Is the Temple Troubling?
Someone recently asked me the following:
Perhaps you can explain how a person who finds the [temple experience] to be … troubling should express those feelings.
This was my reply, with additional edits: [Read more…]
sacred
Regarding the Sacred of Others
In my interactions with the critics of the LDS Church, and in reading their arguments, I’ve taken note of something that I believe to be of immeasurable importance in our dialogue with and about other faiths. Indeed, I believe it is a key by which the judgment of one’s character can be quickly discerned (D&C 46:23). It is simply this:
- How do people treat that which others hold sacred? [Read more…]
Elder Christofferson on the Sacred
I received this quote today in my inbox by Elder Christofferson, our newest apostle, in a talk he gave to the CES on November 7, 2004:
The importance of having a sense of the sacred is simply this–if one does not appreciate holy things, he will lose them. Absent a feeling of reverence, he will grow increasingly casual in attitude and lax in conduct. He will drift from the moorings that his covenants with God could provide. His feeling of accountability to God will diminish and then be forgotten. Thereafter, he will care only about his own comfort and satisfying his uncontrolled appetites. Finally, he will come to despise sacred things, even God, and then he will despise himself.
On the other hand, with a sense of the sacred, one grows in understanding and truth. The Holy Spirit becomes his frequent and then constant companion. More and more he will stand in holy places and be entrusted with holy things. Just the opposite of cynicism and despair, his end is eternal life. (((D. Todd Christofferson, “A Sense of the Sacred,” CES fireside for young adults, Nov. 7, 2004))
In fact, the entire talk is good. In referencing the sanctity of the physical body he said: [Read more…]
Educating the Media (and Others) about the LDS Temple
The television station KREX Channel 5 from Grand Junction, Colorado, aired a news piece yesterday about the “Sacred Secrets of the LDS Church.”
I think that the news anchors, save being as objective and unaffected as anchors could possibly be, did a decent job of trying to understand what the LDS temple is all about. The members interviewed, on the other hand, I think missed a tremendous opportunity to share more and clarify our beliefs and practices of the temple. Stake President Richard Landes did a substantially better job than Elder Smith in explaining some of the reasons for the temple, but it still left the anchors with misconceptions.
At one point the anchor asks Elder Smith, “What goes on in the temple?”
Our missionary unfortunately replied, “I don’t know how to explain that. . . . I’m going to pass on that one.” [Read more…]
Baptism for the Dead: An Erroneous Practice? – Part 3
(Continued from Part 2)
Another early Christian evidence for the practice of baptism for the dead is from texts that reference the practice among a group known as the Marcionites. This group was a separate Christian body from the Church of Rome, who followed the teachings of Marcion (ca. 110-160) as their spiritual leader (sometimes referenced as Marcion of Sinope). The writings of Marcion are lost, so the information we have about him and his followers comes largely from the writings of others. Marcion was a Christian theologian, a ship owner, may have been the son of the bishop in Sinope, and was consecrated a bishop himself. He gathered a large following but was excommunicated from the Church of Rome in 144 as a heretic, apparently because his beliefs about the gospel clashed with the bishops of Rome. His following was strong, however, and continued to expand even after Marcion’s death for quite some time. Marcionism was a major rival to the Catholic Church.
So why do we use an example of a practice among a “heretical” group of Christians? Dr. John A. Tvedtnes has taught, [Read more…]