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.
Changes to the temple endowment
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This page is based on an answer to a question submitted to the FAIR web site, or a frequently asked question.
Important note: Members of FAIR take their temple covenants seriously. We consider the temple teachings to be sacred, and will not discuss their specifics in a public forum.
Question
Latter-day Saints believe that the Temple endowment is an eternal ordinance that Joseph Smith received by revelation from God. Why, then, have changes been made to it several times since it was first revealed?
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]
Response
God’s directives and how He deals with His people often vary according to His people’s understanding and needs. God doesn’t tell everyone to build an ark and wait for a flood. Changes most often occur as a result of God dealing with his children according to their changing circumstances.
We know, for example, that major changes in practices took place during Christ’s ministry. Christ fulfilled the Law of Moses and practices associated with that law were no longer necessary. Changes also took place after Christ's earthly ministry. For example, Christ originally taught the gospel only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Matt. 15:24) and forbade his apostles from going to the Gentiles (Matthew 10:5–6). After Christ’s death Peter was commanded by an angel to take the gospel to all people (Acts 10, Acts 11; Matt 28:19). Following Christ’s mortal ministry the practice of circumcision also became unnecessary (Acts 15, Galatians 6:15). Changes in the Church are not only common, but often necessary. Such changes, however, must be done by inspiration or revelation from the head of the Church, which is Christ.
There are absolute truths and relative truths. Absolute truths (such as: God lives and Jesus is the Christ) do not change. Relative truths or practices (such as: circumcision, plural marriage, and age of priesthood ordination) do change. Many relative truths deal with procedural issues, and how absolute truths are presented, rather than the absolute truths themselves. As additional truth is revealed, our understanding of previous revelation is modified to accommodate additional light. “But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, [and] there a little....” ( D&C 98:12.) “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.” (D&C 50:24.)
That the temple ceremony has undergone changes, improvements, and refinements, should come as no surprise. Joseph Fielding Smith said that the “work of salvation for the dead came to the Prophet like every other doctrine—piecemeal. It was not revealed all at once.”[1]
What has changed in the temple ceremony? It’s probably more important to understand what has not changed. What is the "endowment"? Brigham Young said:
- "Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell." [2]
Joseph Smith said that the endowment is designed to give “a comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God” [3] by way of instruction and covenants. As noted by Brigham Young, important elements of the endowment include the key words, signs, and tokens. The vehicle by which these important elements are expressed, as well as other components of the endowment—such as penalties, and the dramatic presentation of the endowment–are less essential (relative truths). While the significance and purpose of the endowment remains unchanged, how God chooses to reveal the message and meaning of the endowment can change according to His direction. Thanks to continuing revelation, the endowment can be modified as our understanding changes. As Greg Kearney explains,
- When Joseph was first trying to communicate the truths of the endowment he used a ritual form familiar to the saints of his day. That ritual form was, in some respects, Masonic in nature. As the saints lost their connection to Masonry the symbolic meaning of the penalties and other Masonic elements was lost as well. They became meaningless to all but a few Latter-day Saint Freemasons. So the penalties were removed along with other elements both Masonic and non-Masonic which no longer served the purpose of communicating the truths of the endowment.[4]
Although Joseph Smith received the principles of the endowment by revelation, he recognized that the presentation of the endowment could, and would, change. In May 1842, after the first endowment was given, the prophet Joseph told Brigham that the endowment was “not arranged perfectly” and he wanted Brigham to “organize and systematize” the ceremonies. In the process of so doing, Brigham claims to have gained more insight into the endowment.
Prophets following Joseph Smith
In succeeding years, Brigham Young suggested that the presentation of the endowment could further evolve. On April 6, 1845, in a Nauvoo Conference, Brigham Young said that Joseph “did not receive every thing connected with the doctrine of redemption” in his lifetime, but instead “left the key” with the Brethren. “We have got to learn how to be faithful in a few things; you know the promise is, if we are faithful in a few things, we shall be made ruler over many things. If we improve upon small things, greater will be given unto us.” [5]
The dramatic presentation of the endowment has undergone changes. Up until the dedication of the St. George Temple in 1877 the endowment teachings had passed on in oral form only. Brigham (as the sole survivor of the original group who received the endowment from Joseph Smith in 1842), was concerned that this ordinance be preserved as perfectly as possible. He enlisted the help of his son, Brigham, Jr., and Wilford Woodruff, giving them the assignment to record the ceremonies so they could be taught to the temple workers. Wilford Woodruff recalled that President Young labored “all winter to get up a perfect form of Endowments as far as possible.” [6] This indicates that the endowment may have varied slightly from the endowment of Joseph Smith.
Wilford Woodruff wrote that prior to this time they had “acted up to all the light and knowledge” they had, but they “felt that there was more to be revealed upon this subject than we had received.” After receiving revelation in the St. George Temple, “changes were made” to the endowment and Woodruff wrote that “we still have more changes to make, in order to satisfy our Heavenly Father, satisfy our dead and ourselves.”[7] One of the changes was the addition of vicarious endowments for the dead. Although the doctrine concerning baptisms for the dead was revealed and performed under the direction of Joseph Smith, it wasn’t until January 11, 1877, in the St. George temple that the first endowments given in behalf of the dead were preformed. “Not long before,” notes Cowan, “President Young had told some temple workers that he had just learned by revelation “that it takes as full and complete a set of ordinances for the dead as for the living.”[8] Sixteen years later, Wilford Woodruff met with the Quorum of the Twelve and four temple presidents to harmonize the various and “different” modes of endowment ceremonies.[9]
Harold B. Lee emphasized that the means by which the endowment and its message are presented are subject to modification:
- Now, you think for a moment—in the upper office over [Joseph Smith's] store, with no equipment like we have in our temples today, the endowment had to be given by lecture. The Prophet Joseph Smith, through these his counselors and others as you heard their names, attended to the matters that we now have given in various ways. Sometimes our people who go through the temples are a bit startled because of the varied ways in which the endowment is presented. Perhaps, as under inspiration they studied the nature of the endowment, they thought to make it a little more meaningful to the patrons who would come: part by dramatization, part by question and answer, part by lecture, part by picturization on the walls of some of the temples. We have artists who have tried to put those who go through the temple in the mood of the lesson to be taught as they proceed through the temple.
- ....But it is the same message that was given by lecture by the Prophet Joseph Smith in his office over the John Taylor store. Now, when we have that in mind, we will see why the Prophet, in the beginning of this dispensation, gave certain instructions to have the brethren stimulated in their thinking.[10]
As the prophets have recognized, a living Church with continuing revelation, will expect the Lord to add further light, correction, and modification, as the needs of His people, and their understanding changes.
Conclusion
Inasmunch as the Endowment was given of God through revelation and inspiration, God is perfectly capable of revealing and inspiring modifications to the Endowment according to the needs and understanding of the Lord's people, in order to more fully benefit them. That the presentation of the Endowment has evolved is more a testament to the active involvement of Deity in the spiritual life of His children than a once-given, forever-unchangeable rite whose deep meaning becomes lost as cultural changes render symbols once familiar into empty ciphers full of mystery and suspicion.
Endnotes
- [note] Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56), 168.
- [note] Brigham Young, "NECESSITY OF BUILDING TEMPLES—THE ENDOWMENT," (April 6, 1853) Journal of Discourses 2:31.
- [note] Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected by Joseph Fielding Smith, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976), 324. off-site
- [note] Greg Kearney, “Mormons and Masonry: Ask the Apologist,” at fairlds.org FAIR link
- [note] Millennial Star 6 (6 April 1845), 119–121.
- [note] David John Buerger, "The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20 no. 4 (Winter 1987), 50.
- [note] Wilford Woodruff, Discourses of Wilford Woodruff (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1964), 154.
- [note] Richard O. Cowan, “Brigham Young: Builder of Temples,” in Lion of the Lord: Essays on the Life and Service of Brigham Young, eds., Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1995), 240; see also Richard O. Cowan, “The Doctrine and Covenants on Temples and Their Functions,” Doctrines for Exaltation: The 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989), 27.
- [note] Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 9 vols., ed., Scott G. Kenny (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1985), 9:267. ISBN 0941214133.
- [note] Harold B. Lee, Teachings of Harold B. Lee (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1996), 578.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
Changes to the temple endowment
Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are sacred places where Church members participate in sacred ceremonies (ordinances) that help them come closer to God and prepare to live forever in an eternal family.
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Baptism for the dead |
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Videos below from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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External links
Printed material
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- Matthew B. Brown,The Gate of Heaven: Insight on the Doctrines and Symbols of the Temple (American Fork, UT: Covenant, 1999), 1.
- Matthew B. Brown, Symbols in Stone: Symbolism on the Early Temples of the Restoration, 2d ed., (American Fork, UT: Covenant, 1997).
- William J. Hamblin and David Seely, Solomon's Temple: Myth and History (London: Thames and Hudson, 2007), Chapter 3.
- Hugh W. Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, 2nd edition, (Vol. 16 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by John Gee and Michael D. Rhodes, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2005), 1. ISBN 159038539X. 1st edition GL direct link
- Temple and Cosmos: Beyond This Ignorant Present (Vol. 12 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by Don E. Norton, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992), 1.
- Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1980), 1. ISBN 0884944115.