By Jerald and Sandra Tanner

One of the most important tenets of the LDS Church is the necessity of temple ordinances. LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie explained:

From the days of Adam to the present, whenever the Lord has had a people on earth, temples and temple ordinances have been a crowning feature of their worship. . . . The inspired erection and proper use of temples is one of the great evidences of the divinity of the Lord’s work. . . . where these are not, the Church and kingdom and the truth of heaven are not. (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 780-781)

[Bold in quotations is added for emphasis and does not appear in originals.]

The LDS Church teaches that only those with proper priesthood authority can administer these essential rites. Joseph Smith supposedly restored the original temple ceremony of the Old Testament. The LDS temples are used for eternal marriages for both the living and the dead, as well as baptisms for the dead. A person must have a temple marriage in order to progress to godhood.

These ordinances, which are performed in special white clothing and a green apron, include secret handshakes and passwords. These are kept secret and are never to be discussed outside of the temple.

The LDS temple endowments and other rites are not based on biblical teaching. The temple in the Old Testament, with its High Priest and animal sacrifices, was a foreshadowing of Christ’s role as both our final High Priest and last blood offering for sin (Hebrews, chapters 5-9). When Christ died on the cross the veil of the temple was torn in half (Luke 23:45) thus signifying that the Old Testament temple ritual had been replaced by the atonement of Christ.

Second Anointing

Most people are aware of the LDS Church’s expanding temple building program. To date, there are over 100 temples in operation around the world. Through the years there have been numerous published exposés of the endowment ritual (see our book, Evolution of the Mormon Temple Ceremony: 1842-1990 [PDF]). However, there is another little known ceremony given by invitation from church leadership called the Second Anointing. In order to qualify for this anointing one must have proven him/herself worthy and already participated in the endowment ceremony.

LDS researcher David Buerger pointed out:

The higher ordinance was necessary to confirm the revealed promises of “kingly powers” (i.e., godhood) received in the endowment’s initiatory ordinances. Godhood was therefore the meaning of this higher ordinance, or second anointing . . .
(Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1983, p. 21).

The couple receiving their second anointing were to go to the temple, and then dress in their temple robes. On December 26, 1866, LDS Apostle Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal:

I met with The Presidency and Twelve at President Youngs Office at about 12 oclok. The subject of the Endowments & 2d Anointings was presented when President Young said that the order of the 2n anointing was for the persons to be anointed to be cloathed in their Priestly robes the man upon the right hand and wife or wifes upon the left hand. The Administrator may be dressed in his usual Clothing or in his Priestly Robes as he may see fit. The meeting Should be opened by Prayer then the Administrator should Anoint the man A King & Priest unto the Most High God. Then he should Anoint his wife or wives Queens & Priestess unto her husband. (Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, vol. 6, p. 307)

On January 11, 1846, Brigham Young and his wife received their second anointing. Part of their anointing reads:

Brother Brigham Young, I pour this holy, consecrated oil upon your head, and anoint thee a King and a Priest of the Most High God . . . for princes shall bow at thy feet and deliver unto thee their treasures; . . . And I seal thee up unto Eternal Life, . . . And thou shalt attain unto [the] Eternal Godhead . . . that thou mayest . . . create worlds and redeem them; so shall thy joy be full . . .

Elder Heber Chase Kimble then anointed Mary An Young, a Queen & Priestes unto her husband (Brigham Young) in the Church . . . Sister Mary Ann Young, I pour upon thy head this holy, consecrated oil, and seal upon thee all the blessings of the everlasting priesthood, in conjunction with thy husband: and I anoint thee to be a Queen and Priestess unto thy husband, . . . inasmuch as thou dost obey his counsel; . . . And I seal thee up unto Eternal Life, thou shalt come forth in the morning of the first resurrection and inherit with him all the honors, glories, and power of Eternal Lives, and that thou shalt attain unto the eternal Godhead, so thy exaltation shall be perfect, . . .
(Book of Anointings, as quoted in The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship, by David John Buerger, Smith Research Associates, 1994, pp. 88-90)

Originally, this ceremony seemed to be a guarantee of godhood. Mr. Buerger observed:

Because of the strict confidentiality surrounding second anointings, it is unclear precisely what long-term effect they had on recipients nor, for that matter, the degree to which the conferral of godhood was held to be conditional or unconditional. Most early nineteenth-century statements imply that the ordinance was unconditional. (The Mysteries of Godliness, pp. 112-113)

Today, the church leaders seem to be minimizing the importance of the second anointing and refer to it as a “special blessing” but not necessary for exaltation (godhood) (see The Mysteries of Godliness, p. 165). The official LDS magazine Ensign, March 2002, p. 18, emphasized the necessity of the endowment (as opposed to the second anointing) for “eternal exaltation.” The article went on to state: “Obedience to the sacred covenants made in temples qualifies us for eternal life . . .” According to Mormonism, a person’s endowment and temple marriage starts one on the road to godhood (D&C 132:20 — “Then shall they be gods”). While some Mormons emphasize that the word “gods” in the revelation is not capitalized, editions prior to 1900 have it capitalized. Also an official statement of the LDS First Presidency used the capitalized form, and declared that man’s ultimate goal was to evolve “into a God” (Ensign, February 2002, p. 30).

Joseph Smith taught that men had the capacity to achieve Godhood and rule their own planets. He also taught that our God was originally a mortal who achieved Godhood under the direction of another God (see History of the Church, vol. 6, pp. 305-306, 474). While Mormons say they worship only one God, they believe there are countless Gods in the universe.

However the Bible clearly teaches that there is only one God.

Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”
(Isaiah 44:6, NIV)

Husband to Call Wife from the Grave

Early Mormon Apostle Heber C. Kimball recorded the second anointing ceremony in his diary:

February the first 1844. My self and wife Vilate was annointed Preast and Preastest [Priestess] unto our God under the Hands of B[righam]. Young and by the voys [voice] of the Holy Order.

Apriel the first 4 day 1844. I Heber C. Kimball recieved the washing of my feet, and was annointed by my wife Vilate fore my burial, that is my feet, head, Stomach. Even as Mary did Jesus, that she mite have a claim on Him in the Reserrection. In the City of Nauvoo. In 1845 I recieved the washing of my feet by \[which follows is in Vilate’s hand:]\

I Vilate Kimball do hereby certify that on the first day of April 1844 I attended to washing and anointed the head, /Stomach/ and feet of my dear companion Heber C. Kimball, that I may have claim upon him in the morning of the first Reserrection. Vilate Kimball.
(On the Potter’s Wheel: The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball, pp. 56-57)

Mr. [David John] Buerger gave the following outline of the current second anointing ceremony:

In practice today the second anointing is actually the first of two parts comprising the fullness of the priesthood ceremony. . . . In the Salt Lake temple, second anointings are usually administered on Sunday afternoons. . . . The first part of the ceremony—being anointed and ordained a king and priest or queen and priestess—is administered in a Holy of Holies or special sealing room and is performed by or under the direction of the president of the church. There are usually but not always two witnesses. Only the husband and wife need to dress in temple robes. The husband leads in a prayer circle, offering signs and praying at an altar. He is then anointed with oil on his head, after which he is ordained a king and a priest unto God to rule and reign in the House of Israel forever . . . He is also blessed with the following (as the officiator determines): the power to bind and loose, curse and bless, the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the Holy Spirit of Promise; to attain godhood; to be sealed to eternal life (if not done previously); to have the power to open the heavens; and other blessings.

Next the wife is anointed . . . to be an heir to all the blessings sealed upon her husband . . . to receive the blessings of godhood; . . . to have the power of eternal lives (of posterity without end); . . .

At the conclusion of this ordinance, the washing of the husband’s feet by his wife is explained to the couple. It is a private ordinance, without witnesses. Its significance is related to the resurrection of the dead, as Heber Kimball noted. The couple is told to attend to the ordinance at a date of their choosing in the privacy of their home. At the determined time the husband dedicates the home and the room in which they perform the ordinance, which then follows the pattern of Mary’s anointing Jesus in Matthew 12. The ordinance symbolically prepares the husband for burial, and in this way the wife lays claim upon him in the resurrection. . . . Kimball’s journal entry derives from a speculative belief taught by early Mormons that Jesus married Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus.
(The Mysteries of Godliness, pp. 66-67)

The emphasis on the wife’s assertion that “I may have claim upon him in the morning of the first Resurrection” seems to relate to the teaching in the temple that the woman is called from the grave to exaltation by her husband.

Apostle Charles Penrose, writing in 1897, explained:

In the resurrection, they stand side by side and hold dominion together. Every man who overcomes all things and is thereby entitled to inherit all things, receives power to bring up his wife to join him in the possession and enjoyment thereof.

In the case of a man marrying a wife in the everlasting covenant who dies while he continues in the flesh and marries another by the same divine law, each wife will come forth in her order and enter with him into his glory. (“Mormon” Doctrine Plain and Simple, by Charles W. Penrose, p. 51)

Men and women are given new names in the temple and the wife is instructed not to tell her name to anyone other than her husband. Writing in 1846, one former Mormon woman described receiving her new temple name:

In one place [during the temple ritual] I was presented with a new name, which I was not to reveal to any living creature, save the man to whom I should be sealed for eternity. By this name I am to be called in eternity as after the resurrection.
(As quoted in The Mysteries of Godliness, p. 94)

Eternal Marriage

There is nothing in the New Testament about “eternal marriages” and secret rituals in a Christian temple. The Jewish temple ceremonies had no baptisms or marriages and are clearly explained in the Old Testament (Exodus, chapters 26-30).

The only eternal marriage in the Bible is the spiritual marriage of the believer to Christ. Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth: “I have espoused you to one husband [Christ], that I may present you [the Christians] as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). Paul also wrote in Romans 7:4 that Christians are to be “married to another, even to him [Christ] who is raised from the dead, . . .” This is a spiritual union, not an actual marriage. Christ never mentions the need for an eternal marriage. In fact, he taught just the opposite. In Luke 20:34-36 Christ said:

The people of this age marry and are given in marriage.
But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, . . .
for they are like the angels. They are God’s children . . .
(Luke 20:34-36, NIV)

Notice that Christ equated those who are “God’s children” with angels, not married couples. Christians look forward to being with their loved ones in heaven. As brothers and sisters in Christ we will be together as one large family, the family of God (Galatians 3:26). However, there is nothing in the Bible to indicate that this would include marriage relationships.

There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that the Christians were to build temples. Some of the early Jewish Christians met in the courtyard of the temple in Jerusalem for prayer but they certainly were not performing any rites like the Mormon ceremony. The New Testament teaches that God’s temple is a spiritual building made up of all Christians, with Christ as the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:16). This is emphasized in Ephesians 2:19-22:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
(Ephesians 2:19-22, NIV)

Contrary to the LDS teaching on the necessity of temple ritual, the Bible offers eternal life, in its fullest meaning, to all those who have placed their trust in Christ’s atonement (1 John 5:11-13).

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