More to the Story
Q & A
The Purpose of Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple is to, first, increase your ability to draw upon God’s power in your day-to-day life. We draw liberally upon God’s power by exercising our faith to follow Jesus Christ. Faith to follow Jesus Christ is strengthened every time we worship Him in His holy house. Second, Stephen Fluckiger hopes to create a community and conversation among readers desiring to share their own insights and spiritual awakenings about the Temple.
Read below as he answers questions that many will have.
Why did you write Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple?
When President Nelson called my wife and I to preside over the Dallas Texas Temple in early 2019, I realized that, while I had been a long-time regular patron and had served as an ordinance worker for several years, I had never seriously studied temple ordinances and doctrine. If I was honest with myself, my attendance as a patron during much of my life was often motivated more by a sense of duty than a desire to commune with and worship my Savior.
When the call came to preside over a temple, I felt a need, as we all do when we receive a new calling, to discover the “whys” of the temple. I understood, as President Boyd K. Packer taught, “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior.” (Boyd K. Packer, “Little Children,” Ensign, Nov. 1986, 17 ) While over the years my “behavior” may have been “OK” (after all I attended “regularly” over the decades), my attitude and testimony (what I knew) about the temple needed elevating.
What is Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple about and why should I read it?
The book is a response to the Lord’s call to not only “experience fully,” or receive all temple ordinances, but to better understand and appreciate them and become more “active” in our temple worship, that is, more mindful of the Lord’s promises and purposes in these exalting ordinances.
What do you mean? When did the Lord ask us to do this?
In October 2021, President Nelson declared: Jesus Christ “is the One who wants you to
[1] understand with great clarity exactly what you are making covenants to do.
[2] He is the One who wants you to experience fully His sacred ordinances.
[3] He wants you to comprehend your privileges, promises, and responsibilities.
[4] He wants you to have spiritual insights and awakenings you’ve never had before. This He desires for all temple patrons, no matter where they live.” (“The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation”)
The Lord, through His mouthpiece, repeated this invitation (commandment) last Conference: “Understanding the spiritual privileges made possible in the temple is vital to each of us today.” (President Russell M. Nelson, “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys”) In order to understand, we must study. In effect, this is an invitation to study the ordinances and doctrine of the temple.
Why does your book focus so heavily on President Nelson’s temple teachings?
As we affirm in our temple recommend interviews, the President of the Church is “the only person on the earth authorized to exercise all priesthood Keys.” “The President of the Church holds the ‘keys of the mysteries’ (Doctrine and Covenants 28:7), or the right to declare the doctrine of the Church.” (Stephen L. Fluckiger, Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple, 41) Whose is a more authoritative voice about the meaning and purpose of temple ordinances and doctrine than President Russell M. Nelson (and his successors)?
Moreover, a central thesis of the book is that without the keys President Nelson holds and exercises (and delegates to keyholders throughout the world), there would be no temples and none of us would have access to ANY of the blessings of the temple—including the most important blessing, exaltation. Every chapter of the book begins with a temple quote from President Nelson. Its text and footnotes are filled with quotations from and references to his temple teachings (including from his book, Heart of the Matter).
Why the focus on priesthood keys and the keyholders who restored them?
The book exhaustively treats the ministries of Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (the keys to the blessings of whom Elias restored) and Elijah and the importance and scope of the keys that they restored, the keys which President Nelson exercises every day. Why? Because in their lives (as in the life of President Nelson) we see what it looks like to receive the “endowment of power” the Lord promises us through our temple worship—the ultimate effect of these highest gospel ordinances.
The book, just as President Nelson did in April 2024, explains in great detail why these keys matter so much, in ways that no other temple book has done. Such keys, President Nelson just told us, “distinguish The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from any other organization on earth.” Without them, none of us could “be endowed with the power of God. [D&C 95:8; 109:22]” or “have access to essential ordinances and covenants that bind us to our loved ones eternally and allow us eventually to live with God.”
Why the urgency around temple building and temple learning?
President Nelson has reminded us, “Let us never lose sight of what the Lord is doing for us now. He is making His temples more accessible.” Accessible not only in the quantity of temples but quality of information the Church is making available about the temple (see, for example, all of the temple references in the April 2024 General Conference). The principal sources I relied on in my temple study are available on the Church’s website (as the footnotes and Sources Cited attest).
In his April 2024 General Conference message, President Nelson listed (by my count) 20 distinct promises the Lord makes to us as we regularly worship in the temple and increase our understanding and appreciation for what we do there (all of which and more are discussed in Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple—see particularly the Epilogue), including the promise of help to “hold fast to the iron rod,” protection from “the world’s mists of darkness,” strengthening of our testimonies, soothing of our spirits “during times of pain” and so forth. In my view, it is important to note an important distinction the Lord is making. I believe He is NOT saying, if or when you feel like you need strengthening, soothing, or a spiritual pick-me-up, then go to the temple. Rather, He is saying, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HOLD FAST TO THE IRON ROD, TO BE PROTECTED FROM THE MISTS OF DARKNESS AND LOSING YOUR WAY SPIRITUALLY, TO MAINTAIN YOUR TESTIMONY, in short, to endure the tribulations to come, UNLESS you regularly worship in the temple and increase your understanding of the role and importance of temple ordinances and doctrine in God’s plan for YOU.
In short, I believe God’s people will not be able to be transfigured (as were Peter, James and John in the Mount of Transfiguration when they were endowed and received their calling and election—as described in Drawing) and “caught up” (1 Thess. 4:17; D&C 76:102; 88:96-98; 109:75) to meet the Lord at His Second Coming UNLESS we take seriously the Lord’s temple invitations given to us by His prophet throughout his ministry. (Note in D&C 109:75 the Lord expressly connects the temple and temple worship to being “caught up in the cloud” to meet Him.)
Where can I get the book and how can I help spread the word?
The book is available through Cedar Fort Publishing HERE. You can also find it at Deseret Book, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
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