The High Places: Why Having Numerous Temples is Unbiblical

During General Conference in April 2021, 20 new LDS temples were announced. This isn’t uncommon as multiple new temples are announced every General Conference. And Latter-day Saints are generally proud of their temples being present in cities around the globe.

But did you know that building multiple temples is actually considered wicked in Scripture? Here’s 3 reasons why:

#1) There was only ever one authorized Temple

 Upon entering the promised land, God commanded Israel to

“…drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.”(Numbers 33:52).

The land of Canaan had many places of worship dedicated to the worship of false gods. God didn’t want Israel to be like the Canaanites and simply repurpose those places of worship for the worship of God. Therefore, God commanded them to worship Him at a single location of his choosing:

“then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord…” (Deuteronomy 12:11). 

“Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.” (Deuteronomy 12:11–14).

Before the temple was built, God had instructed Israel to build a tabernacle: the place of God’s presence in the camp of Israel. Up until the days of Solomon’s Temple, the people were only to offer sacrifices and worship God at that tabernacle!

After the Temple was constructed, people were obligated to come, sometimes long distances, to that one temple in Jerusalem; the location God had chosen to be worshiped at (Deuteronomy 16:2, 16, Deuteronomy 26:2). Ezekiel 20 says

“For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. (Ezekiel 20:40)

#2) Israel sinned by worshiping God at other temples, called High Places

King Solomon was committed to serving the Lord faithfully in his youth. 1 Kings 3 recognizes the one exception to this. It says,

“Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.” (1 Kings 3:3).

Solomon honored God, but offered sacrifices in places that God had not authorized. Later in King Solomon’s life, he would permit these high places to become places of worship for false gods to appease his idolatrous wives (1 Kings 11:1-8). These false places of worship eventually developed into places of idol worship. 

After Solomon’s day, when the Northern Kingdom of Israel split from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, King Jeroboam of Israel knew that the people would be sympathetic to the southern Kingdom of Judah because the temple resided in its capital: Jerusalem. 

“And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” (1 King 12:26).

 And so “He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.” (1 Kings 12:31).

To keep his people from needing to visit the enemy capital each year, he built new temples, also called “high places”, and appointed priests who weren’t authorized to be priests, because they weren’t Levites!  

Causing the people to dishonor God by going to false temples and by having a false priesthood was part of why God judged Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:7-16, 1 Kings 13:2). There was only one authorized place of worship for God’s people: the Temple in Jerusalem. To do sacrifices anywhere but the Temple in Jerusalem was to reject what God had commanded in his Law.

The later kings of both Israel and Judah were judged on whether or not they removed these false centers of worship. Sometimes even faithful kings who removed the worship of false gods displeased God by not wholly removing the high places (1 Kings 15:12–14, 2 Kings 14:4, 2 Kings 15:35). 

When God eventually destroyed Israel and Judah, he did so in part because of these high places (2 Kings 17:9).

#3) We don’t need a physical temple anymore

The Old Testament Temple existed so that people could offer sacrifices to God. There were never any sealings, or endowment ceremonies, or even baptisms ever performed at the Temple.

We don’t need to keep offering sacrifices in the New Covenant because Jesus is our once-for-all sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10-14), and the New Testament teaches that Christians are now God’s dwelling place on earth (Ephesians 2:19-22, 1 Corinthians 3:16–17). The need for a temple no longer exists! 

But let’s just say, hypothetically, we were to need a modern temple. In this case, there would only be one authorized location for it: Jerusalem.

The LDS Church has no such temple in Jerusalem; the place God had chosen for His temple to be built. Additionally, the false practices of LDS temples are the basis of a false gospel that teaches that man must make himself worthy enough to enter God’s Kingdom. 

But the true Gospel of Jesus says that all who trust in Jesus alone for their worthiness will not perish, but will have eternal life (John 3:16).