Temple Recommend Time

[Anonymous]

littlelostsheep wrote:

Does that mean I can honestly answer yes to that question?

I think you’re relatively close to shouting “YES” from the rooftops.

[Anonymous]

I also try to be primarily in line with truth, not tradition. Mormonism aspires to accept all truth, come from where it may. The God that I worship is a God of Truth and Love and Goodness, in my TR interviews I like to reflect more on my standing with God than my standing with men. I think the church encourages the same. Am I willing to accept all truth – the way that will align me more with God? If so I can be confident in my affirmative answers. There are available connections to God through Mormonism, to me that is the heart of what we’re getting at. Details will always look different from various perspectives.

[Anonymous]

Orson wrote:

[Edit:] I love your comments Wayfarer! :thumbup: .

And I love yours. The Santa analogy is very helpful!

[Anonymous]

The Gospel is VERY different than the Church – and the question asks only about the Gospel.

wayfarer already said this, but, in my own words, as long as you can find a way to interpret the question in an authentic way that makes sense to you, you can answer the question affirmatively.

That’s not my call, and I’m not saying everyone can do it – for various reasons. I am saying, however, that it absolutely is possible to do – even for someone who doesn’t accept all the standard Sunday School answers and is a heretic in some people’s eyes.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, Gospel is different from the church. I believe totally in the Gospel as defined in 3 Nephi 27. It ends with this summary:

Quote:

Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do;

Since I believe in this definition, and this definition was part of the restoration from Joseph Smith, I feel I can answer this question yes.

[Anonymous]

I am new here and trying to find answers. I too have let my recommend expire. I am trying to stay in the church while my husband has left. I hope to find a way of balance and I still have one child to get through the Temple marriage, if he so chooses, so I am trying to figure it all out.

[Anonymous]

Late to the party… as usual. Since joining the site I’ve started reading the backlog and just came across this.

I’ll echo others in pointing out the distinction between restoring the gospel and restoring the church. You could even take it a step further and compartmentalize the scope of the “restoration.” In other words maybe you could take that to mean a personal restoration of the gospel to just you rather than a global restoration of something that was totally lost to the world. After all, what good is a global restoration doing for you if it isn’t a part of your personal life?

The way I see it…

littlelostsheep wrote:

I can’t see how to answer ‘do I have a testimony of the restored gospel?’

If you even desire to hold a temple recommend that must mean you have enough faith in the restoration of the gospel to answer the question in the affirmative… and that would go for any of the faith based questions. If you didn’t have any faith at all then what is the true motivation behind wanting the temple recommend?

Chiming in because my temple recommend expired some months ago and I too have put some thought into how I might answer the questions. To me limiting all my communications to yea, yea and nay, nay during the interview would in some ways require me to be ready to make my spiritual journey alone whereas a more narrative answer would be my means of reaching out to leadership for guidance… so maybe my next temple recommend interview will be one of the first times I’ll truly reflect on the process.

[Anonymous]

nibbler wrote:

Late to the party… as usual. Since joining the site I’ve started reading the backlog and just came across this.

I’ll echo others in pointing out the distinction between restoring the gospel and restoring the church. You could even take it a step further and compartmentalize the scope of the “restoration.” In other words maybe you could take that to mean a personal restoration of the gospel to just you rather than a global restoration of something that was totally lost to the world. After all, what good is a global restoration doing for you if it isn’t a part of your personal life?

The way I see it…

littlelostsheep wrote:

I can’t see how to answer ‘do I have a testimony of the restored gospel?’

If you even desire to hold a temple recommend that must mean you have enough faith in the restoration of the gospel to answer the question in the affirmative… and that would go for any of the faith based questions. If you didn’t have any faith at all then what is the true motivation behind wanting the temple recommend?

Chiming in because my temple recommend expired some months ago and I too have put some thought into how I might answer the questions. To me limiting all my communications to yea, yea and nay, nay during the interview would in some ways require me to be ready to make my spiritual journey alone whereas a more narrative answer would be my means of reaching out to leadership for guidance… so maybe my next temple recommend interview will be one of the first times I’ll truly reflect on the process.

Thanks nibbler. I’m also due an interview soon. I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. I feel that to be “inside and influencing” I also need a temple recommend. I personally enjoy going to the temple endowment, so I have reason to want a recommend for that. I appreciate the big picture parable that is found in the endowment while also recognising why some people dislike it.

I want to answer with honesty and integrity but also don’t want a full-blown discussion about my personal beliefs. A series of yes and no answers is probably easier, as long as I first identify to myself what I mean by that.

[Anonymous]

You have to be really careful, Nibbler, because what you see as reaching out for guidance could easily be interpreted by the leadership as an admission of unworthiness and bring judgement upon you. That, of course, all depends on who you’re talking to but it’s hard to know who to trust. Sometimes you think you can trust someone and that they’ll keep your confidences when that turns out to not be true. Sticking with yes/no and reflecting upon it in your own mind seems to be prudent.

I started a thread recently about the restoration and if it was needed. After all, it is pretty clear historically that love God, love thy neighbor, and the teachings of Jesus were never really lost from the earth during the great apostasy, and arguably neither was the authority (Catholicism traces its priesthood roots to Peter). I don’t dispute that some teachings were distorted (infant baptism, for instance) but the core teachings of the gospel were there all along. Nevertheless, I can answer that question in the affirmative because I do believe at least priesthood authority has been restored. There are two other questions I can’t answer correctly at this point, however.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the warning. I’ll certainly take it to heart after reading some first hand accounts from some of the members of this forum.

[Anonymous]

Regarding Peter and the Vatican, I’m not convinced of the link. Some of the early popes are nebulous, and some of the medieval ones shady. The

Reformation had to happen IMHO, due to the corruption and apostasy in the RC church. Ironically, the Reformation forced the Roman Catholic church to

deal with some of these issues. I see no evidence that Jesus wanted Rome to be the seat of his church, and the direct link between Peter and the Catholic church, after it emerged from hiding, is not convincing. The RC church was, and to an extent still is, riddled with cryptopagan doctrines and traditions, not all of which compliment Christianity.

Although some Popes seem to have been decent people, one has to balance them against the fornicators, murderers, political machinators etc that filled the seat before. And if you are uncomfortable with the MMM, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of the RCs killing and torturing and going to war that dwarf that tragedy. The LDS has much less blood on its hands than the RCs.

[Anonymous]

I am glad you felt at peace after you did it. That’s the way its supposed to work.

[Author]

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