In a masterful way, John the Revelator linked the concepts of (temple) washing and kingship: “Jesus Christ . . . washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Rev. 1:5–6; see also Rev. 5:10). The feminine counterpart of the words “kings and priests”—queens and priestesses—applies equally to females. Careful searches of several scriptural passages reveal that temples are closely associated with the concept of kings and queens. Key words to look for include king, queen, throne, sceptre, crown, kingdom, dominion, power, royal, robe, etc. Of course, not all of these key words reveal sacred temple concepts.
In our day, Church authorities have connected the temple with the concept of kings and kingship. Joseph Smith taught, “Those holding the fulness of the Melchizedec priesthood are kings and Priests to the most high God, holding the keys of power and blessings.”186 Furthermore, he explained, “as soon as the Temple and baptismal font are prepared, we calculate to give the Elders of Israel their washings and anointings, and attend to those last and more impressive ordinances . . . men may receive their endowments, and be made kings and Priests unto the most High God, having nothing to do with temporal things.”187
In their article “King, Coronation, and Temple: Enthronement Ceremonies in History,” Latter-day Saint scholars Ricks and Sroka demonstrate that coronation and enthronement ceremonies of both religious and secular societies (both ancient and medieval) echo things belonging to God’s ancient temples. Ricks and Sroka dealt with such topics as anointing, sacrifice, new name, rebirth, royal vestments, crown, regalia, throne, feasts, dominion, and promises.188
The coronation ceremony of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fedorovna (the Czar and Czarina), which took place on May 26, 1896, in the Church of the Annunciation in Moscow, echoes many sacred biblical rituals and temple practices: the metropolitan (a supreme ecclesiastical leader of the Russian Orthodox Church) anointed the czar “with the sacred unguent on the forehead, the eyelids, the nostrils, the lips, the ears, the breast, and the arms, with the words, ‘The seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost.’” Other ecclesiastical leaders gave the czar a “mantle of imperial purple,” which could be interpreted to signify both royalty and protection; the metropolitan instructed the czar, “Cover and protect the people as this robe covers and protects thee.” The metropolitan took the crown and put it on the head of the czar; as an archbishop gave the sceptre and orb to the czar (the sceptre in the right hand and the orb in the left), he pronounced the words, “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” An archdeacon pronounced upon the czar his new name-titles: Mighty Sovereign, Exalted Autocrat, Czar, Lord, Prince, Grand Prince, and Ruler.
At one point in the ceremony, the archbishop led “the Czar by the hand into the Holy of Holies, where the Czar receive[d] the sacrament after the manner of the clergy, not of secular communicants” (the czar now has both kingly and priestly authority and privileges). Then an Archbishop attended “to the ablution [washing] of his Majesty.” The czarina participated in many of these events, but not all. After all of these things, the czar and czarina joined a procession to remember their dead and showed “reverence at the tombs of the Russian sovereigns.”189