When Elder Russell M. Nelson, of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, spoke in the Priesthood session of the Orlando/Tampa multi-regional conference in Lakeland Florida on January 29, 1994, he directed the Priesthood leaders to "teach the antiquities of the Temple to our people."
I thought this quote from Elder James E. Talmage, in "The House of the Lord", a work published by the Church in 1912, gives a great insight into the endowment we receive in the temple:
"The temple endowment as administered in modern temples comprises instruction relating to the significance and sequence of past dispensations, and the importance of the present as the greatest and grandest era in human history. This course of instruction includes a recital of the most prominent events of the creative period, the condition of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, their disobedience and consequent expulsion from that blissful abode, their condition in the lone and dreary world when doomed to live by labor and sweat, the plan of redemption by which the great transgression may be atoned, the period of the great apostasy, the restoration of the gospel with all its ancient powers and privileges, the absolute and indispensable conditions of personal purity and devotion to the right in present life, and a strict compliance with gospel requirements...
The ordinances of the endowment embody certain obligations on the part of the individual such as covenant and promise to observe the law of strict virtue and chastity, to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant, and pure; to devote both talent and material means to spread the truth and the uplifting of the race; to maintain devotion to the cause of truth; and to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive her King, the Lord Jesus. With the taking of each covenant and the assuming of each obligation a promised blessing is pronounced, contingent upon the faithful observance of the ordinances.
No jot, iota, or title of the temple rites is otherwise than uplifting and sanctifying. In every detail the endowment ceremony contributes to covenants of morality of life, consecration of person to high ideal, devotion to truth, patriotism to nation, and allegiance to God. The blessings of the House of the Lord are restricted to no privileged class; EVERY MEMBER of the Church may have admission to the temple with the right to participate in the ordinances thereof, if he comes duly ACCREDITED as of worthy life and conduct."
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