page_title: Endowment (Mormonism)
section_title: The instructional portion
hierarchical_section_title: Endowment (Mormonism) / Modern endowment as practiced by the LDS Church / The instructional portion
caption_attribution_description: English: The telestial room of the Salt Lake Temple
context_page_description: In Mormonism, the endowment is an ordinance designed to prepare participants to become kings, queens, priests, and priestesses in the afterlife. As part of the ceremony, participants take part in a scripted reenactment of the Biblical creation and fall of Adam and Eve. The ceremony includes a symbolic washing and anointing, and receipt of a "new name" which they are not to reveal to others except at a certain part in the ceremony, and the receipt of the temple garment, which Mormons then are expected to wear under their clothing day and night throughout their life. Participants are taught symbolic gestures and passwords considered necessary to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven, and are instructed not to reveal them to others. As practiced today in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the endowment also consists of a series of covenants that participants make, such as a covenant of consecration to the LDS Church. All LDS Church members who choose to serve as missionaries or participate in a celestial marriage in a temple must first complete the endowment ceremony.
context_section_description: The endowment focuses heavily on LDS belief in a plan of salvation and centered around the atonement of Jesus Christ on behalf of humanity's sins. Parts of the doctrine of the plan of salvation explained include:
  The eternal Nature of God, of Jesus Christ, and their divinity
  The pre-mortal existence and eternal nature of man (mankind lived with God before mortal life)
  The reality of Satan, who is Jesus' and Adam's rebellious spirit brother
  The fall of Adam and the reasons for mortality, trials, and blessings
  The Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the need for the Atonement
  The relationship of grace, faith, and works
  Death, the literal resurrection, and qualifying for one of the three kingdoms of glory (or Outer Darkness)
  The need for personal righteousness, covenant keeping, and love of God and fellow man
  That Heavenly Father loves humanity as his children and wants people to become like he is, to receive joy
  The sanctity and eternal nature of the family
  The endowment is often thought of as a series of lectures where Latter-day Saints are taught about the creation of the world, the events in the Garden of Eden, what happened after Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden into the "telestial world", and the progression of righteous individuals through "terrestrial" laws to one of the kingdoms of glory and exaltation.
  During the ceremony, Latter-day Saints are dressed in temple clothes or temple robes, are taught in ordinance rooms about various gospel laws (including obedience, chastity, sacrifice and consecration) and make covenants to obey these laws. The early Mormon leader Brigham Young taught that participants are given "signs and tokens" that "enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels" and gain eternal exaltation. At the end of the ceremony, the participant is "tested" on their knowledge of what he or she was taught and covenanted to do and then admitted into the celestial room, where he or she may meditate and pray.
caption: The Telestial Room of the Salt Lake Temple, where part of the instruction occurs
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