Ephesians 5:6; “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
By the end of 1846, the Mormon Church was touting close to 34,000 members, making for an impressive display of growth for a new religion. Equally telling are records for the same time period revealing the 5,200+ endowments performed in their one and only, operating temple. All of those endowments were for the living, with no recorded endowments for the dead.
Almost 140 years later, their membership and endowment work had grown exponentially. By the end of 1985, membership sat just shy of six million, but there was a huge shift in how they utilized those temples.
The major focus of temples had evolved from endowment ceremonies for the living to ceremonies for the dead. As an example, in 1985 the Church recorded that 54,554 endowments were performed for the living, as opposed to 4,857,052 endowments for the dead. See The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony, p. 42.
Now the Church’s agenda is more about saving everyone who’s ever lived on earth, rather than saving those who are still walking on it. The 2007 PBS documentary reported that 2 billion names of dead people were being stored in vaults just outside of Salt Lake City awaiting their coveted offer of Mormon salvation.
The Church is anything but mum about their agenda. Their genealogy site, FamilySearch, claims they’re adding 400 million new names, each and every year. Back in 1931 during the depression era, they were even paying people to come in and perform endowments for the dead.
This recurring theme of saving your dead relatives has saturated their General Conferences for the past ten years. It’s safe to say that at least 80% of the speeches given at the GC’s are on the topic of being worthy so you can do works for your dead relatives. The ominous words of their past prophet, Joseph Fielding Smith, comes to mind when he said the majority of the Saints’ time will be spent on performing vicarious works for dead relatives.
Doctrines of Salvation 2:166-167 “…the work must be done in behalf of the dead of the previous 6,000 years, for all who need it. Temples will be built for this purpose, and the labor in them will occupy most of the time of the saints.” – 1955
Spencer Kimball reiterated the same message 25 years later, but one has to wonder how they’re living up to the name of their church. How can dead people be members of the ‘latter-day Saints’ if they lived 2-300 years ago? These people are being washed, anointed, baptized, confirmed, sealed, and married as members into the Church. See The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony, p. 41.
Overshadowing all the info above is what the Church doesn’t openly advertise to members and nonmembers alike. There are no original transcripts of the ceremony. As a matter of fact, the ceremony is a product of something piecemealed together into what we know it to be in 2016.
Page 20 of the document mentioned above states the following;
“…no text of the 1842 ritual is available. The first detailed description of the ceremony as carried out in the Nauvoo Temple occurs in 1845 and seems to suggest that the dramatic elements of the ceremony were added at that time.”
Mr. Buerger noted the following regarding this issue –
pp. 5-6; “nowhere did Joseph leave a direct statement of how the endowment ceremony came to be. The History of the Church account of that first Nauvoo endowment quotes him as saying, “All these things referred to in this [Endowment] council are always governed by the principle of revelation” (HC 5:2). This “quotation” actually was an anachronistic reconstruction by Willard Richards composed between 14-18 April 1845, reportedly based on a very brief, incomplete entry from the Book of the Law of the Lord. (There is a gap in Joseph Smith’s diary between October 1839 and December 1842.) On so important and central an ordinance, it is striking that there is no revelatory document extant, nor are there any known contemporary references to a revelation by either Joseph or his associates.”
Well, it’s striking all right, but ironically not surprising since everything in the Church seems to be done in an ad-hoc fashion.
What’s sad about this whole ordeal outside of it being unbiblical (as if that wasn’t bad enough), is the fact they’ve reengineered historical events.
If this was a true restoration movement God wanted Smith to enact, what exactly has been restored?
What were the Christians of the early 19th century not doing in God’s eyes?
What piece of Christianity was being ignored?
Remember Jesus’ words beloved when He said –
Mark 12:27; “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.”
I came across this in a Tweet 2 nights ago: LUTHER ON PRAYER FOR THE DEAD AND COMMUNICATION WITH SPIRITS. It’s from Dr. Martin Luther’s sermon in 1522. The excerpt and link to the full sermon is here with biblical reference verses:
http://academic.cphblogs.com/historical-theology-and-church-history/luther-on-prayer-for-the-dead-and-communication-with-spirits/