Jean B. Bingham testified, “Like a massive telescope focused on stars beyond our immediate sight, the temple opens our minds to a higher and broader vision.”263 Indeed, sacred spaces, which include mountaintops and temples, are quintessential places for mortals to receive divine revelation. Nephi (see 1 Ne. 11:1), the brother of Jared (see Ether 3:10), Moses (see Moses 1:42), Enoch (see Moses 7:2–3), and others received mighty revelations on mountains. Sacred revelatory experiences are also common occurrences in temples, both ancient and modern. On multiple occasions, Moses received the word of the Lord in the tabernacle (see, for example, Lev. 1:1; Ex. 25:21–22; 29:42–43; 30:6, 36; Num. 17:4). Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, asked the Lord while in the temple’s Holy of Holies whether or not Israel should war against the Benjaminites (see Judg. 20:26–28). The Psalmist visited the Lord’s house “to inquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). Also, Paul the Apostle prayed in the temple and had a vision: “While I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance” (Acts 22:17).
Several texts establish that the temple is the quintessential place to receive the highest form of communication from God to mortals. The Lord spoke concerning the Kirtland Temple: “I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house. Yea, I will appear unto my servants, and speak unto them with mine own voice, if my people will keep my commandments, and do not pollute this holy house” (D&C 110:7–8; emphasis added). Also, “If the Lord has occasion to visit any particular part of his kingdom, the place where he will come will be the sanctuary that is appointed, the house that has been dedicated to him, the house that is his. . . . All who are entitled to see the face of the Lord will receive that blessing in the House of the Lord.”264
In addition to divine communications with God Himself, the temple is the place where “the living might hear from the dead.” Elder Parley P. Pratt wrote, “Ye are assembled here today, and have laid these Corner Stones [of the Salt Lake Temple], for the express purpose that the living might hear from the dead; and that we may prepare a holy sanctuary, where ‘the people may seek unto their God; for the living to hear from the dead,’ and that heaven, and earth, and the world of spirits, may commune together.”265 Eliza R. Snow, too, explained, the temple is “a portal for angels, a threshold for God.”266
President Gordon B. Hinckley related how the temple is “a place of revelation” for both Church leaders and lay members: “The temple is also a place of personal inspiration and revelation. Legion are those who in times of stress, when difficult decisions must be made and perplexing problems must be handled, have come to the temple in a spirit of fasting and prayer to seek divine direction. Many have testified that while voices of revelation were not heard, impressions concerning a course to follow were experienced at that time or later which became answers to their prayers.”267
“I believe that the busy person on the farm, in the shop, in the office, or in the household, who has his worries and troubles, can solve his problems better and more quickly in the house of the Lord than anywhere else. . . . That is the gift that comes to those who enter the temple properly, because it is a place where revelations may be expected.”268