Close Topic Options

The Mormon Endowment

The Endowment

I thought twice about starting this thread because of how some regard the sacredness of the endowment, so long as we do not get into any specifics or descriptions, I think we will be alright.

My main interest at the moment is feelings... how you felt about the endowment before 1990, do you miss anything or was it a welcome change?

Endowment Mormon The

I was pretty shocked the first time. I hadn't been to the temple in over 15 years, and I had heard it had changed but, of course, had no details. It still feels like something is missing, but the beauty and the Spirit are still there.

I'm fairly certain that my husband, to whom I was sealed in 1981, left the church because of the temple ceremonies. He went only the one time when we were sealed. And I know other people who became inactive immediately after attending the temple.

Perhaps the change will allow more to be endowed, but as Nighthawk will probably say, the change simply makes the temple more "acceptable to Babylon." I agree.

IMO
Roz

The Mormon Endowment Studies Doctrine Mormon

Poor Nighthawk, he has developed a name for himself. I am sure the prior endowment was shocking, but maybe it was necessary to emphasize the sacredness of it? Nowadays it seems like so many take their endowments and then live a worldly life after or even fall away.

Endowment Mormon The

Oh, poor me.

I have access to transcripts of several different versions of the endowment. I miss the pre-1990 version, because I think that there were some very important elements that were removed. To me, the "penalties" weren't shocking, and actually contained extremely important information, in symbolic form.

I do think the change was for image reasons. However, someone recently brought up the possibility that satanic forces may have copied many of the elements of the endowments, and that the changes were made to move us away from a false, satanic endowment. This is ONLY a suggestion for the reasons.

Overall, I think it was done in response to liberal feminism, which has actually got a strong, but understated, following within the Church. Most women don't like the original ideas contained within the endowment, that the man makes his covenant with the Lord, and the woman makes her covenant with her husband, as her Lord. They also don't like the ideas of covenanting to obey their husbands.

Endowment Mormon The

There is so much i don't understand with regards to the Endowment. I'm not alone though because I understand Pres. Mckay in his later years made the comment that he is just now starting to understand. Well, if a Prophet of the Lord was just starting to understand at 90, I guess I have time to learn as well.

I don't worry about the changes that have taken place over the years. For the most part, they are changes in the way the ceremony is presented and not changes in the actual covenants we make.

So much of the endowment is symbolic. Too many people have criticized the ceremony because they do not understand. So I have to slit my throat? No. This was symbolism to impress upon our minds the sacredness of keeping certain things confidential. Christ taught us in Parables. I have noticed that answers to prayer sometimes come in Parables.

Anyway, I will continue to learn what I can. I live 3 miles from the Arizona temple so i should go more often than I do. It is currently closed at night for the Easter Pageant.

The Mormon Endowment

I understand your position on this completely. The symbolism is so strong and deep that it probably takes much more than a lifetime to understand it.

The biggest problem that I have is that we are strongly discouraged from discussing it, even in the Temple. Thus we have a very difficult time sharing deep insights that might help others.

I can share a few things I have recently learned, as they come from public, historic records.

1. The True Order of Prayer appears to be the overriding purpose of the endowment.

2. Each of the sections of the endowment, having to do with the Priesthood, has a seperate purpose.
a. Past (far past, prior to this earth even)
b. Present (knowledge and wisdom)
c. Future (not just to the end of this world)
d. Open up the eternities to our gaze.

3. We are truly to consider ourselves as Adams and Eves. Apply the symbolism of the endowment as if we were.

The Order of Prayer is the way that God has given us to open up each of these things for ourselves. Up until 1978, every stake center, and almost every ward building had an altar in it, similar to the ones in the temple. In the 1800s, families were strongly encouraged to have altars in their homes, and gather around them in prayer, using the signs of the Priesthood. There are many references to these things.

In 1978, the 1st Presidency sent out a letter asking people to stop the practice of asking GAs to attend their stake and ward prayer circles. Since then, the altars have disappeared from all the buildings, and people have been more than discouraged from having altars in their homes. As far as I can see this is a policy change, but has the effect of doctrine.

To me, the endowment, with the True Order of Prayer is a way to become spiritually independent. As I have studied this, and applied it marginally in my life, my prayers have become much deeper and more effective. I am certainly not saying that normal prayer as currently taught in the Church is ineffective, it just appears that the True Order is far, far more effective.

However, by current policies, there is no time when you or I can perform such a prayer in the Temple to seek out our own answers.

Now, as to the penalties, they are symbolic of much more than the seriousness of the covenants. They symbolize specific consequences of breaking those covenants. For example, to have your heart torn out is to lose your eternal mate. To have your bowels torn out is to lose your posterity. And to have your throat cut is to lose your own eternal life.

NightHawk

The Mormon Endowment

The Church has such records available or are you talking about what is on the net?

As for not speaking about it, I have never been told that I cannot speak about the endowment at no time in the temple, in fact I was told that in the Celestial room right after the endowment is the only place where such things should be discussed in a very reverent tone. So if I were going with someone I knew, we would sit together and after some meditation we would discuss it.

The Mormon Endowment Mormon Doctrine Studies

Wow, I had no idea about the altars at Stake Centers! any references or pictures available on the net?.