Hear the Words of my Mouth

These are some of the things that I saw with some lousy critics who showed clips inside the temple and added captions stating that the temple rituals were cultic or not a Christian doctrine. Just to prove my point, and it seems like I got annoyed sometimes with these folks who mislead the people, especially members who were still working out their faith towards salvation. I know this is not a good idea while responding to it and talking about the sacredness of the temple, but I do have the right to defend my belief as far as what I have seen is right.

I embed a video for you to see how they misrepresent their commentary, though it is not appropriate, and that I might be questioned why I posted it. But just to be clear, I am not posting it in such a way that I dishonor the temple ceremony; rather, I am just responding to some criticisms that misinterpret the ceremony. I know it seems weird or inappropriate, but I must be honest about it in my opinion, and will, of course, it's my opinion as always, as my disclaimer.

So what was this all about?

You see, if you don't have any temple experience, you could directly see it as something a Christian shouldn't do. Or something that cults would have done in some cultic rituals. But if you were there in the actual temple ground and ceremony, you would feel a different environment. Temple rituals are the most holy ritual or ceremony that the Latter-day Saints would ever do in their lives, an experience they could feel and even wanted more scheduled appointments just to have that same solemn experience in their lives. But of course, to critics and to those who simply want to mislead the people about their own ideology, it is a cult and satanic. Will, that is not even proven, and you will see it in this blog post. Here I'll elaborate on something in the video: how this criticism doesn't even make sense, while other organizations already have similar designs. Let's go ahead -

1. About Prayer (Hear the Words of my Mouth)

And here the prayer itself is quoted in a Biblical passage. Any ideas where? It was in Psalm 54:2, although the words were not directly verbatim, but yes, the meaning remains intact, which says this -

"Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth."

The psalmist might feel so depressed or perhaps lose some hope in life that he needed an answer to his prayer. As the context goes, this psalm was given as a prayer of deliverance and justice from enemies, expressing a trust in God that He would be able to do as was asked. This simply reflects the life as we have it now, with enemies both seen and unseen that are fighting against the Saints. So what are we gonna do for protection, guidance, and divine help? Was prayer not a good idea? Then ask that question. Is it a wrong prayer?

2. Repetition of Prayer

While reading the scriptures, of course, you might come up with the idea that this is such a pagan practice. Even Christ taught us to avoid vain repetition of prayer. So why was that? Yes, we all know that and have applied the same teaching in our lives, like family prayer, while in Sunday school, at the pulpit, and almost every time as permitted. But the temple prayer or ritual is not about the prayer that we used to have every day in our lives. Temple prayers and ceremonies were all about symbolism and how this symbol reflects our lives, as it was something we could relate to about Christ, his mission, atonement, and, of course, our works and covenants. In the Scriptures, Christ had done something similar to this temple prayer, and pay close attention to these verses, Matthew 26:36-44 (Read the whole reference to see how it all went).

36 "Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder."

...

44 "And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words."

Sounds familiar to you? Did Christ break his word? And who has that same symbolic prayer? Will, it's up to you to understand it. It's my opinion anyway.

3. Hands Raise

This is not actually an issue, and I don't know how this antagonist tries to prove something about it as cultic. Here are some of the pictures from different denominations that do the same and are not even solemn or reverent.

These were just some, and I don't have any copyright on these images, so I decided to have a few, but you can check it out for yourself how these same gestures were even used in a different approach than Christianity in general understood it.

Anyway, what about a biblical approach? Does the scripture say anything about it? Yes, it does; the scripture doesn't tell us what to do if it were used for praising or honoring our God. Now let's see how it was said -

Psalm 134:2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.

And where do we lift up our hands? As it is said in the Sanctuary, and during that time, the only sanctuary we knew, as the scripture tells us, that it was the Holy Temple. Is it strange or weird? Now ask that same question. Again, does it sound familiar? Who has it?

This is just a simple response that might help critics or Latter-day Saints understand that temple rituals or ceremonies were not about cultic worship but rather a symbol, either a symbol that was shown biblically or a symbol of faith in our lives on how we keep the sacred covenants to God and reverently worship him.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Jerry N. Bustillo