While on the course of the “covenant path,” a spiritual journey marked out by a series of covenants made between the person on the pilgrim and God on his way to exaltation, there are branching forks and crossroads that confuse the traveller. In the past, when the covenants were first restored, there were no diversions—only one way to go—so the journeyer knew he was on the right path; over time, subtle changes in the way one should go has lead to several alternative routes being carved into the landscape, none of which lead to the sure final destination of exaltation. Those trodden the most have the deepest and clearest appearance thus appearing trustworthy, but only one path—the original path—truly reaches the desired end. In short, the ordinance path was once the same as the covenant path, but now many paths claim to be the covenant path while having departed from the original ordinance path.
Joseph Smith declared:
“Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundation of the world, in the priesthood, for the salvation of men, are not to be altered or changed. All must be saved on the same principles…. If a man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord. Where there is no change of priesthood, there is no change of ordinances, says Paul” (TPJS, 308).
The corollary to the prophet’s statement quoting Paul is stunning to consider: if there is a change of ordinances, there is a change of priesthood. And if a change of priesthood, then a falling short of the glory of God. As the scriptures say: “Without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh; for without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live” (D&C 84:21 – 22).
After Joseph Smith had delivered the full endowment and second anointings to a circle of his closest friends and associates in the upper room of the Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, the ordinances were shown to man in full for the first time since the fall of the original church of Christ almost 2000 years before. Joseph lamented that he could not conduct the ordinances in the proper setting of the house of the Lord, but he had carefully instructed Brigham Young and what that should look like. As Brigham said:
“When we got our washings and anointings under the hands of the Prophet Joseph at Nauvoo, we had only one room to work in with the exception of a little side room, or office, where we were washed and anointed, had our garments placed upon us, and received our new name. And after he had performed these ceremonies, he gave the key words, signs, tokens and penalties. Then, after we went into the large room over the store in Nauvoo, Joseph divided up the room the best that he could; hung up the veil; marked it; gave us our instructions as we passed along from one department to another, giving us signs, tokens, penalties, with the key words pertaining to those signs; and, after we had got through, Brother Joseph turned to me…and said, ‘Brother Brigham, this is not arranged right but we have done the best [we] could under the circumstances in which we are placed, and I wish you to take this matter in hand and organize and systematize all these ceremonies with the signs, tokens, penalties and key words.’ I did so, and each time I got something more, so that [when] we went through the temple at Nauvoo I understood and knew how to place them there. We had our ceremonies pretty correct” (L. John Nuttal journal, 7 Feb 1877, spelling and grammar modernized).
So in 1844 the full ordinance was revealed, the only thing lacking being the physical compartments or rooms needed in which to ideally conduct, ‘organize’, and ‘systematize’ them. Brigham Young’s comments above were given as the finishing touches were being done to the nearly complete St George, Utah temple to impress upon the brethren present that what was done relative to the ordinances of the temple in Nauvoo were nearly perfect (the building then being rushed for completion too). By April 6th of 1877, the ordinances were set down by Brigham Young as perfectly as had ever been done in the last days.
The ordinance path and covenant path were one, single path in 1877. The laws and principles were constituted as follows:
Any change to lessen or alter the procedures that accompanied all these laws and principles and how they were to be administered as instructed by Joseph Smith as revealed to him by the Lord through revelation would constitute a change of the priesthood, or, to go back to the analogy of the path, a breaking away into new paths. Over time, this has been done time and time again. The new, divergent path is given a moniker to deal with this fact: it is no longer the “ordinance path” as the ordinance has been changed; it is called the “covenant path,” with the assumption that the spirit of the covenants are unchanged although the form of them has.
Have the ordinances in their original form been lost form the earth forever? The good new is this: no! The Lord in His wisdom set apart certain men to carry on the unchanged ordinances. The way has been narrow and complete disaster and loss of these precious things has only been narrowly avoided in the years since 1877, but the ordinances in their original form are still found upon the earth.
Reach out to us to learn more if you are interested in finding the “covenant path” that aligns, as it was designed, with the original “ordinance path.”
