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Temple Ordinances and Ancestral Remembrance: How Ancient Rites and Modern Revelation Bind Heaven and Earth


Introduction: The Meaning of Religion — To Bind Again


The word religion originates from Latin religare, meaning “to bind again.” Across civilizations, humankind has sought to rebind heaven and earth, the living and the dead. From ancient temples to modern ordinances, this yearning manifests as sacred memory — a desire to be one with those who came before. Let us trace this thread back nearly 4,000 years, across languages, scriptures, and civilizations.


The Ancient Rite of Shou (寿): Continuity of Life and Spirit

The Chinese character 寿 (Shou), meaning longevity or continuity, first appeared in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions over 3,000 years ago. The upper part of the character derives from lao (老, “elder” or “father”), symbolizing ancestry and generational continuity. The lower section depicts a ritual altar divided by a veil (帷幕) — representing the passage between life and death, the movement of energy between heaven and earth.


Bronze Character “寿” in about BCE 8 Century 1
Bronze Character “寿” in about BCE 8 Century 1
Bronze Character “寿” in about BCE 8 Century 2
Bronze Character “寿” in about BCE 8 Century 2

This altar, a proto-temple design, mirrors the structure of biblical worship: an outer court, an inner sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies. The veil was never meant as separation but as transformation — an ancient understanding that energy, matter, and spirit flow as one continuum. In these rites, frequency and reverence joined to form a language of divine resonance.


Doctrine and Covenants 127–128: The Restoration of the Heavenly Record

In the revelations given through Joseph Smith, particularly Doctrine and Covenants 127–128, the ancient pattern of record-keeping and temple ritual reemerged. The Saints were instructed to record every ordinance on earth, for “whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.” These revelations reestablished the law of resonance: earthly records reflecting heavenly truth.

“When we gather our family histories and go to the temple on behalf of our ancestors, God fulfills promised blessings simultaneously on both sides of the veil.”— Elder Dale G. Renlund, Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing, April 2018

Through these ordinances, memory becomes covenant, and covenant becomes a living vibration uniting generations. This is the restored temple technology of remembrance — the divine structure where love becomes order and order becomes sanctification.


From Malachi to Corinthians: The Eternal Bond of Love

The prophet Malachi foresaw this divine turning of hearts: “He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.”The Apostle Paul later called this bond charity — “the pure love of Christ” that never fails. Charity transforms remembrance into sanctification; it is the spiritual current by which generations remain one body in Christ.


Earthly and Heavenly Records — Lessons from Pixar’s Coco

In the film Coco, the connection between the living and the dead is kept alive through remembrance. On the family altar (ofrenda), photos and offerings form an earthly record of love. When names are remembered, spirits endure; when forgotten, they fade. Yet in the Land of the Dead, the heavenly record reveals truth — that love, not fame, sustains life beyond death.


The moment young Coco remembers her father, the false record collapses, and the heavenly record descends. Love becomes ordinance; remembrance becomes resonance. Through this parable, we glimpse the same principle taught in scripture: what is recorded in love on earth vibrates in harmony with heaven.


(Disney, 2019)


Healing Through Ancestral Remembrance: The Pratt Brothers’ Story

Family relationships can be among life’s greatest joys and deepest sorrows. Such a rift once divided two early apostles of the Restoration — Parley P. Pratt and Orson Pratt. Years of silence followed their conflict until Orson encountered a genealogy tracing their ancestor, Lieutenant William Pratt. Reading the record, his heart softened; tears bridged years of distance. He wrote to Parley, seeking forgiveness and offering reconciliation.


Their love for their ancestors rekindled brotherly affection. What persuasion and logic could not heal, remembrance did. The story of their forefathers sanctified the present, showing that love for the fathers turns the hearts of the children.  It was ancestral memory — not argument — that restored unity and peace.


(Renlund, 2018, Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing, General Conference, April 2018)


Divine Pattern of Remembrance and Resonance

If love is the current that binds generations, the temple is the structure that gives that current form. In temple worship, remembrance becomes covenant, and covenant becomes resonance. Each ordinance — each name spoken, each record written — aligns earthly frequency with heavenly truth.


Temple ordinances are more than commandments; they are architectures of divine resonance, transforming human affection into eternal energy. From the ancient Shou to modern sealing ordinances, the pattern is unchanged: remembrance sanctifies, and sanctification sustains existence. In the temple, memory is not sentiment — it is sacred science, the resonance of heaven and earth.


Conclusion: One Eternal Round — The Return of Resonant Memory

From the bronze temples of the Zhou to the holy fonts of Nauvoo, humanity has sought the same reunion. The character Shou inscribed that longing in metal; Joseph Smith restored it in revelation. Across language and time, the law is constant: love becomes ordinance, ordinance becomes record, and record becomes eternal truth.


In this harmony, remembrance itself is sanctified. What love recalls, heaven remembers. What heaven records, time cannot erase. Thus, the temple becomes the living echo of divine unity — where the mortal is transfigured, love is made holy, and heaven and earth are bound forever in the resonance of Christ.


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References:

 

Disney. (2019). Coco. Disney Movies. https://movies.disney.com/coco



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