Blackmail, Washing Of Feet, And The Holy Of Holies.

What does Blackmail have to do with the Holy of Holies? Or the Washing of Feet? A lot! I want to share my story of learning about these three things with you! But first, let me start with this disclaimer: No disrespect is meant for the Temple, I work in the Temple, and I love it dearly. The quotes and pictures about the Temple, the Holy of Holies, and the Washing of Feet are quotes from either public addresses or the writings of the general authorities.

Since I’ve returned from my mission in 2014, I have had the chance to visit 70 different temples. I have learned a lot about the Temple, one of my favorite things I have learned has been about the Holy of Holies, and the history surrounding it. 

I was talking to the former temple president of the Bismarck North Dakota Temple, and I asked him about the Holy of Holies and the Washing of Feet (Bismarck is a smaller temple). He was shocked and gave me a look of “You’re 24, how do you know about that” and then he quoted President Hinckley,  “Every ordinance that can be performed in the Salt Lake Temple, the largest in the Church, can be performed in these smaller temples.”(Gordon B. Hinckley Oct 2000). He then continued to explain that “each Temple has all the rooms needed, the size and look of the rooms are the only difference. And I will leave it at that.”

Before I get too far in, let me explain a little about the history of the Salt Lake Temple and the Holy of Holies.

Blackmail

The story around this photo is worth telling itself as it deals with apostasy and blackmail. In summary: In the early 1900’s Gisbert Bossard, a former bishop, with the help of a groundskeeper snuck into the Salt Lake Temple during renovations and took almost 70 photographs of the Salt Lake Temple. Then a businessman named Florence tried to blackmail the church with these photos. He sent a letter demanding that the Prophet Joseph F. Smith pay a large sum of money (over 2 million dollars in today’s money) Or he would sell them to “the highest bidder, be he Mormon, Jew or Gentile, I don’t care which.”

The reply from the Prophet? “I will make no bargain with thieves and traffickers in stolen goods.” The Prophet then had a brilliant idea. Elder James E. Talmage had been writing a book about the Salt Lake Temple, “The House of the Lord.” The idea? To take photographs of every room within the temple and include them in the book! Effectively snubbing Florence, the would-be blackmailer in the face. The Prophet even allowed Elder Talmage to include this picture of the Holy of Holies! (Here is the article The Deseret News ran about this 21 years ago)

The Purposes Of The Holy of Holies

The Holy of Holies has two main purposes:

First, the Holy of Holies is the dedicated place within the Temple for Jesus Christ to appear to his Especial witnesses. In the words of Joseph Smith, “No one can truly say he knows God until he has handled something, and this can only be done in the Holiest of Holies.”  Also in the words of President Boyd K Packer.

“hidden away in the central part of the temple is the Holy of Holies, where the President of the Church may retire when burdened down with heavy decisions to seek an interview with Him whose Church it is. The prophet holds the keys, the spiritual keys and the very literal key to this one door in that sacred edifice” ~Boyd K Packer (The Holy Temple, pg 4)

Second, the Holy of Holies includes the area for the administering of the higher ordinances of the Priesthood, like the washing of feet. “Washing of feet is a gospel ordinance; it is a holy and sacred rite, one performed by the saints in the seclusion of their temple sanctuaries.”
Bruce R. McConkie (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, vol. 1, 708)

Elder Talmage explained it this way, “this room [the Holy of Holies] is reserved for the higher ordinances in the Priesthood relating to the exaltation of both living and dead” ~ James E. Talmage (The House of the Lord, pg 192–94.) The early saints understood that these ordinances were to be done in the Temple. No further evidence is needed than the original fourth verse to “The Spirit of God” as found in the 1836 Hymnal “A Collection of Sacred Hymns” by Emma Smith.

We’ll wash and be washed,
and with oil be anointed,
Withal not omitting the washing of feet;
For he that receiveth his penny appointed
Must surely be clean at the harvest of wheat

Every Temple Has A Holy of Holies

When I was visiting the Boston Temple, I learned that every temple has a Holy of Holies.
The older temples have a room that is solely a Holy of Holies, but in the newer temples like Boston, they have a sealing room that is designated to act as a Holy of Holies. The way you can tell which sealing room is the Holy of Holies is by finding the area for the washing of feet. If you are in a newer temple, there will be a door inside one of the sealing rooms that is locked, which leads to the place where the washing of feet is performed. If you have found that door, then you’ve found that Temple’s Holy of Holies. One of the Temple workers in Boston pointed that out to me when I asked him, “Which sealing room was the Holy of Holies” he said, “This one (opening a door), because that locked door right there (pointing at a door with a lock) is for the room where they perform the washing of feet.”

Finding the Holy of Holies has become one of my favorite things to do when I visit a temple. (In the Mount Timpanogos Temple, it is sealing room #8.) Some of the older Temples that had a room solely for the Holy of Holies have had the Holy of Holies retrofitted into a sealing room; this is the case with the Mesa Arizona Temple.

When I was visiting Mesa, I went to the Temple. After I did some Temple work, I wanted to find the Holy of Holies, so I asked if I could see the sealing rooms. They showed me the ones on the main floor, and they did not have any locked doors. I was a little disappointed. I then asked, “Is that all of them?” The Temple worker replied, “There is one other sealing room, it is up near the celestial room, we never use it, but you can go look at it if you’d like.” I did, it was a small sealing room, totally out of place as it was separated from all other sealing rooms. When I first walked in, I noticed that on the left side of the room, there was a large locked door.

So next time you go to the Temple, be more observant, and maybe you will realize you’ve been doing sealings in a Holy of Holies.

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