This is the first in a series of articles designed to help Missouri Baptists engage LDS neighbors in respectful gospel conversations.
Last month, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints broke ground on a new temple in Ozark. It’s the third LDS temple in Missouri, after St. Louis (dedicated in 1997) and Kansas City (2012), and it’s one of 380 temples announced, under construction, or in operation worldwide.
The 29,000-square-foot temple – with rectangular windows, an arched entryway, and a central tower – will sit on 38 acres of land directly across the street from River Bluff Fellowship, a thriving Missouri Baptist church. Already, roadwork and earth-moving have prompted many of the 20,000 LDS church members in southwest Missouri to visit the site and take photographs.
No, doubt, temples are a big deal to Latter-day Saints. But why should Missouri Baptists care? Three reasons.
First, Missouri is key to LDS history and eschatology.
In 1831, one year after the launch of the LDS Church, founder Joseph Smith claimed divine revelation designating Missouri as “the land which [God has] appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints” – the land of promise and the place for the city of Zion (Doctrine and Covenants 57:1-2). Smith identified Independence as the centerpiece of this vision and laid the cornerstone of a new temple near downtown.
As Mormons flocked to Jackson County, buying land and organizing congregations, tensions rose with established residents, reaching such a fever pitch that Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an “Extermination Order” in 1938-39, forcing the entire LDS population out of the state – an expulsion that deepened the longing to “redeem Zion” one day.
LDS doctrine holds that Independence is the designated site of the future New Jerusalem, the millennial city from which Christ will reign at his second coming. The LDS Articles of Faith affirm that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built on the American continent, with Independence understood as its location (Doctrine and Covenants 57:2-3).
In short, Missouri is to LDS theology roughly what Jerusalem is to Jewish and Christian theology – a place of sacred origin, painful exile, and anticipated future restoration.
Second, Mormonism matters to Missouri Baptists because LDS temples matter to Mormons. Where LDS temples exist, the Mormon faithful come to visit and engage in LDS works that bear eternal significance.
Temples are distinct from regular meetinghouses where weekly worship occurs. They are considered sacred spaces where worthy members participate in rites the LDS Church regards as essential to salvation for both the living and the dead.
For the living, temple works include: (1) endowment – an extended ceremonial instruction in which members make covenants with God and receive knowledge about the purpose of life, the Atonement, and the path to exaltation (godhood); (2) celestial marriage / sealing – the binding of a marriage for eternity; and (3) sealing of children to parents – the binding of families for eternity.
For the dead, temple works include: (1) baptism for the dead – in which a living member is baptized on behalf of a deceased ancestor, giving that person an opportunity to accept or reject it in the afterlife; (2) confirmation for the dead – conferral of the gift of the Holy Ghost by proxy; (3) endowment for the dead – the full endowment ceremony performed vicariously; and (4) sealing of deceased spouses and families by proxy.
These temple ordinances have one overarching goal: exaltation – the highest degree of salvation in which a person becomes like God (Elohim, the god of this world) and lives eternally in his presence as part of an eternal family unit.
Once a temple is dedicated, access is restricted to members in good standing. A temple’s presence in a region signals a mature, established LDS community and reduces the burden of long-distance travel for these rituals. The nearest temple to Springfield currently is in Kansas City, 155 miles away.
Third and most significantly, Mormonism matters to Missouri Baptists because the religious system Joseph Smith founded is a subtle and attractive form of counterfeit Christianity, proclaiming “another Jesus … a different Spirit … a different gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4). We explore these distinctions in future columns.
For now, it’s important to know that the LDS Church claims to be the one true church to the exclusion of all other expressions of Christianity, which, according to Smith, fell into complete apostasy after the death of the apostles. At the same time, LDS missionaries and promotional materials project Mormonism as an equally valid alternative to Mainline and Evangelical Christianity.
Our LDS friends can’t have it both ways. Either Mormonism is true, restored Christianity – and all other expressions of Christianity are false – or Mormonism isn’t really needed because Christ has ensured the gates of hades won’t overpower his church (see Matt. 16:18). It’s a fair question to ask our LDS neighbors, as well as the missionaries who knock on our doors.
Missouri Baptists should love our Mormon neighbors, know at least a little about what they believe, and find the increased activity of Mormons across our state as an opportunity to engage them in gospel conversations.
Next: The Jesus of Latter-day Saints
