The Mormon Temple Part 8

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a Biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism.

I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. Last week we began talking about the temple ceremonies and the need for the LDS Church to build temples for the exaltation of its people. I'm going to quote to you today from a book titled Temples in the Last Days. It was written by a 70 in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a man by the name of Royden G. Derek. He has since passed away, but on page 36 at the beginning of chapter 8, he writes, temple ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundation of the world are for the salvation and exaltation of God's children. It is important that the saving ordinances not be altered or changed because all of those who will be exalted from the first man, Adam, to the last must be saved on the same principles. Eric, that's quite a statement, but it does tell us that they really do believe that what they do in their temples has a historic trail going clear back to Adam. We've been challenging that statement in this series, because even though LDS leaders have given the impression that what they do in their temples is patterned after what was done in biblical days, we certainly see no evidence to support that whatsoever. Now, on yesterday's show, Eric was citing from the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we want to continue looking at what the official website has to say about the endowment ceremony and such. The address is churchofjesuschrist.org slash temples slash what is temple endowment with hyphens between the words what is temple endowment and so I want to continue reading where it says an overview it reads when you join the church you receive two ordinances baptism and confirmation likewise the temple endowment is also received in two parts in the first part you will privately and individually receive preliminary ordinances called the initiatory ordinances the initiatory ordinances include special blessings regarding your divine heritage and potential as part of these ordinances you will also be authorized to wear the sacred temple garment and not only that it's also known as the washing and anointing ceremony and there are certain words that are said over the person who is going through this part of the ritual and I want to read for you what is said to a Mormon individual a patron if you will because that's what they are called when they are going through this washing ceremony in this particular case this is the mail where it says brother and then the brother's name is given having authority I wash you preparatory to you receiving your anointings for and in behalf of and then you another person's name would be inserted who is dead remember a lot of what goes on in the temple is on behalf of the dead Mormons feel that they are the saviors on Mount Zion and that is their responsibility to do work on behalf of the deceased that the deceased cannot do for themselves the person performing this ritual then says I wash your head that your brain and your intellect may be clear and active your ears that you may hear the word of the Lord your eyes that you may see clearly and discern between truth and error your nose that you may smell your lips that you may never speak guile your neck that it may bear up your head properly your shoulders that they may bear the burdens that shall be placed there on your back that there may be marrow in the bones and in the spine your breasts that it may be the receptacle of pure and virtuous principles your vitals and bowels that may be healthy and strong and perform their proper functions your arms and hands that they may be strong and wield the sword of justice in defense of truth and virtue your loins that you may be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth that you may have joy and rejoicing in your posterity your legs and feet that you may run and not be weary and walk and not faint Eric I can't help but just stop at this point and say do we find any evidence that such statements were made in ancient Jerusalem during biblical times we certainly see that there were ceremonial cleansings that did take place but we don't see anywhere where that kind of language is being used well then after the washing portion of this ceremony there's a confirmation of the washing and then there's an anointing and again the pattern is very similar to the portion that they just went through with the washing here it says brother having authority i pour this holy anointing oil upon your head foreign in behalf of so and so who is dead and anoint you preparatory to your becoming a king and a priest unto the most high god hereafter to rule and reign in the house of israel forever and then it goes on in a very similar pattern such as what they had before i anoint your head that your brain and your intellect may be clear and active etc etc bill the first time you and i ever went to a temple open house was in 1993 in san diego one of the things that we were told beforehand by some of the leaders who we actually went to lunch with was that we would be able to see everything in the temple except perhaps the air conditioning system that's exactly what he said i'll never forget that well we went through the temple and we did see everything for the most part we saw all the ordinance rooms the celestial room we saw the marriage and sealing room we saw pretty much all that there was however one thing was very obvious that we did not see and that was the washing and anointing room and bill i've gone to more than 20 different temple open house events i've been through more temples and i care to actually admit to that i have actually seen all these temples one of the rooms that you will never see in a temple open house is the washing and anointing room why do you think this is a room they're not going to talk about that's a great question it's one that has always puzzled me i think perhaps it could be because it will raise so many questions in years past when you went into the washington anointing room you were wearing a shield and it was open on the sides and the temple worker was supposed to touch various parts of your body as they washed and anointed you that's changed now the shield that goes over your head and covers you in the front and the back has now been sewed up on the side so a person can't put their hand under the garment it may be because it's too difficult to explain i don't know but certainly you're right and all the temple open houses that i have been to you never see the washing and anointing rooms one of the questions when i'm actually on a guided tour which happens occasionally is i'll ask the question at the very beginning will i see everything in this temple today that will be a part of the actual ceremonies that will happen after it closes and then only those who have temple recommends can go and i'm always told absolutely you'll see everything i do that on purpose because at the end of the tour i will ask the guide i noticed that we were not shown the washington anointing room and i use that as exact term oftentimes i'll get the response well we didn't think that was that important to show you my argument back is wait a minute you said i would see everything that seems to be an important place why did i not get to see that do you remember when we were in sacramento and we were on the tour and i knew we were in the portion of the temple where the washington anointing room would would be nearby i stood in the back of the crowd and i i kind of had a feeling it was going to be down this little hallway so i started backing off to walk down there to take a peek and i remember the lady that was speaking saw me do this and she didn't look too happy about that that i was leaving the group but i walked down there and i walked into this room and it was it was the washington anointing room but it wasn't even finished at the time the plumbing was there but all the the fixtures were not in place at that time i have i have been in one although as i said it was not finished at the time i want to continue reading from the article on what is temple endowment and this and this is what it continues to say in the second part you will receive the remainder of your endowment in a group setting along with others who are attending the temple during this part the plan of salvation is presented including the creation of the world the fall of adam and eve the atonement of jesus christ the apostasy and the restoration as well as instruction on the way all people can return to the presence of the lord let me stop you there do you really think that anything like that was ever performed in the temple in jerusalem do you think really they're going to talk about the apostasy in the temple in jerusalem remember folks they're the ones that are making this comparison they are the ones that are insisting that what they do in their temple is patterned after biblical days and yet what you've just read so far eric i think it would be very easy to show that there is no equivalent in first century christianity to what mormons are doing in their temples and the next line says some of the endowment is presented through video and some by temple officiators well i mean they used to have live presentations at several temples including mantai in salt lake city but apparently there will be no more live presentations i'm just wondering did the jerusalem temple have the access to the video that the mormon temples do today it would make you wonder because the video they are watching is acted out okay did they really do this in the temple in jerusalem were live actors showing the creation in the fall of mankind are they showing elohim talking to jesus of course not of course not but yet this is what is going on in a mormon temple endowment ceremony so when they say that there's a connection here that's that's totally erroneous it goes on and says in conjunction with these ordinances you will be invited to make specific covenants with god these covenants include and there's five bullet points number one law of obedience two law of sacrifice three law of the gospel four law of chastity and finally law of consecration and again we're asking the question do we see anywhere where these laws as eric has described were they ever talked about in the temple in jerusalem no of course not then there's a line following those five covenants that mormons are supposed to make and it says in return in return as far as keeping the covenants god promises wonderful blessings in this life and the opportunity to return to live with him forever so these are necessary for a latter-day saint to be able to go to the celestial kingdom and in tomorrow's show we're going to talk more about what these various laws are these obligations that individuals who participate in the lds temple ceremony are supposed to agree to or covenant to and again i want to i want to emphasize the fact that we do not see any historical pattern to support this at all thank you for listening if you would like more information regarding mormonism research ministry we encourage you to visit our website at www.mrm.org where you can request our free newsletter mormonism researched we hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint on mormonism