The Mormon Temple, Explained
A house of the Lord. A Mormon Temple is a dedicated building set apart for the most sacred ordinances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — including eternal marriage and ordinances performed on behalf of the dead. It is not where Latter-day Saints hold their Sunday worship; that happens in local meetinghouses that are open to everyone.
To make and keep covenants with God. Mormons believe Temple ordinances — the endowment, eternal marriage, and baptism for the dead — bind families together forever and open the way back to God’s presence through Jesus Christ. Temples exist to connect people to Christ and to unite families across generations.
Three kinds of ordinances. Baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors; the endowment (instruction and covenants centered on the plan of salvation); and sealings (eternal marriage and the binding of families across generations). All of it centers on Jesus Christ.
No. They are sacred, not secret. The Church publishes what Temples are for, opens every new Temple to the public before it is dedicated, and teaches the covenants in its own materials. Members simply treat the specifics with reverence and don’t discuss them casually outside the Temple.
A meetinghouse is for weekly worship; a Temple is for higher ordinances. The local meetinghouse (or chapel) is open to anyone, every Sunday. A Temple, once dedicated, is entered by members who hold a current Temple recommend. Most Latter-day Saint worship happens in meetinghouses, not Temples.
Yes — before it is dedicated. Every new Temple holds a free public open house for weeks before its dedication, and all are welcome. After dedication, the Temple is reserved for members in good standing — the same way many traditions reserve their most sacred spaces.
What to Know – The Short Version
- A Temple is a “house of the Lord.” It is different from a meetinghouse: not for Sunday services, but for sacred ordinances and covenants.
- Three ordinances happen there. Baptisms for the dead, the endowment, and sealings — eternal marriage and families bound together.
- It is all about Christ and families. Temples exist to connect people to Jesus Christ and to unite families across generations.
- Sacred, not secret. The purpose is published openly; only the specifics are treated with reverence.
- Anyone can tour a new one. A free public open house precedes every Temple’s dedication.
- An ancient pattern. Latter-day Saints see Temples as a restoration of Temple worship found from Moses to Solomon to the New Testament.
- A worldwide effort. More than 210 dedicated Temples operate today, with hundreds more announced or under construction.
On This Page
- 01 What a Temple Is — and Isn’t
- 02 Why Latter-Day Saints Build Temples
- 03 What Happens Inside
- 04 Sacred, Not Secret
- 05 Temples in Scripture and History
- 06 From one Temple to Hundreds
- 07 Explore the Temple in Depth
- 08 Quick Answers
- 09 Frequently Asked Questions
- 10 From the DMs
Drive through almost any city and you may pass a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse without knowing it — an ordinary building with a steeple, open doors, and a Sunday congregation. A Temple is something else. There are far fewer of them, they are dedicated and set apart, and what happens inside is the heart of Latter-day Saint worship. This page explains what a Mormon Temple actually is, what Latter-day Saints do there, and why a faith of fewer than seventeen million members is building them at a pace unmatched in its history.
The single most useful thing to understand first is that a Temple is not where Mormons go to “church.” For that, see how the faith approaches Christian worship and identity. The Temple is reserved for ordinances — covenant ceremonies that Latter-day Saints believe bind families together and bring people into the presence of God through Jesus Christ.
The local building for Sunday worship, classes, and activities. Open to everyone, every week, with no appointment or membership required. This is where Latter-day Saints actually attend “church.”
A dedicated house of the Lord for the highest ordinances: the endowment, eternal marriage, and work for the dead. Once dedicated, it is entered with a current Temple recommend.
Two very different buildings, often confused. If you have seen a Latter-day Saint “church,” you have almost certainly seen a meetinghouse — not a Temple.
What a Temple Is — and Isn’t
First, the Basics
In Latter-day Saint usage, a Temple is literally a “house of the Lord” — a place built and dedicated so that the most sacred ordinances of the faith can be performed in a setting set apart from the ordinary world. The word carries the same weight it does in the Bible: a fixed, holy space where heaven and earth are understood to meet.
That makes a Temple categorically different from the building most people picture when they think of a church. Latter-day Saints gather every Sunday in meetinghouses — ordinary chapels with classrooms and a gym — for sermons, the sacrament (communion), and classes.
Those buildings are open to anyone who wants to walk in. A Temple is not used for weekly services at all; it is reserved for ordinances, and once dedicated it is entered only by members who hold a current Temple recommend, a card affirming they are living the standards the Church asks of those who enter.
A meetinghouse is for worshipping together each week and is open to all. A Temple is for covenant ordinances and is set apart. The two are easy to confuse from the outside, but Latter-day Saints treat them as entirely distinct kinds of space.
Why Latter-Day Saints Build Temples
The Purpose
For Latter-day Saints, the answer is captured in a single idea: covenants that last beyond this life. They believe that certain ordinances — sacred ceremonies performed by priesthood authority — can bind a husband and wife, and their children, in a relationship that continues after death, and can open the way for every person to return to God’s presence through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Temple is the one place those ordinances are performed.
Two convictions drive the building program. First, that families can be united eternally — that marriage and family ties need not end at death. Second, that the saving ordinances should be available to everyone who has ever lived, including those who died without the opportunity — which is why Latter-day Saints perform ordinances in Temples on behalf of their deceased ancestors. Far from a private club, the Temple is understood as the Church’s answer to a universal problem: how the blessings of the gospel can reach all of God’s children, on both
sides of death.
What Happens Inside a Temple
Three kinds of ordinances take place in a Temple, and all of them center on Jesus Christ.
1
Baptisms for the Dead
Members are baptized on behalf of deceased ancestors who did not receive the ordinance in life — a practice Latter-day Saints connect to the apostle Paul’s reference to baptism “for the dead” (1Corinthians 15:29). The deceased remain free to accept or reject what is offered.
2
The Endowment
A ceremony of instruction and covenant that walks the participant through the plan of salvation — creation, the fall, and redemption through Christ — and invites them to make promises to God. This is the ordinance most often misunderstood; it is covered in depth in our companion guide to the Temple endowment.
3
Sealings
Eternal marriage, in which a couple is “sealed” for time and all eternity rather than “until death do us part,” and the sealing of children to parents — binding families together across generations.
Inside, participants wear simple white clothing, symbolizing purity and the equality of all before God. Latter-day Saints also wear the Temple garment as a reminder of these covenants in daily life. The resemblance between some Temple forms and Masonic ritual has its own long history — addressed in detail in The Mormon Temple and the Freemasons.
Sacred, Not Secret
The Common Misunderstanding
It is fair to ask: if Temples are so open about their purpose, why won’t members describe exactly what happens inside? The concern is understandable, and the honest answer is a distinction, not a dodge. Latter-day Saints draw a line between secret and sacred. The Temple’s purpose is not hidden at all — the Church publishes what the ordinances mean, releases photographs of new Temple interiors, and opens every new Temple to public tours. What members hold back is the specific wording of the ceremonies, which they regard as too sacred to discuss casually, in much the way other traditions guard their most holy rites.
So the framing of Temples as a “secret” is misleading rather than accurate. A secret is something whose existence or purpose is concealed; the Temple’s existence and purpose are advertised on billboards and explained on the Church’s own website. The reverence around the details is a posture toward the sacred — not an attempt to hide the ball.
Anyone can learn what a Temple is for and can tour a new one before it is dedicated. What is held back is not the purpose but the wording — treated as sacred, not concealed as secret.
Latter-day Saints do not regard the Temple as a nineteenth-century invention. They read it as the restoration of a pattern that runs through scripture — from the portable sanctuary of Moses, to Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, into the Book of Mormon, and into the New Testament — brought back in the latter days and now built across the world.
God commands a portable sanctuary “that I may dwell among them,” built to a pattern shown Moses “in the mount” — with washing, anointing, a veil, and a Holy of Holies (Exodus 25–40).
The first fixed house of the Lord, built by Solomon with the help of Hiram of Tyre’s craftsmen (1Kings 5–8).
In the Book of Mormon, Nephi builds a Temple in the New World “after the manner of the temple of Solomon” (2Nephi 5:16).
Jesus teaches in the Temple courts and calls it His Father’s house; at His death the veil is torn in two (Matthew 27:51).
The resurrected Jesus appears to the Nephites gathered at their Temple (3 Nephi 11).
Washing, anointing, and the “endowment of power” are introduced; Christ, Moses, Elias, and Elijah appear and restore priesthood keys (Doctrine and Covenants 110).
The full endowment and the sealing of families are administered before the pioneers head west.
The first Temple completed in the Utah period; ordinances on behalf of the dead expand.
Dedicated after forty years of construction — the enduring symbol of the faith.
A global building effort reaches one hundred dedicated houses of the Lord.
Over 210 dedicated Temples operate worldwide, with hundreds more announced or under construction.
For Latter-day Saints, modern Temples are not a break from the Bible but a return to it — the same pattern of sacred space, covenant, and ordinance that runs from Moses to Solomon to the New Testament, now built on a global scale.
From One Temple to Hundreds
From a Handful to Hundreds
For most of its history, the Church had very few Temples. After the Saints were driven from Kirtland and Nauvoo, the nineteenth century closed with just four dedicated Temples, all in Utah — St. George, Logan, Manti, and Salt Lake. Building was slow and concentrated near the body of the Church.
That changed dramatically in the modern era. A push under President Gordon B. Hinckley carried the Church past one hundred dedicated Temples by the year 2000, often with smaller designs that could be built closer to members worldwide. The pace has only accelerated since. As of early 2026 the Church reports more than two hundred dedicated Temples, with well over a hundred more announced and dozens under construction — for a total approaching four hundred houses of the Lord operating, being built, or in planning across roughly eighty countries and territories. For a faith that began with a single frontier Temple in Ohio, it is the most ambitious sacred-building effort of its history.
Explore the Temple in Depth
This page is the overview. Each of the questions below has its own detailed guide.
The Temple Endowment, Explained
What the endowment is, where it came from, and what its covenants mean.
The Mormon Temple and the Freemasons
Did Joseph Smith copy the Temple ceremony from the Masons — and where did the Masons get theirs?
Temple Garments
What the garment is, what it symbolizes, and why members wear it.
Why Do Mormons Build Temples?
The doctrine of eternal families and ordinances for the dead, in depth.
Quick Answers
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Mormon Temple?
A Mormon Temple is a dedicated “house of the Lord” — a building set apart for the most sacred ordinances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including eternal marriage and ordinances performed on behalf of the dead. It is not used for weekly Sunday worship, which takes place in local meetinghouses that are open to everyone.
Why do Mormons build Temples?
To perform ordinances that Latter-day Saints believe bind families together eternally and open the way back to God’s presence through Jesus Christ. Temples allow these covenant ordinances to be performed both for the living and on behalf of ancestors who died without the opportunity.
What happens inside a Mormon Temple?
Three kinds of ordinances: baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors, the endowment (instruction and covenants centered on the plan of salvation), and sealings (eternal marriage and the binding of families across generations). All of it centers on Jesus Christ.
Are Mormon Temples secret?
The Church describes them as sacred rather than secret. Its purpose, ordinances, and meaning are published openly, and every new Temple is opened to the public for tours before dedication. Members hold back only the specific wording of the ceremonies, which they treat as too sacred to discuss casually.
Can non-Mormons go inside a Temple?
Yes, before it is dedicated. Every new Temple holds a free public open house for several weeks, and all are welcome. After the Temple is dedicated, it is reserved for members who hold a current Temple recommend.
What is the difference between a Temple and a meetinghouse?
A meetinghouse (or chapel) is the local building used for Sunday worship, classes, and activities, and is open to anyone. A Temple is reserved for higher ordinances and, once dedicated, is entered with a current Temple recommend. Most Latter-day Saint worship happens in meetinghouses.
What is a Temple recommend?
A Temple recommend is a card a member receives after interviews with local leaders, affirming that they are living the standards the Church asks of those who enter the Temple. It is required to enter a dedicated Temple.
The Harder Questions, Answered
Every new Temple is opened to the entire public for weeks before it is dedicated, and the Church explains the ordinances in its own materials. After dedication, entry is reserved for members who keep certain commitments — much as many traditions reserve their most sacred spaces or rites. The door to understanding is open; the dedicated space is simply set apart.
The purpose, meaning, and even photographs of Temple interiors are published openly. What members hold back is the specific wording of the ceremonies, which they regard as too sacred to repeat casually. That is a posture toward the holy, not concealment — the existence and purpose of the Temple are advertised, not hidden.
For Latter-day Saints, Temple ordinances are not optional ceremonies but the means by which families are united eternally and the dead are served. Building Temples closer to members — rather than asking them to travel thousands of miles — follows directly from that belief. One may disagree with the doctrine, but the building program is a faithful expression of it.
Weekly worship — sermons, the sacrament, and classes — happens in ordinary meetinghouses open to all. The Temple is reserved for ordinances and is visited far less often. Confusing the two is the single most common misunderstanding about Latter-day Saint worship.
Latter-day Saints believe the saving ordinances should be available to everyone who has ever lived, including those who died without the chance to receive them. Temple work for the dead offers those ordinances on their behalf — and, in Latter-day Saint belief, the deceased remain entirely free to accept or decline. It is meant as an act of love across generations, not a claim over anyone.
Claims about Latter-day Saint belief, practice, and Temple history are sourced to official publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (ChurchofJesusChrist.org), its Newsroom, and to Scripture Central (scripturecentral.org). CurrentTemple statistics are drawn from the Church’s Newsroom as of early 2026 and change as new Temples are announced and dedicated. Scripture is cited from the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants.