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Temple Worship in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
I recently read the post of Mr. iWe, an Orthodox Jew who had the opportunity to visit the open house of the Washington DC Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a member of the Church, I am grateful to Mr. iWe for keeping an open mind as he sought to understand our belief system from the framework of his own. His essay left me realizing that there are aspects of our temple worship that are universally misunderstood, even by the most open-minded observers. I wish to address those points now.
In order to understand the significance of temple worship in our lives, let me share our fundamental doctrines and then explain how temple worship fits into this framework. Like most Christian faiths, we believe all humans are God’s children. We believe Him to be the literal Father of our spirits as well as the creator of our physical bodies. As our Father, He knows each of us individually by name and personality. We also believe we have a Heavenly Mother. Not much has been revealed about Her, except the reality of Her existence. We believe the family unit of a father, a mother, and children to be the order of Heaven.
We believe we lived as spirits with our Heavenly Parents, learning and growing in progression. But we could not remain as spirits forever. We believe God has a body of flesh and bones, as tangible as the bodies we have. As His children, it is our privilege to grow to become like our Father, including inheriting the physical form as He has. So this earth was created as the place where we could receive physical bodies and learn to use them properly as He does.
We believe the purpose of our time here on earth is to see if we “will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command” (Abraham 3:25, The Pearl of Great Price) and develop within ourselves the godly attributes of love, wisdom, and mercy. In order for this earthly experience to be of any effect, we have the gift of agency, the right to choose whether or not we will obey His commandments. We also have a veil of forgetfulness drawn over our minds, so we do not remember our time with Him as spirits. Because of these things and the Fall of Adam and Eve, we are mortal, and prone to make mistakes and poor choices. We believe that “no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven.” (3 Nephi 27:19, Book of Mormon; Cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9, KJV) That is why Jesus Christ, known as Jehovah in the Old Testament, volunteered to come to earth to pay the price of all our sins, becoming the Savior, the Redeemer of our souls, the Great and Last Sacrifice. He is the key to our salvation. Without Him, none of us can make it back to our Father in Heaven. If we accept Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, change our ways to align ourselves with God’s commandments, and endure in righteousness, we can receive all the blessings of Heaven our Father desires to give us.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we understand that the best way to accept the Savior’s atoning sacrifice and obtain the blessings of Heaven is to follow the “covenant path.” The covenant path begins with baptism and is a progression of covenants, or promises we make with God, and ordinances, or specific set rituals to ratify these promises. Most of these covenants and ordinances are performed in our dedicated temples by the authority of the priesthood—the authority to act in God’s name
Many outside our faith complain that what we do in the temple is secret and therefore somehow nefarious. I would say that what we do in the temple is open for anyone to learn about. The covenants we make in the temples are promises to serve God, follow the Savior’s example, and serve our fellow man. In return we are promised God’s power to accomplish this work of service He asks of us. The ordinances to ratify these covenants are, like baptism, an outward sign of our inner commitment. We do not share with the world the specific words involved in the ceremonies or the details of the ordinances, not because they are secret or nefarious, but because we consider them highly sacred in nature. To reveal such details we believe will bring us under condemnation by God. So we try to follow the example of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who, regarding the sacred details of His conception and birth, “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19, KJV)
The temple covenants and ordinances are of ancient date. While many consider us a new church, we are actually a restored church. We believe ours to be God’s true church, the same as He established with Adam and Eve. It was established with each of the ancient patriarchs, later established in modified form during the days of ancient Israel, and fleshed out to fullness by Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry. The knowledge of these covenants, the doctrine behind them, and the priesthood authority to administer the ordinances thereof were lost upon the martyrdom of His apostles and restored by Jesus Christ in these latter days through the prophet Joseph Smith. We believe the same ordinances we participate in during temple ceremonies were administered to Adam and Eve, to provide them with spiritual guidance and protection as they left the Garden of Eden. We further believe that these same ordinances were administered to each of the ancient patriarchs and to all sincere followers of righteousness whenever the fullness of the Lord’s priesthood has been on the earth. These ordinances bind us directly to the Savior and His strength. When we partake of the sacrament each week, we not only remember and internalize the Savior’s atoning sacrifice for each of us, we also renew the covenants we have made, from baptism to each temple ordinance, promising again to accept the Savior’s grace and to serve Him in all we do.
Since we understand the order of Heaven is to be organized into families, we believe the highest, holiest ordinance on the covenant path is that of marriage between a man and a woman. The apostle Paul wrote, “neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 11:11, KJV) The ordinance of marriage in the temple is known as the “sealing ordinance” because that marriage is then sealed in Heaven as well as on earth and will last through eternity if we live according to God’s commandments. Children born to couples who have made this covenant are automatically eternally sealed to their parents. Children who are adopted may be sealed to their adoptive families, as if they had been born under that covenant.
One of the most vociferous complaints I have heard through the years is the exclusivity of our temple worship. The greatest ire stems from those who those not of our faith who wish to witness the sealing ordinance of a relative or friend. I even had one person crossly ask me, “Can’t you issue day passes or something?”
We do not wish to be exclusive. Temples are open to all who meet the criteria to enter. That is the way temples work. In ancient temples, certain courtyards were open to anyone, including strangers not of the faith of Israel. However, the further one went into the temple, the more exclusive the access became, until one reached the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest could enter under certain circumstances. In modern temples, any baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the age of twelve may enter the part of the temple where the baptismal font is located. They may participate in the ordinance of proxy baptism for those who have died without the knowledge of God in the world. Anyone wishing to enter the other parts of the temple must be prepared to enter into the sacred covenants I have mentioned above. No one else may enter.
When we enter a dedicated temple, we believe we are standing upon holy ground, symbolically meeting God face to face. This is not an experience to be undertaken lightly. When ancient Israel approached Mount Sinai, the Lord commanded Moses to have the people prepare and sanctify themselves for three days in order to meet Him on the mountain. (Mountains, by the way, function as temples in the absence of built and consecrated structures.) Even with that preparation, greater Israel felt unworthy for such a meeting and instead a smaller group consisting of Moses, Aaron, a few other leaders, and seventy elders went up the mountain for that theophany.
One of the reasons why we are so active in sharing the gospel and sending out missionaries the world over is we want everyone in the world to come and participate in the ordinances of the temple. We are all God’s children and He wants all of us to return home to Him. But again, we must choose to follow the covenant path that He has laid out. Just as there are no curious or casual observers admitted into Heaven, we cannot allow anyone unprepared or unwilling to enter sacred covenants with God to enter the temples—symbolically Heaven on earth. Couples who have family and friends who cannot attend the temple sealing are often encouraged to do a civil service or ring ceremony outside the temple in addition to the temple ceremony. In some countries, such as Great Britain, this is even required by the government.
I would like to finish by sharing a personal experience of what temple worship means to me. At the beginning of this year, my husband and I were overjoyed to learn we would be welcoming identical twin boys into the world as part of our family. Our two older children were excited to see the beautiful process of giving life. Three weeks ago, at a normal doctor check-up, we learned that the baby boys had died in utero. We are naturally grieving over this news. However, we understand that “little children are alive in Christ” (Moroni 8:12, Book of Mormon) and are redeemed from the Fall of Adam through the Savior’s Atonement. Because of the covenants my husband and I have made in the temple, particularly having our marriage sealed for time and all eternity, we know that our little boys are still part of our family. Furthermore, we have the great promise that we will be able to raise them from infancy to adulthood after the resurrection. This knowledge provides solace that I cannot describe and is allowing our family to move forward. We are a family of six. Two are just a little farther along in their eternal progression than the rest of us. We now have additional motivation to stay on the covenant path back to our Heavenly Father.
It is the Savior’s atoning sacrifice that makes this all possible, and nowhere do we see the effects of His Grace more than in the temple. Everything about our temples points to and testifies of Jesus Christ and His mission. He is the only way back to our Heavenly Home, united as families.
Additional Resources:
Follow Him Podcast with Hank Smith and John Bytheway—Exodus 35-40, Leviticus 1; 16; 19. Guest: Dr. Matthew Grey
Marriage, Family Law, and the Temple, by Elder Bruce C. Hafen
Nicole – I for one have always been confused on the Mormons. As I understand it, this faith does not believe in The Trinity, and believes Jesus is an angel (Michael?) – not sure, and they point out a few passages that they think supports that.
Also, does the final chapter in the Bible – Revelation not say that nothing is to be added after this book (it very specifically states that), and the Book of Mormon is indeed an add-on?
Thanks for clarifying if you can and standing up for the basic principles of Christian faith.
Welcome to Ricochet!
I really appreciate this look at your faith. Thank you for this thoughtful post.
Agreed
Wow! Welcome, and what a first post! Thank you for your expansive, matter-of-fact description of some of your faith and practice.
Be honest. You’re not confused — you disagree.
What does the use of the term add-on mean? Wasn’t the Book of Mormon allegedly produced before the New Testament Book of Revelations? If so, not an add-on.
There are many things to admire about LDS and this vastly outweighs any issues some have with the faith. That is true of many religions, but LDS provides the most poinient example. I’m a true agnostic myself, highly skeptical of religious dogma generally, but I accept that any Judeo-Christian flavor of faith can be largely good. If there was a religion that taught people how to think, rather than what one must believe, I might be more interested. But in any case, the public morality, ethics, family first and general loving aspects of LDS are its most appealing features. The dogma gets a little strange, mystical, almost gnostic, but for the most part, those features are backdrop. Having a single prophet who can set the dogma straight is an important feature and helps round out any hard edges that come up from time to time. My relatives were some of the original founders of the church, tough, unapologetic and dogged people. The faith has improved since the founding, but it still can be quick to judge and expel and prone to magical explanation. I love my Morman friends and find them to be great, honest, hardworking people, salt of the earth in an unsavory time.
I’m a pretty firm agnostic myself. And perhaps the cleanest-living person I’ve ever known was my friend Frank, a Mormon, killed in Afghanistan.
I am happy to clarify any points of our doctrine. You are right, we do not believe in the Trinity. We believe in the Godhood, comprised of our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. We believe these three to be separate individuals, but united in purpose. God the Father is the Father of our spirits and the creator of our bodies. Jesus Christ is the creator of the earth and the Savior of all mankind. The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead. His role is to testify of the Father and the Son.
We believe that God the Father has a perfect physical body of flesh and bones. We believe Jesus Christ also has a physical body of flesh and bones, that body becoming perfect upon His resurrection. Because of his unique role as testifier, we believe the Holy Ghost is still a spirit.
We believe that the angel Michael became Adam, the first man upon the earth. His name was changed for his mortal sojourn. We believe that it was Michael/Adam who was the angel that appeared to the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane, to give Him strength and support during those agonizing hours of Atonement.
The verse in Revelation is often brought up as objection to the further books of scripture that we in the Church of Jesus Christ study and follow, namely the The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. The verse is Revelation 22:18 wherein the apostle, John, writes, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” The short answer is we believe “this book” refers to the Book of Revelation alone and not to the Bible as a whole. For a longer, more comprehensive answer, I refer you and anyone else to an article by Brother Eldin Ricks of the department of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.
I hope this clears up some confusion. Thank you for your earnest questions.
What is the doctrine on the Apostle’s Creed and Nicene Creed?
What you have stated above does not seem to fit with either of those from my lay perspective.
What an interesting post, thank you.
I am so sorry about your little boys. I’m glad your family has been able to find some comfort and peace.
I missed the post you are referencing from @iwe. Might you (or another reader/commenter) have a link?
Thank you Nicole, what an informative post.
I am Episcopalian by baptism, Lutheran from my Mother’s influence through my school age years, Catholic from my marriage and adopted Father, LDS through my birth Father, and pagan from when I was in college.
I learned quite a bit, thanks again
And welcome to Ricochet!
Well that’s like the Muslims claiming the Koran was written before the Old Testament. I guess you can claim anything but there has to be some sort of credibility to the claim.
I remember seeing iWe’s post and while I didn’t spend a lot of time reading it thoroughly I was somewhat surprised that an Orthodox Jew would praising a religion that at its heart has multiple gods.
Yeah, but isn’t that polytheism? Don’t you also have more gods than just that? Don’t humans become gods too? And isn’t your concept of god the father a physical human being who had physical sexual intercourse with Mary to conceiver Jesus? Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m just going by some superficial understanding of LDS.
That said, I have never met a member of the LDS who was not of the highest moral rectitude.
And they gave us the original Battlestar Galactica.
Exactly! Years ago I was riding a motorcycle through backroads in Utah and crested a pass and looked down into the next valley at the most beautiful peaceful little agricultural town with a Mormon church in the center. I stopped in the town and rested on a shaded lawn. Everything was clean and perfect! Everybody seemed perfect and literally beautiful. I thought I should move there and take a rightful place in the world. But I travelled on. Still, the thought was profound enough to have been recalled many times over these last 25 years.
We do not adhere to the Apostle’s Creed (as I understand it) or the Nicene Creed. We baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. But, like I said, we do not believe in the Trinitarian concept of God. We believe God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. But we believe each of them to be separate, distinct individuals.
I hope this helps.
An Orthodox Jew Goes Into an LDS Temple…
And thank you for your sympathetic condolences.
We Nicene types agree they are distinct individuals–distinct Persons. Just not distinct Gods.
No. There is one God, and that is our Heavenly Father, whom we worship. The work that the Savior did and does is His Father’s work. He said Himself, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.” (John 5:19, KJV). In worshiping the Son, we really worship the Father. We believe that we, like the Savior, can become like God the Father, by following Jesus’ example and accepting His atoning sacrifice on our behalf. But we do not worship, or pray to multiple gods. We pray to our Heavenly Father alone, in the name of Jesus Christ.
As to the conception of Jesus Christ, we do not know the details. Only Mary knows that. We only know what is written in the scriptures, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35, KJV). And the scriptures make it very clear that Mary was a virgin. We do believe that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. That was what gave Him the ability to withstand the weight of taking all our sins upon Him.
I hope this clarifies things.
The Book of Mormon was published in 1830 after the angelic visitation to 17 year old Joseph Smith in 1823.
Nicole –
Thank you for your enlightening post. I always admire the family focus of the tv commercials produced by the Church of the Latter Day Saints, and it is good to have a more thorough understanding of the faith of others.
I would like to express my sympathy for the physical loss of your baby boys. As a Catholic, I also believe that our family members and our greater family of saints are waiting for us to join them. (I have a tendency to, in my heart, check in with my late father, a carpenter, when I do something I think he would appreciate.) This is but a reminder to us that our time on Earth is limited and a much greater future awaits. May God bless you and your family.
To be honest, both can be true
Tru dat.
Nicole,
Going by your statement, the privacy of temples is based on the idea of excluding those not consecrated. If someone were to install a webcam and live-stream a ceremony, would that not be acceptable? I mean, in temples of old, someone could climb a tower or hill and look into a space they could not enter like an inner courtyard.
One thing to keep in mind is that the doctrine of the Trinity is a Big Deal for Christians. There was one of the greatest struggles between in the early church, with people being killed by the opposing sides. That was before the Middle Ages or even the split between Catholics and Orthodox. This is why people refer to LDS as “not Christians” like Jehovah’s Witnesses. (I have never seen any evidence of LDS people being anywhere near as controlling as JW leadership though)
To everyone here: If you have never been to the HQ in Salt Lake City, it’s both gorgeous and an extremely well-done presentation of their faith’s history. Other churches need to step up their game.
Here’s a bonus to celebrate your first post, Nicole, from one of my favorite Youtube channels:
I understand the events you describe. The material delivered for publication by Joseph Smith had existed for millennia before the translation to English.
Dennis Prager has a great line. “It is pointless to debate theology. Everybody’s theology looks silly to those of another theology. What matters is values. A person with your values is your friend regardless of theology.”
Or something like that.
That’s why he’s my Rabbi, and I’m not even Jewish.
Doesn’t it matter whether our values correspond to the truth? If we share the same values, but our values are evil, we might be friends but it just means we support each other in our wickedness.