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Question for LDS followers
- Thread starter Djamila
- Start date
Katzpur
Not your average Mormon
Here are a few paragraphs I wrote up for someone who once asked me a related question. I saved them, thinking that they might come in handy sometime:Djamila said:
Like our regular churches, our temples are places where we go to learn and to worship. Unlike our regular churches, they are places where only those who have demonstrated their willingness to live their lives according to a particular standard of worthiness are allowed. In other words, you might think of a temple as sort of an institute of higher learning with respect to spiritual knowledge. It is in our temples that we make covenants with God, a covenant, of course, being a two-way promise or mutual agreement. Consequently, we believe that when we live up to the promises we make in the temple, God will in turn grant us certain blessings. We refer to this covenant-making ordinance as the Endowment. We believe that both the covenants and the blessing associated with them to be eternal in nature. Many of them serve to unite families not only for this life but for the next as well.
Most people imagine that a temple looks much like a cathedral inside. After all, from the outside, there is a certain resemblance. In our temples, however, there is no one large room like the nave of a cathedral. Rather there are many rooms (170, I believe, in the Salt Lake Temple -- the Salt Lake Temple being only one of about 120 temples worldwide), each designed for a specific function. There are, for instance, fourteen rooms in the Salt Lake Temple that are used exclusively for marriages. We call them sealing rooms because we believe that marriages performed in our temples seal a couple and their posterity together forever. A Latter-day Saint temple wedding is beautiful. The couple kneels together and holds hands across a velvet and lace covered alter. When the individual officiating pronounces them husband and wife, he states that their marriage will endure for time and all eternity as opposed to until death do you part or "as long as you both shall live." On either side of the room there are large mirrors, directly across from one another. What do you see when you look in a mirror which reflects another mirror? You see an image which appears to go on forever. This is, of course, symbolic of the covenant we make in the temple when we marry there.
Another important and unique function of our temples is to enable us to do vicarious work for those of our ancestors who have gone before us. This work would include baptism, the endowment and eternal marriage. We are prohibited from discussing the details of these ordinances with those who have not participated in them themselves. As a matter of fact, they are so sacred to us that we don't even talk about them among ourselves outside of the temple.
Djamila
Bosnjakinja
Thanks. I have a few questions in addition to the one I posted, I'll just ask them here.
When an LDS member dies, lets say that they are a full member of a temple, absolutely flawless in their belief and execution of their faith - the perfect LDS Christian. What is the afterlife as described for them?
An LDS woman who is a member of the temple becomes engaged to:
a) An LDS man who is not a member of any temple, but is a respected member of his LDS Church.
b) A devout Roman Catholic man.
c) A Muslim, Jew, or Athiest.
What are the religious consequences of this engagement for her? Where would she be married?
When an LDS member dies, lets say that they are a full member of a temple, absolutely flawless in their belief and execution of their faith - the perfect LDS Christian. What is the afterlife as described for them?
An LDS woman who is a member of the temple becomes engaged to:
a) An LDS man who is not a member of any temple, but is a respected member of his LDS Church.
b) A devout Roman Catholic man.
c) A Muslim, Jew, or Athiest.
What are the religious consequences of this engagement for her? Where would she be married?
Katzpur
Not your average Mormon
For starters, the usual way of putting it would be to say that a person is a "member" of a specific ward and stake, but not a "member" of a temple. A person who holds a "temple recommend," permitting him to participate in temple ordinances is referred to as being "temple worthy."Djamila said:
In every one of these cases, the religious consequences would be essentially the same. We may marry outside of our faith, and the marriage is recognized as legally binding. It need not even be performed by an LDS bishop. We are, however, strongly encouraged to marry within the faith and to marry in one of our temples since we believe a temple wedding (or sealing) to be binding "for time and all eternity." Since the eternal nature of families is a core doctrine of our faith, we want to be able to enter into a marriage that will endure beyond the grave.
Most people would probably be surprised to learn that marriage to a good, decent but not "temple worthy" member of the Church is not seen as being all that different from marriage to someone who is not a member of the Church at all. For instance, within my family, we have a whole variety of situations:
My parents were not initially married in the temple, but at my aunt's house. They went through the temple and were sealed to one another on my second birthday. My husband and I were married in the Salt Lake temple. My sister, while raised LDS, now considers herself to be agnostic. Her husband, who was also raised LDS, is an athiest. They were married at a Utah ski resort. My daughter and her husband were both raised LDS but did not marry in the temple. They were married in the mountains east of Salt Lake City. (It's some consolation to know that he won't be my son-in-law for eternity.
) My son, also raised LDS, is engaged to a Catholic girl, and will probably be married in a Catholic cathedral in the Dominican Republic. (I hope he gives us enough notice so that we can afford the airfare and a hotel. ) Consequently, the Church considers my parents' marriage and my marriage to my husband to be eternal in nature. All of the other marriages are or will be for this life only -- unless something changes along the way. Couples who are not married in the temple are not ostracized or anything of that sort. They can still participate in all of the aspects of LDS worship that do not require temple attendance.
Katzpur
Not your average Mormon
I'll spare you another of my previously written essays.Djamila said:
We believe in the doctrine of Eternal Progression which was very beautifully summarized by C.S. Lewis (who was not, of course, LDS, but who nevertheless seemed to believe very much as we do on this topic). In his book, "Mere Christianity," Lewis said:
The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were gods and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him for we can prevent Him, if we choose He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said."
This is not to say that every temple worthy Latter-day Saint will someday become as God is. It's simply saying that every one of God's children has this potential and is, in essence, a "god in embryo." So for the faithful, Heaven will be a place where there are no limits to how far we can progress. We look forward to being eternally with God and with our earthly families as we work together towards becoming more like our Father in Heaven.
One thing for sure, we don't plan on sitting around all day on clouds, playing harps and straightening our halos.
