Temple guards or sentinels belong to four categories:
(1) Gatekeepers of the ancient Israelite temple. The Old Testament refers to gatekeepers of the Lord’s house (King James Version reads “porters,” but the Hebrew word sho’er refers to a gatekeeper). During the ministry of Samuel the seer, for example, there were 212 gatekeepers who “had the oversight of the gates of the house of the Lord, namely, the house of the tabernacle” (1 Chr. 9:23). These gatekeepers guarded the temple from all cardinal directions: east, south, west, and north (see 1 Chr. 9:27; Num. 1:53; 2 Chr. 8:14; Jer. 35:4). The primary role of the gatekeepers was to secure “the gates of the house of the Lord, that none which was unclean in any thing should enter in” (2 Chr. 23:19).
(2) Bishops and stake presidents as sentinels. Lorenzo Snow taught, “Bishops and stake presidents are sentinels to guard the temples. . . . They should not allow any to pass by them into the temple that are unworthy. It is something like what we learn in the temple about a time that is coming when persons who go into the celestial kingdom will have to pass by the angels and gods.”137
(3) Angelic guards. Multiple sacred accounts set forth that the Lord’s angels protect the Saints who worship in His temple. Joseph Smith recorded, “Elder Roger Orton saw a mighty Angel riding upon a horse of fire with a flaming sword in his hand, followed by five others, encircle the house [Kirtland Temple], and protect the Saints, even the Lord’s anointed from the power of satan and a host of evil Spirits, which were striving to disturb the Saints.”138
Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone taught that in the temple, “unseen sentinels watch over us. . . . Surely angelic attendants guard the temples of the Most High God. It is my conviction that as it was in the days of Elisha, so it will be for us: ‘Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them’ (2 Kgs. 6:16.). . . . There are great unseen hosts in the temple. Joseph told the brethren, ‘And I beheld the temple was filled with angels.’ (History of the Church, 2:428.) I believe deceased prophets of all dispensations visit the temples. Those who attend the temple will feel their strength and companionship. We will not be alone in the house of the Lord.”139
Truman O. Angell wrote of seeing two angels who served as sentinels of the Kirtland Temple: “We walked out towards the [Kirtland] Temple. . . . We looked up and saw two Personages; one before each window, leaving and approaching each other like guards would do. . . . I have no doubt but the house was guarded.”140
(4) Angels as sentinels of the Temple in Heaven. Some angels serve as sentinels who guard the way back to heaven, thus preventing unworthy or unauthorized persons from entering its sacred premises. Brigham Young taught that the endowment enables us to “[pass] the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.”141 On another occasion, he spoke of the “laws and ordinances, by which we can be prepared to pass from one gate to another, and from one sentinel to another, until we go into the presence of our Father and God.”142
John described the celestial city, which “had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates” (Rev. 21:12). John continues with his description in that verse and states that there are “at the gates twelve angels.” The twelve angels are guardians or sentinels, assigned to prevent entrance into the city by “any thing that defileth” (v. 27).