When the resurrected Savior appeared to the Nephites,
he said something that may have surprised them.
He commanded them:
“your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away,
for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings.”
For people who had been faithfully participating in sacrificial practices under the Law of Moses
for generations,
this new instruction may have come as a shock to some,
and maybe as a welcome surprise or relief to others.
Some of those Nephites may have wondered,
“If God never varies,
wouldn’t the operation of His temple never change as well?”
Yet the scriptures show that from dispensation to dispensation, and from time to time,
God and his appointed prophets and apostles have adjusted the practices of God’s house
to bless His children
and guide them lovingly in the path of righteousness.
Adam and Eve, for example, did not perform animal sacrifices while they were inside the Garden of Eden;
but after they had been expelled from the garden,
an angel of the Lord commanded them to begin performing animal sacrifices
as “a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father.”
Many centuries later, under Moses and Aaron,
God added several new priesthood practices, sacrifices, and regulations,
as well as certain special holy days,
such as Passover, Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement.
Those observances helped the people remember their deliverance from bondage in Egypt,
revelations of the law and covenant,
and another foreshadowing of the great promise of atonement and purification.
A few parts of the Ten Commandments were changed in Deuteronomy 5
to make them more explicitly applicable to the Israelites settled condition now within their promised land.
During His ministry in Jerusalem,
Christ himself redirected the essence of some previously observed commandments,
such as those against adultery and swearing oaths falsely.
Before his death, Jesus further altered the observance of the temple festival of Passover,
instituting the Sacrament as a remembrance of a new deliverance and covenant in its place.
And when Christ came to the people in the Americas,
He ended the use of certain performances and ordinances of the law of Moses,
and the people covenanted to “walk after the commandments”
which He had given them.
With all of this in mind,
continuing adjustments that clarify or expand the underlying purposes of the ordinances of the temple
can be seen to follow several scriptural precedents.
The ordinances performed in the Kirtland Temple in the 1830s, for example,
were preparatory in nature,
with the more complete endowment and sealings being introduced in Nauvoo in the 1840s.
Even the main floor structure of the Nauvoo temple was mostly designed for regular church meetings,
similar to the Kirtland temple,
with the basement being used for baptisms for the dead
and only the attic being used for the temple endowment.
Then, in St. George and Salt Lake City,
further revelations refined the ordinances and overall design layout
and extended their full performance on behalf of the dead,
giving us the temple ordinances as we enjoy them today.
As the First Presidency recently stated,
Behind these adjustments can be seen eternal principles that do not change.
The House of the Lord will always teach us about the power of Christ’s atonement in our lives,
and tell us how to be more like Him,
allowing us to return to the celestial presence of God.