Penalties in the Latter-day Saint Temple Endowment

Maybe you've heard of "penalties" in an old version of the temple endowment. The practice of outlining ritual consequences for covenants goes all the way back to the Bible and can help us know that God is true to his covenants.

==========
Transcript

==========
Download the ScripturePlus app

==========
Follow ScripturePlus on social media

[UVJ_Scott]

So happy to have knowledgeable, faithful members to answer questions. Thank you!

[mikez]

When I use to go through the Temple, we took literal covenants we would slit our own throats if we revealed certain things.

[joshstucki]

The penalties in the temple are the same and in the same order as the Freemason penalties given in their initiation ceremonies.

[jmhatutube]

Great video! Your explanation was very well done while maintaining and emphasizing the sacred nature of the Temple oaths and covenants. Thank you for the Old Testament connections.

[saintinlower]

I’ve been an active and faithful member for decades, but you teach me a lot.

[danite]

I really do admire the lessons you do for us sister Jasmin.

[brassmonkey]

But, what about the blood oaths in the LDS temple that were taken out after April 1990.

This video is disingenuous to its title.

Yes, we made oaths in the temple, my parents said, "I suffer my life to be so taken, " penalties were literally meant. And, taken out when people started, rightly so, to be creeped out by the cult behavior of the LDS temple.

[susantobelknight]

Please slow down. I can’t understand you because you’re speaking too fast. The closed captioning also can’t keep up.
What you’re teaching is very important. I’d love to understand your message.
Thank you.

[ElderJoseph]

@ 2:38 Seeing the Interior of the temple and it's equally exuberant exterior, Is it perhaps applicable to quote a Book of Mormon passage here? Of course you would just have to substitute 'churches' for temples', but the principle can be applied I think.

Mormon Chaper 8 [verse 37] For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.

[latter-daysaintpud]

The lessons are interesting but to be honest they run too quick for me to understand exactly what is being explained.

[joshua.snyder]

Those are some really loose, and weak connections.
Somewhere Brigham Young is eye rolling.

[alexanderbarclay]

In an attempt to justify some of the material on this channel, at least one of the videos it provides quotes Bres Bednar as saying “that “We may discuss the basic purposes of, and /the doctrine and principles associated with, the Temple ordinances and covenants.” Which, of course, is perfectly correct and understandable.

However it is interesting – and important - to note that Pres Bednar has not said (or has ever said) that it is appropriate for us to discuss THE DETAILS of any of the Temple procedures outside of the Temple.

As far as I am aware, that instruction continues to be given to new Patrons at the temple today.

[lesliek]

You are so knowledgeable but you speak so quickly I can hardly process what you are saying. Please slow down.

[edwardwhitley]

All of the biblical penalties cited here come from the Old Testament. In the New Testament, when Jesus delivers the sermon on the mount, he gives a series of blessings (the beatitudes) that have no curses attached to them. This reads like a deliberate reversal of the OT pattern from Deuteronomy where the covenant with God is based on a pattern of blessings and curses. Instead, Jesus establishes a covenant of grace, wherein God will make the sun shine and the rain fall on the just and the unjust alike: blessings for all, curses for none. When Christians make the sign of the cross, they are not suggesting that they should be crucified if they fail to live up to their covenants; rather, they are suggesting that they have internalized the grace of Christ, which removes curses and extends blessings. Of course, Jesus still expects us to keep the commandments ("I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it"; "If ye love me keep my commandments"). But the fundamental relationship with God through Christ is based on love and grace, not the threat of violence and curses. This is one of the reasons why other Christians are reluctant to think of LDS as fully Christian--because we (I'm LDS) make temple covenants that are rooted in threats of violence, not in the grace of Christ.

[SilverOilman]

Are you saying “unalive” because of something YouTube has dictated? It’s kind of off-putting.