It is beautiful, but it really bothers me when I see religious buildings that obviously were millions of dollars to build and decorate. Makes me think they don't have their priorities in the right order.
The fact is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints builds expensive temples around the world and it does a tremendous amount of humanitarian work around the world. The love of Christ and blessing the human family with choice eternal blessings as well as temporal blessings is the priorities of the Church. It is why members serve callings without pay, give 10% of their income in tithes, serve missions at their own costs, and serve in many humanitarian causes.
On the surface it is reasonable to think yeah the LDS Church does a lot right in an all volunatry organizion with no paid clergy but why commit so many resources to temples and not give 100% to humanitarian work.
It is our belief the command and design of each temple is given by revelation from God to our prophet and apostles. These are literal houses of the Lord that He visits from time to time, and places where sacred eternal ordinances are performed for both the living and those who have died who will have the opportunity to accept or not in the spirit world. These are choice blessings that are eternal in there effect and of great worth to the human family. Ordinaces that allows all the opportunity to be baptized into Christ's Church and enter into the kingdom of God, attain eternal life, eternal marriage, eternal families.
Given from the LDS perspective these temples are commanded by God, and God does nothing but that which is virtuous, there must be a good reason so many resources are given to build temples. Is it possible it is virtuous to do both, build beautiful temples and do great humanitarian work. Here are some benefits imo:
1. Heavenly Father wants to honor His Son. And all of us want to honor Christ for the sacrifice He has done for all of us and sacrificing a little to build a worthy house for Him is a worthy thing to do, 2. the temple is the most holy place on earth, a piece of heaven on earth where Christ and angels visit. Given the temple is an ensign to the nations of the earth that the kingdom of God is on the earth, they should have a majesty about them that reflect Heaven. This is the same way how whenever the kingdom of God is restored to the earth there seems to be an exodus motif, where the Lord's covenant people escaping destruction by being led by the Lord on a journey through the wilderness to a promise land where a great temple of the Lord is built. As an ensign, the Promise Land and temple are symbolic of Heaven. 3. attending the temple regularly changes human nature, the peace, light, revelation, and spiritual growth allows people greater capacity to serve the human family in their normal daily lives. My guess the money it costs to build a temple is dwarfed by the donations and service that those who attend temples regularly provide for their communities and the world. For example there are many LDS members who serve missions in going to 3rd world countries and teaching people how to be self sufficient. This is the type of donations that do not cause dependency but magnifies blessings throughout generations. 4. Many people who were not familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have found and embraced the gospel from the spirit they felt at temple open houses. 5. what is the difference between giving 80 million to humanitarian aid and giving 80 million to put people to work in building a temple to feed, clothe, and shelter their families through employment rather then just giving as donation. Not only does the 80 million accomplish the same thing of feeding, clothing, and sheltering people, you have a House of the Lord to bless the people and community for hundreds of years. And these blessings both spiritual and temporal will dwarf the initial investment.
