Endowment (Latter Day Saints)

The Nauvoo endowment ceremony, introduced by Joseph Smith and codified by Mormon leader Brigham Young, consisted of symbolic acts and covenants designed to prepare participants to officiate in priesthood ordinances, and to give them the keywords and tokens they need to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven.

Also in the LDS Church's modern practices, completing the endowment ceremony is a prerequisite to both full-time missionary service and temple marriage.

[1] The term derives from the Authorized King James Version, referring to the spiritual gifts given the disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, in which they were "endowed with power from on high".

[12] Later that year, an early convert who had left the church claimed that many of the Saints "have been ordained to the High Priesthood, or the order of Melchizedek; and profess to be endowed with the same power as the ancient apostles were".

[14] At the beginning, the school was "accompanied by a pentecostal outpouring, including speaking in tongues, prophesying and 'many manifestations of the holy spirit'".

[14] A year and a half after the June 1831 endowment, Smith said he received a revelation in December 1832 to prepare to build a "house of God", or a temple.

Following these ceremonies many men reported participating in extraordinary spiritual experiences, such as seeing visions, speaking prophecies or receiving revelations.

[21] On April 3, 1836, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery recounted the appearance of Jesus to them in the Kirtland Temple, and his acceptance of the building as his house.

Mormons looked back upon the Kirtland Temple rituals with the authority bestowed by the three prophets as preparatory to the greater endowment revealed at Nauvoo.

[24]On May 3, 1842, Joseph Smith prepared the second floor of his Red Brick Store, in Nauvoo, Illinois, to represent "the interior of a temple as circumstances would permit".

The instructional and testing phase of the endowment consisted of a scripted reenactment of Adam and Eve's experience in the Garden of Eden (performed by live actors called officiators; in the mid-20th century certain portions were adapted to a film presentation).