Line upon Line

This article includes excerpts from The Heart of Our Covenants: Temple Principles that Draw Us unto Christ by Valiant K. Jones. Used by permission. See www.valiantjones.com or www.cedarfort.com.

Elder David A. Bednar has taught, “From ancient times men and women have embraced sacred music, different forms of prayer, symbolic religious clothing, gestures, and rituals to express their innermost feelings of devotion to God.”^[1] Latter-day Saints who receive their endowments will find that they will experience “different forms of prayer, symbolic religious clothing, gestures, and rituals” than they are accustomed to experiencing during regular weekly church services. However, as they contemplate the spiritual significance of these religious symbols, they will come to find a richness and closeness to God that will settle any discomfort that comes with the newness of that experience.

President Brigham Young described the temple endowment as follows: “Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.”^[2]

President Young’s reference to the use of “signs and tokens” in the endowment is considered one of the more sacred aspects of temple ritual, and therefore it is not generally discussed outside of the temple. However, consistent with the guidelines given by Elder Bednar on talking about the temple,[3] there are a few general things that may be said and analogies that may be made with some of the methods used historically in Scouting.^[4]

First, what is a sign? It is a representation of something else. The first definition of sign in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “a motion or gesture by which a thought is expressed or a command or wish made known.”^[5]

The Boy Scout sign is an excellent example of this. The Boy Scout Handbook describes the Scout sign as follows: “The Scout sign shows you are a Scout. Give it each time you recite the Scout Oath and Law. When a Scout or Scouter raises the Scout sign, all Scouts should make the sign, too, and come to silent attention. To give the Scout sign, cover the nail of your little finger of your right hand with your right thumb, then raise your right arm bent in a 90-degree angle, and hold the three middle fingers of your hand upward. Those fingers stand for the three parts of the Scout Oath. Your thumb and little finger touch to represent the bond that unites Scouts throughout the world.”^[6]

Notice that the Scout sign refers to something else—it refers to the Scout Oath and Law. The meaning of the Scout sign is found in the meaning of those commitments. Whenever a Scout makes the Scout sign, he is effectively saying that he will keep the promises contained in the Scout Oath and Law, even if he does not recite them. He is, in effect, affirming a covenant by making this sign.

Today, when we agree to a legal contract, we affirm this by affixing our “sign” to the document; that is, by signing our signature. In ancient times, when few people could read or write, a sign was not made by writing but rather with a gesture. This tradition continues in courts of law today where a witness is often asked to attest to the truth of his or her statement by raising the right arm to the square while affirming an oath.

Tokens are similar—they are used to represent something else of greater value. For example, a bus token is used to represent money for the fare. Such tokens are often carried in the hand, and thus the root of the word token may be related to the word touch.^[7] It is interesting to note that in Spanish, the word tocan is a verb meaning they touch, and it is pronounced the same as the English word token.

Most Latter-day Saints are familiar with the following use of the word token in the hymn “A Poor Wayfaring Man”: “Then in a moment to my view / The stranger started from disguise. / The tokens in His hands I knew; / The Savior stood before my eyes.”^[8] In this case, the tokens in the Savior’s hands are the scars He carries there as symbols of His atoning sacrifice and of His life given on the cross for us all.

One of the dictionary definitions of token is “something given or shown as a guarantee (as of authority, right, or identity).”^[9] A handshake is such a token. In fact, the Boy Scout handshake has been described thusly: “The Scout handshake is made with the hand nearest the heart and is offered as a token of friendship. Extend your left hand to another Scout and firmly grasp his left hand.”^[10]

When I was a boy, the Scout handshake was a little more complex and included extending your three middle fingers in token of the three points of the Scout Oath as you grasped the left hand of the other Scout. Like the Scout sign, the Scout handshake was strongly linked to the Scout Oath. It was intended that any time the Scout sign or handshake was used, it would remind a Scout of his commitment to the ideals of scouting.

Sometimes signs and tokens can carry their own individual symbolic meanings in addition to alignment with an underlying oath. For example, notice that the above description of the Scout handshake says that it is made with the left hand, connecting it with the heart and thus with friendship. This is in addition to a connection to the Scout Oath and Law.

Signs and tokens have no value or meaning in and of themselves. They only have meaning as symbols of commitment to the values or promises they represent. For me, the signs and tokens of the temple, referred to by Brigham Young, primarily represent the covenants of the temple. After we promise to keep each covenant, signs and tokens are presented, I believe, as further confirmation that we will keep those temple covenants. To me, they represent giving my signature and my handshake as a guarantee that I will abide by the temple covenants that accompany them. However, they are more than signatures and handshakes, for they have been received from God and are very holy.

Although Elder Bednar has described the covenants of the endowment as five separate laws,^[11] President Ezra Taft Benson combined the first two, resulting in only four: “the law of obedience and sacrifice, the law of the gospel, the law of chastity, and the law of consecration.”^[12] As President Russell M. Nelson has taught, “The laws of obedience and sacrifice are indelibly intertwined.”^[13] Because of this, only four sets of signs and tokens are needed to confirm all of the covenants of the endowment.^[14] (Incidentally, the four marks on the garment can also be aligned with these four covenants.)

Besides signs and tokens, President Young referred to “key words.” With the combination of these, the temple engages our eyes, our arms and hands, our ears, and our voice. Ancient temples also included incense and shewbread, adding nose and mouth to complete the involvement of our entire body and all its senses in the temple experience. God does not want a partial commitment; He wants to engage every part of us—our seeing, feeling, hearing, speaking, smelling, and tasting. He wants our heart, might, mind, and strength. He wants our whole souls in consecrated covenant commitment to Him.

President Nelson said, “Temple patterns are as old as human life on earth. Actually, the plan for temples was established even before the foundation of the world.”^[15] These ancient temple patterns would need to accommodate the faithful Saints of all ages, whether they were schooled or unschooled, literate or illiterate. It would make sense that God would include in these ancient temple patterns methods of giving and receiving covenants that would not require modern-day written documents and signatures.

Our covenants also come with promises to keep them private. When we covenant to never disclose the signs and tokens we receive, our integrity is tested. Just as fully as we promise to guard them as sacred and private, we should also keep our temple covenants sacred and personal. They are between us and God, and He knows, better than anyone else, whether we are keeping them or not. As cited earlier, Brigham Young explained that in order to receive exaltation in God’s presence, we are going to have to give signs and tokens to angels who stand as sentinels guarding the entrance to the celestial kingdom. I believe that these signs and tokens stand as symbols of our covenants, and only those who have kept their covenants will remember their signs and tokens when they face those sentinel angels, regardless of how many times they may have gone through an endowment session on earth to learn them.

I wrote elsewhere about an experience I had in the temple when I tried to correct a small verbal mistake a temple worker made as he was representing the Lord.^[16] As soon as I attempted to do so, my mind went completely blank. It was as if a white sheet had suddenly been pulled over my brain. I had to pause and humble myself, collect my thoughts, and start again. I learned that the Lord will likewise have influence over my memory when I approach Him or one of His servants at the entrance to His kingdom. By keeping my covenants I will have access to that memory when I need it.

President Boyd K. Packer said, “Life is a homeward journey for all of us, back to the presence of God in His celestial kingdom. Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence.”^[17] I consider the signs and tokens of the priesthood to be affirmations of those credentials. When I give signs and tokens in the temple, I like to think of the temple covenants that correspond to them. When we are true and faithful to these covenants, we ensure the protection and blessings of God.

President Joseph Fielding Smith said, “If we go into the temple, we raise our hands and covenant that we will serve the Lord and observe his commandments and keep ourselves unspotted from the world. If we realize what we are doing, then the endowment will be a protection to us all our lives—a protection which a man who does not go to the temple does not have. I have heard my father say that in the hour of trial, in the hour of temptation, he would think of the promises, the covenants that he made in the House of the Lord, and they were a protection to him. . . . This protection is what these ceremonies are for, in part. They save us now and they exalt us hereafter if we will honor them. I know that this protection is given, for I too have realized it, as have thousands of others who have remembered their obligations.”^[18]

I have also had times when, faced with temptations, I have thought upon my temple covenants, and this has brought me strength to withstand those temptations. I feel grateful every time I participate in the rituals and ordinances of the temple. They remind me of my covenants with God, and they bring me closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love my Savior and the rites and ordinances of His holy house. They are symbolically beautiful and deeply meaningful to me.

Valiant K. Jones is the author of The Heart of Our Covenants: Temple Principles that Draw Us unto Christ. For more information, see www.valiantjones.com or www.cedarfort.com.

[1] David A. Bednar, “Prepared to Obtain Every Needful Thing,” Ensign or

Liahona, May 2019, 104.

[2] Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 2:31.

[3] David A. Bednar, “Prepared to Obtain Every Needful Thing,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2019, 103.

[4] Scouting has changed a lot over the years, and I am not endorsing its current trajectory; rather, I am pointing to some traditional practices by way of analogy.

[5] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “sign,” accessed Dec. 6, 2024, https:// www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sign.

[6] “Scout Sign,” Boy Scout Handbook, 11th Edition (Boy Scouts of America, 1998), 7.

[7] The etymology of token is traced to the Old English verb tæcan, meaning to show, explain, or teach (see etymonline.com/word/token), and touching is one way to learn the nature of something.

[8] “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief,” Hymns, no. 29.

[9] Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “token,” accessed December 6, 2024, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/token.

[10] “Scout Handshake,” Boy Scout Handbook, 7; emphasis added.

[11] See David A. Bednar, “Prepared to Obtain Every Needful Thing.”

[12] Ezra Taft Benson, “A Vision and a Hope for the Youth of Zion” (Brigham Young University devotional, Apr. 12, 1977), 1, speeches.byu.edu.

[13] Russell M. Nelson, “Lessons from Eve,” Ensign, Nov. 1987, 88.

[14] Obedience and sacrifice are often linked in the scriptures: (1) Adam was commanded to offer animal sacrifices, and he obeyed without knowing why (see Moses 5:7–8). (2) King Saul failed to obey God’s command to destroy a wicked people including their animals, claiming he kept them for sacrifices, so the prophet Samuel reprimanded Saul, saying, “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). (3) Jesus said, “As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:31), and then He obediently and willingly sacrificed His life for us, declaring, “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

[15] Russell M. Nelson, “Temples and Temple Work,” Teachings of Russell M. Nelson (Deseret Book, 2018), 365.

[16] See Valiant K. Jones, The Covenant Path: Finding the Temple in the Book of Mormon (Cedar Fort, 2020), 94.

[17] Boyd K. Packer, “Covenants,” Ensign, May 1987, 24.

[18] Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith (2013), 235–6; formatting modified; punctuation updated.