(sort of long)
At the very beginning of the endowment, the members are told:
“Your Endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, 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 the tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation.
If you proceed and receive your full endowment, you will be required to take upon yourselves sacred obligations, the violation of which will bring upon you the judgment of God; for God will not be mocked. If any of you desire to withdraw rather than accept these obligations of your own free will and choice, you may now make it known by raising your hand.”

From LDS.org, the definition of ordinances: In the Church, an ordinance is a sacred, formal act performed by the authority of the priesthood. Some ordinances are essential to our exaltation. These ordinances are called saving ordinances. They include baptism, confirmation, ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood (for men), the temple endowment, and the marriage sealing. With each of these ordinances, we enter into solemn covenants with the Lord.
From LDS.org, the definition of covenant: A covenant is a sacred agreement between God and a person or group of people. God sets specific conditions, and He promises to bless us as we obey those conditions.

So, the ordinances received in the temple are called saving ordinances. This means there is supposed to be a “solemn covenant” associated with each one. Each one of these should include a promise we make to the Lord. In return, the Lord should make a promise to us, conditional upon our obedience.

There are two different types of covenants that were required of us in the temple. The first were in conjunction with keeping signs and tokens secret and sacred. The second type were regarding laws the members were required to keep. Let’s look at the laws first.

The Law of the Lord/Elohim
Members’ part of the covenant: “If she will covenant that from this time forth she will obey the Law of the Lord, and will hearken unto your counsel as you hearken unto mine, and if you will covenant that from this time forth you will obey the Law of Elohim, we will give unto you the Law of Obedience and Sacrifice, and we will provide a Savior for you, whereby you may come back into our presence, and with us partake of Eternal Life and exaltation.”
The Lord’s part of the covenant: If Eve promises to obey the Law of the Lord (the woman obeys man as he obeys God) she will be blessed with even more strict requirements of obedience. It implies that only because they obey these commandments would God provide a savior.

The Law of Sacrifice
Members’ part of the covenant: “The posterity of Adam down to Moses, and from Moses to Jesus Christ offered up the first fruits of the field, and the firstlings of the flock, which continued until the death of Jesus Christ, which ended sacrifice by the shedding of blood. And as Jesus Christ has laid down his life for the redemption of mankind, so we should covenant to sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary, in sustaining and defending the Kingdom of God.
All arise. Each of you bring your right arm to the square. You and each of you solemnly covenant and promise before God, angels, and these witnesses at this altar that you will observe and keep the Law of Sacrifice, as contained in the Holy Scriptures, as it has been explained to you. Each of you bow your head and say yes."
The Lord’s part of the covenant: Nothing is given. Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice and freed us from the old law. Yet we are required here to continue living it.

The Law of the Gospel
Members’ part of the covenant: “We are required to give unto you the Law of the Gospel as contained in the Holy Scriptures; to give unto you also a charge to avoid all light mindedness, loud laughter, evil speaking of the Lord's anointed, the taking of the name of God in vain, and every other unholy and impure practice, and to cause you to receive these by covenant.
Each of you covenant and promise before God, angels, and these witnesses, that you will observe and keep the Law of the Gospel and this charge as it has been explained to you. Each of you bow your heads and say yes."
The Lord’s part of the covenant: Nothing is given. This is a one sided promise. A unilateral promise is not a covenant.

The Law of Chastity
Member’s part of the covenant: “Give unto them the Law of Chastity, and put them under covenant to obey this law, which is, that the daughters of Eve, and the sons of Adam shall have no sexual relations except with their husbands or wives to whom they are legally and lawfully wedded.”
The Lord’s part of the covenant: Nothing is given. This is a one sided promise. A unilateral promise is not a covenant.

The Law of Consecration
Members’ part of the covenant: “You and each of you covenant and promise before God, angels, and these witnesses at this altar, that you do accept the Law of Consecration as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, in that you do consecrate yourselves, your time, talents, and everything with which the Lord has blessed you, or with which he may bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the building up of the Kingdom of God on the earth and for the establishment of Zion.
Each of you bow your head and say "yes."
The Lord’s part of the covenant: Nothing is given. This is a one sided promise. A unilateral promise is not a covenant.

The other covenants below are those regarding signs and tokens.

The First token of the Aaronic Priesthood
Members’ part of the covenant: I, John, covenant before God, angels and these witnesses, that I will never reveal the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying name and sign.
The Lord’s part of the covenant: Nothing is given. This is a one sided promise. A unilateral promise is not a covenant.

The Second token of the Aaronic Priesthood
Members’ part of the covenant: I, David, solemnly covenant before God, angels and these witnesses, that I will never reveal the Second Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying name and sign.
The Lord’s part of the covenant: Nothing is given. This is a one sided promise. A unilateral promise is not a covenant.

The First token of the Melchizedek Priesthood
Members’ part of the covenant: I solemnly covenant before God, angels, and these witnesses, in the name of the Son that I will never reveal the First Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood or Sign of the Nail, with its accompanying name and sign.
The Lord’s part of the covenant: Nothing is given. This is a one sided promise. A unilateral promise is not a covenant.

The Second token of the Melchizedek Priesthood
Members’ part of the covenant: We will now give unto you the Second Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Patriarchal Grip, or Sure Sign of the Nail, with its accompanying sign. This token has a name and a sign. You will be under the same sacred obligation in connection with this token and sign as you are with the other tokens and signs of the Holy Priesthood which you have received in the temple this day.
The Lord’s part of the covenant: The wording in the members’ portion is very important. The members are not required to covenant here, but are reminded they are under the same obligation as the other signs and tokens. In the old version (pre 1990) it says “This token has a name and a sign, but no penalty is mentioned, however, you will be under the same sacred obligation in connection with this token...

Now it becomes clear. In the old version of the endowment (pre 1990), you are being warned, that though not mentioned specifically, your obligations here are the same as for the other tokens.
In the pre 1990 version of the endowment there was a penalty mentioned in conjunction with both tokens of the Aaronic Priesthood and the first token of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Those covenants all ended with “I will never reveal [insert token here], with its accompanying name, sign, and penalty. Rather than do so, I would suffer my life to be taken.”
Along with the words spoken, gestures were made by the members that symbolized the throat being slit or being disemboweled. This part of the endowment was very upsetting and disturbing to the members. This was in effect when my wife and I took out our endowments. In 1990 it was taken out. But with its removal we notice an interesting thing. The old version WAS a covenant. The member promised to keep the sign and token secret. The Lord promised not to kill them.

That’s it. That is the only blessing given for keeping the tokens secret. You won’t be killed. To make the ceremony more palatable, the threats of death have been removed. The sick and twisted “Obey me or suffer death” portion of covenant has been deleted. Now the members simply promise unconditional obedience and the Lord makes no promises at all back to the member.
The obligations regarding the signs and tokens of the priesthood are not covenants. The Lord makes no reciprocal agreements here.
The laws of Elohim, Sacrifice, The Gospel, Chastity, and Consecration do not involve any reciprocal agreements. These are not covenants.
Don’t feel bad about breaking your temple covenants to the Mormon God. You never made any. He just conned you into promising unconditional obedience.

Good points! They are only valid if someone wants to accept the whole thing anyhow.
Even the "death" threats were symbolic. It all is.

I'm not so sure about that, there's several instances back in the days of BY that seem to make good on those threats.

Agreed. Even FAIR acknowledges some of these...those done willingly. They deny that blood atonement was ever practiced against anyone's will. They dismiss the stories told by Hickman and in Wife No. 19, but I don't believe the tales are that far fetched when you consider what was already going on in Missouri, etc...

I still haven't had anyone explain to me which part of the endowment is the actual ordinance. Many parts have changed, but according to my TBM family, "The ordinance hasn't changed". Come to think of it, is the priesthood even required for the endowment? I'm assuming that a TBM would claim that God's part of the covenant is your eternal reward...you'll become priests and priestesses, etc...

JS spoke of the endowment long before the actual ordinance you broke down was made up. He described how one would be endowed with power, blah, blah, blah in the Kirtland temple. The first ordinance performed in the Kirtland temple was a feet washing and blessing ordinance...sounds exactly like the 2nd annointing, except they sat around in the Kirtland temple afterwards and took turns describing their visions of flaming tongues, etc... I think they were doing drugs.

squeebee Wrote:
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> I'm not so sure about that, there's several
> instances back in the days of BY that seem to make
> good on those threats.

That's possible.
But those were different times.
Many of the teachings of those times are no longer accepted.
Several of the temple rituals have been removed from those days also.

Great post, thanks.

convenants.

and

MORmON *prophets* are not prophets

MORmON *apostles* are not apostles

MORmON tithing is not *tithing*

MORmON scripture is not *scripture*

MORmON Jesus is not Christ

It like the entire MORmON religion is fraudulent.

but one thing about it, MORmONS certainly are MORmONS!

Wow. Thanks.

I just read an email from a sibling called to be Stake Relief Society President. Everything in the email is about church this, and church that and how she just LOVES the new temple film. She loves going to the temple and feeling peace and quiet and the . . . . of the Lord.

After reading the OP I just want to puke at the thought of even going to that pathetic place. What a con job the temple is if you THINK.

and passwords to get back into the presence of God. Or in other words, the reward would be eternal life in the CK. And I did believe that I would be blessed in my life and spiritually for making temple covenants.

I was actually very disappointed that I didn't feel any more spiritual after the endowment.

Jim, you hit the nail on the head. The LDS is about a relationship to itself, a self serving so called prophet (don't think so? read D&C on wives) and his equally self serving so called apostles and the ones who came after him. A relationship to God or Christ is only what tscc says it is.

Ima, angels must be pretty dim if they require masonic tokens and handshakes. Even humans recognize each other by sight and voice sometimes even scent. JS completely missed the significance of the curtain in the temple being torn in two.

Forgot to say, "So pick up your toilet brush and follow Me" and pay your tithes even if you can't put a roof over your or your family's heads so the big guys can keep their mansions.

Get out of the tscc and you'll be irked by all of tscc's claims of altruism. Per capita one of the lowest. Missions aren't for building hospitals, digging water wells, starting fish farming programs, tending orphanages or any kind of feeding the sheep. They are solely about increasing the tscc's numbers.

Meaning that people always say that the purpose of the temple is to increase tithing revenue, and sure, I get that, but I think an equal purpose of the temple is to bind the unwitting member even further into the tentacles of Mormonism.

Everyone is raised to be honest and keep their word. The temple abuses that upbringing, to say the least.

I see what you're saying, and while the whole thing is all myth and lies, I do know that the promise given back is "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 the tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation."

It seems the only real promise is: You'll go to heaven.

Something that every other religion already promises. The main difference is, you could be killed for revealing certain things. silly cult.

Thanks, exmobish, this is important info.

No real covenants, just our promises to obey, with an implied possibility of access to "heaven".

Temple "covenants, uh-huh, okaaaayyy...

Hoped it helped!

I maintain the way it is worded that saying "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 the tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation..."
To me, that sounds like an explanation of what it is supposed to be rather than a covenant.
I would concede that they present the garment as a covenant: "Wear this and God will protect you." Well, it's ludicrous, but it is a two way promise.

Dave in Hollywood makes another good point: "bind the unwitting member"
Yes, the temple ordinances bind. What is the primary definition of bind? Constrict, restrict, tie down, confine...
No
Thank
You

I probably over-analyzed the temple way too much, but I thought the name of the second token of Melchizedek at the veil as the Lord's fulfillment: health in the naval, marrow in the bones, strength in the loins and in the sinews, power in the priesthood be upon me and upon my posterity for all generations of time and all eternity.

That, and I thought that the sealing was an additional blessing since it was contingent upon the adherence to the laws in the temple endowment.

Oh, how silly it all seems now!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2015 02:39AM by ExCentric.

ExCentric Wrote:
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>
> Oh how silly it all seems now.

^ Yes and a HUGE waste of time.

...Sorta like a unilateral contract, that isn't binding.

These. Are. Not. Covenants.

(Well, we who have learned the Truth, know that all of the temple rituals are made-up mumbo-jumbo, anyway, and have nothing whatsoever to do with God.)

It's just common sense that any promise that is induced by a lie is no longer valid. I like the way the OP puts it, though.

Once you realize it's all false, you have no obligation to keep promises that were induced by lies. Would you feel obligated to keep a promise to a pathological liar (the LDS Church)?

T-Bone

I just read and article written by a non-mormon archeologist/scholar doing some work on the tablets found in the city of Ebla. (2650 BCE to 2350 BCE) in Syria and part of the translations of some of those tablets describes in detail almost verbatim the entire mormon endowment ceremony except that is does not disclose what the signs and tokens were that were required to get by the senntinals who guard the various levels of heaven. It even states that to do so carried with it the penalty of death in that culture. I'm merely an observer but what a strange coincidence don't you think?

Who was the scholar?

The temple ordinances verbatim in what language? Tranlated by whom?

How about a link?

A note: even if the temple ordinance resembled some ancient practice, that wouldn't make it 'true'. But it would be interesting to find out if there was a connection.

I look at it this way. If you make an contract to buy or rent a house with someone who claims to represent someone else and then you find out they didn't have the authority to rent it to you, or that the pictures misrepresented the property, you wouldn't be obligated to continue making the payments.

The church has lied and fabricated from its inception. Once you realize that it's not true, you have ZERO obligation to fulfill any agreements you made to obey it.

Sounds like a troll if they can't or won't back it up. It also makes me think of the Book of Abraham fraud.

video, or it didn't happen...

or a link would be fine, if you can.


Here's a wikipedia entry on the tablet of Ebla. Fascinating! But there's nothing close to the specificity you've mentioned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla_tablets


edited to add: They had beer!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2015 11:32PM by elderolddog.

The ancient Eblans were Masons?


:-)

I was "pre-1990" so I had different and more covenants and endowments. The washing and anointing--Definitely a full wash and anointing oil on all parts. Penalties (okay these may not be part of the endowment, but it was a promise to either kill myself or allow myself to be killed if I broke the covenants). 5 points of fellowship. Calling on God during the prayer circle "Pay-le-El" using the Adamic language.

Also I believe the "Chastity" covenant was phrased differently. There was the mention of Marriage, but not legal marriage. If so all of those pioneer ancestors who practiced polygamy were breaking the chastity covenant. I thought it just said "to who you are married to". Maybe I'm wrong, I guess I didn't listen and remember as well as I thought.

Yes the endowments have changed so which ones were on this magical tablet?

I was under the impression that it wasn't God who would do the deed when you promised to "suffer your life to be taken", it was your fellow lodge/cult members who would scatter your guts for the wild dogs.

In the fourth grade a bunch of us made up a secret club. We had rules, lots of rules. It was a bunch of silly boys doing a silly thing.

I went to the temple three times, late May, 1965, early June, 1965, and May 31, 1968. And every time, it was clear to me that the 4th grade secret club made more sense and was more interesting than the dumb ass temple hoohah. Most startling was seeing people in the celestial room talk about how holy it all was. All those people who saw the Emperor wearing clothes. And I was probably as TBM as was possible for me the first two times...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2015 11:39PM by elderolddog.

I was barely 18 when I went through the temple pre 1990.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and what I was being told to do. My mind was telling me to pick up those wedding dress skirts and RUN!

I couldn't make myself do it. First of all it was my wedding day. Second of all I had a reception with over 300 people showing up that I'd never met. They were the lifetime TBMs my new hubby had grown up with in a TBM area and he was from an elite family. No running allowed.

The only people at my wedding that I knew were my parents. No friends, siblings, relatives. I was basically alone. I didn't even have a drivers license let alone a car. I was hundreds of miles from home. Yep, i'd better sign on to slit my throat or else hitch hike 100's of miles back to where I came from. And this is how the mormon church gets its prey.

The happy ending to the story is that I divorced mr. RM, TBM 24 months later because he was having sex with a 14 yo hooker. Ahhh, love at home. NOT!

Wow! After reading your story running sounds like it would have been easier. I'm sorry you had to go through all that.

This is not political, just an illustration. In 2007, a man took one or more hostages at a presidential candidate's headquarters for a certain state. He demanded to meet the candidate, and turned out to be a (demented) supporter. At the time, however, there was a question about whether he would demand the candidate call off running for president in exchange for the release of the hostages. I noted that, even if the candidate agreed to do that, it would not be a binding contract because it was based on coercion and undue influence.

A contract (covenant) is also voidable when one party enters into it as a result of misrepresentation or fraud by the other. The LDS church promises in the endowment that members who keep their covenants will be physically resurrected, admitted to the presence of God, and become gods themselves.

These promises are based on revelations and divine priesthood authority Joseph Smith claimed he had. And members accept those revelations and priesthood based on fraudulent representations that Joseph told a consistent story of the First Vision, translated golden plates by looking at them with divine spectacles, received the priesthoods by physical laying on of hands of four physically resurrected (or translated) men, received additional priesthood keys from physically resurrected men, translated the Book of Abraham from the papyrus scrolls bought from Michael Chandler, and chose to dye as a martyr (as a lamb to the slaughter) rather than deny his testimony of the Book of Mormon.

It is clear by their conduct (in perpetuating Joseph Smith's fraud) that the church leaders never believed they had the power to honor their side of the agreement. Since the member's confidence in the church's ability to make promises on behalf of God is based on all of these (and many more) provably false teachings, the member is induced to make the covenants based on fraud, and the covenants can be voided by the victim of the fraud at any time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_form_contract
http://www.nolo.com/dictionary/adhesion-contract-(contract-of-adhesion)-term.html

I'm not a lawyer, and I've never been inside a temple, but based on seeing the videos and the written confirmation of yours and others, doesn't it seem like that?

Why would Heavenly Father use such verbal extortion if He's a loving God?