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The Temple of Grace
By Joshua Decker
If you look at the face of Mormonism and the face of Christianity, one of the biggest differences you can't help but see are the majestic LDS Temples that dot the globe. Any one who has ever read the Bible knows that temples play an important part in facilitating the covenant of God with His people. What were they for? What did people do in them? What difference do they make today? The very fact that Mormons use a "physical temple" firmly put them out side the Christian faith. To use a material building as the place of communion with God is to undo what Christ accomplished on the Cross. The very existence of Easter proves Christians have the "real temple."
Let me explain:
Easter is the celebration of Christ's Resurrection from the dead. Is it NOT? The Cross of Calvary is the dividing point between death and life, the body and the spirit. It is the very altar of the greatest sacrifice that has ever been paid.
You can not be saved with out being "born-again" or born of the spirit.(Jn.3:3-8)
One can not come to God on their own but must follow Christ in laying down their own life with Him and then receive a NEW LIFE in Resurrection by the Spirit.
God wants us to walk in the Spirit, not the flesh. By receiving Christ as our Savior, we believe His Righteousness pays the price for our sins. By THIS Faith - we are saved! God paid the full price FOR US. The cost was His only righteous Son - Jesus Christ. He values us with the Righteousness of Christ. The very reason Christ came was to die on the Cross! READ Hebrews 9:15 He said: "It is FINISHED." (Jn.19:30) What is It? The separation of man from God. He filled the gap caused by sin.
The Mormons have it so backwards they don't even know it. Mormon Temples are consecrated places which are too sacred for the profane eye to see or the profane foot to enter. They are places where secret rituals are enacted on behalf of members to enable them to attain personal godhood. Only "worthy" LDS members with a temple recommend may enter to do what they need do to become "like God."
Inside, members perform special ordinances that include: Baptism for the Dead, Washings, Anointings, Endowments and Sealings. Without their temple endowments and being "married or sealed" for time and all eternity, Mormons believe that no one can attain their greatest destiny found in the "Celestial kingdom."
They believe righteousness is conditional upon the physical acts and things they do. That's why Mormons put so much value on the "Aesthetics of Righteousness." This is not what God had in mind for his Children. Read Romans 8: 5-8
Through the very act of Salvation. The believer becomes the TEMPLE of God. Not a building! Open your Bible and read: 1 Cor. 3:9, 16-17, 1 Peter 2:5, and 2 Cor. 6:16-18.
Through His act of Grace, Christ became our High Priest, because he established a NEW covenant that has nothing to do with Mormon temples. We read in Heb 8:1-7:
"Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second". (NKJ)
Mormons do not believe this is true. LDS Prophet Spencer W. Kimball said. "The Lord cannot save men in their sins but only from their sins, and that only when they have shown true repentance." (P.166 Miracle of Forgiveness) He is a False Prophet because he contradicts the WORD of GOD. Jesus died for sinners!
John 2:18-22 "Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.."
Eph 2:19-22 "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God."
Original Article
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