As a True Believing Mormon, I often wonder about the temple endowment and how it could possibly make sense.

Here's my list of questions about the temple endowment:

1. Why are the days of creation different than those recorded in the Book of Moses and Genesis? The third and fourth days are backwards in the endowment ceremony.

2. In the Mormon scripture Book of Moses 3:15-25 it says that God commanded the man (Adam) not to eat from the tree of good and evil. God didn't command the woman, because she had not been created yet. So why is the endowment film different than the Mormon scriptural account?

3. How did Peter, James and John get bodies before they were born? Peter shakes Adam's hand, so we know they weren't spirits. According to Joseph Smith's handshake test for discerning evil spirits from good spirits, Peter should have refused to shake Adam's hand (unless he had been resurrected).

4. Satan wears an apron that he says is a symbol of his power and priesthood. Why then does Adam, Eve and the temple congregation moments later obey Satan when he commands them to put on aprons?

5. How could Jesus be on the right hand of God, in physical form looking like his identical twin, when Jesus had not been born or resurrected yet? Jesus says in the Bible and Book of Mormon that he wasn't perfected until AFTER the atonement.

6. So was Lucifer a snake as it says in the scriptures, or a man like it shows in the temple?

7. Lucifer picks the apple off the tree and gives it to Eve. But Lucifer doesn't have a body! What's up with that?

8. Where did Lucifer get his preacher that was preaching to Adam and Eve? Was he for real or just a ghost? If just a ghost, why was he dressed as a protestant minister with the collar for Adam and Eve to see?

9a. The Book of Abraham as well as the modern prophets have taught us that the earth was created around the star Kolob. It orbited God's solar system until AFTER the fall, when it was hurled through space and placed in this solar system. This scriptural doctrine contradicts the endowment, where we see the creation of the moon and it mentions our sun and the other planets too. (See Mormon Science Doctrine Here)

9b. If the Kolob doctrine is true, why is this not included in the endowment, which is supposed to be the "Lord's University"? Why go through the creation story if it is not true and contradicts Mormon doctrine and the Book of Abraham?

10. If the endowment is actual history, then why was it so radically changed in April 1990? Whole sections were altered and others deleted! If the endowment represented real history, how could it change? Was it not true to the actual events all along? Is the new version "more true to history?" (See: Temple Changes Here)

11. In April 1990 the covenants and penalties of the endowment ceremony also changed dramatically. Didn't Jesus say in the scriptures that a sign of false churches is that they change his covenants?

12. Where do you find a clear description of these "laws' mentioned in the temple?

1. Law of Obedience
2. Law of Sacrifice
3. Law of Elohim
4. Law of the Lord
5. Law of the Gospel
6. Law of Chastity
7. Law of Consecration

Some of those laws that temple patrons covenant to obey are never mentioned or explained outside the temple. If they are literal laws of God that must be obeyed, why are they not all clearly identified and expounded upon in church discourse?

13. What is the difference between "legally" and "lawfully" as said in the temple endowment covenant?

14. Adam raises his arms in the "true order of prayer", and who answers his prayer? Satan. Does this mean Satan can answer even prayers given in the "true order" ordained by God? What prayer is safe from not being intercepted by Satan? (See: Temple Endowment Ceremony Past and Present)

15 Did God really send Peter, James and John down to earth and give Adam and Eve those silly temple clothes to wear? They didn't have a temple, so when did Adam and Eve wear them?

16. How could Peter, James and John be involved in the whole thing when they had not been born yet, hadn't been baptized and had not been through the temple? They weren't wearing garments themselves, so how could they be worthy to participate in the endowment events?

17. Temple workers stand in as proxies for Elohim and Jehovah during the ceremony, which makes it very sacred. But since someone also stands in as proxy for Satan, doesn't that make the temple unholy?

18. What is the purpose of learning the "true order of prayer" if it can never be practiced outside of the temple ceremony?

19. Why does God require secret handshakes, names and passwords to pass through the veil and enter his presence? Can't God look into our hearts and know whether or not we are worthy?

20. If the endowment is centered on Jesus Christ, why isn't Christ's two top commandments included in the endowment covenants - love God and love your neighbor? Why isn't there mention of Christ's sermon on the mount or other teachings on charity and compassion?

Understanding the endowment can be frustrating. I've asked temple workers and they don't understand it either. They don't know how it makes sense and they are the ones daily performing the endowment!

Members are taught that the temple is too sacred to discuss outside of the temple. But I suspect the real reason we Mormons don't ever discuss the temple endowment is because it's too nonsensical to explain. How convenient that the General Authorities never have to answer for what the temple teachings are all about.

Some members say the temple endowment is allegory and shouldn't be taken literally. So if the endowment is allegory, then it's not literal history. That means it doesn't portray actual events. So, that opens up a whole bunch of questions:

- Did Adam and Eve actually exist?
- What was the real creation process?
- What are we to make of the appearance of Peter, James and John?
- Are the covenants also allegory and not to be taken literally?
- So the death-oaths were never to be taken as literal? Did Mormons know that at the time they were covenanting to have their throats slit?
- So there isn't a literal veil like exists in the temple?
- So dead people don't literally need to know the secret words and handshakes to enter heaven, like BY said?
- If Adam and Eve didn't really fall, then why do we need a savior?
- If there was a fall of man in some other way, why not just show that in the endowment?

If you think it's both allegory and history, then which parts are which? Mixing history and allegory doesn't fit the endowment at all and makes it completely confusing and doesn't achieve any practical spiritual objective.

It appears Joseph Smith and Brigham Young intended for the endowment to be taken as literal history to make it seem more "real." But this defeats the purpose of spiritual enlightenment which is transmitted symbolically.

But as I've shown, the endowment as history doesn't make sense either. So what true knowledge exists in the endowment?