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. If God has not changed the ordinances and the priesthood, howl, ye sectarians! (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 308 also quoted in the LDS Ensign magazine, August 2001, p. 22)
The Priesthood is everlasting—without beginning of days ore end of years; without father, mother, etc. If there is no change of ordinances there is no change of Priesthood. Wherever the ordinances of the Gospel are administered, there is the Priesthood. (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 158)
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. (Isaiah 24:5)
All men who become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ will have to receive the fullness of the ordinances of his kingdom and those who will not receive ALL of the ordinances will come short of the fullness of that glory if they do not lose the whole. (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 309)
We all admit that the Gospel has ordinances, and if so, had it not always ordinances, and were not its ordinances always the same? (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 59)
The order of the House of God has been, and ever will be the same, even after Christ comes; and after the termination of the thousand years it will be the same. (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 91)
And again, God purposed in Himself that there should not be an eternal fullness until every dispensation should be fulfilled and gathered into one, and that all things whatsoever, that should be gathered together in one in those dispensations unto the same fullness and eternal glory, should be in Christ Jesus; therefore, he set the ordinances to be the same forever and ever, and set Adam to watch over them, to reveal them from heaven to man, or to send angels to reveal them. (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 168)
It signifies, then, that the ordinances must be kept in the very way God has appointed; otherwise their Priesthood will prove a cursing instead of a blessing. (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 169)
Taking it for granted that the scriptures say what they mean and mean what they say, we have sufficient grounds to go on and prove from the Bible that the gospel has always been the same; the ordinances to fulfill its requirements, the same; and the officers to administer, the same; and the signs and fruits resulting from the promises, the same. (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 264)
As temple work progresses, some members wonder if the ordinances can he changed or adjusted. These ordinances have been provided by revelation, and are in the hands of the First Presidency. Thus, the temple is protected from tampering. (Grant Bangerter, executive director of the Temple Department and a member of the First Quorum of Seventy, Deseret News, Church Section, January 16, 1982)
The Ordinances of the Kingdom of God on the Earth are the same to the children of Adam from the commencement to the end of his posterity pertaining to the carnal state on this Earth, and the winding up scene of this mortality. With regard to the Bible we frequently say, we believe the Bible, but circumstances alter cases, for what is now required for the people may not be required of a people that may live a hundred years hence. But I wish you to understand, with regard to the Ordinances of God’s House to save the people in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, there is no change from the days of Adam to the present time, neither will there be until the last of his posterity is gathered into the Kingdom of God.
Those who are not acquainted with our doctrine are astonished, and say, “That is strange indeed; we thought no such thing as preaching faith, repentance, and baptism was practiced in ancient, or Old Testament timed,” I can tell you that no man from the days of Adam, no women from the days of Eve to this day, who have lived, and who are no living upon the earth will go into the Kingdom of their Father and God, to be crowned with Jesus Christ, without passing through the same Ordinances of the House of God, you and I have obeyed. I wish you distinctly to understand that. (Manuscript Addresses of Brigham Young, October 8, 1854)
If all Israel will not be sanctified by the law which their Moses first offers them, they will peradventure receive a law of ordinances administered to them, not according to the power of endless life. Men will be saved in the last days as in former days, according to their faith and willingness to receive the word of God, and walk in it. (Millennial. Star 16:36)
There is a question that comes into my mind: If men now think they can get along without the gifts of the gospel, may not the time come when they may believe they can get along without its ordinances? (Dr. James B. Allen, BYU History Professor, and Assistant LDS Church Historian, Improvement Era 8:111)
The [early Christian] Church was undergoing internal deterioration, and was in a state of increasing perversion. Among the more detailed or specific causes of this ever widening departure from the spirit of the gospel of Christ, this rapidly growing apostasy, the following may be considered as important examples: * * * Unauthorized additions to the ceremonies of the Church, and the introduction of vital changes in essential ordinances. (James E. Talmage, The Great Apostasy, paperback 2nd ed., p. 71)
No jot, iota, or tittle of the temple rites is otherwise than uplifting and sanctifying. In every detail the endowment ceremony contributes to covenants of morality of life, consecration of person to high ideals, devotion to truth, patriotism to nation, and allegiance to God. (James E. Talmage, The House of the Lord (1962), p. 100.)