According to the LDS Church (Mormons), what role do secret handshakes and passwords play into a person's entrance into heaven? I have heard or read that in the Mormon Temple Ceremony, each person learns certain secret handshakes and passwords that are necessary for them to enter into heaven.  I've also heard that a woman has to enter through her husband.

My question is, according to LDS teaching, when does a person have to use the secret handshakes and passwords?  Are there different levels for different handshakes?  What if a person forgets them?  Do wives have to wait to enter heaven until their husbands die?  If a person later abandons the LDS church, can he still get into heaven, since he already knows the secrets?
I will risk an answer, though I too hold these things to be very sacred.  I will also offer this disclaimer:  This is my understanding, having been a life-long member of the LDS church.  If a lack of references and citations means this answer needs to be deleted, I fully understand.


  My question is, according to LDS teaching, when does a person have to use the secret handshakes and passwords? Are there different levels for different handshakes? What if a person forgets them?


Even though I am a devout member of the Latter-Day Saint church and fully believe its teachings and doctrines, I must admit that I have a difficult time understanding why an omnipotent God needs to have "angels who stand as sentinels" as if someone could sneak in. So my current level of understanding is less literal, and this is based on what I have been taught about the temple and in the temple.

Specifically (and here I might be digressing from your question.  I apologize), in the temple the ceremonies are highly symbolic.  The things we see, hear, say, and do are intended to help us learn by the Spirit what the Lord would have us know.  On the surface, each person in attendance has the same experience.  But the amazing thing about symbols is that each person will understand them differently.  The more we attend the temple and become familiar with the symbols used, the more easily we can quietly listen to the Spirit who brings into our minds and hearts different connections, insights, and understandings.  Sometimes these are in direct answers to prayers and concerns we've brought before the Lord.  Sometimes these are things we are now ready to learn.

Do we need to worry about remembering specific actions and words?  Maybe.  But I think it is much more likely that these things are symbols through which we can be taught and prepared for what the Lord has in store for us.


  Do wives have to wait to enter heaven until their husbands die?


As mentioned above, we believe that entrance to Heaven happens after the resurrection.  So wives and husbands get to go together.  If the symbolism in the temple is a literal precursor of future events, there is one point at which the husband goes first, but it is very much (in my mind) on the order of a husband carrying his bride across the threshold.  Another way to think of it is, in my culture, men will sometimes go first for the privilege of then extending a helping or loving hand to his beloved.  We hold the door for them, or we climb up the rock, and then offer a hand to her.  It is loving, kind and thoughtful.  How wonderful to enter Heaven together, being in love, holding hands.

Thanks for giving me the chance to express myself. I've never put down in words how I felt about these things.