I'm writing this for members and non-members of the church to view. For each post I will try to give a description of the location, some of the architectural/physical features of the temple, some history of the temple and a little about our adventure of getting there. I will not talk about the ordinances themselves because they are sacred, but I am going to give a bit of an overview now of why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more commonly called Mormons or LDS) has temples and what those ordinances are.
Why does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have temples?
In short the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has temples so that the living and the dead can receive the necessary ordinances to return to the presences of God. While many other Christian faiths believe all that is needed is faith, the LDS Church firmly believes as James says in the Bible "faith without works is dead." Therefore we need faith in Christ while striving to live the commandments He gave and receiving the ordinances that are needed for salvation. Through faith in Christ our imperfections can be made perfect but we still need to be striving for perfection. Perfection is not just going to be given to us. In other words, Christ makes up the majority of the debt to be able to return to God, but we still need to do our best to try to pay that debt. As the Book of Mormon prophet Nephi said in 2 Nephi 25:23 "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."
What are these temple ordinances?
There are numerous temple ordinances:
Baptism for the dead:
You might be asking yourself, what thats weird? if you aren't familiar with the LDS faith. The LDS church believes that everyone must be baptized in order to return to the presence of God. Millions of people have lived upon the earth and millions of people have died without knowing the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We are also all Spirit children of Heavenly Father. He loves us all. So why then does someone receive the gospel while they are living and others never have that opportunity in this life? If God loves us and is merciful surely he is also just. Through temple work those who did not have the opportunity to receive the gospel while living can receive those ordinances by proxy (so basically by a living person receiving those ordinances in the place of the dead person using the dead person's name). Now some of you might be thinking, wait my dead relatives are being baptized mormon? The Church doctrine believes that there is a place that spirits go before the resurrection and judgement called the Spirit World, where those who have not yet received the Gospel of Jesus Christ can have the opportunity to do so. The problem is that they don't have bodies to receive the ordinances that come with receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thats where the living come in, but don't worry the dead can accept or reject these ordinances.
Now while the living can be baptized outside of temples, all ordinances for the dead happen in the temple. So baptism for the dead is basically just that members who are worthy (worthy as in they follow the teachings of the church and have been interviewed by the leaders in their local area to receive a recommend can do these ordinances) and who are 12 and older who are baptized for the dead. There is also confirmation for the dead that these same people can do. Many people who are not members find that it might be wrong not to let everyone into the temple. The point is not to make people feel left out or to be exclusive, as a matter of fact the Church wants everyone to be able to go to the temple and receive these wonderful blessing, but you need to be worthy to enter if not you are not prepared for what is with in and you are casting eternal damnation on your soul. The greatest desire of God is that all may enter and live up to the covenants made there in so we may receive eternal life with God.
Endowment:
Now while baptism in the temple is only for the dead, the endowment is received for the living and the dead in the temple. Members generally receive their endowment prior to a mission, a temple marriage, or when they are older and their local church leaders feel they are ready. Then after one receives their own endowment they may go back and receive it for the deceased. Brigham Young, second prophet after the church had been restored, said this about the endowment, "Let me give you a definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels." This is what Tyler and I (both being return missionaries) are going to be doing at the temple for the dead for our challenge.
Sealing:
The sealing is the ordinances that makes it possible for families to live together forever. To let our family units, the most important social units in our lives, continue past the grave. People can either be married in the temple and all children there after being born to them will be able to live with them forever, or people who join the church later or are worthy later in life can be sealed with their already living children to be able to live together forever.
Of course all of these blessings depend on the continual keeping of these covenants.
Hopefully that was a good enough overview of the temple for those of you unfamiliar with the purposes of these temples.
I am rather excited about this challenge and this blog, its going to be great:)
This is such a neat goal; much more manageable than just saying that you want to visit as many temples as you can. My husband and I should try this when we get back to Utah.
ReplyDeleteHow are you by the way? Back at BYU? We're in NM for the summer doing an internship. It's pretty fun. :) - Jessica