Mormon Temple Rituals and Ordinances - Mormonism

By Alfred Ras

The Mormon Temple is to the Mormons as the church is to the Christians. This is their house of worship and is to signify their faith in God.

They are often referred to as Mormon temples and they carry with them a very strict ordinance. They will tell you very clearly that as part of these ordinances is the endowment and baptism for the dead as well as a sealing of marriages. They will stipulate to you that any of the ordinances carried out in any of the Mormon temples has to be performed through the priesthood of God. Simply being because this is what Jesus referred to when he taught various scriptures. Therefore it is believed because the priesthood is eternal all the ordinances must be carried out by the people in authority in the priesthood of the Mormon religion.

The endowment first of all is that you must receive these as the ordinances in the house of God which are important for you after death where you can go back to the Lord. You will gain your exultation that will last forever. This endowment is the temple endowment and is based on instruction regarding the past including the creation of Earth as we know it. It covers the ultimate plan of redemption and when the ceremony is taking place the individuals participating must make promises to God in the ceremony. There are covenants that deal with life itself, high ideals where truth stands, and patriotism to the nation and all allegiance to God. The return for making these covenants with God will mean the receiving of specific blessings. It doesn't matter what their race or financial status is of any individual as this has no bearing on their blessings.

The baptism for the dead is applicable to anyone that has lived on the earth and died unless they were before the age of eight. This is on the premise that God has made an allowance for those prior to this age. Those who were not baptized when on earth will be represented by proxy and a baptism is conducted in the proxy meaning people will stand in for the dead.

Sealings are in reference to marriages where there are special rooms in the Mormon Temple to carry out these rituals. The marriage ceremony conducted by the Mormons according to their beliefs is not just for the binding of marriage on earth but is for all eternity. This is applicable to the here and after and this all only take place however if it has been conducted by the holy priesthood of the Mormon religion. The Mormons will go even further and seek out their ancestors and will provide ceremonies to seal them as well so that the eternal family chain will not be broken.

These are just a few of the beliefs and are based on basically the main purposes of the temple. There are many beliefs and many books that the Mormons will abide by. Their ultimate book is the book of Mormons although they do purport to rely on the King James version of the Bible as well.

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