Defining "Worthy."
There was an article in the newpaper today, I think it was the front page, or perhaps it was the front of the local section, don't remember which, but it was about a mother whose son had joined the LDS Church and was getting married in the temple. The short of it is that she was upset because she was not able to see her son be married to his wife in the temple because those who are not endowed members of the Chruch are not allowed within the temple for the sealing ceremony among other things (youth can go and perform baptisms for the dead, but there is a separate entrance and they do not go through the section of the temple where sealings or endowment ceremonies are performed.
This article got me thinking about a rather large misconception that people, even LDS (Mormon) people often have. That centers around how we define the term "worthy" in relation to entering the temple.
From the outside it can appear exclusionary. That we don't want anyone to be in the temple except for those who are "deemed worthy" to enter by adhering to all of the "rules and regulations" that the Church austerely sets forth and must be obeyed. It is, in reality, the reverse. We want people to attend the temple. We want people to be able to partake of all of the wonderful blessings that can be attained through temple attendance and temple work. The temple is all about bringing people together, about bringing families together and uniting them both for time and for eternity. The first time one does any ordinance, be it baptism or marriage, it is for yourself to accept and enter into covenants with God. Any time thereafter it is done for another, be it for your own ancestor whom you've found through genealogical research or the ancestors of other members who have submitted the names but for some reason or another are not able to perform the work themselves (a woman can't do the work for a man and vise versa, there's simply too many to perform, etc.). We believe that the person who has the work done for them after death has the opportunity to accept or decline this work, but in order to receive complete exultation we must perform certain ordinances and enter into specific covenants.
That said we come back to the word "worthy." In the context of all ordinances, "worthy" does not take on the context of "being good enough for." If one is not worthy to enter the temple it doesn't mean that the person is a bad person, it doesn't mean that they are not good enough to enter or are in some way inferior to those who can; it simply means that they are not prepared.
Because of the sacred nature of the ordinances one has to be prepared before performing them or entering into the covenants. This is part of the reason why the LDS Church does not baptize infants or children under the age of eight because they do not have the ability to recognize the covenants they are making nor adhere to their portion of it. This also applies to the temple. The reason that random people are not allowed into the temple is not necessarily an issue of worthiness in the context of being "good enough" for it, but one of preparedness. You do not want to make someone responsible for something that they do not fully understand.
Just some food for thought and perhaps some understanding increased.
This article got me thinking about a rather large misconception that people, even LDS (Mormon) people often have. That centers around how we define the term "worthy" in relation to entering the temple.
From the outside it can appear exclusionary. That we don't want anyone to be in the temple except for those who are "deemed worthy" to enter by adhering to all of the "rules and regulations" that the Church austerely sets forth and must be obeyed. It is, in reality, the reverse. We want people to attend the temple. We want people to be able to partake of all of the wonderful blessings that can be attained through temple attendance and temple work. The temple is all about bringing people together, about bringing families together and uniting them both for time and for eternity. The first time one does any ordinance, be it baptism or marriage, it is for yourself to accept and enter into covenants with God. Any time thereafter it is done for another, be it for your own ancestor whom you've found through genealogical research or the ancestors of other members who have submitted the names but for some reason or another are not able to perform the work themselves (a woman can't do the work for a man and vise versa, there's simply too many to perform, etc.). We believe that the person who has the work done for them after death has the opportunity to accept or decline this work, but in order to receive complete exultation we must perform certain ordinances and enter into specific covenants.
That said we come back to the word "worthy." In the context of all ordinances, "worthy" does not take on the context of "being good enough for." If one is not worthy to enter the temple it doesn't mean that the person is a bad person, it doesn't mean that they are not good enough to enter or are in some way inferior to those who can; it simply means that they are not prepared.
Because of the sacred nature of the ordinances one has to be prepared before performing them or entering into the covenants. This is part of the reason why the LDS Church does not baptize infants or children under the age of eight because they do not have the ability to recognize the covenants they are making nor adhere to their portion of it. This also applies to the temple. The reason that random people are not allowed into the temple is not necessarily an issue of worthiness in the context of being "good enough" for it, but one of preparedness. You do not want to make someone responsible for something that they do not fully understand.
Just some food for thought and perhaps some understanding increased.