An ordinance is a “prescribed religious rite” (from the Latin ordinare, “put in order”). Gospel ordinances include baptism, the sacrament, temple ordinances, and others. President Boyd K. Packer informs us that “the ordinances we perform in the temples include washings, anointings, the endowment, and the sealing ordinance—both the sealing of children to parents, and the sealing of couples, spoken of generally as temple marriage.”221 These ordinances, writes President Gordon B. Hinckley, “represent the ultimate in our worship” and “become the most profound expressions of our theology.”222
From whence came the temple ordinances? Doctrine and Covenants 124 makes it clear and unambiguous that the Lord revealed the temple ordinances to the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Verily I say unto you, let this house [Nauvoo Temple] be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people. . . . I will show unto my servant Joseph all things pertaining to this house” (vv. 40–42; emphasis added).
The following important truths help us to better understand ordinances:
(1) Ordinances are centered on Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Compare also Mosiah 13:30–33; Alma 13:16.
(2) Officiants who conduct ordinances use the name of Jesus Christ. As examples, consider the multiple divine names in the sacrament and baptism prayers.
(3) Ordinances are performed with the proper authority. Individuals conducting ordinances “must be [1] called of God, [2] by prophecy, and [3] by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof” (Articles of Faith 1:5). God’s prophet, the Church president, authorizes and delegates the authority: “The Presiding High Priest over the High Priesthood of the Church. From the same comes the administering of ordinances and blessings upon the church, by the laying on of the hands” (D&C 107:66–67).
(4) Temple ordinances are concerned with the celestial kingdom. Joseph Fielding Smith instructed that “all of the ordinances of the gospel pertain to the celestial kingdom, and what the Lord will require by way of ordinances, if any, in the other kingdoms he has not revealed.”223
(5) Ordinances require the faith of those who participate. John A. Widtsoe explained this important doctrine: “In the end all ordinances are derivatives of faith.”224
(6) Ordinances generally entail a sacred gesture with the hand(s) or arm(s). Many examples exist in the Old and New Testaments, including partaking of the sacrament, baptism, and administering to the sick (see entry “Hands and Covenants”).
(7) Ordinances are built around symbolism. Most ordinances are attached to one or more symbols. Obvious examples include the ordinances of baptism and the sacrament.
(8) Objects or materials are often required in the performances of ordinances. For instance, the sacrament requires bread and water, baptism requires water, administering to the sick requires olive oil, and animal sacrifices pertain to blood, which was utilized in different ways by ancient priests in the setting of the tabernacle.
(9) Many of the ordinances are eternal. Joseph Smith taught that God “set the ordinances to be the same for ever and ever, and set Adam to watch over them, to reveal them from heaven to man or to send angels to reveal them.”225 And again, “Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundation of the World in the Priesthood for the Salvation of men, are not to be altered or changed, all must be saved on the same principles.”226
(10) In the ordinances, “the power of godliness is manifest” (D&C 84:20).
(11) The ordinances enable us to know God. Based on Doctrine and Covenants 84:19–21, which deals with the ordinances and “the key of the knowledge of God,” Elder Dennis Neuenschwander explained that “through personal participation in sacred gospel ordinances we come to know God.”227
(12) Ordinances are closely connected with covenants. President Russell M. Nelson taught, “With each ordinance is a covenant—a promise. . . . Covenants do not hold us down; they elevate us beyond the limits of our own power and perspective.”228
(13) All ordinances are essential. Brigham Young instructed that “there is no ordinance that God has delivered by his own voice, through his Son Jesus Christ, or by the mouths of any of his Prophets, Apostles or Evangelists, that is useless. Every ordinance, every commandment and requirement is necessary for the salvation of the human family.”229
(14) Most ordinances are for both the living and the dead. For this reason, we have work for the dead. As Joseph Fielding Smith explained, “These sacred ordinances are administered for the living and on a proxy basis for the dead also.”230
(15) Ordinances serve to reveal our true relationship with God. Joseph Smith explained this profound truth: “Could we read and comprehend all that has been written from the days of Adam on the relation of man to God and Angels in a future state, we should know very little about it. Reading the experience of others, or the revelation given to them, can never give us a comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God. Knowledge of these things can only be obtained by experience through the ordinances of God set forth for that purpose.”231
(16) The ordinances pertain to “the signs of things in the heavens.” As Heber C. Kimball informed us, “All the ordinances are signs of things in the heavens. Everything we see here is typical of what will be hereafter.”232