There is something wrong with Mormon Temples.

To be more nuanced, I believe that the core ceremonies performed in Mormon temples, namely baptisms for the dead, marriages, and parts of the washing and anointing are fine.

However, there are many elements of temple worship in the Doctrine and Covenants which we don’t see in modern temples at all, and more worryingly, parts of the endowment ceremony simply don’t align with scripture and actually violate important principles from the Book of Mormon.

In my belief, there is a reason for all of this: while Joseph Smith was indeed a true prophet, after he died the Mormon church slowly became infiltrated by secret societies. Therefore, in this essay I will outline a few of the facts which lead me to this conclusion.

Temple Construction

Firstly, modern day Mormon temples are not built to standards of the Old Testament, which say to use altars made of uncut stone (Exodus 20:24–25, Deuteronomy 27:5–6, Joshua 8:30–31), whereas Mormon temples have fancy altars of cut stone (I know because I am a Mormon and have gone through all of the standard temple stuff members do). And secondly, modern Mormon temples don’t even really follow the specs that Jospeh Smith himself gave – which is that they should have two courts, a lower one and an upper one (Doctrine and Covenants 95:13-17).

Original Temple Ordinances from Joseph Smith

As I will demonstrate here, modern Mormon temple worship does not do many of the things that Joseph Smith has revealed in the Doctrine of Covenants.

The Curious Case of the Washing of the Feet

In Doctrine and Covenants 88:137-141, we learn that people are received into the school of the Prophets (which evolved into the temple) via the ordinance of the washing of the feet.

This ordinance is not practiced by normal endowed Mormons. However, Bruce R. McConkie has a weird quote about this, which some have interpreted as meaning that this ordinance is performed by high up Mormon officials:

Washing of feet is a gospel ordinance; it is a holy and sacred rite, one performed by the saints in the seclusion of their temple sanctuaries. It is not done before the world or for worldly people.
…As part of the restoration of all things, the ordinance of washing of feet has been restored in the dispensation of the fulness of times. …
The knowledge relative to the washing of feet has been revealed step by step in this day until a full knowledge is now incorporated in the revealed ordinances of the Lord’s house (Mormon Doctrine, [2nd ed. (1966), 829, 831])” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1966–73], 1:708, 710).

He also said, “The full significance of this is not apparent to the casual reader, nor should it be, for the washing of feet is a sacred ordinance reserved to be done in holy places for those who make themselves worthy.” (LDS Daily)

However, McConkie does not reveal any information beyond this, and whatever this “full knowledge” he speaks of truly is, he does not deign to inform us – the members of the church for whom he claims to be serving as an apostle, seer, and revelator – what it is.

These quotes characterizes a vein of LDS thinking which I really dislike: grandiosely implying that there is something amazing happening to Mormon leaders, but then not providing any specific details. The point of these apostles, who call themselves revelators, should be to anxiously reveal everything God has shown to them, not to proudly declare themselves to be higher than other people spiritually, but to not actually explain why or tell people what their spiritual experiences are. Even for the things that they do reveal, these are often hidden behind paywalls, as is the case for all of the books I have seen written by the Church’s modern prophets and apostles, such as David A Bednar’s The Spirit of Revelation (which having read does not record any accounts of dreams or visions), Dallin H Oak’s His Holy Name, Russell M. Nelson’s Daily Joy: A Devotional for Each Day of the Year, or Henry B Eyring’s The Faith of a Scientist (to name a few), of which all of these books have kindle versions but their kindle versions are *not free*. There is something weird about this sort of gospel commoditization being what they choose to use their special callings as prophets and apostles to do. In comparison, The Bloody One by D.T. Childress is completely free on kindle (also, if you are a struggling author who doesn’t have a tithing backed organization supporting you, then I can understand why you would make your books cost money, since your time is limited and you need to support your family – but this isn’t the case for LDS apostles).

In the case of the washing of the feet ordinance, it is outrageous in my opinion to go around saying that “a full knowledge” of this ordinance has been restored to the church, but then not actually say what the full knowledge is, nor even tell me who I can ask that would know what this knowledge is. When Jesus washed people’s feet, it wasn’t kept a “secret”, it was proudly placed in scripture, as also was the case for Joseph Smith’s teachings on it. To actually restore the knowledge of this ordinance to the Church, you must actually publish the knowledge in a reasonably accessible way to endowed members of the Church. But they haven’t done this (what even is the point of people who say they are “seers and revelators” when they don’t actually reveal anything?).

Also, in a well-organized 200-year-old church, why is McConkie the only person to ever have said anything about this ordinance? More importantly, McConkie’s quote isn’t even able to answer the most basic question people have on this ordinance: is the washing of the feet separate from the washings and anointings already performed in the temple, or are they the same thing? To note, in the modern washing and anointing, your feet are never washed. No church official has answered this question, and so I think the most likely explanation is that there is not actually any special washing of the feet ordinance practiced anymore, and McConkie was simply referring here to the general washings and anointings performed in the temple, which in his mind made sense.

Alternatively, if there actually are secret rituals performed in the temple by church bureaucrats, as McConkie has grandiosely implied without providing substantive details, that is not better. That is creepy, since it *proves* that a rogue sect of Mormons – who have different beliefs than the average member of the latter day saint church – has somehow secretly taken over church leadership.

Either way, the fact that Jospeh Smith said that there should be this washing of the feet ordinance in the temple – and yet in modern Mormon temple services we don’t see this – should be worrying.

Uplifted Hands

Another key feature of temple worship detailed by Joseph Smith is that members should greet each other with uplifted hands. Yet this is not taught in the temple endowment. Instead we get the opposite – we are taught various secret gestures and handshakes to meet each other with. Clearly modern Mormon temple worship is not what Joseph Smith intended for it to be.

Doctrine and Covenants 88
120 That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High.
…132 And when any shall come in after him, let the teacher arise, and, with uplifted hands to heaven, yea, even directly, salute his brother or brethren with these words:
133 Art thou a brother or brethren? I salute you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in token or remembrance of the everlasting covenant, in which covenant I receive you to fellowship, in a determination that is fixed, immovable, and unchangeable, to be your friend and brother through the grace of God in the bonds of love, to walk in all the commandments of God blameless, in thanksgiving, forever and ever. Amen.
…135 And he that cometh in and is faithful before me, and is a brother, or if they be brethren, they shall salute the president or teacher with uplifted hands to heaven, with this same prayer and covenant, or by saying Amen, in token of the same.
136 Behold, verily, I say unto you, this is an ensample unto you for a salutation to one another in the house of God, in the school of the prophets.

Doctrine and Covenants 109
9 That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord, that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord, that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High
…17 That all the incomings of thy people, into this house, may be in the name of the Lord;
18 That all their outgoings from this house may be in the name of the Lord;
19 And that all their salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with holy hands, uplifted to the Most High;

Oracles and memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi

One odd scripture is that in temples there should be “memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi”.

Doctrine and Covenants 124:39-40
39 Therefore, verily I say unto you, that your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi, and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations, and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name.
40 And verily I say unto you, let this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people;

Yet there is no mention of this in modern Mormonism or its temple ceremonies. I can’t find any information on what this was supposed to look like, but clearly this scripture about “memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi” is an evidence that modern Mormon temples are not aligned with Jospeh Smith’s teachings.

Interestingly, this scripture also mentions “your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations” being in temples. Again, this is extremely not part of any modern Mormon temple doctrines. Mormonism doesn’t believe in oracles, or in multiple oracles, and there is nothing like this in the temple endowment.

Courts in the temple for preaching, fasting, and the sacrament

As you can see in this scripture, there are supposed to be two courts in the temple – a lower court for general worship and a higher court for more structured worship. Modern temple worship simply does not have this.

Doctrine and Covenants 95:16-17
16 And let the lower part of the inner court be dedicated unto me for your sacrament offering, and for your preaching, and your fasting, and your praying, and the offering up of your most holy desires unto me, saith your Lord.
17 And let the higher part of the inner court be dedicated unto me for the school of mine apostles, saith Son Ahman; or, in other words, Alphus; or, in other words, Omegus; even Jesus Christ your Lord. Amen.

This scripture also mentions that this lower court is used for “preaching”, however modern temple worship – while rich in repetitive ceremonies – does not have any “preaching”.

Similarly, this verse mentions “fasting”, yet fasting plays no role whatsoever in modern Mormon temple worship. Which is a little odd given fasting is brought up repeatedly in relation to temple services in the Doctrine and Covenants (Doctrine and Covenants 88:119, Doctrine and Covenants 109:8, Doctrine and Covenants 109:16).

And lastly, this verse says that temple worship should involve “sacrament offering”. However, again there is no “sacrament” whatsoever in Mormon temple worship, at least for normal endowed members. I cannot speak for creepy secretive rituals done by church leadership of course, but this verse specifically states that this sacrament should happen in the lower court, meaning it should be widely available to church members and not limited to select individuals.

Where are the revelations?

Here is an important scripture on temples:
Doctrine and Covenants 110:8
8 Yea, I will appear unto my servants, and speak unto them with mine own voice, if my people will keep my commandments, and do not pollute this holy house.

Therefore, if temple ordinances haven’t been polluted, then why aren’t we seeing an outpouring of revelations to Mormon leaders? To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any official revelations given to Mormon leaders in the form of dreams or visions for over a hundred years!

Mormons typically respond to this by saying that the visions leaders receive are “too sacred to share” at general conference. Which is firstly ridiculous – the whole point of a “revelator” is to reveal their revelations with the church. If they are not revealing anything then they definitionally are not revelators. But secondly, even if they are [somehow] prophets, they aren’t the Church’s prophets, because they aren’t sharing their prophecies with the Church. Here are two relevant scriptures:

Matthew 10:27
27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

Matthew 5:15
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

In conclusion, God gives revelation to prophets so that they can share it with the world and restore the ordinances of the gospel to everyone who is willing to accept them. There isn’t a secret club of church officials who receive all the revelations and special temple ordinances from God but then are too elitest to disseminate their knowledge to even the most devout and active church members – because God would never give revelation to these sorts of arrogant gatekeepers in the first place.

Corrupted Rituals in Mormon Temple Services

Beyond simply some temple ordinances missing, I believe that the initiatory portion of the temple and its signs and tokens is an example of a corrupted ordinance.

To begin this conversation, I think it is important to separate this corrupted portion of the initiatory with what I call the *core ordinances* of the temple: In my opinion, several of the temple ordinances are actually true, such as Baptisms for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29), marriages, and (the general idea of) washings and anointings. These are the core temple ordinances, because they were all practiced in the Kirtland Temple or (in the case of Baptisms for the dead) were happening for many years in the Mormon church before Joseph Smith died.

In contrast, the secret handshakes and tokens were never taught in the Kirtland temple and instead were introduced in the Nauvoo temple. This matters because the Nauvoo temple was never completed in Joseph Smith’s lifetime, whereas the Kirtland temple was. I will admit that there is some evidence that Joseph Smith taught these things during the last few weeks of his life before he was taken to Carthage jail and subsequently killed, but if he did, he never wrote anything about it, and they certainly were not among his core doctrines. Arguably, they don’t even count as doctrines at all since there are no official revelations on this – no good evidence that Joseph Smith even received revelations on them – nor is there any form of consistent teachings from Joseph Smith on the matter.

As you will see later in this essay, these secret handshakes and secret tokens of the instructional portion definitely came from freemasonry. Since this is undeniably, the Mormon apologist argument always is that there must be some sort of “core of truth” from God preserved in Freemasonry explaining why our temples resemble masonic lodges.

From a naïve perspective, this could seem true – which is why I must explain a few things about the occult to set the stage for the conversation on freemasonry.

Background on the Occult

Most can agree that the powerful people on earth who are helping Satan build his kingdom primarily gained their power through subversive and nefarious means, or were gifted their power by Satan’s forces. Or in other words, these servants of Satan (hello Hollywood film studio directors) do not deserve their positions of earthly status, but instead they stole these positions from others.

But if Satan’s servants on earth gained their power via theft from others, then it stands to reason that Satan’s minions in heaven also gained their spiritual power through similar mechanisms of theft. Therefore, I don’t think that witchcraft is as simple as: show your allegiance to Satan and he will help you, firstly because that falsely implies that Satan intrinsically is his own well of power. But more specifically, because in reality witchcraft is the art of stealing spiritual power, and Satan’s forces are both stealing spiritual power from others as well as gifting each other power and influence.

Examples of how spiritual power is stolen include how (in my view), you can steal parts of the life force of creatures via killing them in a ritualistic way, you can steal the spiritual power of human beings via ritualistic rape, and (I think) you can steal God’s breath of life given into his creations – including the planets, stars, and earth – via rituals that tie souls to these planets. It should go without saying though that stealing spiritual power is evil and should not be done, even if it is technically possible (so I guess witches are kind of like lawyers, just kidding). We also don’t need to do this, because God will freely help us when we sincerely come to him and express our virtuous and uplifting requests to him in prayer. On a tangent, one application of these ideas is that “selling your soul to the devil” – which in real occultism more typically is practiced as “giving yourself in marriage to some entity” – caries a real spiritual power, since this twists spiritual law to bind people to entities, all to the profit of said entities (see The Courts of Heaven (D.T. Childress)).

Which is all to say that there are two archetypal religions:

The good religion – the religion of Jesus Christ – that teaches us to become God’s servants, and promises eternal life, though requiring sacrifice on earth.

And the evil religion – Satan’s religion – which teaches thievery and darkness. Which encourages people to revel in excesses and promises a comfortable life on earth because – it teaches – there either is not an afterlife at all, or there is one and everyone is saved, or there is one, but we are saved by our knowledge and not through our works and character.

For Satan’s religion, there are multiple layers depending on Satan’s intended audience, with the lower levels simply devoted towards distracting people away from God’s commandments, the high levels literally teaching witchcraft, and the mid-tier levels acting as a transition towards the higher levels by enticing people along with promises of deep knowledge. Therefore, I suppose that the lower levels, such as atheism, do not have any truth at all, whereas the higher levels – namely witchcraft – contain a much higher degree of truth, but still do not contain the most important truth: that we can only be saved through following Jesus Christ, which of course requires us to not do evil things such as witchcraft.

Freemasonry and Temple Services

This is all a long explanation for my simple claim that: Yes, freemasonry actually does have extremely ancient roots and connections to ancient occultism. However, that doesn’t mean freemasonry is *good*, since freemasonry’s ties are only to the evil occult religions. Or more specifically, I view masonry as a mid-tier Satanic belief system, since it doesn’t explicitly teach witchcraft, but its’ dubious promises of deep knowledge are intended to lead people towards more nefarious forms of occultism or at least distract them from the commandments. This should have actually been plane from the beginning: if freemasonry was on the good side, then it would encourage people to believe in Christ, but it doesn’t.

Which brings our discussion to Mormon temple practices. This instructional portion quite simply was largely inspired by freemasonry:

1. The secret handshakes taught in it are literally identical to ones taught by freemasons.
2. The ceremony where you knock, and someone asks who comes, and then you give the secret hand signs to them to be let inside is exactly what happens in freemason ceremony.
3. The garment you are given in the temple has the square and compass on it, and the temple teaches that the symbols are indeed intended to be squares and compasses – which are of course the same symbols that define freemasons.
4. The beehive, an early Mormon symbol, also came from freemasons.
5. And finally, the penalties in the temple given for diverging the secret handshakes – which are namely being disemboweled, having your throat slit, your heart ripped out, and your tongue ripped – also come from penalties in freemasonry. To note, these penalties were removed from temples in 1990 – see also the Wikipedia page Penalty (Mormonism).

Secret Oaths in the Book of Mormon

The doctrinal problem with these temple “covenants”, is that they immensely go against the foundational teachings of the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon repeatedly and with great urgency tells us to abhor these sorts of secret oaths, which – as is described by the Book of Mormon – are characterized by secret signs people make to each other, secret brotherhoods with members promising to support each other, and oaths towards these brotherhoods with penalties for breaking them.

Per the Book of Mormon, Satan has been enticing men to participate in these secret oaths from the beginning of time, since it is through these secret oaths and hand signs that “secret combinations” arise (or what we might call “conspiracies”), of which secret combinations threaten the liberty of every land in which they are found. As such, the Book of Mormon says that the historical records of the particularities of these secret oaths, signs, and covenants should be kept from the people, since they are too dangerous to be known by the masses (Alma 37:27–32). We are also warned in the Book of Mormon that specifically our society (the modern gentiles living in America) would be corrupted by these secret societies, resulting in God’s sword of justice hanging over our land (Ether 8:18-25).

Here are a few scriptures on this:

Helaman 6:21–27
21 But behold, Satan did stir up the hearts of the more part of the Nephites, insomuch that they did unite with those bands of robbers, and did enter into their covenants and their oaths, that they would protect and preserve one another in whatsoever difficult circumstances they should be placed, that they should not suffer for their murders, and their plunderings, and their stealings.
22 And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant.
…24 And whosoever of those who belonged to their band should reveal unto the world of their wickedness and their abominations, should be tried, not according to the laws of their country, but according to the laws of their wickedness, which had been given by Gadianton and Kishkumen.
25 Now behold, it is these secret oaths and covenants which Alma commanded his son should not go forth unto the world, lest they should be a means of bringing down the people unto destruction.
26 Now behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadianton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit—
27 Yea, that same being who did plot with Cain, that if he would murder his brother Abel it should not be known unto the world. And he did plot with Cain and his followers from that time forth.

Ether 8:14-16
14 And it came to pass that they all sware unto him, by the God of heaven, and also by the heavens, and also by the earth, and by their heads, that whoso should vary from the assistance which Akish desired should lose his head; and whoso should divulge whatsoever thing Akish made known unto them, the same should lose his life.
15 And it came to pass that thus they did agree with Akish. And Akish did administer unto them the oaths which were given by them of old who also sought power, which had been handed down even from Cain, who was a murderer from the beginning.
16 And they were kept up by the power of the devil to administer these oaths unto the people, to keep them in darkness, to help such as sought power to gain power, and to murder, and to plunder, and to lie, and to commit all manner of wickedness and whoredoms.

Alma 37:27–32
27 And now, my son, I command you that ye retain all their oaths, and their covenants, and their agreements in their secret abominations; yea, and all their signs and their wonders ye shall keep from this people, that they know them not, lest peradventure they should fall into darkness also and be destroyed.
28 For behold, there is a curse upon all this land, that destruction shall come upon all those workers of darkness, according to the power of God, when they are fully ripe; therefore I desire that this people might not be destroyed.
29 Therefore ye shall keep these secret plans of their oaths and their covenants from this people, and only their wickedness and their murders and their abominations shall ye make known unto them; and ye shall teach them to abhor such wickedness and abominations and murders; and ye shall also teach them that these people were destroyed on account of their wickedness and abominations and their murders.
…31 Yea, and cursed be the land forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before they are fully ripe.
32 And now, my son, remember the words which I have spoken unto you; trust not those secret plans unto this people, but teach them an everlasting hatred against sin and iniquity.

God Works not in Darkness

Because the Book of Mormon authors had amazing foresight, they also very helpfully specified explicitly that these sorts of secret combinations do not come from God: “For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations” (Ether 8:19), and “the Lord God worketh not in darkness” (2 Nephi 26:23).

2 Nephi 26:21–23
21 And there are many churches built up which cause envyings, and strifes, and malice.
22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.
23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.

Ether 8:18-25
18 And it came to pass that they formed a secret combination, even as they of old; which combination is most abominable and wicked above all, in the sight of God;
19 For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man.
20 And now I, Moroni, do not write the manner of their oaths and combinations, for it hath been made known unto me that they are had among all people, and they are had among the Lamanites.
21 And they have caused the destruction of this people of whom I am now speaking, and also the destruction of the people of Nephi.
22 And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not.
23 Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.
24 Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you; or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built it up.
25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.

Discussion

While I believe that the core temple ordinances probably are from God, I highly doubt that all of the weird secret handshakes and oaths in the instructional portion of the temple are from God for the following reasons:

To begin with, we already know that these are literally the same handshakes and door nocking ceremony used by the freemasons and that Joseph Smith and many of his compatriots had joined or had previously joined the freemasons – meaning quite simply that these symbols came from the freemasons and not from God. And to the apologists saying “well, perhaps the freemasons were master historians who inherited these symbols from God”, my reply is: please read the Book of Mormon and then learn about what the freemasons do. Freemasonry is the perfect embodiment of the types of secret combinations that the Book of Mormon warns us against. The Book of Mormon even prophecies that the gentiles would unearth the Book of Mormon during a time when their society was plagued by secret combinations – and if you know even a little bit about American history, then you will know that freemasons are precisely the society that had taken over early America during Joseph Smith’s time (for example, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock were freemasons). The Freemasons – and their creepy secret tokens and penalties – are the bad guys, and of course they are! Jesus Christ is not worshiped in their occult religion!

More generally, the idea of there being secret oaths with penalties and covenants where groups of people pledge loyalty to each other precisely violates Book of Mormon doctrine. As said previously, the Book of Mormon tells us that God does not work in darkness or in secret combinations. That isn’t to say that there aren’t doctrines withheld from people due to their lack of faith of course. But the doctrines withheld are not *secret handshakes*, because – again – we are told that God does not work in darkness or secret combinations. The idea that the ancient prophets who wrote the Book of Mormon themselves believed in “secret handshakes” in the temple is frankly ridiculous – from their text, you can tell that they were incredibly against secret gestures. Apologists might point at Ether 3:21 as an example of the Lord keeping secrets – but basically the entire point of the book of Ether is that secret combinations are bad and originated from Satan and not God – so the idea that the prophet Ether actually secretly liked secret hand gestures and fraternities is ludicrous. More generally, the Book of Mormon prophets were the ones who said that the concept of secret oaths and signs should be kept from the people since such secret works were too dangerous to the liberty of the land to even be known in a historical sense, and so it is insane to believe that they were actually the ones teaching these things in their temples the whole time.

For people claiming that I have it all backwards and the secret brotherhoods and handshakes actually came from God, and Satan simply has corrupted them, please read your scriptures. Firstly, we know these did not come from God because “the Lord worketh not in secret combinations” (Ether 8:19), and “the Lord God worketh not in darkness” (2 Nephi 26:23). But more specifically, we know this did not come from God because the Book of Mormon quite explicitly spells out how these secret brotherhoods formed – namely, they first came to man when Satan taught Cain works of darkness – meaning the secret oaths did not come from God originally.

Specifically, Ether 8:14-16 says “And Akish did administer unto them the oaths which were given by them of old who also sought power, which had been handed down even from Cain, who was a murderer from the beginning. And they were kept up by the power of the devil to administer these oaths unto the people, to keep them in darkness, to help such as sought power to gain power, and to murder, and to plunder, and to lie, and to commit all manner of wickedness and whoredoms.” Helaman 6:21–27 further explains, “those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadianton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit— Yea, that same being who did plot with Cain, that if he would murder his brother Abel it should not be known unto the world. And he did plot with Cain and his followers from that time forth.” To emphasize, these verses wouldn’t make an iota of sense if the Nephites were already practicing secret oaths and handshakes and brotherhoods with gruesome penalties for disobedience in their temples.

Moses 5:16–57 gives a longer account of how the secret oaths originally were taught to man when Satan appeared to Cain, meaning that it was Satan and not God who first taught man the art of secret combinations. Here is an excerpt:
29 And Satan said unto Cain: Swear unto me by thy throat, and if thou tell it thou shalt die; and swear thy brethren by their heads, and by the living God, that they tell it not; for if they tell it, they shall surely die; and this that thy father may not know it; and this day I will deliver thy brother Abel into thine hands. 30 And Satan sware unto Cain that he would do according to his commands. And all these things were done in secret… 51 For, from the days of Cain, there was a secret combination, and their works were in the dark, and they knew every man his brother.”

On the minute chance that heaven has a special exception to the rule against secret brotherhoods and fraternities formed with secret hand signs and gruesome penalties, it should be incumbent on the church administrators – and not random members who don’t know anything about the temple’s innerworkings – to explain this exception somewhere in the temple ordinances or temple prep classes. But they don’t explain this special exception – because there isn’t one – because this ordinance quite simply goes against the scriptures.

One of the most annoying parts of the endowment is that when you begin the instructional segment, you are told the following: “The endowment is to prepare you for exaltation in the celestial kingdom. 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 judgments 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.” Basically, you are pressured into agreeing into making all of these weird oaths before even knowing what they are, with the implication that you cannot get into heaven if you don’t agree. And when this happens, you are in a room full of people and so you feel a lot of social pressure to just go along with the ceremony. This is just weird. God doesn’t work in darkness or in secret conspiracies. Also, it seems like a mockery to say that they are giving the initiates “free will and choice”, when they literally are socially pressuring people on pains of not entering heaven into taking vows when they don’t even know what the vows will be (which reminds me of studio c’s parody video where middle age priests are pressured into taking vows of silence). Ultimately, this proceeding just seems very disrespectful towards initiates, and I don’t think it would be in God’s character to do this. Another weird thing about the temple is it says that men are high priests to God, but that women are high priestesses to their husbands. I’m not a feminist, but even I think this is wrong and false doctrine.

Interestingly, the only parts of Mormon temples that are *secret* are the Masonic elements that were later added. The core temple doctrines – such as temple marriage or baptisms for the dead – are not secret.

The final problem I have with all the weird secret handshakes is that it implies that we are saved via having a special knowledge of secrets, rather than simply having faith, being selfless, and being willing to make sacrifices for God. In my view, these temple ordinances fits into the larger umbrella of “Salvation by Knowledge” ideologies, which are very common across all religions – which I am sure makes Satan very happy since all of this distracts people from the actual laws of the gospel – such as being humble, refraining from excesses, and aligning your heart with Jesus Christ.

Perhaps there are secrets in heaven, but ultimately, I think God looks at our heart to decide our place in heaven, rather than watching to see if we can correctly perform “signs and tokens” – and I present to you the entire scriptures as evidence for this (and my many essays explaining the scriptures).

The Historical Tragedy

To understand how the early Mormons could give into the very same secret combinations that their founding document – the Book of Mormon – so adamantly warned against, it is important to understand the historical context. By the time Joseph was killed by the mob, this is what the body of saints had already gone through in Missouri:

After the early saints legally purchased lands in Jackson county Missouri and built a city there, they were expulsed from the area by mobs into Clay county. In Clay county, they again legally purchased land and settled, but once again were violently expulsed into Caldwell county as well as Daviess and Carroll Counties, where they again legally purchased the land and settled the areas. But once again, they were violently expulsed, and so retreated to Nauvoo Illinois (Memorial of the City Council to Congress).

It is important to note that in each of these instances, they had been settling uncultivated frontier land – so it wasn’t that they were moving into other people’s cities – rather, they were building their own cities from virgin wilderness, which then resulted in the nearest towns to them deciding to attack with mobs. As a result, many early Mormons lost everything they owned, not just once, but several times, and many others simply were killed by the mobs.

After retreating to Nauvoo, the mobs once again threatened to destroy the saints if Joseph Smith didn’t give himself into government authorities to face trial for things of which he was accused. So Joseph Smith gave himself in, but the mobs didn’t actually want Joseph Smith to face a fair trial, so they simply stormed his prison and killed him while he was in it. The mobs also didn’t keep their promise to the saints and drove them out of Nauvoo anyway, resulting in the Mormon migration to Utah.

At this critical point in early Mormon history during the height of their persecutions was when the temptation came:

The saints wanted there to be a “reason” for all of their persecutions. Something which would make all of the persecutions “worth it” – something special that only they had. The “new” temple ordinances offered exactly this: they promised a new supernatural power, which only the Mormons could possess. Instead of the other religious sects combining together secretly to drive out the Mormons, finally the Mormons were establishing their own brotherhood of mutual protection. And through the “sacred” oaths that they took with each other, they hoped that their new brotherhood would one day become powerful enough to gain justice for the many wrongs committed against their religion and finally create a place where they would be free from all persecution.

Thus, in their desperation, the Mormons turned for protection towards the very thing which they had been warned against in their scriptures: taking part in secret oaths and brotherhoods. This seduction was especially appealing given that the freemasons were among the few groups to remain somewhat friendly to the Mormons in the church’s early history. I am reminded here of the star wars quote: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” I suppose my modification of the quote is “Fear leads to desperation. And desperation leads to temptation”.

Statue Moroni

I wish the conversation about Mormon temples could end with the weird secret handshakes. But the worse problem in my view is that the there are occultic groups which pretend to be Mormons that have infiltrated the “deep Church” bureaucracy (these groups are sometimes called intergenerational Luciferians). These groups are the ones responsible for all the nonsense we see in the Mormon church – from its weird political views (discussed in Why The Mormon Church Might Be Deceived (Part 1 – Politics)), to the Mormon church’s connection to the deep state (Mormon Leaders Replaced, Hide and Seek, Fishing, Dreams About Conspiracy Theories), and also to the church’s connections with child trafficking (Sex Prisoners and Evil Mormon Missionaries).

While mormonmonarch is the main source in detailing the church’s connections to trafficking and the CIA, and my dreams have validated his claims, here are a few other corroborating facts:

• A Mother and Her Missionary Son Finding Light and Truth Amid Deep Darkness
• https://gordonbowencourtdocuments.com/
• Tim Ballard, the Mormon hero from Sound of Freedom who rescues human trafficked children, claims the “deep church” is trying to obstruct him (source).
• Tim Ballard Claims SATANlSM RITUALS Happening in LDS Church (yet still fully believes)
• Per one reddit summary, Tim Ballard reportedly “went on a right-wing show and ranted about the church. How it’s been infiltrated by the deep state. He also made a … allegation that the church is somehow behind satanic csa rituals. He said that Utah is the epicenter of child csa [child sexual abuse].” (reddit).

Returning to the focus of this essay – Mormon temples – I believe that one piece of evidence of these secret combinations having infiltrated the church can actually be seen in the architecture of the temples. While there are many weird things about Mormon temple architecture to analyze, and in general Mormon temples have a fairly diverse set of appearances, the one commonality between temples, which I believe hasn’t been properly investigated by Mormons themselves, is the statue at all of their tops: the statue Moroni.

The typical anti-Mormon talking point is that this statue is “an idol” – which is definitionally false since Mormons don’t worship the statue nor do they worship angel Moroni, and so it is no more of an idol than any other random piece of decoration (would you say that a random statue of George Washington is an idol? Or a Christmas tree?). But there might be something to this point as we will see.

Interestingly, basically all of the early Mormon temples didn’t have the statue, and the first statue of Moroni was actually made 48 years after Joseph Smith died and 15 years after Brigham Young died. As an aside, this alone shows how Mormon architects didn’t bother to preserve any of the features from Joseph Smith’s temples or his revelations on temple worship, but they cared a lot about this one specific detail that ostensibly never came from any prophetic revelation and only emerged 50 years after Joseph Smith died.

But if we look at the images of the of the original angel Moroni statue sculpted by Cyrus Dallin in 1892, there is something far stranger:

(the original statue)

This is a photo of the statue without the trumpet and with the gold burnish:

And this one has the trumpet:

This statue design was nearly exactly copied in other temples, such as the Idaho Falls temple and Boston Massachusetts temple:

(this is the Boston Massachusetts statue Moroni – I also find it is interesting that Boston would be one of the other cities with this copy of the statue)

The first thing I notice is that this statue clearly is wearing a dress and not a robe. Even the neckline and shoulder straps are obviously feminine features for clothing, as is the statue’s high waste line. This does not align with scripture, which says that Moroni wore a loose robe, of which robe covered his arms to just above his wrists – unlike this statue, which doesn’t even have sleeves (Joseph Smith History verse 31).

The second thing I notice is that the figure of the statue looks a bit more feminine than masculine, in that it has wide hips, narrow shoulders, and some photos have the barest hints of breasts (I will admit the breasts aren’t obvious, but then again, the statue of liberty doesn’t clearly have breasts either, since that was the style of the time).

And the third thing I notice is that the statue is wearing a rounded sort of crown. I suppose you might say that this is its “halo”, but in my opinion this sculptor is extremely good at what he does, and if he had truly intended for it to be a halo, then it would have been made differently. Also, the statue was burnished in metal, so it would have been no problem for them to literally mount a golden ring over its head.

In summary, while it is less obvious that the statue’s bodily figure *truly* is feminine, given that its outfit is very obviously a female dress, we can conclude that the figure actually was supposed to be of a female. [I can already imagine that the doubters will latch onto my more dubious point about the figure looking effeminate and will conveniently ignore the glaringly obvious fact that it is wearing a female dress, of which fact confirms that the figure actually was intended to look effeminate].

And to show contrast, here are some other statues from the same artist, Cyrus Dallin:

As you can see, when this artist wanted his figures to look masculine, they clearly looked as such.

So why then did Cyrus Dallin make the “angel Moroni” actually be of a woman? And what is the weird crown she is wearing?

My Theory

At this point, we must enter the land of speculation. I cannot *prove* for sure that this theory is true, but at least I have an explanation for why the statue is wearing a dress, and my explanation is not the extremely ridiculous idea that this happened *by chance*. No master sculptor would give a male angel, known for being a military general, a feminine dress and physique.

My theory is that a secret group of occultists has been infiltrating the Mormon church for over a century. Since they are occultists, they worship a different god – the god of wisdom – most commonly known as Sophia, but of which has gone under many different names throughout history such as Isis, Athena, Chokmah, Hecate, Nisaba, the Virgin Wisdom of Rosicrucianism, the divine feminine, or the queen of heaven (often referenced negatively in Jeremiah).

Therefore, this inner group is the one responsible for corrupting Mormon temple worship. They put their god, Sophia, wearing her crown, on top of the Salt Lake temple, and they mixed in their own rituals into the temple ceremonies.

And to note: yes, the later statues of Moroni look more masculine. I’m not saying that these occultists have infiltrated every wing of the Church. Rather, I think they only ever intended for the Salt Lake temple to be their center of occult worship (and perhaps Boston Massachusetts as well), and then later on naïve Mormons started copying their work in other temples, and in the process changed the statue of the angel Moroni to actually look like the angel Moroni. To understand this point, you must realize that while the Salt Lake Temple angel Moroni was made in 1892, almost all of the temples after it didn’t have this statue. It was only in 1956 that a second temple was given an angel Moroni statue (the Los Angeles Temple), and this was also a one off until the 1980s, when the church started putting angel Moroni statues on top of all the temples. Only in the 2000s did the church add these statues to its original temples which had never been built with the statue, meaning that for the first 150 years of the Mormon Church, almost all of its temples did not have the statue of the angel Moroni.

Conclusions

In this essay I have outlined a few different elements from Joseph Smith’s teachings conspicuously missing from modern Mormon temples, detailed inconsistencies in the statue Moroni on the Salt Lake City which I believe are evidence of occult activity, and I have criticized the signs and tokens of the instructional portion of the temple endowment. Therefore, there are a few different layers to question of Mormon temples:

Firstly, I believe that the core temple ordinances – including baptisms for the dead, marriages, and parts of the washing and anointing – are good and come from God.

I think that weird stuff about signs and tokens added to the temple later are bad, and do not come from God.

But the biggest problem is that there is an inner sect within the Mormon church who are doing their own mysterious things in the temple outside of the normal temple endowment. While the temple of Moroni is but one small data point leading to this conclusion, this secret society has been the topic of several of my dreams, and I also list a few facts implying said society could exist in Sex Prisoners and Evil Mormon Missionaries.

All of this discussion also reminds me of a story I was told by a recent convert who I came to know when I was a missionary. She recounted that during the first time she did baptisms for the dead in the temple, she had a vision of seeing light and darkness colliding into each other within the temple. I believe this vision perfectly encapsulates Mormon temples: the light represents the truth and goodness of ordinances such as baptisms for the dead, whereas the darkness represents the corruption of other temple ordinances as well as the nefarious activities of the secret groups who pretend to be Mormon and have infiltrated the church.