By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

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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 speech given in Salt Lake City on June 29, 1987, Ed Decker discussed the spires on Mormon temples. He charged that

these spires represent something that is so sinister that it makes your flesh crawl when you think about it. . . . they represent an up-side-down nail pointing defiantly toward heaven, as if to impale the Lord Jesus Christ anew when he comes in the clouds. . . . Satan’s spires now rise up from almost every town in the country on LDS chapels . . .

Mr. Decker claimed that at the Capstone Conference new revelations would be forthcoming which “will blow your socks off.” At that conference, William J. Schnoebelen took up where Decker left off. He claimed that “the trapezoidal shape” of the spires on the Salt Lake temple “draw demons like fly paper.” He went on to say:

Now, we are going to attempt to prove that the Salt Lake Temple is, in fact, a perfectly designed habitation of devils, just like is mentioned in the book of Revelations.

In 1985 Mr. Schnoebelen published a booklet entitled, Joseph Smith and the Temple of Doom. Much of this same information has recently been printed under the title, Mormonism’s Temple of Doom. Unfortunately, this work is marred by an excessive zeal to link Mormonism to witchcraft. Mr. Schnoebelen seems to have been deeply involved in the occult and claims that he has portions of ceremonies used in witchcraft which bear some remarkable parallels to the Mormon temple ceremony. His most startling examples, however, are only preserved by photocopies of typewritten documents which could not possibly be very old. Our preliminary study of the material leads us to conclude that it is far more likely that portions of the Mormon temple ritual were plagiarized and incorporated into witchcraft ceremonies, rather than the other way around. We are planning to publish some evidence concerning this matter and would appreciate any insights that our readers may have.

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