Question
Dear Gramps,
When my female partner and I met we had both previously belonged to the Mormon Church but were no longer attending. We have been together for 15 years and plan on being life partners but do not plan on marrying. Is it possible to go back to the Mormon church and be accepted. My partner was previously sealed in the temple and she wants to be able to be able to go to the temple again someday. Is this a possibility? Thank you for taking the time to answer this.
Norris
Answer
Dear Norris,
When you say “go back” I wonder if you mean that you are no longer members and would need to be rebaptized. I want to say a word about baptism in the Mormon Church, but whether you need to be rebaptized or not, what I have to say will apply in either case.
Baptism is a covenant of commitment to obey all of the laws of God. It can only be entered into if one is already obeying all the laws of God. Therefore, a prerequisite to baptism is a thorough and complete repentance from any violation of God’s word. This is why it is called a baptism of repentence. To be baptized while violating any of the laws of God, which would represent your promise of obedience, would be a falsification and would merit God’s punishment, rather than his acceptance.
Now, one of the most fundamental and sacred laws of God is adherence to the strict law of chastity, which simply means that one will have no sexual relations except with the one person to whom they have been legally and lawfully married. Until you have thoroughly and completely repented from this gross violation of God’s commandments baptism will not be an option for you to follow.
Your live-in partner has already been sealed in the temple to someone else. She has violated the most sacred covenants that God has to make with his children in mortality, associated with which are the greatest blessings that God can give to those who love him and who keep his commandments. Therefore, that marriage covenant is no longer valid and is out of force. If a couple are sealed together in the holy temple, and live in strict accordance with the sacred covenants of the eternal marriage contract, they will inherit blessings that are so sacred and holy that they could not even be mentioned in any detail in a public communication such as this.
However, there is yet hope. If you have any idea what those sacred blessings are you would realize that they are of greater worth and value to a person than all the possessions, all the power and influence that could possibly be acquired in all the earth! It would be worth any price that could possibly be imagined to receive those promised blessings. And you could yet qualify for them all. Here is what you must do. As of this moment cease living together!! Start now to obey the sacred law of chastity. That would be the beginning of your repentance.
Secondly, go to the bishop of the Ward of the Mormon Church in which you live, each of you, separately, and confess to him all of your sins. Then state your desire to come back into the kingdom of God, and seek and OBEY the bishop’s advise as to what course you should take. You may expect to meet with the bishop periodically to report you progress on those things that he would have you do to qualify yourselves for baptism. I imagine that the preparation period would take at least a year. If you do this you will have help, aid and assistance that you cannot now imagine. The Holy Spirit will be your guide, and will give you the moral strength necessary to be compliant with all your commitments of obedience. By doing so you will qualify yourselves to be worthy to take upon yourselves the baptismal covenant, and again be members of God’s church and kingdom on the earth.
After a year of faithful membership you would qualify yourselves to receive recommends to enter the holy temple and there make commitments and covenants with each other and with the Lord, the fulfillment of which would result in your married union, not only for this mortal life, but for all eternity! You would be together forever, living in the very presence of God Himself. No greater blessing could be imagined, and no greater happiness and fulfillment could ever be achieved.
Now let’s say that you choose not to follow the will of the Lord and accept of his gracious pardon for all the iniquity that is now a part of your lives, and choose to continue to follow the present course of your lives. You may have some carnal pleasure while you are together, but you will not have a happy life! It will be filled with disappoints, problems, trials and confusion. And then, when one of you dies, that will be the absolute and final end of your live-in relationship. You will continue to exist, separately and singly, throughout all eternity with a regret for missed opportunity that can never be quenched. The choice is yours.
Gramps
