Beyond Mitt's Underwear: Part 4: Ordinances
The rituals and practices that Smith restored are called ordinances. Saving ordinances such as full immersion baptism and receiving the holy spirit are required prerequisites for exaltation, eternal increase, and godhood. Sealing ordinances such as marriage and adoption preserve relationships in the afterlife. Endowment ordinances such as the second anointing or ordination into the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods endow their recipients with heavenly powers. The Second Anointing is the ceremony where a Mormon receives their garments aka "magic underwear". The Second Anointing formerly involved the initiatory wearing a thin poncho while same sex members reached underneath to apply oil to body parts being blessed including the “loins”, but the Church changed this practice in 1990 so that they only place their hands on the head. In addition to the saving ordinances here are also non-saving ordinances such as naming children, consecrating oil to anoint the sick, differentiating angels from demons, and minor curses.
The King James version of Genesis 14 ends with verse 24, but the Melchizedek priesthood is mentioned in the the 15 verses that Joseph Smith added. Mormons receive the Melchizedek priesthood after swearing the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood in which they swear pledges of obedience, sacrifice, consecration, and fidelity. The Law of Obedience requires them to “live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God”, including the instructions of the Church and Prophets who speak for God. The Law of Sacrifice requires Mormons “to sacrifice whatever is required of us, whether time, or talent, or riches, or the praise and honor of men, or whatever it may be, to the extent the Lord may require it”, to “sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary, in sustaining and defending the kingdom of God”. The Law of Consecration requires them to “[consecrate their] time, talents, and means to the Lord’s work as called upon by our leaders”. The Law of Fidelity requires Mormons to abstain from sex before marriage and have sex only with their spouses after marriage.
Ordinances are physical, literal processes which must be completed properly for salvation. If a baptism isn't full immersion, even if just a toe happens to be sticking out, it doesn't count. Because some people die without access to ordinances, Mormons perform ordinances including baptism vicariously - another Mormon is physically baptised sealed, washed and anointed, or endowed as a proxy of the dead person. Mormons vicariously perform all the saving ordinances to allow dead people trapped in "spirit prison" to escape. Mormons base vicarious baptism on a reference in 1 Cor 15:29, even though Paul's letter to the Corinthians is criticizing the obscure, never-again-mentioned practice. Vicarious baptisms are performed “first for our own ancestors and then for others”, where the names of "others" are either submitted by members or gathered by the Church's official name extraction program. In 1995, 2002, and 2005 the Church apologised and agreed to stop baptising Jewish Holocaust victims, but the practice has continued. Some Hindus are also mad about baptizing Gandhi, and most dead celebrities appear to have been baptised several times. The Church tries to explain that only church members' families are baptised and that offending names were submitted by overzealous members, but the Church's extraction program which the Lord himself established has provided approximately 80 percent of all names going to the temple to be posthumously baptised - over 100 million names and counting.
The physical rituals of Mormon ordinances have been practiced since Adam received the Melchizedek priesthood. Historians point out that Hyrum Smith and Joseph Smith Sr. were active Freemasons, and Smith’s secret temple rituals and symbols are very similar to the secret Masonic rituals including the symbols of the eye, compass, square, and pentagram, the giving of a secret name, and secret grips and handshakes. The Mormon temple ritual no longer includes the Masonic portion of the secrecy ritual where the throat and stomach are cut and the tongue is ripped out; the church removed that portion of the ceremony in ~1990 along with some of the parts in Adamic language. It also no longer includes the Oath of Vengeance, a pledge for God to “avenge the blood of the prophets upon this nation”, the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, although the popular hymn "Praise to the Man" still reminds the faithful that "Earth must atone for the blood of that man".
Mormon weddings aka "temple sealings" are very different than traditional weddings. They're performed as part of the endowment ceremony in which various portions of the creation and plan for salvation are reviewed and rehearsed. Mormon husbands give new names to their wives so that they can be called in Heaven. Husbands who have learned the signs and tokens practice pulling their wives through "the veil" so that they can enter Heaven. They also watch a movie.
Eternal/Celestial Marriage has become one of the most important ordinances to modern Mormons. The Church still holds that polygamy is the “order of heaven”, with Elohiem and Adam having multiple wives. Mormon husbands will be simultaneously married to every wife they have been sealed to on Earth, and may also be given additional spiritual wives in heaven. Official Declaration 1 did not end polygamy, it denied “teaching polygamy or plural marriage” and commanded Mormons to “refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land”. Polygamy is still the “order of heaven”, a practice temporarily suspended until the laws of the land change or God reveals it’s time to start again. Polyandry is still prohibited although Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Heber Kimball were sometimes married to the same women or women who already had other husbands. Today divorced Mormon men can be sealed to new wives, but divorced Mormon women cannot be sealed to new husbands until their previous sealing is dissolved, at the discretion of the church. Mormon women who remarry in civil marriages will still be married to their old husbands in the afterlife unless they are unsealed. In addition to posthumous baptism, posthumous marriage is rarely but occasionally practiced, permitting women to be posthumously sealed to multiple men. All very ironic for a faith concerned about “traditional marriage” only when it relates to same sex couples. (If anyone's interested in this, I've also been writing an extensively annotated and referenced post on the history and current status of polygamy from 1827 through today.)
Part 1: Apostasy and Restoration
Part 2: Scriptures
Part 3: Preexistence, Creation, and Plan for Salvation
Part 4: Ordinances
Part 5: Temple Recommend and Splinter Groups
Part 6: My Thoughts
The King James version of Genesis 14 ends with verse 24, but the Melchizedek priesthood is mentioned in the the 15 verses that Joseph Smith added. Mormons receive the Melchizedek priesthood after swearing the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood in which they swear pledges of obedience, sacrifice, consecration, and fidelity. The Law of Obedience requires them to “live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God”, including the instructions of the Church and Prophets who speak for God. The Law of Sacrifice requires Mormons “to sacrifice whatever is required of us, whether time, or talent, or riches, or the praise and honor of men, or whatever it may be, to the extent the Lord may require it”, to “sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary, in sustaining and defending the kingdom of God”. The Law of Consecration requires them to “[consecrate their] time, talents, and means to the Lord’s work as called upon by our leaders”. The Law of Fidelity requires Mormons to abstain from sex before marriage and have sex only with their spouses after marriage.
Ordinances are physical, literal processes which must be completed properly for salvation. If a baptism isn't full immersion, even if just a toe happens to be sticking out, it doesn't count. Because some people die without access to ordinances, Mormons perform ordinances including baptism vicariously - another Mormon is physically baptised sealed, washed and anointed, or endowed as a proxy of the dead person. Mormons vicariously perform all the saving ordinances to allow dead people trapped in "spirit prison" to escape. Mormons base vicarious baptism on a reference in 1 Cor 15:29, even though Paul's letter to the Corinthians is criticizing the obscure, never-again-mentioned practice. Vicarious baptisms are performed “first for our own ancestors and then for others”, where the names of "others" are either submitted by members or gathered by the Church's official name extraction program. In 1995, 2002, and 2005 the Church apologised and agreed to stop baptising Jewish Holocaust victims, but the practice has continued. Some Hindus are also mad about baptizing Gandhi, and most dead celebrities appear to have been baptised several times. The Church tries to explain that only church members' families are baptised and that offending names were submitted by overzealous members, but the Church's extraction program which the Lord himself established has provided approximately 80 percent of all names going to the temple to be posthumously baptised - over 100 million names and counting.
The physical rituals of Mormon ordinances have been practiced since Adam received the Melchizedek priesthood. Historians point out that Hyrum Smith and Joseph Smith Sr. were active Freemasons, and Smith’s secret temple rituals and symbols are very similar to the secret Masonic rituals including the symbols of the eye, compass, square, and pentagram, the giving of a secret name, and secret grips and handshakes. The Mormon temple ritual no longer includes the Masonic portion of the secrecy ritual where the throat and stomach are cut and the tongue is ripped out; the church removed that portion of the ceremony in ~1990 along with some of the parts in Adamic language. It also no longer includes the Oath of Vengeance, a pledge for God to “avenge the blood of the prophets upon this nation”, the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, although the popular hymn "Praise to the Man" still reminds the faithful that "Earth must atone for the blood of that man".
Mormon weddings aka "temple sealings" are very different than traditional weddings. They're performed as part of the endowment ceremony in which various portions of the creation and plan for salvation are reviewed and rehearsed. Mormon husbands give new names to their wives so that they can be called in Heaven. Husbands who have learned the signs and tokens practice pulling their wives through "the veil" so that they can enter Heaven. They also watch a movie.
Eternal/Celestial Marriage has become one of the most important ordinances to modern Mormons. The Church still holds that polygamy is the “order of heaven”, with Elohiem and Adam having multiple wives. Mormon husbands will be simultaneously married to every wife they have been sealed to on Earth, and may also be given additional spiritual wives in heaven. Official Declaration 1 did not end polygamy, it denied “teaching polygamy or plural marriage” and commanded Mormons to “refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land”. Polygamy is still the “order of heaven”, a practice temporarily suspended until the laws of the land change or God reveals it’s time to start again. Polyandry is still prohibited although Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Heber Kimball were sometimes married to the same women or women who already had other husbands. Today divorced Mormon men can be sealed to new wives, but divorced Mormon women cannot be sealed to new husbands until their previous sealing is dissolved, at the discretion of the church. Mormon women who remarry in civil marriages will still be married to their old husbands in the afterlife unless they are unsealed. In addition to posthumous baptism, posthumous marriage is rarely but occasionally practiced, permitting women to be posthumously sealed to multiple men. All very ironic for a faith concerned about “traditional marriage” only when it relates to same sex couples. (If anyone's interested in this, I've also been writing an extensively annotated and referenced post on the history and current status of polygamy from 1827 through today.)
Part 1: Apostasy and Restoration
Part 2: Scriptures
Part 3: Preexistence, Creation, and Plan for Salvation
Part 4: Ordinances
Part 5: Temple Recommend and Splinter Groups
Part 6: My Thoughts