I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people, Israel.

A Place for God to Dwell

Later, in his dedicatory prayer for the newly constructed temple in Jerusalem, Solomon said:

“I have built you… an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

The Meaning of “Dwell”

The Hebrew for the word “dwell,” used in these verses, is šākan. In this context, it involves a proper dwelling—a lasting stay, not a passing transition.

Thus, when the Lord is said to dwell somewhere, it means that He literally dwells there. The Israelites considered the tabernacle and the later temple as places where the Lord literally dwelt and lived among His people.

Holiness and Consecration

Because both the tabernacle and the temple were seen as the literal dwelling places of Jehovah, they were considered holy. In Exodus 29:43–44, it reads:

I will meet with the Israelites there (meaning the tabernacle), and it shall be sanctified by my glory. I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the Israelites and I will be their God.

Holiness

It is the Lord’s glory—or more precisely His divine presence or kabod—that makes the tabernacle holy. But what is the meaning of the word “holy”? Despite being a near universal idea, it is actually quite a bit difficult to precisely define.

The Hebrew root for holy, qodeš, denotes something as being set apart from the world. Kurt Goldammer describes “the holy” as “the entirely different.” He writes that “the holy is not just different from all things human. It is also different from the normal world and the temporal [or profane]. If something is holy, it is sometimes literally set apart entirely from the rest of the world and it must be kept that way.

According to the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, “What is holy and what is profane are to be strictly distinguished, with the latter not allowed to come into contact with the former.”

Holiness and Sacred Space

This concept of holiness was central to how the Israelites thought about and dealt with sacred space. It is also the most important concept for Latter-day Saints to understand as we interact with the relevant Old Testament texts dealing with sacred space.

In the minds of the Israelites and other ancient Near Eastern peoples, the primary way that the outside—or profane—world interacted or came into contact with the holy was through impurity.

Impurity as the Foe of Holiness

Jacob Milgrom writes, “Impurity is the implacable foe of holiness wherever it exists. It assaults the sacred realm even from afar.” If the profane were to come into contact with the holy, whether indirectly or directly, the consequences would be catastrophic for the offender and the community.

So what exactly were those consequences?

Examples of Impurity in the Old Testament

Preparation at Mount Sinai

Three episodes in the Old Testament shed light on the subject. In Exodus 19, the Israelites are far beyond the Red Sea and have reached Sinai. The Lord reveals to Moses that He wants to make Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation by covenanting with them and giving them a law.

Not only would He be giving Israel a law, but the Lord would also come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all people. This was a momentous occasion, which is why the children of Israel had to prepare for it by washing their clothes and abstaining from sexual contact for three days.

Physical Impurity

There was also one very important commandment which they had to keep while they were at the mountain:

Be careful not to go up to the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or human being, they shall not live.

The Lord would eventually invite the Israelites to join Moses on the mountain. But any uninvited crossing of the threshold between sacred and profane warranted immediate execution at the hands of the people.

For God to come down to Sinai and converse with Moses, no one could contaminate the mountain—and the people were to be the enforcers of this prohibition.

Nadab and Abihu

Jumping ahead a little bit in Leviticus 10, the tabernacle has just been dedicated, and as signified by the appearance of the glory—or the kavod—of the Lord in the sight of all Israel, it was now considered holy.

For the Israelites, this theophany surely must have been a wonderful and awesome—in the literal sense—experience. One which surely no one would forget.

Except two rather important individuals seem to have forgotten—Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron and members of the priestly caste.

In their enthusiasm to officiate in their priestly office, they seemingly forgot the now holy nature of the sanctuary and the need to keep the profane out. They took their censers and offered unholy fire before the Lord such as He had not commanded them.

Nadab and Abihu brought coals from an outside—or profane—source into the tabernacle tent itself, thereby contaminating it. The universal order had just been violated.

Consequences of Profaning the Holy

And the consequence for such a crime? We read:

“And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.”

For the individual offender—or offenders in this case—the consequence of profaning the holy sanctuary could be immediate death by the hand of God.

Spiritual Impurity

However, the Israelites did not believe that the impure had to physically violate the bounds of the sacred in order for contamination to occur. The sins of the people could also indirectly contaminate the sanctuary, and thus the sanctuary itself had to be purified.

This belief was the motivation behind the various purification or sin offerings as prescribed by the Torah.

The Need for Purification

Why did the sanctuary itself have to be purified? Jacob Milgrom writes:

“God will not abide in a polluted sanctuary. To be sure, the merciful one would tolerate a modicum of pollution, but there is a point of no return. If the pollution levels continue to rise, the end is inexorable; God abandons the sanctuary and leaves the people to their doom.”

God’s Justice and Mercy

It should be noted that in the view of the Israelites, Jehovah was not a strict God who arbitrarily and capriciously smote the people for the smallest of inadvertent ethical or ritual wrongs.

The contamination brought upon the sanctuary by such wrongs was cleansed through regular sin offerings described in Leviticus 4.

The well-being and prosperity of the entire community and civilization was at risk if the sanctuary was not purified quickly—or was profaned repeatedly. Continual profanation of the sanctuary through intentional wrongdoing would bring the judgment of God on the people.

Ezekiel and the Departure of God’s Presence

Now we come to Ezekiel. In Ezekiel, the prophet is shown in vision the idolatrous practices and worship of foreign deities—abominations, as the prophet refers to them—taking place within the temple complex at Jerusalem.

The children of Israel had violated the sanctity of the temple by building and worshiping idols, as well as worshiping deities or objects that were certainly not related to Jehovah.

The Lord says to Ezekiel:

“Mortal, do you see what they are doing? The great abominations the house of Israel are committing here to drive me far from my sanctuary?”

Ultimately, God’s presence leaves the temple, and the people are delivered to destruction as a result of their continual sin.

The people have polluted the sanctuary with their ethical—and more importantly, their ritual—sins to the point that it was impossible for the presence of the Lord to remain there.

The Stakes of Holiness

It is hopefully obvious that—at least in the Israelite worldview—people’s lives were at stake when it came to holiness.

Contact between the holy and the profane or impure meant, at best, almost certain death to the offending party—and at worst, contact between the two would lead to the divine presence of Jehovah being driven from sacred space.

Such an action would bring cataclysmic levels of death and destruction to the community, as illustrated by the eventual carrying away of the people to Babylon.

Transition to Application

And for those of you wondering how this could all possibly relate to us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—don’t worry.

Everything should start to make a little bit more sense from here on out.

Controlled Temple Access Anciently

Improper interaction with the holy would bring death—either by the hand of God or man. Thus, access to the holy was strictly controlled and limited.

In some ancient Near Eastern cultures, one would have to pass by a set of guardian statues in order to enter the temple complex. These guardians were thought to ward off demons and protect the sanctuary from being defiled.

Ensuring Purity of Temple Attendees

The tabernacle and later the temple at Jerusalem did not have such measures. But there were other means of protecting the sanctuary. To illustrate this, we’re going to step away from the dizzying rules and regulations of the priestly text for a moment. Instead, let’s turn to the warm, soothing embrace of the Psalms.

Psalms 15 and 24 are thought to be part of a gate liturgy. A festival procession would make its way to the gates of the temple complex. There, a priest would ask the leader of the procession if the members of that company met the ritual and ethical requirements to enter the temple complex.

The leader of the procession would then affirm that they did indeed meet the requirements. This liturgy served as a way to both:

1. admit the prepared to receive their blessings and
2. prevent those who were impure from being cursed at the hand of God.

Psalm 24

The 24th Psalm reads:

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place?

He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity (or what is “vaults” in the NRSV) nor sworn deceitfully.

He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob (or as NRSV translates it, or that seek the face of the God of Jacob).

Psalm 15

In a similar vein, Psalm 15 reads:

Oh Lord, who may abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart; he that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.

Moral and Ritual Requirements

As stated in these passages, only those who met certain conditions—that is, moral and ritual purity—could pass through the gates and be admitted into the sacred space.

These psalms illustrate that the conditions involve not just ritual purity, but the correct treatment of others. As Othmar Keel put it,

The chief wall which separates God and man is ethical misconduct toward one’s co-religionists.”

Additional Layers of Access

Additional Purity of the Priests

However, being able to enter the complex did not guarantee access to the sanctuary or its rituals. Only the priests could perform sacrifices on the altar in the courtyard or access the sanctuary itself. This regulation was enforced under penalty of death.

Common lay persons had access to the courtyard. But there were still restrictions on

• where they could go and
• what they could do

in that space.

For instance, they could not approach the altar and offer sacrifices there. Even if the Israelite were a male descendant of Aaron. There were further rituals and requirements that had to be met in order to officiate.

Potential officiants needed to be

• washed,
• anointed, and
• clothed in priestly garments

before they could begin to offer sacrifices or enter the sanctuary. In addition, they had to live by additional requirements not imposed upon the lay people.

Higher Requirements of the High Priest

But even being a priest did not automatically grant one access to all areas of the temple. The Holy of Holies was limited to the high priest alone—and it was only accessed once a year.

If the high priest were to either:

• enter more often,
• access a space improperly clothed, or
• without incense,

he would die, since that was where the Lord’s presence resided.

The high priest was also required to wear additional clothing. He had to follow stricter purity laws than those of the normal priestly class. All of this was to avoid the high priest both defiling himself and the sanctuary.

Degrees of Holiness

Ritual and ethical preparation was necessary to approach or encounter sacred space. Encountering the holy was serious business to ancient Israel.

Even within the sanctuary complex itself, there were grades of holiness, with additional requirements and preparation necessary. Only if one was prepared to enter sacred space and met the necessary requirements would they participate in what Keel calls the “holy other energy” active within the temple.

Application to Latter-day Saints

Temples as the Dwelling Place of God

So then what does all this mean for Latter-day Saints? As mentioned in the beginning, Latter-day Saints will find they have a great deal in common with Old Testament Israelites when it comes to the ways in which we view sacred space.

As signified by the engraving on nearly every temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we view temples as literal dwelling places of God—where one can go to encounter Him.

Modern Revelation

The Lord even says as much in modern revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 97. He states:

And in as much as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it. Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God. But if it be defiled, I will not come into it, and my glory shall not be there, for I will not come into unholy temples.

The Nature of the Temple

Elder James E. Talmage writes:

A temple is more than a chapel or church, more than a synagogue or cathedral. It is a structure erected as a house of the Lord, sacred to the closest communion between the Lord himself and the holy priesthood and devoted to the highest and most sacred ordinances characteristic of the age or dispensation to which the particular temple belongs.

Worthiness and Preparation

The Lord wants His covenant people to think about the temple in the same way the Old Testament Israelites did. Access to a place imbued with holiness must be limited to those who have prepared themselves for such an occasion.

For a lack of preparation—or more precisely, worthiness—on the part of an individual brings spiritual danger.

Latter Day Access to Temples

It is interesting to note that—similar to the Israelite tabernacle and temple—access to holier areas of a Latter-day Saint temple requires that one be initiated into a priestly class of sorts by being washed, anointed, and clothed in priestly garments.

However, in contrast with the Old Testament priestly class, the initiatory rite in Latter-day Saint temples today is not limited to those of a specific lineage. Rather, all members of the Church who have the requisite capacity and worthiness are able to be initiated into this priestly class and participate in rituals in the holier spaces of the temple.

While initiation into a priestly class is still required to ascend to the temple, this initiatory ordinance is available to every member of God’s covenant people that are willing to live the additional requirements that come with it.

Worthiness vs. Ritual Purity

Latter-day Saints also do not have a concept of ritual purity in the same way as the ancient Israelites did—and this is a very important difference to keep in mind when drawing parallels between modern revealed beliefs and practices and those of the Old Testament.

Latter-day Saints do not need to cleanse themselves after bodily emissions, avoid pork and shellfish—thank heavens—or avoid those with skin diseases in order to be able to enter the house of the Lord.

In contrast, access to the temple is determined by a willingness to demonstrate worthiness, which is a comparatively abstract concept signified by worthily holding a current temple recommend.

This worthiness entails not just moral righteousness and obedience to revealed laws, but also a belief in the foundational claims of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Lord’s House

In his book The Holy Temple, the late President Boyd K. Packer writes:

“After a temple is dedicated, we do not feel we own it. It is the Lord’s house. He directs the conditions under which it may be used. He has revealed the ordinances that should be performed therein and has established the standards and conditions under which we may participate in them. It should not be surprising that there should be limitations as to those who may receive these ordinances and those who may witness them. It should not, therefore, seem strange that the temples are held sacred, for all who will prepare themselves by repentance, by baptism, by preparation and worthiness to meet the qualifications may enter therein to participate in the ordinances offered in the house of the Lord.”

Inclusivity and Modern LDS Temples

Who Can Enter the Temple

Every person who is willing to join the Lord’s covenant people and live by the requisite worthiness standards is able to enter and participate in the ordinances of the temple.

The Lord will deny entry to no one that comes to His house with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

“Holiness to the Lord”

“Holiness to the Lord,” “The House of the Lord”—these two pronouncements are engraved on nearly every temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we take them literally.

The Lord has told His saints that—like the tabernacle and temple of the Old Testament—the latter-day temple is His dwelling place that contains His actual divine presence, or His glory. It is this fact that makes these edifices holy.

The holiness of the temple requires us to maintain a distinction and separation between the holy and unholy just as in times of old.

Explaining Temple Exclusivity

As Latter-day Saints, we do not need to struggle to explain the limited access to our temples. Our beliefs about sacred space have been shaped and informed by the Old Testament, and we can—and should—turn there to explain the holy nature of our temples.

Holiness is certainly not about keeping people out. It is about ensuring that they are prepared to encounter God in His house. The Lord wants all of His children to choose holiness.

Handbook Statement

The General Handbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints puts it this way:

The temple is the house of the Lord. Entering the temple and participating in ordinances there is a sacred privilege. This privilege is reserved for those who are spiritually prepared and striving to live the Lord’s standards as determined by authorized priesthood leaders.

Closing Testimony

Let us all strive to have clean hands and a pure heart—and invite others to do the same—so that we may all be made holy by encountering the Lord in His house, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.