To members of the Mormon Church, Mormon temples are houses of the Lord. They stand as symbols of “membership in the Church, as a sign of our faith in life after death, and as a sacred step toward eternal glory for our families and us.” 1
Temples are different from regular meeting houses because they are set aside for sacred and eternal ordinances. After a temple is dedicated, only members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are living the principles of the gospel may enter.
Since the establishment of the Church, members have built temples. The Lord told the prophet Joseph Smith, “And verily I say unto you, let this house (temple) be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people.” 2
Within Mormon temples sacred ordinances are performed for both the living and the dead. President Gordon B. Hinckley taught, “The work that goes on in these buildings sets forth God’s eternal purposes with reference to man, who is God’s child and creation.” 3
Mormon temple work is concerned with eternal families. It is within Mormon temples that the eternal nature of marriage and family is established. One of the temple ordinances performed is that of sealing husbands, wives, and children together into eternal family units. A marriage performed within a Mormon temple, using the power of the Holy Priesthood, ensures that the earthly relationship lasts for eternity, as long as the participants remain worthy.
Another ordinance performed is that of the endowment. The Mormon endowment ceremony is a series of covenants made between an individual and God. “In every detail the endowment ceremony contributes to covenants of morality of life, consecration of person to high ideals, devotion to truth, patriotism to nation, and allegiance to God.” 4 Members are asked to keep the sacred covenants that they make in the temple secret “lest they be given to those who are unprepared.” 5
3 comments:
Interesting Maddie, thanks for sharing your view of your new church. It brings up many questions. Love you girl.
Aunt Dee
Sis,
I have to say the temples are impressive. Very old school, in a European, Roman Catholic sort of way. I'm curious...do you have to be from the LDS to be lead architect on these temples? Or do they contract the work out to the infidels?
I'm glad you continue to be interested in sharing this with everyone. I don't really care if anyone else wants to hear about it, but I do. I find it fascinating, getting a better grasp on the way other people view the world. Even if I don't agree, it adds something to my own understanding of the world.
On another note, I was drifting through Habitat yesterday and picked up a copy of Alan Watts's "The Way of Zen." Watts was one of the best writers on Zen and other Eastern philosophies. I found one particular idea quite interesting as I was reading this morning.
Watts describes how one of the fundamental differences between Eastern and Western thinking is that in the West we associate the Absolute (God) with the moral and logical order, with the rules and laws of our society. To break the rules of a society in the West is to blaspheme against God Himself, for it from God that we divine our morality and law.
In the East, this is not the case. To the Eastern mind, societal laws and moral codes are human concepts, they do not spring from the Absolute. Therefore, one can break with societal convention and not be breaking with the very source of existence.
Watts writes: "It is one thing to feel oneself in conflict with socially sanctioned conventions, but quite another to feel at odds with the very root and ground of life, with the Absolute itself. The latter feeling nurtures a sense of guilt so preposterous that it must issue either in denying one's own nature or in rejecting God. Because the first of these alternatives is ultimately impossible -- like chewing off one's own teeth -- the second becomes inevitable..."
Not so much an argument, just something I wanted to share with somebody. Thought it was worth thinking about.
Hope you're doing well. See you this weekend.
Ty
we were JUST talking about how westerners take everything so literally when the prophets int he bible were relating symbols numbers colors and creatures to other things, and it wasnt supposed to be so literal. thats why the church uses so many things with the number 12 3 and the list goes on, but the churches were built by various people it isnt until the prophet sanctions it the holy temple that only LDS memberrs are allowed in, but even LDS members have to have a temple reccomend, because they have to be keeping the commandments strictly and they are interviewed by their bishop, you can lie and pretend that you deserve a temple reccomend, but i mean doesnt matter what everyone else thinks and if they know you dont deserve one, it all about your personal relationship with God. The temples are a place to worship and to perform ordinances for the dead and seal your children and spouse to you for eternity. Its like getting baptized you dont go get baptized before you make commandments to follow God and the same with your endowment in the temple, you make covenants and prepare to keep them before your endowed.
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