As members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are taught about temple
marriage from the time we are very small.
We sing learn to love the temple and know of its importance in our
lives. We sing “I love to see the temple
, I’m going there some day…” but few of
us know about the pattern for marriage and family life as taught in the temple.
According to Elder Bruce C. Hafen, formerly of the Seventy (1996-2010), “the life
of Jesus Christ is the story of giving the
Atonement” and “the story of Adam and Eve is the story of receiving the Atonement, amid the sometimes-formidable oppositions
of mortality.” The temple teaches about
marriage as it teaches the story of Adam and Eve and how they were the first
people to receive the Atonement of Jesus Christ. They were the first parents on the earth as
well as the first people to know of the joys and heartaches of parenthood.
The ancient American prophet
Lehi explained the doctrinal context for understanding the experience of Adam
and Eve – and ours as well. He explained
that Adam and Eve would have remained in the Garden of Eden forever if they had
not transgressed the law of God. “ And they would have had no children;
wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for
they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.
“But
behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
“Adam
fell that men might be [mortal]; and men are, that they might have joy” (Book of Mormon –
Another Testament of Jesus Christ, 2 Nephi 2:23-25).
After sharing the above
scripture, Elder Hafen taught, “So, paradoxically, sin, misery, and children
help create the context for learning what joy means – a process made possible
by the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
“Because of the Atonement, we can
learn from our experiences without being condemned by them. And receiving the Atonement, as Adam and Eve
did, is not just a doctrine about erasing black marks; it is the core doctrine
that allows human development. Thus,
Christ’s sacrifice didn’t just return them to an Eden of innocence. That would be a story with no plot and no
character growth. Rather, they left the
garden holding on to each other and moving forward, together, into the world in
which we now live.
“The temple primal story is
quite consciously the story of a married couple who help one another face
continuous mortal opposition. For only in confronting that sometimes-miserable
opposition could they learn to comprehend true joy.”
Elder Hafen explained “two
implications from the Adam and Eve story about our understanding of
marriage”: (1) The Restoration teaches a
positive view of the Fall: We know that Adam
and Eve chose wisely in the garden because only mortality could provide the
experience needed to fulfill God’s plan for them – and for us.” Explaining
further, Elder Hafen taught that the relationship between Adam and Eve was neither
dependent nor independent of one another but interdependent. “They are
`equal partners’ who `help one another’ in everything they do.”
(2) “When Adam and Eve left the garden, the
Lord directed them to build an altar and offer animal sacrifices. After many days an angel asked Adam why he
offered sacrifices. He answered, `I know
not, save the Lord commanded me.’ Then the angel told him, `this thing is a
similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten’ (Moses 5:6-7).”
“Thus, the animals Adam and Eve
sacrificed were symbols that pointed them toward the Father’s future redemptive
sacrifice of His Son. The angel then
taught them that Christ’s sacrifice and the plan of redemption would give
meaning and purpose to all of their opposition – indeed, to all of their mortal
experience.”
Elder Hafen compared the altar
of Adam and Eve with the altars in the temple and concluded that the temple
altars are also “altars of prayer, sacrifice, and covenants.” Sharing an experience he had as president of
the St. George Utah Temple, Elder Hafen “was about to seal a young couple. As I invited them to the altar and the groom
took his bride by the hand, I realized that they were about to place upon that
altar of sacrifice their own broken hearts and contrite spirits – a selfless
offering of themselves to each other and to god in emulation of Christ’s
sacrifice for them. And for what
purpose? So that through a lifetime of
sacrificing for each other – that is, trying to live as He did – they might
become ever more as He is.
“By living that way every day,
they would each come closer to God, which would also bring them closer to each
other. Thus, living the covenants of the
sealing ordinance would sanctify not only their marriage but also their hearts
and their very lives….
“But when we offer in our
marriage a broken heart and a contrite spirit in similitude of the Good
Shepherd, we promise to give our lives for the sheep of our covenant, a day or
even an hour at a time. This process
invites us to take selflessly upon ourselves both the afflictions and the joys
of our companion and children, emulating in our own limited way how the Savior
takes upon Himself our afflictions….
“As we deny ourselves of
ungodliness and honestly love God as fully as we are able, Christ’s perfecting
grace can complete the process of making us whole….
“I bear witness that the order
of marriage God gave to Adam and Eve is worth whatever it takes – to find it,
to build it, and to keep it in our lives.
I also testify that husbands and wives who try to live like the Good
Shepherd will discover, and will give to each other, a more abundant life of
authentic joy.”
No comments:
Post a Comment