Category: Temples and Temple Ceremony
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Current Mormon Temple Ceremony Now Available
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner As we were working on our new book, Evolution of the Mormon Temple Ceremony: 1842-1990, we had a very unexpected thing happen: we were offered a transcript and a tape of the new 1990 revision of the “endowment ceremony.” We, therefore, decided to publish it in our new book together…
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Temple Ritual Altered
Mormon Leaders Delete Some of the “Most Sacred” Parts of Ceremony By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In response to Fawn M. Brodie’s book, No Man Knows My History, the noted Mormon apologist Hugh Nibley declared: Yet of all churches in the world only this one has not found it necessary to readjust any part of…
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Witchcraft Controversy Rekindled
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In the Salt Lake City Messenger for September 1988, we noted that a statement by Walter Martin of Christian Research Institute had finally ended a controversy between our ministry and Ed Decker. At the heart of the disagreement was a question regarding the influence of witchcraft and Satanism on the…
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CRI Statement Ends Witchcraft Dispute
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner Most of our readers are aware of the fact that for a number of months we have been involved in a disagreement concerning the question of whether the Mormon temple ceremony came from witchcraft and Satanism. The conflict centered around William Schnoebelen, a man who participated in both witchcraft and…
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Covering Up Syn
Ex-Satanist Brings Confusion to Mormons and Their Critics By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In the late 1960s William Schnoebelen, a young man who had always wanted to be a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, decided to enter into the occult. On September 22, 1968 he became a “1st Degree (Gardnerian Tradition) Witch.” He later…
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Magic in Mormonism
A wealth of research shows that Joseph Smith was involved in magic practices, not just as a dabbling fancy, but to the point of incorporating them into his prophetic pursuits.
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Devils All Over?
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In the March 1987 issue of the Messenger, we warned that some critics of the Mormon Church have become so obsessed with finding “Luciferian” influence in the temple ceremony that they have lost sight of reality. Since we published that article, things have gone from bad to worse. In a…
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Obsession With Lucifer?
Hugh Nibley zealously supported Mormonism, accepting Mark Hofmann’s forged Anthon transcript. Critics accused Mormons of calling on Lucifer in temple rituals with “pay lay ale,” but research suggests it means “Wonderful God,” not “Wonderful Lucifer.”
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Kimball’s Journal Confirms Oath of Vengeance
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner We have recently printed one of Heber C. Kimball’s journals by the photomechanical method. Davis Bitton, formerly Assistant LDS Church Historian, described this journal as follows: 5. “The Journal of Heber C. Kimball.” Restricted volume. Entries from 21 November 1845 to 7 January 1846. Much of this volume concerned with…
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The Changing World of Mormonism: Chapter 22
Temple Work [NOTE: On May 3, 1990, the New York Times made the startling announcement that the Mormon Church had changed some of its secret temple ceremony. The penalties, which played such a prominent part in the ritual, have now been completely removed and other important changes have been made. In our book, Evolution of the Mormon Temple Ceremony:…