In January of 2019 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made some significant and unprecedented changes to the structure and content of the temple endowment ceremony – one of the saving ordinances of that faith. In announcing the changes to the ceremony, the First Presidency released a statement which included the following:
Over these many centuries, details associated with temple work have been adjusted periodically, including language, methods of construction, communication, and record-keeping. Prophets have taught that there will be no end to such adjustments as directed by the Lord to His servants.
MormonNewsroom.org
Much like past temple ceremony changes, since the announcement of these adjustements there has been much discussion about the positive nature of the newly revised ceremony – particularly regarding gender equality.
There is a separate issue which has gathered some interest, however. That is how the phrase “Prophets have taught that there will be no end to such adjustments as directed by the Lord to His servants.” seems to be a complete contradiction with how the leaders have described the endowment ceremony in the past.
Here are some examples (thanks to contributors at the exmormon subreddit here):
“The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundation of the world, in the priesthood, for the salvation of men, are not to be altered or changed.”
August 2001 Ensign lds.org
“Now the purpose in Himself in the winding up scene of the last dispensation is that all things pertaining to that dispensation should be conducted precisely in accordance with the preceding dispensations…. He set the temple ordinances to be the same forever and ever and set Adam to watch over them, to reveal them from heaven to man, or to send angels to reveal them.”
The Prophet Joseph Smith, History of the Church, vol.4, p. 208 as quoted in “Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith” Chapter 8lds .org
The great mistake made down through the ages by teachers of Christianity, is that they have supposed they could place their own private interpretation upon scriptures, allow their own personal convenience to become a controlling factor, and change the basis of Christian law and practice to suit themselves. This is apostacy. The Gospel can not possibly be changed…. the saving principles must ever be the same. They can never change…. the Gospel must always be the same in all of its parts…. no one can change the Gospel… if they attempt to do so, they only set up a man-made system which is not the Gospel, but is merely a reflection of their own views…. if we substitute ‘any other Gospel,’ there is no salvation in it…. the Lord and His Gospel remain the same–always.”
Editorial Page, Church News, June 5, 1965 google.com
“No jot, iota, or tittle of the temple rites is otherwise than uplifting and sanctifying. In every detail the endowment ceremony contributes to covenants of morality of life, consecration of person to high ideals, devotion to truth, patriotism to nation, and allegiance to God.”
Apostle James E. Talmage, The House of the Lord, 1912, p. 100 archive.org as quoted in Feb 1995 Ensign article “Endowed with Covenants and Blessings” lds.org
It was the design of the councils of heaven before the world was, that the principles and laws of the priesthood should be predicated upon the gathering of the people in every age of the world. Jesus did everything to gather the people, and they would not be gathered, and He
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 308 archive.orgtherefore poured out curses upon them. Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundation of the world, in the priesthood, for the salvation of men, are not to be altered or changed. All must be saved on the same principles… If a man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.
“…those who administer the sacrament will kneel when asking the blessing. It is not that this form is absolutely essential to the acceptance of this ordinance by the Lord; but it is in accordance with the word of the Lord which was given for our guidance; and where it is possible to follow the written word, in the spirit in which it is given, it is always better to do so. Indeed, by doing so we will avoid a serious wrong, that might eventually grow out of a disregard for the rules that the Lord has established, for it might lead to a changing, to some extent, of the ordinances of the house of God. It is necessary that we should pay proper attention and care to carrying out the purposes of the Lord in the manner which He has already revealed. And this may be extended to other matters of our religion. One of the charges brought against the children of Israel, and mentioned by the prophets in the latter times, was that ‘they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.’ That is really the complaint against the world today, and it is not meet that we should indulge in any such things.”
18 Sept 1893, The Prophet Joseph F.Smith, Milennial Star google.com
“The Prophet Isaiah saw the period of time when the earth should reel to and fro like a drunken man; and he saw that glorious day when the Lord of Hosts shall be about to reign in Zion and Jerusalem. And among other things he saw in vision was that the earth became defiled under the inhabitants thereof; “because,” says the Prophet, “they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” Plainly showing that they were to be a corrupt, people; a people who, for instance, would change the ordinance of baptism, from immersion to sprinkling or pouring, or doing it away altogether, and in the same manner changing the various ordinances of the Gospel from the original form in which the Lord revealed them. He says, through the mouth of His Prophet, that the people who should be guilty of this great wickedness should be visited with fire.”
The Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 20, p.11-12 archive.org
“…the endowments have never changed, as I understand it; it has been so testified, and that Joseph Smith Jr., himself was the founder of the endowments.”
Senator Reed Smoot, Reed Smoot Case, vol. 3, p. 185 archive.org
Still, none of these examples have quite the force of an obscure letter which was noted and transcribed by Michael Marquardt. Here is the content of the letter. I have located the original typescript in the Roskelley collection at Utah State University and had it digitized, which you can view at archive.org
Letter dated 8 June 1887, written by Wilford Woodruff to Samuel Roskelley, Recorder of the Logan Temple, Logan, Utah.
St. George, Utah,
8th June, 1887,
Samuel Roskelley,
Dear Brother;
Your letter of the 1st reached me last night, I arrived here last night to have an interview with S. Snow, as he will be here to attend Conference.
I have read your letter carefully. Now concerning endowments in all its phases: my own views are these–that we ought to follow out, as far as we can, the pattern laid down by our leaders. I consider that if there ever was any man who thoroughly understood the principle of the Endowments it was Brigham Young. He had been with Joseph Smith from the beginning of the Endowments to the end; and he understood it if any man did. And before his death he required me to write in a book every Ordinance in the Church and Kingdom of God, from the first to the last; beginning with Baptism to the last Ordinance performed through every department of the Endowments. I was several weeks doing this writing, and President Young corrected it all until he got through. Then he said to me, “Now, there you have a pattern of all the Ordinances and Endowments for every Temple, we shall build, until the coming of the Son of Man.” Now if I ever have anything to do, or to say, in any Temple on the earth, concerning Endowments, I would say: follow the pattern that President Young has set us; and not deviate from it one iota. And if we do that, we may have a hundred Temples at work, and all the work and ceremonies will be alike in every Temple. While on the other hand, if every man who is called to preside over a Temple has his own way, and introduces his own form and ceremonies, our Temple work would be as diverse as the sectarian world and God would not approbate it.
Brother Roskelley, I have given Endowments in Salt Lake City for twenty years, and I received my Endowments under the hands of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I directed the fixing up of the Temple in St. George for giving Endowments under the direction of President Young; and since the rules are written for our guidance in all future time, I feel very strenuous that in our giving Endowments we should all work alike, and not deviate from the written word.
You say, “we are told here so and so concerning sealings and adoptions”. Who is it that has told you these things and given these instructions? I don’t think it can be President Taylor, for neither he nor I have ever received such teachings from either Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. But I have been taught right the reverse by President Young. He told me to have single women of my father’s and mother’s households sealed to me. I asked him “how many?” He said if there was not over nine hundred and ninety-nine to take them. I had some three hundred sealed to me by his instructions. I don’t know whether I shall have to build them each a palace in the Celestial Kingdom of God or not. If I do, I shall have time to do it. I did as I was told. So in relation to Adoptions, most, if not all, of the Presidency and Twelve, have had men adopted to them, and all these Sealings and Adoptions are for the Salvation of the living and the dead. I have never asked any man to be adopted into my family that I can recollect of; but I have had a number of families of friends adopted into my family, as have other men, without any regard as to whether it will, in the future, cost me one dollar or a million. What we have done in this matter has been for the salvation of man. It may possibly be a correct doctrine that a man’s kingdom will consist of only the fruit of his own loins. Yet Jusus [Jesus] Christ died to save the whole world, and if we, as Apostles and Elders, do nothing for the human family only for the fruit of our own loins, we shall not do much towards magnifying the Holy Priesthood God has given us for saving the souls of man–either the living or the dead.
Brother Roskelley, we must not get our minds too puckered up in these principles[.] We are ordained and appointed Saviors upon Mount Zion, and we must not be afraid to administer the Ordinances of Life and Salvation to our fellow man–living or dead, for fear it will cost us a dollar.
I have adopted this rule in Sealings and Adoptions: to take such as the Lord has given me, and leave the result in His hands.
I think there is a Book in Logan Temple containing all the Ordinances as directed by President Young. I should recommend following that strictly, that our work in both Temples may be alike.
Now concerning what Joseph Smith the Prophet said about children: In the first place he said children would rise from the grave, as they were laid down, and their parents would receive as they laid them away. This, I believe. He conveyed an idea in the first place, that they would not grow, but after more mature reflection, he conveyed the idea that they eventually would grow to the full stature of man. It was a good deal upon the same principle that it was when he got the first revelation on baptism for the dead. He did not at first get the whole of it, but he went into the Mississippi River with myself and a number of others, and we baptized for the dead, without regard to males acting for males only, and females acting for females only, also without any Recorder. But the Lord revealed more to him, and gave him to understand that there should be a Recorder who should strictly record all the baptisms and Ordinances and that man should act for man, and woman for woman. So with regard to his views on the Resurrection–they enlarged before he got through, and he said children would grow to full stature. That I believe.
Now anything I have said in this letter in giving my views in relation to what you have asked, need not be treated as a private matter, as you suggest. You may make whatever use of them you please.
There has got to be a welding link of some kind before we get through with this work that will adopt man to man, and weld all dispensations from Father Adam down to the last Saint. But in all this matter, I do not go around electioneering to get men adopted to me. I don’t want any of this work done for me, only what the Lord wants. Paul talked a good deal about Adoptions, but we did not understand much about it, until the Lord revealed it to Joseph Smith, and we may not, perhaps, understand it now as fully as we should. Still the Sealings and Adoptions are true principles, or our Prophets have been badly deceived.
I remain your Brother in the Gospel of Christ
(signed) Wilford Woodruff.
While there is alot to this letter dealing with the issue of “adoption” which was another temple ordinance performed early in the church history, the initial comments regarding the uniformity of temple ordinance between temples as well as staying true to the ordinance as originally revealed by Joseph Smith and ratified by Brigham Young in written form is pertinent to modern readers.
The example provided of Joseph Smith getting more instruction about how to perform Baptism for the Dead is instructive in that it shows that a Prophet can only have part of the picture of an ordinance and later fill in the gaps with new revelation. This is a different issue, however, than the sorts of revisions we are hearing about with the current changes. We are hearing that women no longer covenant with their husbands to obey or harken to them, but rather covenant to obey God. In effect this fundamentally changes the relationship in the eternities between women and men and God.
Personally, while this seems like a good thing which places men and women on an even setting before God, I still see this as a problem because in Mormonism covenanting to obey God is equivalent to covenanting to obey the leaders of the church. As Mormons are repeatedly taught in scripture and conference “whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (D&C 1:38 lds.org)
I don’t believe this is a healthy or appropriate covenant for either man or woman in such an authoritarian religious context. It surrenders moral authority and historically such arrangements are exploited for different forms of abuse.
Conclusion
It’s really not controversial that the LDS church has changed its temple ceremony. Anyone who has done a study of the evolution of Mormon Temple worship and ceremony can point to numerous changes over the ages.
In the past, such changes were mostly kept out of the conversation of low-level members. Temple patrons were told not to discuss the temple in general and as a result, any changes have a smaller footprint in the mind of subsequent generations. Instead, the idea of unchanging restored ordinances was the public narrative. It was even used as proof of the truthfulness of Mormonism, to the insult of all the other sects which seemed to bend with the winds of social change.
I had no concept that there had been changes in the past when I first went through. I had the mindset that the leaders in the past have cultivated, which is to say, that I believed that the ordinances had been restored from ancient practice and had to remain intact and unchanged. Their unyielding constancy in the face of the changes of the world was a testament to their truthfulness. This mindset was the result of how the Prophets and Apostles had described such saving ordinances in the past.
Now the Prophets have upended that idea and, in the most Orwellian way possible, “reminded” us that Prophets have always taught that such changes should be expected. This is the stuff that gaslighting is made of.
I’m happy to have the Church make changes to mitigate its sharp edges but it should not resort to disrupting the memory or reasoning of its members to do so.
