Temple Symbolism of the Body — Carol Wilkinson BYU 2005 | What "Your Body Is a Temple" Really Means (LDS)

Send us Fan MailWhat does it actually mean that your body is a temple — and what blessings come from treating it like one? This episode reads from Carol Wilkinson's BYU Religious Studies Center article "Temple Symbolism of the Body," which draws a striking parallel: the same blessings pronounced on the Kirtland Temple in its dedicatory prayer (Doctrine and Covenants 109) apply to our bodies when they are pure — a place where deity can be manifest. We walk through the blessings she identifies: sanctification through the Holy Ghost, comfort and peace ("You are home, and I am right here"), knowledge and revelation, a protective shield and endowment of power (with King Jehoshaphat's temple plea from 2 Chronicles and Brigham Young's teaching that the body shields the spirit as clothing shields the body), and the body as a refuge — a "traveling tabernacle" when we cannot be in the temple building. We connect this to the week's study of Doctrine and Covenants 130 and the body as a Urim and Thummim, and to John's vision that in the celestial city there is no temple — because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Q: What does it mean that my body is a temple, in LDS doctrine? A: More than a health guideline — Carol Wilkinson's BYU Religious Studies Center article teaches that when the body is pure, it functions as a temple in the fullest sense: a place where deity can be manifest, since the Holy Ghost, a personage of spirit, can dwell in us. The same blessings pronounced in the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer (Doctrine and Covenants 109) — sanctification, peace, knowledge, and protection — apply to the worthy body.Q: What blessings come from treating your body as a temple? A: The article identifies five: sanctification through the continual companionship of the Holy Ghost, comfort and peace, revelation and knowledge, an endowment of power with a protective shield, and refuge from the world — the body as a "traveling tabernacle" when we cannot be in the temple building.Q: Why is there no temple in the celestial kingdom? A: John the Revelator saw no temple in the holy Jerusalem "for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" (Revelation 21) — because the Father's and the Son's glorified, immortal bodies are themselves temples, there is no impure influence to be shielded from and no need for a dedicated building.YouTube "Temple of Symbolism of the Body" Video Link: https://youtu.be/9-n5CnBeR7YYouTube Thinning of the Veil Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCAA9WnYhYvCp1ffCe-AGUQQWebsite: Thinning of the Veil: https://www.thinningoftheveil.com/Venmo:  https://account.venmo.com/u/thinningoftheveilPayPal: https://paypal.me/thinningoftheveil?country.x=US&locale.x=en_USBook: "Patterns of Revelation":  https://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Revelation-Spiritual-Foundations-Hearing-ebook/dp/B0BWGLZ8VXEmail: [email protected]: https://www.instagram.com/thinning.of.the.veil/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thinning.of.the.veil/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thinning.of.the.veilCITATIONS:Carol Wilkinson, “Temple Symbolism of the Body,” Religious Educator 6, no. 1 (2005): 65–74: https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-6-no-1-2005/temple-symbolism-bodySupport the show