investigators

Mormon Temples’ Endowment from Mormon Perspective Video

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The late Krister Stendahl (1921-2008), who was a Swedish theologian, New Testament scholar, and a Professor and Dean of Divinity at Harvard University, once addressed the press about one of the Mormon temples that was being built nearby, and spoke about three important rules for religious understanding.  These rules have since been recognized for their tremendous insight and application in interfaith dialogue and learning.  They are:

  1. When you are trying to understand another religion, you should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies.
  2. Don’t compare your “best” to their “worst.”
  3. Leave room for “holy envy.”  In other words, recognize those aspects of other religious traditions that you admire and wish could be reflected in your own.

I think there is great truth embedded in these principles, and we have the opportunity to exercise them every day.  In fact, we use them often here on TempleStudy.com to compare the similarities and differences of Mormon temples with other religious traditions and sacred worship practices.

Below is a short new video which succinctly explains what Mormon temples mean to the Latter-day Saints, from the Latter-day Saint perspective.  Hopefully those that are inquisitive about the Church will be able to learn, from us, what the temple means when investigating and evaluating LDS temple worship.

A more comprehensive video of 44 minutes, of which this is only a snippet, is also available to watch, entitled “Between Heaven and Earth,” which includes commentary and interviews from a number of scholars and theologians, both LDS and from other faiths.

Temple truths taught to investigators

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Some critics of the Church claim that the LDS temple practices are hidden from those investigating the Church until they are already baptized and confirmed members of the Church, and only then are they introduced to the ordinances, doctrines, and practices that are found in the temple, as if the Church springs something upon new converts that they have never heard of previously. While there are sacred aspects of the temple that are only to be experienced by attending the temple, this claim largely has no basis whatsoever. Missionaries of the Church introduce investigators to the doctrines, principles, and ordinances of the temple before their baptism. The following is from the “Preach My Gospel” instruction book, lesson 5 on “Laws and Ordinances,” which missionaries are to teach investigators before their baptism: [Read more…]