The sealing ordinance has been performed in temples since the days of Adam.¹ Anciently, temples were open spaces,² usually on elevated sites³ where God was worshiped⁴ and where he could manifest himself to his righteous children.⁵ The Garden of Eden was the first of God's temples on this earth.⁶ There Adam and Eve received their endowment⁷ and were married or sealed for time and eternity.⁸

Three years before Adam died, the sealing ordinance, or Patriarchal Order of the Priesthood,⁹ was instituted among Adam and Eve's righteous posterity at Adam-ondi-Ahman.¹⁰ The sealing ordinance administered in temples today¹¹ is the same ordinance that Adam administered to his posterity¹² as the Ancient of Days.¹³ Through this ordinance, the posterity of Adam can be sealed as one great family in all their earthly generations.¹⁴

After the ancient gathering of temple-worthy saints at Adam-ondi-Ahman,¹⁵ the sealing ordinance was performed and the Patriarchal Order was established among Adam's righteous posterity throughout the period of the Patriarchs.¹⁶ This order of the priesthood continued until the Israelite bondage in Egypt.¹⁷ When Moses liberated the Israelites after 400 years of Egyptian bondage,¹⁸ he sought to establish the Patriarchal Order among them again, but they were not worthy to receive it.¹⁹ Therefore, the fulness (i.e., Patriarchal Order) of the Melchizedek Priesthood was withdrawn from among the Israelites.²⁰ The lesser or Aaronic Priesthood operated among the Israelite tribes after the time of Moses²¹ until the mortal ministry of Jesus Christ.²² Very few sealing ordinances were performed in the period²³ known as the Mosaic Dispensation.²⁴ This period of time coincides with the pale or sickly horse of the fourth seal in John's vision from Revelation 6:7-8.²⁵

The Mosaic Dispensation was followed by a 400-year apostasy during the intertestamental period.²⁶ This period lasted from the time of Malachi until the fulness of the gospel was restored during the mortal ministry of Jesus Christ.²⁷ This restoration was complete when Elijah restored the keys of the sealing power²⁸ on the Mount of Transfiguration.²⁹ At that time Jesus submitted himself to the endowment ordinance,³⁰ just as he previously submitted himself to the required ordinance of baptism to fulfill all righteousness.³¹ Christ's endowment was undoubtedly the first one given since at least the time of Malachi, 400 years earlier.³² Peter, James, and John also received their endowments on that same occasion.³³

There is no direct statement in the scriptures that Jesus was sealed to a spouse while on the Mount of Transfiguration or that he was ever married.³⁴ However, since every person must receive the sealing ordinance to be exalted,³⁵ Jesus had to be sealed to at least one woman in the new and everlasting covenant of marriage³⁶ before he died.³⁷ Christ's marriage had to occur before he died because (1) the sealing ordinance is an earthly ordinance that had to be performed before Christ was resurrected³⁸ and (2) the apostles could not have vicariously performed Christ's sealing in the three-day period between his death and resurrection.³⁹ Vicarious ordinances for the dead⁴⁰ were performed for the first time only after Christ's resurrection.⁴¹

After Christ's resurrection, he ministered among his disciples in Jerusalem for forty days.⁴² He taught them the mysteries of the kingdom⁴³ pertaining to the temple,⁴⁴ including the sealing ordinance.⁴⁵ At the Savior's final ascension from the mount of Olives,⁴⁶ he said to the apostles that "All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth."⁴⁷ This statement confirms that he possessed the sealing power.⁴⁸ When he directed his apostles to teach all people to "observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,"⁴⁹ this must have included the administration of the sealing ordinance which every person must receive to be exalted.⁵⁰ To this end, the Savior directed his disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost when they would be endowed with power from on high.⁵¹ On that Sabbath day, there was an outpouring of the Holy Ghost,⁵² but the disciples were also separately endued (endowed) with the fulness of the priesthood.⁵³ The spiritual outpouring at Pentecost foreshadowed a similar outpouring of the spirit at the Kirtland Temple⁵⁴ dedication on March 27, 1836.⁵⁵ After the Pentecostal outpouring of the spirit and power from on high, the ancient apostles began to teach and baptize people in all nations with the power they had received.⁵⁶ They also began to administer the sealing ordinance after they first received their own endowment from on high.⁵⁷ Unfortunately, apostasy quickly overcame Christ's ancient church in the first century AD,⁵⁸ and the performance of exalting temple ordinances was relatively short-lived.⁵⁹

After the resurrected Christ ministered among the Christian Jews for forty days, he appeared to the Nephites on the American continent.⁶⁰ They already possessed the sealing power.⁶¹ However, he organized his church ⁶² and instituted the exalting ordinances of the temple among them for both the living and the dead.⁶³ These ordinances were administered among the Nephites without interruption on the American continent for almost 200 years.⁶⁴

Christ also ministered among the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel as a group soon after he appeared to the Nephites on the American Continent.⁶⁵ However, he did not institute temple ordinances among the Lost Ten Tribes as he did among the Jews and Nephites. This is necessarily true because the Lost Ten Tribes will receive their exalting ordinances as a group from Ephraim at the temple in Independence, Missouri after the Second Coming.⁶⁶ The nature and timing of their temple ordinances answers a very basic question about what happened to Lost Ten Tribes after Christ visited them in approximately 34 AD. There is only one possible answer. They were translated as a righteous people in the same way the city of Enoch was translated.⁶⁷ If the Lost Ten Tribes return from the north countries as a resurrected people,⁶⁸ it will be too late for them to receive their exalting ordinances. Since the Lost Ten Tribes will receive their sealing ordinances after the Second Coming‒but before their resurrection‒they must necessarily return from the north country as a translated people.⁶⁹