0:00:19 - 0:00:42 essentials of the L DS Endowment. And I, I want to focus on central points that are very easy to miss. I think if you understand what the purpose is and the means employed, everything in that ceremony becomes very easy to understand. And since the Lord delights in plainness, we're gonna go ahead and 0:00:41 - 0:01:02 uh and worship him by clarifying this and, and just making it plain. So as a disclaimer, I want to say two things. First off, I'm going to make this as brief as I possibly can. We have 10 slides total. We're already through. This is the second slide. Um There's much, much, much more to understand. This 0:01:01 - 0:01:19 is a wonderful launching point into the entire gospel. But of course, we're not going to be able to go through all that here. Uh I'm not gonna talk about anything in this presentation that's controversial, at least from my perspective. So don't expect any, any things to be said that people would be uncomfortable 0:01:18 - 0:01:38 with given promises they make there. Ok. So what are we gonna talk about? Well, pretty much everything, tokens and signs covenants, priesthood and the Ministry of Angels. But again, these are just gonna be as, as brief as I can manage. The, the key here is to, well, to give you keys of understanding 0:02:03 - 0:02:28 we're talking about things like parables or language in any way, just, just words, just plain old words, they're meant to communicate information more effectively, but they can be used in ways that make things more confusing now. Um to, to, to de complicate these things, to simplify them. Um All you 0:02:28 - 0:02:46 need to understand is is what the intent was and, and what some of the words mean. So, so let's start with priesthood. It's a huge one and this is, this is a wonderful launch point. If you want to go into a deep dive of the scriptures, really study this, you absolutely should, it's critical. What is 0:02:46 - 0:03:11 priesthood it's knowledge of and similitude to Jesus Christ. That's it. That's everything. Ok. Now, that should jar you a bit if you're, if you're new to this channel that, that should really cut through the gordian knot of, you know, is it what you do? Is it permission slips to, is it some magical power 0:03:10 - 0:03:37 from God? Is it, is, it isn't, look, power means your ability to accomplish what you desire or to enduringly obtain what you want, right? That's what power means. Priesthood power is the recognition that all power comes from God. And it's also fulfilled in Him. If you want a fullness, the only way you're 0:03:37 - 0:04:05 going to find it is by discovering more about how Jesus is and living that way yourself. God is no respecter of persons. Salvation is exemplified by Jesus Christ. If you want to obtain more of what God has, the only way is to become more like Him, a wonderful scripture that you can study further and 0:04:05 - 0:04:27 you'll want to expand before and after this particular verse. But Jesus says in John 1623 he's talking to his disciples and he's describing the importance for them to take upon themselves his name or to become more like he is to adopt his character. And he says that in a future day, he says, ye shall 0:04:27 - 0:04:48 ask me nothing verily verily I say unto you whatsoever, you shall ask the father in my name. He will give it you and this is one of those passages that's a little perplexing uh until you sidestep all of the, the traditions that we get locked up in. Because we think that when we're asking something in 0:04:48 - 0:05:07 his name, we're just tacking on that in the name of Jesus Christ. That's not at all what it means. It means to actually do the work to figure out what Jesus wants and then ask for what he wants, ask for the father's help in doing what Jesus would do in your place. And the Lord says, as we become more 0:05:07 - 0:05:34 like him, then whatever we ask the father for, he will give us and we won't need to count on Jesus in order to receive those things. Now, that doesn't mean that he gets uh relegated to, to uh you know, set aside in some way, he, he always remains at our head. But the point is that we won't need extra 0:05:33 - 0:05:56 help in obtaining what we seek because we will seek it in the same way the Lord would in our place. So as we learn more about him, we actually become more like him anyway, that's the key to priesthood power. There's, there is no other way to obtain it. There's no, there's no side street or shortcut or 0:05:55 - 0:06:21 substitute. You actually have to figure out more about him and then live everything that you learn. And so what, what are these tokens and signs is another often confusing uh bucket of, of topics, tokens and signs. They're the degree to which you've learned and lived how Jesus would in your place. That's 0:06:21 - 0:06:48 what they're representing. The details of those tokens and signs. They can be useful in helping you understand that. But they're not the point, they point to something greater, which is this very simple idea. It's your knowledge about Jesus Christ and the degree to which you live up to that knowledge 0:06:47 - 0:00:00 . So what about the covenants? So a lot could be said about this. A lot could be said, but let's just keep it as, as brief and simple as we can. So in order to do that, and I'm just gonna sort of summarize what these things mean, the law of obedience, right? Step one. This corresponds to many, many, 0:00:00 - 0:07:40 many passages of scripture that talk about things like reconciling to God or being born again or entering the gate. It's repentance, it's, it's aligning yourself with God through obeying all the commandments that you currently know. Now that bit about that you currently know is really important. So this 0:07:40 - 0:07:59 is supposed to happen before you get baptized. It's a requirement before you get baptized in order for your baptism to be valid. That's all over the scriptures. You actually have to demonstrate by your fruits that it it's a works meet for repentance is a scriptural phrase, right? You're demonstrating 0:07:59 - 0:08:17 to the the person who's going to baptize you that you have kept all the commandments of God as they have taught you. And without that you're not supposed to get baptized. And what this corresponds to is the law of the celestial kingdom. A lot more could be said about that. We're just gonna keep it there 0:08:16 - 0:08:38 . But this is step number one and then the, we, we encounter the law of sacrifice. Now I'm gonna put this in a way you probably haven't heard of before, which is that sacrifice? We, we think of it in terms of giving something up for God. That's really a bad way to think about it. A much better way to 0:08:38 - 0:00:00 think about it is trading, what has lower value for what has greatest value. Now, now, why is it that, that sacrifice is never really giving something up because God is just, and what that means is that, you know, we receive the wages of Him, we who we obey. If you sin, you receive the wages of sin, 0:00:00 - 0:09:25 which is death and destruction, you perish. If you obey God, you receive the wages of righteousness, which is always better than whatever you had before. There is no loss with God. It's impossible. Now, there might be some time involved in reconciling all of that, but there is no loss with God. It's 0:09:24 - 0:09:46 impossible to give up anything for God without receiving something better. And that's a beautiful thing. And, and if you don't understand that it's really hard to live that law because you're always going to feel like it's gonna be begrudging. You're, you're going to only give a gift with resistance 0:10:06 - 0:10:29 gift to God begrudgingly, right? It won't work for what it's supposed to do. You have to learn to love the things that God asks you to give up quote unquote because you realize that he's not asking you to give up anything. He's just asking you to trade up for something better. Then we get to the, so 0:10:29 - 0:10:55 that corresponds to the terrestrial kingdom, then we get to the law of the Gospel. OK. So le let me back up a second. Why is the law of sacrifice um correlated to the terrestrial kingdom? Because the re the law of the terrestrial kingdom is justice it. You get what you deserve and what the law of sacrifice 0:10:55 - 0:11:17 is, is is trying to get across is that there's a price for everything and you have to pay the price of what you want. Now, there's so many little nuggets that if you can uh understand them and apply them in your life, even in isolation, they would have huge ramifications. It would, it would vastly improve 0:11:17 - 0:11:35 your life. This is one of them. What would your life be like if, instead of desiring all these things that you don't deserve, trying to get something for nothing, which is a very hard game to play if, instead of all of that, because, because you'll always be disappointed either in your inability to get 0:11:35 - 0:11:59 what you don't deserve or your inability to keep it because you'll lose it. Uh It says there's a verse in Luke where the Lord says that uh those who don't deserve what they have will have what they think they have removed from them when his justice is, is settled. So that's not a place you wanna be because 0:11:58 - 0:12:16 that's, you're gonna despair about that. And, and there's a final version of this in the judgment, but people experience this all the time in life where they lose what they thought they had. You know, they're shocked by some person they thought they knew turning out to be someone much worse than they 0:12:16 - 0:12:37 thought or they have this awesome job and all of a sudden they lose it or, or, or, or right, they lose a bunch of money. Uh They lose a loved one, they lose any of these things that they thought they had and it's terrible. So a better way is to live so as to deserve what you desire and in a nutshell 0:12:37 - 0:13:01 , that is the law of the terrestrial kingdom. And how, how is that connected to the idea of the law of sacrifice. Well, you shoot for the best that, you know, and you pay whatever price it takes to get it because by definition, any price required to get the best, you know, is worth it because it will 0:13:01 - 0:13:23 be less than the best, you know? I hope that makes sense. Ok. So now we transition to the law of the gospel. This is really simple. The law of the Gospel is to do all you understand he would do in your place and nothing he wouldn't. Now you might ask if you're paying attention, how is that different 0:13:23 - 0:13:45 than the law of obedience? Because isn't that to, to reconcile yourself to the commandments of God? Well, there's a difference between rules and character. All right. So the simplest example, if you look at the 10 commandments, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, right. It's a list of things 0:13:44 - 0:14:06 that, well, there are a couple of things you, you should do in that list. But for the most part, it's a list of things that you should not do. The rules. They're specific descriptions of behavior for certain situations. Well, the law of the gospel expands on this because instead of keeping a list, you're 0:14:06 - 0:14:30 trying to become a person. Do you see the difference? It's huge. Instead of saying, well, here's a list of things God wants me to do. And here's a list of things that God doesn't want me to do. You switched over to say, what would the Lord do in my place? How is he as an individual, as a person? And 0:14:30 - 0:14:55 I'm going to do exactly as I sincerely believe he would in my circumstances. Now, as you do this, you learn more about him and, and the important part of this is that you remain reconciled to his example as you learn more about him. Now, that law, the law of the Gospel, it's the law of the celestial 0:14:54 - 0:15:29 kingdom. You can be in the terrestrial kingdom. And uh you can read about this in, in DNC 76 you can be in the uh terrestrial kingdom and not know anything about God. At least not by that name. So honorable people go to the terrestrial kingdom, just people and you can be just without believing in God 0:15:29 - 0:15:51 explicitly. And there are many people who claim to believe in God who are not just and so they will go to the celestial kingdom. And again, you could read about that in the doctrine and covenants. So in the, in the temple ceremony, the law of the gospel is received in the celestial kingdom. And there's 0:15:51 - 0:16:13 a reason for that. And the reason is that that here and now on this earth is where we have access to these things that doesn't answer the question of how we receive it or through whom would be better put. And we'll get to that in just a minute. But that's very important. It's a tremendous blessing for 0:16:13 - 0:16:42 us to be on this planet. Ok. Creation is not cheap. Creation costs a great deal. And one of the reasons that cost is justified is because it exposes us to people that we would not have access to in heaven in, in the preexistence. Ok. Again, we'll get more to this in, in a few slides. So now let's talk 0:16:42 - 0:17:01 about the law of chastity. What's that about? And why does it come after the law of the Gospel? Isn't that weird? If the law of the Gospel is this, this uh all encompassing idea of learning more about how Jesus is and reconciling yourself to his character? Then why does the law of chastity represent 0:17:00 - 0:17:25 a step further? Because it's a context in that context is marriage and Children. So I highly encourage you to read Ephesians 522 through 29 for further reading on this. And that's where it talks about how uh wives should love their husbands like they love Christ and husbands should love their wives like 0:17:24 - 0:17:52 Christ loves the church. Because that context, that situation of marriage and Children, it's meant to teach us more about how Jesus is and give us the opportunity to become like what we learn. Now, finally, we in, in the, in the, in that same vein, we reach the law of consecration. That's also a contextual 0:18:19 - 0:18:44 this new context of marriage and Children. And then we take it to another level through the law of consecration. And so that is to become more like Christ through dedicating all your resources to the benefit of others. OK. So for further reading on that, I invite you to search the following phrases in 0:18:44 - 0:19:12 scripture for the benefit of Zion, for the benefit of the world. And what you'll find is that these things will take you to descriptions of the Lord and what he does and why and what we're supposed to aim for. And uh essentially what the law of consecration is in a nutshell is. It's invite inviting you 0:19:11 - 0:19:35 to become a pure altruist someone who's motivated exclusively by desires for the welfare of others. And that is the highest call. It's the fulfillment of how Jesus over and over again. And, and John's a great resource for this, the gospel of John over and over again. He invites us to love everyone just 0:19:35 - 0:19:56 like he does in the same way. Now, both the law of chastity and the law of consecration they're received in the terrestrial kingdom in, in, I'm I'm saying in, in the, the detail of the endowment ceremony. You're in the terrestrial kingdom when you receive these two laws, why is it that you receive those 0:19:56 - 0:20:29 two laws in the terrestrial kingdom and not in the telestial kingdom? Because you can only learn these things in and through ministry from people who are celestial. So marriage eternally only exists in the celestial kingdom. And you can only see examples of consecration in people who are celestial. That's 0:20:29 - 0:20:53 why Jesus said, as I have loved you, love one another. He showed us what that was like and he had to come down from heaven to do it right again. Go to DNC 76 if you want to learn more about this. And that's where it talks about how terrestrial people receive ministry from celestial people. OK? We're 0:20:53 - 0:21:18 gonna keep rolling. That was a tremendous amount of information. And I hope you uh realize that, feel free to watch that again and again to get the most out of it, take notes from the endowment itself. We're told your endowment is to receive all those ordinances sorry in the house of the Lord, which 0:21:17 - 0:21:37 are necessary for you to enable you to walk back to the presence of the father, passing the angels who stand as Sentinels, being able to give them the keywords, the signs and the tokens pertaining to the holy priesthood and gain your eternal exultation. Now, we've talked about with some of these things 0:21:36 - 0:22:01 mean uh signs, tokens. I didn't explicitly mention keywords. But, but those are uh similar in meaning to the signs and tokens. It's, it's a measure of how much, you know, the Lord and the extent to which you live, what you know. But what's this business about walking back to the presence of the father 0:22:00 - 0:22:31 and passing angels who stand as Sentinels? And what does it mean to gain eternal exaltation? Well, let's talk about that. Let's start with eternal exaltation. To be exalted means to be uh raised up. And in the scope of this topic, it means to become more like Christ and eternal describes a time frame 0:22:31 - 0:22:58 . So it's forever. All right. So let me break this down. So uh let's talk about how this works. The Kingdom of God, it's organized into sub kingdoms. That's why he's the king of kings and the lord of lords in God's kingdom. There are other kings and there are a bunch of lords and they all stand below 0:22:57 - 0:23:23 Christ in lesser kingdoms. It's a chain. OK? A tree if you will. So in DNC 8837 we read there are many kingdoms for there is no space in which there is no kingdom. And this is a key part here and there's no kingdom in which there's no space, either a greater or a lesser kingdom. All right. Another principle 0:23:23 - 0:23:46 is that every kingdom has a law. So there are all these kingdoms and each and every one of them has a law, DNC 8838 says, and unto every kingdom is given a law and unto every law, there are certain bounds also and conditions. All right. Another principle is that every law provides certain blessings in 0:23:46 - 0:24:08 DNC 1 32 5, it says, for all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing and the conditions thereof as were instituted from before the foundation of the world. So putting all this together to gain your eternal exultation to pass the angels who stand 0:24:08 - 0:24:28 as Sentinels, being able to give them these keywords, signs, tokens, et cetera pertaining to the holy priesthood. What it means is you will rise to the level of blessings that correspond to the level of law that you received and lived in mortality. I'll say it again, you will arise to the level of blessing 0:24:27 - 0:24:57 that corresponds to the level of law that you received and lived in mortality. That is why you are here to gain your eternal exaltation to, to return to what was before in a higher state than you were before. That's the point in this principle again, from DNC 130 there's a law irre irrevocably decreed 0:24:56 - 0:25:24 in heaven before the foundations of the world upon which all blessings are predicated. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. So the more you learn about Jesus and the more you live, what you learn, the higher you'll go. The temple explicitly 0:25:23 - 0:25:47 teaches how this happens and put as simple as I can as simply as I can, you gain greater understanding of how Jesus is through those who know him better than you do. There's the key phrase that you'll hear several times in the ceremony, having been true and faithful in all things, desires greater light 0:25:47 - 0:26:16 and truth. And that, that is a description given by a messenger, an angel about you as you ascend through different levels of law. Is this making sense? So you're iteratively exposed to more and more information about Jesus. And then as you apply, everything that you're taught, you get messengers of 0:26:16 - 0:26:41 greater glory who come and show you greater things or more even more about Jesus. And so you, you, they come down, they're sent down and they teach you or they show you and then you implement what you're shown and you become like them in that way and then it happens again and again, right? This is the 0:27:10 - 0:27:43 you know, people popping down from heaven. So how does this work as you approach a more normal life. Well, it, it, it's exactly as it's shown when you understand that that true ministers don't have to be angels glorified beings dropping down from heaven. God uses people here. In fact, this is one of 0:27:43 - 0:28:05 the key blessings of mortality is that there are celestial, terrestrial and celestial beings all mixed up here on earth. Have you ever thought about that as you walk through a busy city, there are a whole bunch of celestial people. There are some terrestrial people and celestial people are super rare 0:28:04 - 0:28:26 . Now again, with more time, I, I can make a, a strong case for this, but I'm just blurting it out to, to help you along as much as I can in a brief presentation. So we read this, for example, moron I seven, I want to point to a very long series I did on moon I seven. You can find it on this channel 0:28:25 - 0:28:51 , just, just look for it. It's got a blue um title if you're watching this on youtube, but you can search for for Maroni and, and find it and it's a verse by verse um analysis of the chapter. But just this, this brief passage here, we're gonna look at three verses, the office of angels. Um Their ministry 0:28:50 - 0:29:11 is to call men unto repentance and to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the father. So already some light bulbs should be firing because call men unto repentance and the covenants of the father that, that intersects with some things that we've already talked about, which he hath made unto 0:29:11 - 0:29:32 the Children of men to prepare the way among the Children of men by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord that they may bear testimony of him. This is interesting. So if you look at this diagram again, once you become like the messenger who invites you to become more like Christ 0:29:32 - 0:29:55 , you can then do the same for others. That's why you're the same color in this diagram, you could then go to others and invite them in the same way, which is exactly what you're supposed to do. It's part of the fulfillment of as I have loved, you, love one another and you might not think of loving someone 0:29:54 - 0:30:15 as inviting them to be better. But that's exactly what the scriptures describe. If you look at the example of Christ's interaction with the rich young ruler, it says that he looked at him when, when the, when the man said master, I've done, I've kept all the commandments. What more should I do to, to 0:30:14 - 0:30:41 inherit eternal life? It says Jesus looked at him and loved him and then he said, sell everything you have and give to the poor. So inviting others to improve is a fulfillment of loving others as Christ loves, loves us. And this is the way that God reaches other people. So he'll lift you up and then 0:30:40 - 0:31:05 send you to lift others up to where you are. And it happens cyclically iteratively. Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ, he was saying, become like I am as I am more like Christ than you. And that's the chain. OK? This is the Ministry of Angels and Paul was a mortal being. He was alive here just 0:31:05 - 0:31:26 like you and me. And in that state, he was fulfilling this role verse 32. And, and by so doing, the Lord God prepare the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the holy ghost may have place in their hearts according to the power thereof. And after this manner bringeth to pass the 0:31:26 - 0:31:49 father, the covenants which he hath made unto the Children of men. And Christ had said, if you have faith in me, you shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me. So we have the key to power in the priesthood. We talk about the endowment of power. The temple ceremony does not give you that 0:31:49 - 0:32:14 power. It gives you the ability to recognize when that power is offered to you outside of the temple through ministry of angels who invite you to be more like Jesus than you are right now because they know him and are more like him than you. That's what you're shown very explicitly in the temple. But 0:32:14 - 0:32:34 unfortunately, so many people just skip over all that and they just, they're just like AAA little baby doll with a pull chain on the back and they just go Covent, Covent, Covent, Covent Covent Covenant and they have no idea what they're talking about. Ok. So that's the way it works. And this is nonnegotiable 0:32:34 - 0:32:54 . This is the process. You can't just jump from one level all the way to the top, from the bottom, all the way to the top. It's incremental. There's a reason why when Adam was cast out of the garden, the, the father didn't just pop down from heaven and give him all of his glory. There, there are multiple 0:32:54 - 0:33:12 reasons why that didn't happen. It's all over the scriptures. There are some really interesting chapters and verses about that. OK? It's incremental. It's step by step. It has to be. And the, the way that you gain greater understanding of how Jesus is, is through those who know him better than you. And 0:33:12 - 0:33:34 you might protest that and say, but what about scriptures? What about the scriptures? That's proof of what I'm saying. It's not a counterexample. Find me a scripture that wasn't written by someone who knew Jesus better than you. Exactly. OK. So I referred to DNC 76. But here's, here's one of the passages 0:33:33 - 0:33:53 that you should study again. Thinking about the, this, this model here, this picture that I've drawn. These are they who receive the, talking about the celestial people. These are they who receive not of his fullness in the eternal world. But of the Holy Spirit through the ministration of the terrestrial 0:33:52 - 0:34:10 , in the terrestrial, through the ministration of the celestial. And also the celestial receive it of the administering of angels who are appointed to minister for them or who are appointed to be ministering spirits for them for they shall be heirs of salvation, these chains they develop here on earth 0:34:10 - 0:34:30 or they, I should say they function here on earth as well because it's incremental. If you're a celestial person, you're not gonna receive celestial truth because every kingdom has a law appointed and that law is beyond the kingdom, you're living in way beyond. It's just the next thing. That's our, our 0:00:00 - 0:00:20 Uh Today, I saw a post on Twitter where a gal asked, does anyone have any good resources for learning more about the endowment? And I thought to myself, you know, there's a lot that could be said about this that hasn't been said. So I'll go ahead and share my thoughts on this. So here we have this presentation 0:01:37 - 0:02:03 at least uh so that you can get much further in your own approach to this than you have so far. All right. So let's go over some of those keys of understanding what makes the temple ceremonies a little tricky is the symbolism that's actually meant to make them easier to understand. And so uh whenever 0:09:46 - 0:10:06 in your heart. And there are scriptures about that. Jesus talks about this in the New Testament. How? That's a big, no, no. Um So he says, go, go and first reconcile yourself to um the person where there's a fence and that the the the symbolic application of this for, for this context is don't give a 0:17:51 - 0:18:20 uh advancement of the law of the Gospel. So basically, you're hit with this three times which should ring a bell. OK? Three times. First you get the law of the gospel in its um we'll say organic form, right? And then it's general form. And then we're invited to, to learn it in, in a greater detail through 0:26:41 - 0:27:10 cycle. This is what you're shown. Now. One point of confusion with all of this is how does that map to our daily lives or our particular lives? Because maybe you haven't had Peter James and John literally come and visit you. Although some people have literally received visible ministry of angels, uh 0:34:30 - 0:34:55 window for everything that we desire it. It's in the, the very next thing we see it from where we stand all the time. God sends the, the ministering angels to you where you stand and your reaction to them will determine your ascent or descent. Unfortunately. OK. So just putting it super plain, uh plain 0:34:54 - 0:35:19 Lee, this is an iterative process and each time, what are you, what are you shown in the ceremony? You're shown that each time you'll have greater interaction with those who are more like him than you think of. For example, the symbolism of the different tokens and signs. And that's, that's all I'll 0:35:18 - 0:35:43 say. But it's progressively more intimate. There's a reason for that with each interaction, you will have greater intimacy with the person who's more like Him than you. And what is that taking you towards well greater in intimacy with God himself, right? Think of the ceremony. That's how it progresses 0:35:42 - 0:36:13 . You also receive greater understanding of what Jesus is like. The example that you're shown is closer to him and then you become more like Him as you live. What you learn pretty simple. Huh? It's just a stepwise progression towards God. So in summary, the purpose of the L Ds Endowment is to show you 0:36:12 - 0:36:41 um more about how Christ is and the vehicle for that is through living the teachings and following the examples of those more like him than you. Another purpose is to give you greater reasons for learning and living more like Christ. Those include greater interaction with those more like God than you 0:36:41 - 0:37:07 , which is a paradoxical blessing to be around better and better people, just like it's a blessing to be in heaven because you're around better and better people and also to give you greater power to accomplish what you desire. Because remember, priesthood power is nothing more or less than knowing more 0:37:07 - 0:37:16 about Jesus and being more like Him. So I hope this is helpful. That is what the L Ds endowment is all about.