FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Question: Do Latter-day Saints have to "buy their way into heaven" since the Church requires that you be a full-tithe payer to enter the temple?
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Question: Do Latter-day Saints have to “buy their way into heaven” since the Church requires that you be a full-tithe payer to enter the temple?
Introduction to Question
In order to gain permission to enter sacred temples built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one must be baptized into the Church and interviewed by a bishop of the Church. During this interview, the bishop will ask several questions of the interviewee to determine whether or not that person is worthy to enter the temple. One of these questions asks if the person is a full-tithe payer or a person who gives 10% of their income to the Church.
The temples and the ordinances performed therein are believed to be necessary for individual exaltation.
Some critics have asked if this practice, of requiring that someone be a full-tithe payer prior to being deemed eligible to enter the temple, is a form of “spiritual blackmail” and making someone “pay their way into heaven”.[1]
Response to Question
This question was thoroughly addressed by David Snell of the YouTube channel Saints Unscripted in a segment of that show they call Faith and Beliefs. We encourage readers to view their more than adequate response.
Conclusion
Clearly this practice has more to do with sizing up the conditions of your heart in preparation for exaltation rather than extorting money.
Notes
- ↑ Peggy Fletcher Stack, “Does tithing requirement for entry into LDS temples amount to Mormons buying their way into heaven?” Salt Lake Tribune, March 26, 2018.