Taking out your Endowments

There are some things I think most church members can explain very well.  For example, the Word of Wisdom, where we go when we die, or how to know what is God's truth.  There are other topics that perhaps are not explained well, and sometimes we don't even realize it.  The following story made me think about how well I explain the purpose of the temple.

When Teasha and I decided to get married we chose the St. George temple.  A few weeks before our marriage date Teasha went through the temple to get her endowments taken out.  This was a lot change;  Teasha was the oldest of the children, and this was the first time their six person family was being altered.  Her youngest brother Kurt seemed a little uncertain about all the change, and I assumed he was just adjusting to the idea that we would be married.  The day we left for St. George to take out Teasha's endowments he gave his older sister a very heartfelt goodbye.  Later that day when she returned he rushed to check that she was ok.  His intensity was a little higher than expected.  She said,

"Yeah, Kurt, I'm fine, really, it was a beautiful experience, why?"
"Well, you know, I heard they were going to take out your endowments.  Did it hurt?"

Everyone thought it was funny.  Then I started to think about how I explain the temple, and perhaps it's not Kurt's fault that he didn't understand what it meant.  The temple is very sacred, and so I do not talk about it the same way I talk about church.  There are some things that God has asked us to go to the temple and learn, so it would be inappropriate to discuss it here.  But sometimes that means I hesitate to say anything, and that makes it easy to misunderstand what goes on in the temple.

An "endowment" is a gift, something the Lord wants to bestow upon us as soon as we are worthy.  To take out our endowments means to receive the promise of blessings from the Lord.  The other side would be a "sacrifice" where we try to give something to the Lord.  In the temple we do both.  To "take out your endowments" means to covenant with Heavenly Father in such a way that we promise to sacrifice everything for Him, and He promises to bless us with Eternal Life.    It shows the optimism of the Saints that we choose to refer to the temple by the blessings that we will receive after proving ourselves faithful.

One rule about the temple is that you have to be physically there to get the promised blessings.  That means those who have died cannot get the temple blessings because they are spirits and do not have a body.  This actually a great mercy.  Those who do still have bodies can go through the temple in the name of someone who has died (it is called going "by proxy" or going "for the dead").  Our ancestors in the spirit world feel connected to us as they wait for our service.  We feel connected to our forefathers by taking out endowments in their name.  In the temple another physical ordinance, baptism, can also be done in the name of those who have died.  This is why Malachi said, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers," (Malachi 4:6).  By making the temple a physical ordinance the whole human race connects like a family.  This is why genealogy (or tracing family history) is so important.

If  you are curious as to what sacrifices and blessings are promised in the temple read Genesis.  Adam and Eve learned very quickly about making sacrifices, and they also learned the great blessings that come from it.  The covenant God made with Abraham has more detail.  Abraham promised to sacrifice everything, even his own son if required (as a symbol of Christ no less).  God promised Abraham several blessings, including "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:3).   It should be no surprise that the blessings of the temple are designed to bless all people as families.

In fact if anything could trump taking out your endowments it would be getting sealed.  We don't call it "getting married" because the world's method is "until death do us part".  In the temple we are sealed together for life, death, and eternity beyond that.  It is a huge deal that has echoes forever, and it is a blessing that can only be endowed in the temple of God.  We explained the purpose of the temple to Kurt, and a few week later Teasha and I went to be sealed in the temple.

Kurt was old enough to do baptisms for the dead, but not to be there where we were sealed.  We explained to him that it was not because the Lord wants to exclude people from the temple; it's because we need to show that we can handle the sacrifices before we make more covenants with the Lord.  That requires time and experience in the Lord's church.  In Exodus it was only the family of Aaron that could go to the temple.  Now it is open to anyone who proves themselves worthy.  My new wife and I made a point to encourage Kurt to plan on taking out his endowments in the temple of God because we want to bless his family, bless our family, and bless every family on Earth.