AboutMichael Kelley Expertise For a different viewpoint on Mormonism for your questions, try me. I am a staunch believer in the Book of Mormon and belong to another church (the Church of Christ)that is set up identically to the Biblical church. If there are things about traditional Mormonism that trouble you or you have questions about, just ask and you might find the answers from the Book of Mormon to be quite surprising. I have been studying the scriptures diligently for 16 years under the school of hard knocks... I may not have all of the answers but will sure go find them if I don`t. I`m strongest on Biblical and Book of Mormon doctrines, and am also somewhat familiar with Mormon history and archaeology.
Question I'm sorry Michael for bugging you so recently but I have only just found this site. so I am a little giddy.
I finally answered one of my questions to you about which faction you belonged to of the many that split after the prophet ( Joseph smith) demise. I think that there was some other questions in there too so please if you get this response first then please don't waste your valuable writing time on this.
One more question when you talk about No celestial marriage plural marriage and such but you have never mentioned does your church condone or do the endowment? that is only the endowment in the temple for individuals? Not clear on that. I believe that the Nauvoo Temple was being built for this purpose even before the death of JS. am i right on this?
I also have many other questions for you which are not appropriate at this time. (doctronal BoM questions the great and abominable church....etc.)
Your hopeful companion in the life's search...
God be with you.
Ben
Answer Hi Ben,
In answer to your question about the endowment, there are a few members in the CoC (Church of Christ) that believe in the endowment and this is one of their main reasons why they are so eager to build the temple so that this will somehow enable the endowment. Most in the CoC (as far as I know) do not believe in this doctrine and it certainly is not an official CoC doctrine or article of faith. Yes, Joseph Smith taught this doctrine and it was a component of the Celestial Marriage doctrine.
Most of those few in the CoC that believe in the Endowment doctrine are transplants from the RLDS faction and they retained some of their excess baggage when they made the transfer. The RLDS believed in it also and sold many of their more conservative churches for cash to pay for their temple in hopes of obtaining this endowment. Of course the endowment never occured and now their temple is more of a museum dedicated to "world peace" and, I might add, man's folly.
Some believe the endowment is much like what happened at the day of Pentecost when they spoke in tongues and received the gift of the Holy Ghost in great power. Yet... this event occured in an upper room of somebody's house, not the temple. The early Christian church did not even have a temple other than the temple of Solomon which continued to practice the Law of Moses even after the veil was rent in twain because of the fulfillment of Christ's work on the cross. The Holy Ghost was given to others AFTER the day of Pentecost to individuals such as Paul and he certainly was endowed with great gifts... yet the temple was not a part of obtaining these gifts.
The gift of the Holy Ghost is given to those who truly repent and are baptized for a spiritual cleansing, and then are given the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying of hands. No temple is required. To say we are NOT endowed today with the Holy Ghost denies what Jesus did on the cross for us, denies the gift of the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands, and says to the world "we are spiritually immasculated because we are not endowed, because we do not have a "building made with hands"".
God even told David that He did not need a house built with human hands, that the earth was his footstool. God only allowed Solomon to build a temple because that was what the people wanted... much like how they wanted a king to their detriment.
The BoM teaches that for a man to perform a miracle in Jesus name (signs of being endowed) he must first be cleansed every whit of his iniquity, and must ask doubting nothing. I know of precious few today who fulfills those requirments. The endowment (increased gifts of the Holy Spirit) are held back not due to the absence of a building built with human hands and of dubious purpose, but is held back because of iniquity and unbelieve... what the Book of Revelation terms as being "lukewarm".
