How the Mormon Temple Kept Us From Seeking Yeshua/Jesus
This reflects our experience when we went to the LDS temple. We sincerely believed we were doing the right thing and following what we thought the Lord wanted from us. As we were stepping away from the LDS church and starting down the narrow way, we realized that the Mormon temple was actually keeping us from seeking Jesus/Yeshua. Let us explain. (We will be using The Scriptures version of the Bible in this article.)
1. The temple recommend made us believe we were worthy.
a. We believed we were worthy. We were focused on doing certain works and living a clean and moral life to prove that we were worthy to enter the temple. Which, to us, was being worthy to enter into the Kingdom Of God.
If we went to the temple, and answered all the recommend questions in all honesty, then we felt we were a good person. However, we learned that this prevented us from seeking Yeshua because we thought we were doing what we were supposed to do to make it into heaven.
The truth is, we are all unworthy and fallen and we need to seek Him to receive His grace. Jesus/Yeshua is the only one who decides if we are worthy or not. We can't claim that for ourselves and neither can any church bishop or stake president.
b. One of the temple recommend questions is: "Do you consider yourself worthy to enter the Lord’s house and participate in temple ordinances?"
We realized we were becoming the judge over our own worthiness and taking Yeshua’s seat. Yeshua is the only judge, we cannot take his place.
c. We were focused on being worthy of a temple made with hands, instead of seeking the Father with all of our heart. Our focus was the temple, not union with Yeshua. We believe in him and we have chosen to follow him but we never understood what it really means to be one with Him as He is with the Father.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the esteem of Elohim.” Romans 3:23
d. Our focus was on our outward appearance of our temple worthiness when our hearts are still unworthy. Just like the scribes and pharisees, we are hypocrites. We were not going to Yeshua to cleanse our hearts and receive of His agape love.
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139: 23-24
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are filled with plunder and unrighteousness. Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and dish, so that the outside of them becomes clean too. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly indeed look well, but inside are filled with dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you too outwardly indeed appear righteous to men, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Matt 23:25-28
e. We felt we were more righteous because of our temple recommend status. We were in a “works will save us” mindset and we believed we were righteous and that is prideful. Our works cannot save us, but we are required to do the will of our Father in Heaven.
“And all of us have become as one unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as soiled rags. And all of us fade like a leaf, and our crookednesses, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6
“As it has been written, “There is none righteous, no, not one! There is no one who is understanding, there is none who is seeking Elohim. They all have turned aside, they have together become worthless. There is none who does good, no, not one.” Romans 3:10-12
Being worthy of the temple does not mean we are worthy of His Kingdom.
2. Memorize signs & tokens to get to heaven
Brigham Young said, “Your endowment is to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the keywords, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation." (see Journal of Discourses 2:31).
This quote is at the beginning of the LDS temple ceremony. We realized what a great deception this is. Yeshua is the gate, He is the door, and He is the only way to the Father, so by thinking that we would need these signs and tokens to get to heaven, we were trying to get to heaven some other way so we became thieves and robbers. Therefore, these temple teachings are false.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up by another way, that one is a thief and a robber.” John 10:1
3. Together forever with family instead of Yeshua
Our focus was on being together forever with our family instead of picking up our cross and following Yeshua. We were loving our family more than we were loving Him. We don’t remember any time when going to the temple that we were ever taught to seek Yeshua first during the temple ceremonies. The only thing we remember being sold by the LDS Church was that we could be together forever with our family by going to the temple. We were often taught in the Mormon church to go to the temple and follow the prophet when we should have been following Yeshua.
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37-38
4. They taught us that we can become gods
This was one aspect of the LDS church that never made sense to us. We were told that someday we would become gods if we lived worthy lives. It was one of those things in the church that didn't make sense so we pushed it aside and didn’t really try to find the truth or seek answers on this subject. But as we were trying to understand God more, we realized this was a false gospel that was being taught. This was the same lie Satan deceived Eve with from the beginning.
“You are My witnesses,” declares יהוה (Yahweh/God), “And My servant whom I have chosen, so that you know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no Ěl formed, nor after Me there is none.” Isaiah 43:10
“Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am Ěl (God), and there is none else." Isaiah 45:22
“However, even if we, or a messenger out of heaven, bring a ‘Good News’ to you beside what we announced to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8
5. The temple was focused on becoming saviors for the dead.
Inside the LDS church, we were taught that by doing the work for the dead that we would become saviors on Mount Zion. We were taught that when you die, you either go to spirit prison or spirit paradise and that by doing the work for the dead, they (the dead) could make a choice on the other side to accept the work you did for them and move out of spirit prison. We thought we were helping people who could now move from spirit prison to spirit paradise.
Thinking we can be saviors is, in effect, trying to replace Yeshua. That is not our place and never will be. We are not saviors and never will be—there is only one Savior, and His name is Yeshua.
Another problem is that this life is our only opportunity to repent and seek union with Yeshua; once we have died, the opportunity to repent is gone.
“I say to you, no! But unless you repent you shall all perish in the same way.” Luke 13:3
6. Oaths in the temple
We were always told that everything in the temple is sacred and that we aren’t supposed to talk about it outside the temple. When we went to the temple for the first time, we had no idea what to expect because no one could talk to us about it or prepare us for it. So we went in blindly following what our parents did because we trusted them. They always said we were making special covenants with the Lord. They called them tokens and signs in the temple. This is very deceiving because we were actually making masonic oaths and the Lord has told us not to make oaths.
“Again, you heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to יהוה.’ But I say to you, do not swear [vainly] at all, neither by the heaven, because it is Elohim’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool nor by Yerushalayim, for it is the city of the great Sovereign; nor swear by your head, because you are not able to make one hair But let your word ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ And what goes beyond these is from the wicked one.” Matt. 5:33-37
“But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by the heaven or by the earth or with any other oath. But let your Yes be Yes, and your No, No, lest you fall into judgment.” James 5:12
Realizing that we had been deceived and were following a false gospel was incredibly difficult to face. Yet we are grateful that Yeshua opened our eyes to the truth, giving us the opportunity to repent and truly seek Him.
If you are ready to walk the narrow way and seek the Father and Yeshua, check out the narrow way resources here. We suggest starting with the Dark Light series which is the first narrow way resource.
