🪶 THE TEMPLE AS A CEREMONY — OR THE TEMPLE AS A WAY?
🪶 THE TEMPLE AS A CEREMONY — OR THE TEMPLE AS A WAY?
A Talking Feather Comparison Between the LDS Endowment and the Nemenhah Sacred Walk
There is something I have been sitting with.
Not angrily.
Not trying to attack anyone.
Not trying to mock something many people hold sacred.
But quietly.
Carefully.
Prayerfully.
Because when something is called holy, it ought to lead us closer to Christ.
And when something is called covenant, it ought to make us more loving, more truthful, more humble, more alive, and more willing to serve.
That is the test.
Not how old it is.
Not who claims authority over it.
Not how beautiful the building is.
Not how many times we have been told, “This is sacred.”
The real test is simple:
Does it bring us to the living Christ?
🕊️ I WANT TO BEGIN WITH LOVE AND RESPECT
Before I say anything difficult, I want to say something very clearly.
There are many, many good people who serve in LDS temples.
Wonderful people.
Faithful people.
Humble people.
People who give hours and hours, even days and years, serving quietly in what they believe is holy work.
I honor that.
I am not writing this to mock them.
I am not writing this to tear down their sincere sacrifices.
Many of them are better people than I am.
Many go to the temple because they feel peace there.
Many go because they feel close to God there.
Many go because the noise of the world seems to quiet down there.
And I understand that.
I really do.
I have had sacred experiences in the temple myself.
🌿 SACRED EXPERIENCES I CANNOT DENY
There was a time when my father had passed on, and I felt a spiritual communication with him in the temple.
He had warned me before that rough times were about ready to begin.
And later, in the temple, I felt close to him again.
That was real to me.
Another time, before I married my dear wife, I felt a spiritual need to speak with her father, who had also passed on.
I loved his daughter.
I wanted to marry her.
And in that sacred space, I felt like I communicated with him.
I felt him answer me in Japanese:
“Hai.”
I had to look it up.
It means:
“Yes.”
To me, it felt like permission.
A blessing.
A father’s quiet approval.
That was beautiful.
That was sacred.
That was personal.
So please understand me.
I am not saying God cannot meet people in the temple.
I am not saying no Spirit is there.
I am not saying every experience there is false.
God is merciful.
God meets His children wherever they are honestly reaching for Him.
But here is what changed my life:
I used to think the temple was the main place — maybe even the only place — where I could feel that kind of closeness.
Then I began to learn something greater.
🔥 THE DAY EVERYTHING CHANGED
The day my life changed was the day I realized:
I could take the Savior home with me.
Not just feel Him in a temple.
Not just visit Him in a sacred building.
Not just dress a certain way, sit in a certain room, and hope He would be near.
But walk with Him.
At home.
In the car.
In my weakness.
In my questions.
In my marriage.
In my confusion.
In my pain.
In the grocery store.
On a dirt road.
And yes — even in a bar, if that is where love or service took me.
Now I know some LDS folks may cringe at that.
“A bar?”
Yes.
A bar.
Because Christ is not locked inside a recommend desk.
He is not trapped behind a veil.
He is not owned by a building.
He is not controlled by an institution.
He walks with the humble.
He sits with sinners.
He eats with publicans.
He goes after the lost sheep.
He meets the woman at the well.
He touches the unclean.
He comes into homes.
He walks dusty roads.
He stands at the door and knocks.
And when I realized I could walk with Him anywhere, something opened in me.
That was wonderful.
More than wonderful.
It changed everything.
The temple may point to Him.
But it must never replace Him.
🕊️ TWO DIFFERENT TEMPLE PATTERNS
As I have studied the LDS temple endowment and compared it with the Nemenhah sacred way, I have started to see a sharp difference.
The LDS temple ceremony often feels like something preparing a person for after death.
The Nemenhah temple way feels like something preparing a person for this life.
That is a big difference.
One can become a ceremony to pass through.
The other becomes a way to walk.
One can be centered on future glory.
The other asks:
How are you living today?
How are you treating your spouse today?
How are you caring for the poor today?
How are you walking with the Peacemaker today?
How are you becoming the temple today?
That is where the Nemenhah has been opening my eyes.
One pattern can become a ceremony we pass through. The other becomes a Way we walk every day — with Christ as the true center of both.
🌿 THE LDS TEMPLE COVENANTS
The LDS Church teaches that the endowment includes covenants connected with:
Obedience
Sacrifice
The gospel of Jesus Christ
Chastity
Consecration
Those are beautiful words.
No sincere follower of Christ should laugh at them.
Obedience can be holy.
Sacrifice can be holy.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is holy.
Chastity is holy.
Consecration is holy.
But the question is not whether the words are beautiful.
The question is:
Are they being lived?
That is where I have struggled.
Especially with consecration.
🔥 MY QUESTION TO A STAKE PRESIDENT
Years ago, I asked a very simple question.
If I have covenanted to consecrate everything, then what does that mean?
Do I need to change my will?
Do I need to give everything to the Church?
Are we living consecration now?
If this is really the law of consecration, where is the Zion community?
Where is the “no poor among them”?
Where is the shared stewardship?
Where is the actual pattern?
My stake president did not really know how to answer.
And I do not blame him for that.
He was probably a good man doing his best.
But that moment stayed with me.
Because if a person can covenant consecration in the temple, but the priesthood leader cannot explain how to actually live it, then something is missing.
That is not rebellion.
That is an honest question.
🌾 CONSECRATION: PROMISE OR LIFE?
This may be the greatest difference I see.
In the LDS temple, consecration can become a covenant spoken in a sacred room.
In the Nemenhah, consecration feels like a life actually lived.
Not theory.
Not future someday.
Not merely “give everything to the institution.”
But stewardship.
Community.
Care.
Balance.
Giving and receiving.
No compulsion.
No poor among them.
No one using covenant language to control another person.
In the Nemenhah way, consecration does not seem to mean:
“Sign everything over to a religious corporation.”
It feels more like:
“Everything belongs to the Peacemaker.
Receive it humbly.
Steward it wisely.
Use it to bless life.
Do no harm.
Build Zion in your actual relationships.”
That is not just a temple covenant.
That is a way of being.
Consecration is not just something promised in a sacred room — it is something lived in daily love, stewardship, and care for others.
⚠️ THE OLD PENALTIES WERE REAL
For those of us who went through the temple before 1990, we remember something younger members may not understand.
The endowment once included penalty language and penalty gestures.
That was real.
It was not something critics invented.
A whole generation of Saints remembers it.
We remember the language.
We remember the gestures.
We remember the seriousness.
We remember the feeling.
And whether someone later calls it symbolic or not, symbols matter.
They teach the spirit.
They train the heart.
They shape how we experience God.
For me, those older penalties carried fear.
They carried shame.
They carried a bodily threat.
And I have had to ask myself:
Can a holy covenant be protected by fear of death?
Can the way back to Christ be guarded by shame?
Can something be called sacred if the spirit around it says:
“Do not reveal this, or your life may be taken”?
That does not sound like the voice of the Peacemaker to me.
Christ does warn.
Christ does call us to repentance.
Christ does teach seriousness.
But His voice is not coercive shame.
His voice says:
“Come unto me.”
“Learn of me.”
“My yoke is easy.”
“My burden is light.”
A covenant made in love is different from a covenant guarded by fear.
🟩 THE APRON PROBLEM
There is another symbol that has bothered me.
In the temple drama, the adversary is the one who tells Adam and Eve to put on the apron.
That matters.
The apron is connected to the fallen condition.
To shame.
To hiding.
To self-covering.
In Genesis, Adam and Eve make coverings for themselves from fig leaves.
But later, God Himself clothes them.
That contrast is powerful.
Man makes one covering.
God gives another.
So when the apron remains in the ceremony, I have to ask:
Is this symbol showing us the fallen condition?
Or is it preserving something the adversary introduced?
Maybe it is meant as a reminder.
Maybe it is meant to show what we must overcome.
But it still raises a real question:
Why does the symbol introduced by the adversary remain so central in a ceremony meant to bring us back into God’s presence?
That is not mockery.
That is discernment.
🧱 MASONRY AND THE ENDOWMENT
There is also the Masonic layer.
The LDS Church itself now acknowledges that Joseph Smith and other early Saints were involved in Freemasonry, and that there are similarities between Masonry and the temple endowment.
Again, this does not automatically mean the LDS temple is evil.
But it does mean the history is more complicated than many of us were taught.
Some people believe Joseph restored a pure temple pattern.
Some believe Joseph borrowed from Masonry.
Some believe Brigham Young later systematized, expanded, or altered what Joseph began.
Some believe Brigham pinned later temple developments on Joseph, just as many of us believe later polygamy was pinned on Joseph.
I cannot prove every piece of that.
But I can say this:
The final Utah temple system was not simply dropped from heaven in one untouched package.
It came through people.
Through memory.
Through ritual.
Through Masonry.
Through Brigham-era development.
Through institutional control.
And maybe also through fragments of something much older and more sacred.
🪶 THE NATIVE / NEMENHAH POSSIBILITY
There is another story that deserves reverence.
Cloudpiler has shared that one of his great-grandfathers carried a tradition that Native people gave Joseph Smith some of the temple ceremonies.
Can I prove that from public documents?
No.
But do I dismiss it?
Absolutely not.
Because the Book of Mormon itself points us toward the remnant.
Joseph’s whole prophetic world was wrapped in the idea that ancient records, ancient covenants, and ancient peoples would speak again.
And when I look at the Nemenhah sacred way, it feels much more like a living temple pattern than an institutional ceremony.
It is earthy.
It is relational.
It is connected to creation.
It honors men and women.
It teaches virtue.
It teaches sacred stewardship.
It teaches the four directions.
It teaches the walk.
It teaches preparation to stand before the Peacemaker.
That sounds like temple to me.
Not temple as a building.
Temple as a life.
🌱 THE SIGN OF THE SEED
We talked about one of the gestures — cupped hands, then turning them over.
Some Native interpretations see that kind of movement as placing a seed into Mother Earth.
I do not claim that is the official LDS meaning.
But as a symbol, it is beautiful.
Cupped hands say:
I receive.
Turning the hands over says:
I plant.
That is a completely different spirit from penalty and fear.
It says:
“Heaven gave me something.
I do not clutch it.
I do not weaponize it.
I plant it into life.”
That feels close to the Nemenhah.
Receive from heaven.
Plant in the earth.
Let the seed grow.
Let God give the increase.
That is temple as creation.
Temple as stewardship.
Temple as life.
🌿 CHASTITY AND THE PILLAR OF VIRTUE
There is another contrast that feels very important.
In the LDS temple, the covenant of chastity has been explained in terms of sexual purity and faithfulness within marriage.
That is a good thing.
But over time, wording changes and cultural loopholes have created confusion for some people.
Years ago, many understood the law of chastity mostly in terms of not having sexual intercourse outside marriage.
Later wording became broader, speaking more of sexual relations or sexual encounters outside the marriage covenant.
That may have been intended to close loopholes.
But the fact that loopholes even became part of the conversation shows the weakness of a rule-based approach.
When chastity becomes only a technical boundary, people start asking:
How far can I go?
What exactly counts?
Where is the line?
What can I do and still say I did not break the rule?
That is not virtue.
That is legalism.
The Nemenhah approach, especially in the Pillar of Virtue, feels much deeper to me.
Virtue is not treated as a loophole game.
It is not merely avoiding one forbidden act.
It is covenant faithfulness of the whole soul.
A man dedicates himself to his spouse.
A woman dedicates herself to her spouse.
The body, heart, mind, desire, loyalty, and sacred power of creation are all gathered into fidelity.
That is beautiful.
That is clean.
That is strong.
That is not just “don’t cross the line.”
It is:
“Become the kind of person who would never want to betray love.”
That is a higher law.
In the Nemenhah, virtue feels like living truth in the body.
It is not shame.
It is not fear.
It is not loopholes.
It is sacred devotion.
It is covenant love.
It is the power to create life governed by holiness, tenderness, and trust.
That is far deeper than a rule.
That is a pillar.
Virtue is more than rule-keeping. In the Nemenhah way, it is whole-soul devotion — faithful, pure, and deeply rooted in covenant love.
⚖️ A SIMPLE COMPARISON
Here is how I see the contrast:
The LDS Temple Rite Can Become:
A ceremony.
A future promise.
A ritual of worthiness.
A guarded system.
A covenant tied to institutional authority.
A place where consecration is promised but not clearly lived.
A place where chastity can sometimes be reduced to rule-keeping.
A pattern that has carried fear, secrecy, penalties, and Masonic forms.
The Nemenhah Temple Way Feels Like:
A walk.
A present life.
A path of becoming.
A covenant verified by the Haymehnay.
A community pattern.
A way of living consecration now.
A virtue that is whole-soul faithfulness, not loophole religion.
A preparation to stand before the Peacemaker in this life.
That is the difference.
One says:
“Go through the ceremony.”
The other says:
“Become the ceremony.”
Sometimes a picture helps us see what words are trying to say. One pattern can become a sacred ceremony we enter. The other becomes a sacred way we live. The true center of both must always be Christ.
🕊️ THE FIVE LDS COVENANTS AND THE LIVING WAY
Let me say this carefully.
The five LDS covenants are not bad words.
Obedience can be holy.
Sacrifice can be holy.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is holy.
Chastity is holy.
Consecration is holy.
But any holy word can be lowered if it is placed inside fear, pressure, shame, legalism, or institutional ownership.
Obedience can become control.
Sacrifice can become burnout.
The gospel can become a checklist.
Chastity can become loophole management.
Consecration can become loyalty to an institution instead of love for God and neighbor.
The Nemenhah helps me ask better questions.
Not:
“Did I perform the rite correctly?”
But:
“Am I walking in the Way?”
Not:
“Did I make the promise?”
But:
“Is the promise becoming flesh in me?”
Not:
“Did I covenant consecration?”
But:
“Is anyone poor because I refused to love?”
Not:
“Did I technically avoid breaking chastity?”
But:
“Is my heart fully faithful, pure, and devoted?”
That is a very different temple.
🌄 TEMPLE AFTER DEATH OR TEMPLE IN THIS LIFE?
This is one of the biggest things I see now.
The LDS temple often gets framed around the next life.
Eternal families.
Exaltation.
The world to come.
Passing through the veil after death.
And those things may matter.
But the Nemenhah seems to ask a more immediate question:
Can you walk through the veil now?
Not by forcing it.
Not by pretending.
Not by memorizing signs.
But by becoming the kind of person who can stand in the presence of the Peacemaker.
That is what the true temple was always supposed to do.
Prepare a person to meet God.
Not someday only.
Now.
In the heart.
In the home.
In the way we treat our spouse.
In the way we handle money.
In the way we respond to enemies.
In the way we speak truth without using it as a weapon.
In the way we care for the poor.
In the way we hear the voice of Christ.
🔥 THE DEVIL’S LINE
There is a line in the temple drama where the adversary says something like:
If you do not live up to certain things, you will be in my power.
That line has always troubled me.
Because fear can attach itself to covenant.
And once fear attaches itself to covenant, people may obey — but not always because they love Christ.
They may obey because they are afraid.
Afraid of being unworthy.
Afraid of being cast out.
Afraid of losing family.
Afraid of being deceived.
Afraid of questioning.
Afraid of God.
But the Peacemaker does not train His people by spiritual intimidation.
He invites.
He corrects.
He chastens.
He heals.
He teaches.
He walks with us.
He does not say:
“Stay in line or you belong to darkness.”
He says:
“Come unto Me, and I will make you whole.”
That difference matters.
🌿 THE TRUE TEMPLE IS CHRIST
This is where I keep landing.
The true temple is not finally a building.
The true temple is not finally a ceremony.
The true temple is not finally signs, tokens, clothing, or special rooms.
The true temple is Christ.
And then, through Christ, we become temples.
A holy people.
A Zion people.
A people who carry His presence.
If a ceremony helps us become that, then it has served a holy purpose.
If a ceremony replaces that, then it has become a distraction.
If a ceremony binds us to fear, it must be questioned.
If a ceremony leads us to Christ, humility, love, virtue, and living consecration, then it bears good fruit.
That is the test.
🪶 WHAT I AM NOT SAYING
I am not saying temple workers are bad people.
I am not saying faithful Saints do not feel peace there.
I am not saying God cannot speak in the temple.
He has spoken to me there.
He has comforted me there.
He has allowed me to feel things there that I will always treasure.
But I am saying something changed when I realized Christ was not confined there.
The temple may be a place where people feel Him.
But the Way of Christ is learning to walk with Him everywhere.
That was the miracle for me.
Not leaving sacredness behind.
But discovering that sacredness could come home with me.
🕊️ THE DAY THE TEMPLE CAME HOME
For much of my life, I thought sacredness lived in certain places.
Certain buildings.
Certain rooms.
Certain ordinances.
Certain clothing.
Certain words.
But now I am learning that the Savior wants to walk with us in real life.
Not only in white clothing.
But in work clothes.
Not only in temple rooms.
But in kitchens, hospital rooms, bedrooms, fields, streets, and quiet cars.
Not only with people who have recommends.
But with the brokenhearted.
The confused.
The rejected.
The sinners.
The tired.
The ones who do not know where else to go.
That is the Jesus I am coming to know.
And once I saw that, I could never unsee it.
The temple was no longer just a place I went.
The temple became something Christ wanted to build inside me.
🪶 A TALKING FEATHER CONCLUSION
I am not writing this to mock my LDS brothers and sisters.
Many of them are sincere.
Many are humble.
Many are giving their lives in service.
Many go to the temple because they love God.
I honor that.
But love does not require silence.
And reverence does not mean pretending not to see.
The old temple penalties were real.
The Masonic connections are real.
The apron question is real.
The confusion around consecration is real.
The difference between rule-based chastity and the Nemenhah Pillar of Virtue is real.
The shame and fear many people feel are real.
And the Nemenhah contrast is also real.
The Nemenhah is helping me see temple in a different way:
Not as a guarded ceremony.
But as a sacred walk.
Not as fear of punishment.
But as preparation to meet the Peacemaker.
Not as consecration promised in words.
But consecration lived in community.
Not as chastity reduced to loopholes.
But virtue lived as whole-soul devotion.
Not as signs to prove worthiness.
But signs of a life planted in Christ.
Maybe the real question is not:
“Which temple ceremony is correct?”
Maybe the better question is:
“Which way of life brings me closer to Jesus?”
Because the endowment that matters most is not the one we perform.
It is the one we become.
When the Holy Ghost fills the mind.
When virtue governs the body.
When love governs the home.
When consecration blesses the poor.
When truth is spoken gently.
When the Savior can walk with us anywhere.
When the heart is ready to stand before Christ.
That is the temple way.
That is the living endowment.
That is the path of the Peacemaker.
And that is the Way I want to walk.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
🪶 A FINAL WORD FROM MY HEART
I want to say this gently.
This post is not meant to hurt anyone, criticize sincere believers, or take away from the peace many people feel in sacred places.
I love many good people in the LDS Church. I know many who serve with pure hearts, deep faith, and real devotion to Jesus Christ. I honor that.
My purpose here is simple:
To compare two patterns and ask what helps us walk closer to Christ.
For me, the Nemenhah has helped me see temple in a new way — not only as a sacred place to enter, but as a sacred way to live.
A way of peace.
A way of consecration.
A way of virtue.
A way of hearing the Peacemaker in daily life.
I believe there is a time and season for all things. Each of us receives light line upon line, and the Lord works with sincere hearts wherever they are.
So I share this not as an attack, but as an invitation.
An invitation to seek Christ more deeply.
An invitation to live what we covenant.
An invitation to let the temple become more than a ceremony — to let it become a walk with Jesus in everyday life.
That is the Way I am trying to find.
That is the Way I am trying to walk.
🪶
🔗 SIMILAR POSTS TO READ NEXT:
The Endowment as a Walk, Not Only a Ceremony — A deeper look at temple symbolism as a living path back into the presence of Christ.
The Daughter in the Temple — Why women, mothers, and daughters may understand Zion more deeply than institutional religion has admitted.
Consecration Without Control — How true consecration blesses the poor and builds Zion without compulsion or institutional ownership.
Don’t Follow the White Robe — Follow the Voice — A Book of Mormon warning from Lehi’s dream about following appearances instead of the living voice of Christ.
The Medicine Wheel — Walking With Jesus in Real Life — How the sacred circle can teach balance, repentance, stewardship, and walking with the Peacemaker.
🔗 Start here:
👉 https://thetrueremnantblog.blogspot.com
(Then use the 🔍 magnifying glass at the top to search any topic.)
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