Why do Mormons have secret ceremonies. They say it's because they're sacred, but sacred does not have to be?

Perhaps you can think of it as being confidential to those who are authorized to know that information. I'm sure you have heard of corporate espionage. One company tries to steal the secrets of another company in order to find out why they are successful. They want to be competitive. The original company fights hard to keep their corporate secrets confidential in order to avoid "knock off" products from competing with the original product.

God's house is a house of order and He does not want any unauthorized individuals trying to cheat their way into heaven. He said that He marked the path and showed the way and no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. That includes all of the necessary saving ordinances, even those found in the LDS temples. In order to receive of His fulness, you have to complete all of the requirements. Those requirements are available to all of God's children. All they have to do is comply with the commandments set forth in the Gospel and make themselves worthy, through faith, repentance and baptism to then enter the temple and receive the rest of the heavenly blessings.

With that perspective, you can understand why the information is not spread openly to the public. The public at large is not ready or worthy for the information. Thus, we keep it inside the temple where it cannot be mocked and profaned. It is bad enough that apostates have already put most of it out on the web pages for crass individuals to mock that which they do not understand.

I hope you can appreciate what I am stating here. If the temple ceremonies were openly available, they would no longer be sacred and that would be highly displeasing to God.

sacred and secret are NOT the same thing....

sacred means that we hold it with religious veneration, worship, and respect - it is out of THESE things that we do not speak freely to absolutely anyone about them....because we respect the teachings of the Lord.

secret means that nobody else knows anything about these things....which is OBVIOUSLY not the case.

the temple ceremony is on record in full @the library of congress.

Any group can have whatever secret ceremonies they want, as long as they aren't violating laws with them, like raping people or anything. Why do some people have a problem with stuff not being their business?

Seriously, the Church of Latter Day saints has done things in the open that are worth criticizing, lots of things. It's the only church ever found guilty in court of political malfeasance*, for example.

People should criticize them for things worthy of criticism, not the fact that not everyone is invited to their special parties.

You think God let anybody into the temples in the Old Testament? Heck no, only people who have purified themselves, and gone through studies can do it.

There ARE no secrets, the temple doors are open to anybody who is willing to prepare themselves to enter.

But something tells me you really don't care, and you'll go on with your biased hatred of the church and bash and bash and bash, which is pointless.

Joseph Smith was a Mason and incorporated many Masonic secret ceremonies into the Mormon Church.

you want to experience first-hand what goes on in a mormon temple? start by reading the BoM and praying to God for confirmation of it's truth....

you don't want to do that? accept the fact that some things are not your business if you aren't involved with them.

@labgrrl....the "political malfeasance" was because items that should have (according to IRS tax laws) been filed separately were all on one filing instead....hence the '13' counts...13 separate items on one page.

oh. the horror.

@snow....Jesus taught some things in secret only to His apostles.....read the bible.

there is absolutely nothing in the history of religion that says that religion is supposed to be public. There are many different kinds of religions, and many of them have aspects of secrecy. One of the reason is sacredness. Plenty of sacred things are not secret, but that in no way suggests that secrecy isn't a legitimate way of honoring and keeping sacredness.

Anything secret is deceitful. Jesus has everything open and above board. I'm afraid the Mormons are a CULT and not to be trusted. That's why things are done in secret but I will tell you this - "There is no creature hidden from God's sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account" (Hebrews 4:13)

Because God says so, and God is smarter then you, and in addition God outranks you too. Jesus Christ commanded; don't cast that which is holy to swine.

Temples of THE Church Of JESUS CHRIST Of Latter Day Saints are edifices dedicated to God, and to eternal life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0g7cuEiPaY

http://mormon.org/ Chat.

God bless.

Because Joseph Smith stole the idea from the Masons (they love their sacred oaths).