Apologetics Conference 2016: The Mormon Temple (Eric Johnson)

Compassionate Evangelism and Asking Better Questions

Well, I just wanted to say something. I said this the first hour and I want to make sure I'm very clear on this that what I am doing, what we do at Mormonism Research Ministry, what John does, we're not against the Mormon people.

And I was using an illustration and I want to share it with you at the back table there. The idea of Ponzi schemes and other kinds of scams. Are you familiar with those? You know where the number one Ponzi scheme capital of the world is?

It's it in which state? It's Utah. We're so good at these things. And yeah, in fact, we did some radio shows. In fact, you go to our website mrm .org. I hope you go there and check that out. But on the front page, if you go down a few articles, we did some shows on that and I did an article and I listed just in the last three years some of the schemes.

Millions and millions of dollars. But I don't know if you've ever had a scam happen to you. Have you had a scam happen? I actually had one happen to me when somebody said they were gonna build a room and it was a friend of mine.

Not a friend, but it was somebody I knew who was a friend of a friend and he took a thousand dollars and that company, turns out they were on TV the next week and they were a fraud and I lost a thousand dollars.

I was pretty angry. I would have been kind of mad if somebody came up to me and said, you are so stupid. You dummy. Why didn't you think better? No, you know, a little bit of compassion would go a long way, wouldn't it?

And so for somebody to say, I'm so sorry that you got scammed and it looked like a legitimate thing. Maybe I didn't do my research or whatever, but I was a victim. You know, Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses and the Hare Krishnas and whoever you know who belong to a different faith may very well be victims.

They may not even know a lot of the information we're talking about here. Again, you never want to say you. It sounds accusing. They may not believe. You believe this. So you need to just ask them questions.

And here's the number one question you can learn to ask. What do you mean by that? If you can learn that question, you will go a long way in having a conversation because the the Eagles have shown very clearly the only way you could score is on offense not defense.

Last year was offense wasn't working very well either, I guess. But you know the idea of you want to be able to not always be the Bible answer man. Let them do some explaining, as Lucy used to say. You know, let's do some explaining and let's let you just, you know, and you start to find out when you do that with atheists especially, you'll find out the Emperor doesn't have clothes and that there's not much behind the facade.

So I think that's important for us to remember that if you treat those who don't have the gospel, not that you're superior, but you ask questions and you show compassion, I think that will be seen and who knows what can happen in that kind of a relationship.

The Biblical Temple as a Place of Sacrifice

Well, I do want to talk about the temple. I'm gonna do something a little different. It's called pair and share. I know we're spread out a little bit, but I want, I would like to in just a moment have you turn around to somebody behind you or next to you or however that works.

You may mean you just have to move real fast. Introduce yourself real quick. Don't take any time, but then I want you to talk in the one minute I'm gonna give you. It'll only be one minute. Tell me all that you know or tell the other person all that you know about the temple of Bible times.

Ready? Go. Turn around and talk to somebody. Ten seconds. Ten seconds. Finish. And stop. All right. Stop. Go ahead and sit down. Go ahead and come back. All right. Boy, they really got into that exercise, Pastor.

I think that's what we'll do for sermons. Find out how much they know. All right. Can you tell I was a teacher for 17 years? Those are great exercises because you get to find out what people believe. Now, if we had time in a classroom, I would have gone around and asked a lot of different people.

But let me just ask two or three. Just raise your hand. Tell me something that you talked about. What do you know about the Bible temple? Yes.

Okay.

Okay. So, got some history there. Good. What else? Yes. Okay. Yeah, and they talk about that and how they how they built it. What else did you talk about? Yes.

Okay.

All right. Good. One more. Somebody else. Those are all good. Good answers. Yes. Okay. Yeah. It's... you read a lot about the temple as David was building the temple, as Solomon was building the temple.

Not David because he wasn't allowed to because he had blood on his hands. And then how that was destroyed in 587 and rebuilt. Ezra and Nehemiah certainly had roles in that. And you mentioned Herod. And so there's a lot as far as that goes.

Let me ask you this question. What was the main purpose of the temple?

Yes.

Okay. So what did you do at the temple? You went there. What did you do? You worshiped how? I'm sorry. It was all about sacrifice, wasn't it? And you can read all about this. How they would bring animals.

Passover, for instance, was a very common holiday where everybody came to Jerusalem. Why did they come? They had to offer that animal that would bleed for their behalf. Now in the book of Hebrews is a beautiful book because it explains how Jesus fulfilled that Old Testament sacrifice.

And that's why Christians don't have temples today. You never see the Apostles going to the temple trying to sacrifice. You never saw that in Acts because Jesus was a sacrificial lamb who was slain for the sins of many as prophesied in the Old Testament.

Mormon Temple Ordinances and the Temple Recommend

Now, where do you think that they did the marriages for time and eternity? Where do you think they did the baptisms for the dead? Where do you think they did? They'd learn the special handshakes called tokens as well as learn new names.

What part of the temple do you think they did that? The part in Utah. Okay, and you're looking at those temples. Yeah, I'm gonna show you based on your knowledge and remember I said earlier, I wasn't going to use much Bible.

I let John do all the Bible talking and I'm not going to use much Bible here either. I just want you to understand for those of you, especially who are going to come with us, what the purpose is of this 152nd temple.

And by the way, how many temples were there in times of old? There was one. When they built one in Samaria, was that kosher? Was that a good thing? They said no, it was bad. It's wrong. We only have one.

It's in Jerusalem. And Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, you worship what you don't know. Because she says it's okay for us to do what we do here on Mount Gerizim. And he says you don't even know what you're talking about.

It's from the Jews. And so we see a lot of things that will help us understand what the biblical temple was. But the LDS temple, as important as it is, is not, I'm gonna say, biblical. And so let's see if I'm, oh this thing might not be on.

Let me turn this on. Other side. Oh, it says it's on. Oh, there it goes. Okay. There we go. This is what George Q. Cannon, a general authority, said in 1871. Why is it we are so anxious to build temples?

It is that we may attend to ordinances necessary for the salvation of the living and the dead, that we may be baptized for our ancestors who died without having the privilege of hearing and obeying the gospel.

Now what I talked about in the first hour, remember that plan of salvation, the chart. And so what you're doing here on earth is you're trying to do what you can for yourselves. But you also have those who have already died, your relatives, who need the gospel as well.

That temple is very important for the people who are deceased. And that's what he said. That's why we're so into building the temple. According to Apostle Mark E. Peterson, in biblical times, sacred ordinances were administered in holy edifices for the spiritual salvation of ancient Israel.

The buildings thus used were not synagogues nor any other ordinary places of worship. They were specially constructed for this particular purpose. Following the pattern of biblical days, the Lord again in our day has provided these ordinances for all who will believe and directs that temples will be built in which to perform those sacred rites.

What Peterson is saying is the Bible teaches the things that we are going to do in the temple. I think by the end of the hour, when I have gone over some of the major things that take place there, you're going to say to yourself, I've never heard of any of these being done in the biblical temple.

So why do we need temples today? So that's, we just want to remember that he believes it was done in the pattern of biblical days. Well, to be able to go to the temple, you have to have personal worthiness.

This is the president of the Apostles. He's the, the reason he's the president, he's the oldest Apostle. The three men at the top, you have Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors. When Monson dies, those two counselors go back to the Apostles and they go back in the order they were selected.

Russell M. Nelson is in line to be the next president. However, he's 90, I think he's 92 or 93. So, and he's a former doctor. Here's what he said in a general conference talk in April of 2001 and cited in the May 2001 ensign.

Our Redeemer requires that his temples be protected from desecration. No unclean thing may enter his hallowed house, yet anyone is welcome who prepares well. Each person applying for a recommend will be interviewed by a judge in Israel, the bishop, and by a stake president.

The leaders in the Mormon Church, the local level, the head of a ward would be called a bishop. He's not paid by the church. He'll have a full-time job. He's like your pastor. He serves a congregation up to 500 people.

He can serve up to 500 people. He's supposed to do that job and he's supposed to work in the insurance office 60 hours a week or whatever he has to do to do that. So, can you imagine the pressure on this man who does a five-year term?

But he will interview the different people who want to go to the temple. They have to have a personal interview with that bishop and then when the bishop gives his recommendation, there's another man who's a volunteer.

He's called a stake president. A stake is made up of four or five different wards and he's in charge of all of those people and so both of them have to sign this card called a temple recommend. So, you have to be worthy.

Before I go into that citation, let me ask you this. What was the purpose of the biblical temple? Sacrifice and who did it? The priest, the Aaronic priest and when you went, did you get yourself worthy before you did the sacrifice?

You were going to be by giving your sacrifice and then you would be forgiven and the Passover land would cleanse you of your sin, but here it's opposite. You have to go and be worthy before you can go.

So, there's a little bit of a chip on the shoulder almost. I performed what I needed to do in order to go to this building. Listen to what the book of Luke says, chapter 18 verses 10 through 14. There were two men who went up into the temple to pray.

One was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed this way. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, Jesus says, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.

That's kind of a surprising story. Jesus' story sometimes can be surprising like the prodigal son, you know, those kinds of stories you go, wow, where'd he get that? I mean, that's not what you expect.

These Pharisees that Jesus was so critical of were as holy as you would get as far as the law was concerned. They kept everything, even to the point where they were tithing their mints in their common, it says.

And Jesus went after them big time and said, you guys are sons of your father, the devil. You're whitewashed tombs. You're clean on the outside, but inside you're full of dead men's bones. I think Mormonism is kind of like that.

Because I think this religion, as pretty as it might look, and that building looks so nice, and if you go inside, you're going to marvel at the craftsmanship. They put a lot of money into this, and yet when you look at the heart of this religion, it's taking people to hell.

And I'm not trying to be mean-spirited. Mormons will sit in my audience and they don't like my conclusions, but they have to say what I'm saying is true as far as the overall idea. They don't like this idea that I'm saying that you don't have to be worthy to go there.

But this is what Jesus seems to be saying. It's based on your wanting to be forgiven, and the Pharisee thought he could do it on his own, and the other man did not. There are four major things that will be happening in that temple.

When it closes in September, somebody from Salt Lake City will come. Probably not Thomas S. Monson, because they're keeping him away from any public stuff, because it's kind of embarrassing some of the things that have happened in the last year when he's talked publicly.

And so, in fact, this last conference, they only let him talk for five minutes, and usually the prophet will speak for 25 minutes. They only let him have five minutes because the previous conference, he just, he boiled down, and it was very embarrassing.

And so, so I don't think we're going to get Monson. We'll probably get either a first presidency member or maybe an apostle, and when they close it down, they're going to rededicate it. They're not going to tear the carpet out.

I know that's a rumor, unless it's really worn down. But they'll have booties, plastic booties that go on your feet, so you don't mar the carpet, and they're going to have you have a chance to go through that way.

When they close, they're going to do four things. Number one, they're going to do washing and anointings. I'll talk about that. They're going to do endowments, and they call them instruction rooms. So when you go to the temple, and they mention this is an instruction room, that's what officially is known as endowment.

They're telling you instruction room because they realize some people may not know what that is. And by the way, the Philadelphia temple is the first one in many, many years where they actually will talk to you in the rooms.

Unless they change their mode of operation from Wednesday, they actually would have somebody in the major rooms to talk to you. That's rare. Usually, it's a silent tour. I think they're doing that because they realize a lot of people here have no clue.

In Utah, they would never do that because everybody knows what the temple is all about. So the endowment will be instruction rooms. Marriages or ceilings for eternity, they'll let you sit in this room.

It has two mirrors. You can look in the mirror, and you can see yourself looking like you're going into eternity. You'll have a chance to see that. And that's what they'll do. And then finally, baptisms for the dead.

That's the most common ordinance of the four. The four here, that one is done by kids as young as 12 years of age. They're able to get baptized on behalf of other people. So those are the four things that they will be doing.

Now, on the tour, you will see where they do three of them. You will not see anything mentioned about washing and anointings. But just so you know, that is something that will take place as well. So let me tell you about the washing and anointings, the first ordinance.

Washing and anointings are preparatory or initiatory ordinances in the temple. They signify the cleansing and sanctifying power of Jesus Christ, applied to the attributes of the person and to the hallowing of all life.

Women are set apart to administer the ordinances to women, and men are set apart to administer the ordinances to men. A commemorative garment is given with these ordinances, and is worn thereafter by the participant.

So what will happen is, you go into the temple in street clothes. Usually you wear nice clothes going to the temple, because it's the Lord's house, they would say. And then you go, separate from your wife.

She'll go into the women's changing room. You'll, as a man, I'm going to talk about myself. I go to the men's dressing room. There are lockers in there. It's interesting, they have locks on them. I always like to ask, why do they have locks?

They didn't let us go in this time in Philadelphia, but I always ask, is this a place for the worthy? Why do they have locks there? It seems like that you wouldn't need locks if everybody's worthy. And the answer that we most get is, well, that's to keep temptation from happening.

So even the worthy can be tempted. So they're not perfect, I guess. So you go in there, and you change into this white outfit. And then you are going to go to a special room where, if you're a man, it will be a man.

If you're a woman, it will be a woman. And they will ceremonially bless you from head to toe. They used to touch the individual, putting their hands on their shoulder, and on their hip, and I think on their leg.

So they would touch them physically. I don't believe they do that anymore. It's because of obvious reasons. And so they just kind of do a blessing. And they're anointing you, and preparing you, washing you, kind of like a mikveot in the Jewish way.

You would go into a pool, and you would cleanse yourself. And that's kind of what you're having there in the mikveot. You would get cleansed. And so that would be a washing and anointing. And then the commemorative garment, you actually have what's called a temple garment.

And you will wear that always underneath your clothes. And so if you know Latter-day Saints, you will see, perhaps, if they're wearing a white shirt. Because at church, they normally, the men will wear white shirts.

And you'll be able to see the, underneath, that would be the garment. And I'll talk a little bit more about that. But that's what the washing and anointing is about. This is what the garment looks like.

They have different styles. This is one style here. It looks kind of like long johns, almost. It has special embroidery in it that comes from masonry. But this is what the Encyclopedia of Mormonism says.

The white undergarment worn by those members who have received the ordinances of the temple endowment is a ceremonial one. All adults who enter the temple are required to wear it. In LDS temples, men and women who receive priesthood ordinances wear this undergarment and other priestly robes.

The garment is worn at all times, but the robes are worn only in the temple. So they're white. You're wearing these white clothes in the temple, which you have to buy. And the church is the distributor, Beehive Clothing.

So you actually have to buy the clothing to be able to go through this temple. Or you can rent them as well. Having made covenants of righteousness, the members wear the garment under their regular clothing for the rest of their lives, day and night, partially to remind them of the sacred covenants they have made with God.

Now, this is a very serious thing for Latter-day Saints. And it's not a question you really want to talk to the Mormon about. Don't ask them about their garments. And don't ask them about what goes on in the temple.

They're sworn to secrecy, not to be able to tell you those things. So you put yourself in a place of antagonism. And we don't want to do that. But they do wear these regularly. The only time they take them off would be for bathing or recreational kinds of things like that.

Although there are some Mormons who will not take them off for any reason. Even when they bathe, they will take them off until it's still on their hand, and then start putting the other on. Now, this is the clothing nearest their skin.

So they don't wear underwear like we would wear. It would be, if they wore underwear, it would be over these. And it's men and women wearing these undergarments. Very, very important with the symbols in them.

They believe not only does it protect them spiritually, but also physically. In fact, in 1998, Mr. Marriott, who was of the Marriott Hotel chain, he was interviewed by Mike Wallace. And he talked about a house fire that, or excuse me, a boat fire that he was involved with.

And it burned his clothes off, but the garments did not get damaged. You can go on YouTube and see that. Steve Young, the quarterback for the 49ers, a direct descendant of Brigham Young, talked about why he didn't wear the garments when he played football.

Because he felt that the sweat would desecrate the garments. That's not the way it was originally meant. It was meant to wear all the time. And so some, again, have taken that so seriously. Even when they're having relationships with their spouse, they will still have part of it on.

Because they feel if they ever were to take it all off, then possibly something bad could happen. It's almost, I mean, it's almost like a good luck charm. You don't want to ever leave that. So Latter-day Saints, in good standing, will keep that on at all times.

And rarely, if ever, take it off. Then the second lecturer, when they go to what's the first room, which they'll call the instruction room, it says, you have had a garment, this is what they're told. And I'm going to say this.

You can't see the temple ceremony. It's about a two-hour long deal, that the whole thing is. Except there has been a Mormon in the past two years who took a secret camera. He wants everybody to know what goes on in there.

So his name is New Name Noah. I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing. But he had a temple recommend. He still has one. They gave it back just last month. They renewed his, because they don't know who he is.

So he's renewed it. Now he's shown his face. So I'm sure he's going to get outed. But he has taken a secret camera and shown the entire ceremony. So if you're that interested, it's not the most exciting ceremony.

But it's two hours long. He's taped it for you. And the sound quality is pretty good. And you'll be able to hear all this. And it's also on the internet. If you type onto utlm .org, Sandra Tanner's website, she has the pre -1990s ceremony.

And they made changes in 1990. She has both of those. You can read those. But this is what it says. You have had a garment placed upon you, which you were informed represents the garment given to Adam and Eve when they were found naked in the Garden of Eden, which is called the Garment of the Holy Priesthood.

This you were instructed to wear throughout your life. You were informed that it will be a shield and a protection to you inasmuch as you do not defile it, and if you are true and faithful to your covenants.

Notice, true and faithful to your covenants is so important. Now, again, I don't like to make fun of this. There have been some who have, I think, been overzealous. And so down at Temple Square, in that area, when they're having general conference for those two weekends, there will be some people who will mock the Mormons.

And one of the things that I've seen done is they take the garments and put it on a stick. And they wave it around. And then they throw it on the ground. And that, I think, is not a good way of doing evangelism.

I don't think you're going to win many people. You're just going to antagonize them. But they're not supposed to defile that. Those are holy garments for them. They're not supposed to let you see them or anything else.

And if you wear those and you're true and faithful to your covenants, then God's going to bless you for wearing that. So these garments, again, are very, very important. As far as the endowment, the second ordinance, this is what it says on LDS .org.

In a general sense, a gift of power from God. That's what the endowment is. Worthy members of the church can receive a gift of power through ordinances in the temple that gives them the instruction and covenants of the holy priesthood that they need to attain exaltation.

The endowment includes instruction about the plan of salvation. Remember, I was telling you about the preexistence or premortality, the first estate. And that is where you're going to learn some things as people are going to get put onto the earth.

And you'll see, for instance, a conversation that Lucifer has with Adam. And they have this conversation. Before 1990, they had a Christian pastor involved who was told by Lucifer that if you do my work, I will pay you well.

They actually changed that in 1990 because I think there were a lot of Mormons who did not like the fact that their Christian friends were, their pastors were being mocked. But pastors, because they're paid, they believe that they're doing it, what's called filthy lucre.

They're doing it for the money. And they're also going to point out the TV preachers. I don't know what you think about those guys. But they're always wanting money. And they drive the best cars and wear the nicest clothes.

I can guarantee you Pastor Jeff's not like that at all. At least he's hiding it, maybe. I don't know. But I mean, the idea that you're learning the story of how creation took place. You're learning the things that are important.

And you're going to see this, by the way. It's the same production. Every time you go through, every time you participate in this. And you are participating for yourself one time only. You and your wife go in when you get married.

And when you go through, you're going through this. And you're learning these things. And the other times you're going to do this is going to be done on behalf of the dead, for your dead relatives. As far as Masonic similarity, in March 1842, Joseph Smith said, I officiated as grand chaplain at the installation of the Nauvoo Lodge of Freemasons at the grove near the temple.

In the evening, I received the first degree in Freemasonry in the Nauvoo Lodge, assembled in my general business office. So he becomes a Mason in 1842. And in 1842 of May, he introduces the Nauvoo Illinois Endowment Ceremony.

This ceremony contains many elements similar to that which is found in the Masonic ceremony. He moved up very fast. He became a 32nd degree Mason. And before the temple in Nauvoo was finished, the ceremony was performed on the second floor of Joseph Smith's red brick store.

That's actually a replica of it that's found in Nauvoo. That's where that took place, Nauvoo, Illinois. And so they were already started with the, there was not a temple yet. The Nauvoo temple, this would be performed.

They had a temple before that. The first temple would be in Kirtland, Ohio. But they didn't do the same ceremonies that they're going to do now. They met in the temple in Kirtland. And now they're going to start doing other things, the ordinances I'm talking about.

As far as handshakes and passwords, according to Brigham Young, let me give you a definition in brief. 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.

Secrecy, Sacredness, and the Temple Penalties

So there are three rooms. The first one is called the telestial room. You're going to see a beautiful mural, beautiful. I forget what it was now. I'm trying to remember what the, it's animal life. And it looks like paradise, this wonderful scene.

And then you go to the next room. And you'll walk, they'll have you walk right through the doors in this next room. And there are chairs set up. I think it's threes across. And there's maybe about 20 seats here and 20 seats there.

18, 21 would be in threes. And there were some fours, too. The men sit on one side. The women sit on the other. So they're going to learn this with a video. It's all done in video, unless you go to Salt Lake City or Manti, where they actually do live performances.

Otherwise, they're all videos now. Go to the second room. It's called the terrestrial room, or they're going to call it an instruction room. And you'll see a gold curtain. So you'll know that you're in the terrestrial room, the second level.

And it gets a little lighter in there. The first one's a little dim. It gets lighter. And that's symbolic that you're learning. And so you're growing in your knowledge. In that room, you are going to do several things.

Number one, you've been given a new name that day. Everybody in that room, the men have been given a biblical or Book of Mormon name, like Noah, for instance. So you'll all be Noah. That is a name you'll never tell anybody.

That's your name. Only your wife will know. And the woman will be named, let's say, Sarah. So we've got Noah and Sarah. Those names are important because there's going to come a day when you die. And the man with the priesthood, only he can do it because he has the priesthood, is responsible to resurrect his wife.

And he can't call her, my wife's name is Terry. He can't call her Terry. He's going to have to call her Sarah. Now, all the other people were named Sarah, too. I hope they don't get confused there. But Sarah, and he will be responsible to raise her up from the dead.

Then, they will now approach the sentinel, who will be waiting with his hand out. And there are about, I think, six different, they call them tokens, handshakes, you have to learn. They're all from masonry.

So if you're familiar with masonry, there's a set of different handshakes they would give that's part of the brotherhood. It's the same kinds of handshakes. The way you learn is you put your hand through that gold curtain, and there will be someone who's, in fact, there's on the door, it says, ordinance workers.

That's the door they would enter to go on the other side. You'll never see them. But when your hand gets through, they will have a script, and they will teach you, they will make sure you're doing the handshakes right.

If you don't get them right, you won't be able to get into the celestial kingdom. So you'll do that. With your new name, you'll be able to have the passwords necessary to move to the next life. That's why this temple is so important, because they need to learn how to do this, or they don't get to go to the celestial kingdom.

And you can't go to the celestial kingdom without going through this for yourself. And so that pertains to the holy priesthood, and you get your eternal exaltation. And this is very, very important. As far as it being sacred or secret, we have a website called Sacred or Secret.

You'll see us with website signs out there. We're going to hold those up. And it goes to our website. If you go there, it goes to our temple page on mrm .org. Sacred or secret? They always like to say, it's sacred, not secret.

Well, this is what Richard L. Bushman, a Mormon, he's an apologist. And he says this in a newspaper article. While some members will claim that Mormon temples are sacred, not secret, Bushman said that temples are secret, plain and simple, noting that even members don't speak to each other about it.

You are sworn to secrecy. You're not supposed to tell your kids. You're not supposed to tell, even if they're temple worthy, you don't talk about the temple. And certainly, we're called Gentiles. They are true Jews, they believe.

And even the Gentiles, they're not supposed to talk with us either. So this is very important for them not to tell. And he says, wait a minute. It's sacred, but it's also secret. So we use that website sign.

I can't tell you how many conversations I've got into when they come up and complain. We're asking the question, sacred or secret .com. And they'll never forget that. And they'll go to our website, hopefully, and be able to see what we're trying to say.

Before 1990, following the explanation and demonstration of the first and second token of the Aaronic priesthood, the first token of the Melchizedek priesthood or sign of the nail, and the second token of the Melchizedek priesthood, the patriarchal grip or sure sign of the nail, a temple worker told the audience, I will now explain the covenant and obligation of secrecy, which are associated with this token, its name and sign and penalty, in which you will be required to take upon yourselves.

As far as the penalties for doing that, if you proceed and receive your full endowment, you will be required to take upon yourself 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 to accept these obligations of your own free will and choice, you may now make it known by raising your hand. So you are making this promise.

And in the days before 1990, they used to promise by taking their thumb and saying that they would be willing to have their throat cut and their bowels disembodied, that you would actually be willing to have that done to you.

In 1990, they changed that as well. That bothered a lot of people. That was the oath they used to take. Now it's more of an oral pledge that you will not talk about this at all. I'm going to skip this part.

As far as obedience, securing the blessings, this is from the Pace in Utah Temple. In the temple, it says, we promise to serve others and obey God's commandments. They are taking a pledge that they will do everything they are supposed to do.

Before 1990, the penalty for divulging the first token of the Aaronic Priesthood, this is before 1990, I covenant before God, angels, and these witnesses that I will never reveal the first token of the Aaronic Priesthood with its accompanied name and sign and penalty.

Rather than do so, I would suffer my life to be taken. And that's when they would come up with the cutting of their throat and their midsection. In pre -1930, they said, we and each of us covenant and promise that we will not reveal any of the secrets of this, the first token of the Aaronic Priesthood with its accompanied name, sign, or penalty.