After temple ordinances…am I done?

(Cough) Second anointing.

But seriously, I suppose the answer is to raise a new generation to do the same. Or progress through the leadership ranks.

Apparently not, because if they put a foot wrong, then it’s blamed on you.

I can’t speak for the doctrines but personally, I’m done when I accept that I’m done. One of those contradiction things, I only obtain salvation after deciding to stop chasing it.

Baptism

AP and MP (for whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods)

Endowment

Sealed

Second anointing

Third anointing

etc.

With each step I felt a little more elite, a little more secure before god, a little less fearful of eternity. When I needed them, the steps were a vital part of growth. I would have struggled without them.

A part of what drives our spirit is achieving the next thing. We work hard to arrive at the waters of baptism but once we’ve passed through them we set our sights on the next thing we need. Once we obtain whatever that is, we set our sights on the next thing we’ll need. Always looking forward, never arriving.

It’s not a bad thing. I’m currently sitting in an air conditioned room typing on a computer instead of banging rocks together to start a fire. All because generations of people that yearned for something more.

It’s not a good thing. How can I ever be satisfied when I reach whatever goal I’ve set for myself only to find that it doesn’t provide lasting happiness and that I always turn my gaze to the next thing I mistakenly believe will make me happy?

Returning to the ordinance example. It can be a good thing that there’s a finite number of ordinances. People can arrive at being sealed/endowed and rest, knowing they’re done all they can do. A finite number of ordinances can also leave people wanting, banging spiritual rocks together to make a spiritual fire instead of sitting in a spiritual air conditioned room typing on a spiritual computer.

Then again, I’d ask how productive additional ordinances would be. Would it help people grow spiritually or would it just create additional groups of haves and have-nots? Is it filling a need or feeding an ego?

The church does create a big rush that places many people in a position where they’ve received all of their ordinances in their early 20s. It can leave people with that, “Now what?” feeling for 50-60 years.

Maybe they could offer the rank and file a “second anointing.” Similar to when old people renew their wedding vows, from time to time people can opt to receive their own endowment again rather than going to the temple to do it vicariously for someone else. A more explicit way to renew covenants (or make the new ones after the temple changes :angel: ) than taking the sacrament. That might make it special for people, I dunno.

Conventional wisdom in the church would say that enduring to the end means keeping your covenants, not just making them once. So, you have to keep attending, continue serving, continue praying, obeying the commandments, paying your tithing, and striving for the ideal character described in the temple. Think of the covenants you made when you received the priesthood and went to the temple. You need to keep those promises from now and presumably throughout eternity.

For me, the juice in your post is not in whether you can coast now that you’ve passed through all the ordinances; it’s how to stay motivated until you die, and beyond.

That is a really good question. For most members, it’s the carrot of living with God in the celestial kingdom, being there with all of your family, etcetera — that’s the motivator. Since I haven’t endured the way the church or my covenants would dictate, I don’t have any advice to add. The question is more for someone on a traditional believer’s site, I think, although I appreciate you raising the issue here.

As with most doctrines, it’s very ambiguous, and open to personal interpretation. D&C 132:26 states

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man marry a wife according to my word, and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, according to mine appointment, and he or she shall commit any sin or transgression of the new and everlasting covenant whatever, and all manner of blasphemies, and if they commit no murder wherein they shed innocent blood, yet they shall come forth in the first resurrection, and enter into their exaltation; but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God.”

So, according to this scripture, if you are married and sealed by the “Holy Spirit of Promise”, you will be exalted no matter what you do, unless you shed innocent blood. But of course, what is meant by the “Holy Spirit of Promise” is very ambiguous. Does anyone who is sealed in the tempe, sealed by the “Holy Spirit of Promise”? Does it happen at the moment of sealing, or after this life? Because I can find plenty of references supporting both.

BUT… is it worth fretting about these things? I think a better question to ask is, are you happy? Becayse, frankly, no one knows the rest.

I think that after the ordinances, a person’s path becomes more individually focused and tailored to their situation – paradoxically, it gets hand-waved into “enduring to the end”. So no, you are not “done” – your just in the land where the church can’t guide your life as much as it used to because it now (theoretically) comes down to conversations between you and the Lord that act as catalysts for action.

Except when those conversations don’t happen… at that point, you’re left hanging like Adam was “waiting for the further light and knowledge”… in those times, I try to focus on becoming a better, more ethical person with less bad habits (that I define as bad habits worth changing – not necessarily what others or the church would define as bad habits). I think the church generally calls this “keeping the commandments” and there is a very long list of priorities and recommendations the church has (not to mention callings).

I try to focus on living the 2 great commandments – even though I am not sure how to Love God anymore. I can try to love others better (and tough love is a viable thing at times).

Fantastic topic! Our family and SS study for the last week has been on being born again or born of water and of the spirit. What is meant by being born of the spirit? We know it is important because Jesus said so but how can I know if I have been reborn by the spirit or not? Nicademas was a leader in his church community and yet it appears that he had not yet been fully reborn of the spirit. Wouldn’t it be great if there was some sort of check box ceremony that one could mark of to rest assured that they have met this prerequisite? Well now there is! We give all eight year olds and every convert a ritual that symbolizes the rebirth by the spirit.

Similarly, it seems that JS was trying for a time to bring the Saints to a point where they receive visions, visitations, and “the second comforter” for themselves. I understand that he eventually took that “endowment of power” and re-envisioned it into a ceremony that literally dramatized visitations from heavenly messengers and ultimately “making your calling and election sure.” Now we can check those boxes too!

I can’t speak for the doctrines but personally, I’m done when I accept that I’m done. One of those contradiction things, I only obtain salvation after deciding to stop chasing it.

This really speaks to me. Most here know my faith crisis story that was precipitated by the stillbirth of our daughter. I was in grief and spiritual agony wondering if I had perhaps failed to secure the blessings to ensure a live birth. At one point I received a strong feeling or prompting that I was loved and accepted just as my stillborn daughter was loved and accepted. This was paradigm changing for me. Maybe, just maybe, my relationship with my Heavenly Parents was never in question. Maybe my failures and achievements are irrelevant in the face of such overwhelming love. I had been checking boxes trying earn God’s love. What if all I had to do was turn to him and receive it as a free gift all along? (Aside #1: The other side of this is that maybe I have/had less control over the “blessings” and “trials” in my life than I had previously supposed.) (Aside #2: If little children are “alive in Christ” and exalted without having to do anything, why do we who think ourselves adults keep inventing hoops that we feel we need to jump through? Are we not all as little children of limited understanding compared to god?)

To bring this full circle and back to the nibbler quote, Maybe you “are done” when you feel that you are done. If salvation and grace are mental contructs then you can be saved when you feel like you are saved and you can arrive when you feel like you have arrived and you can become enlightened when you feel like you have become enlightened. If you want step by step intructions on how to get there then good for you – there is a plan for that. If you need something else or different to feel right with God then “good speed” to go after that thing. If you feel contented and at peace then take a moment to soak that up and just be.