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As many Mormons become more aware of church history and especially temple history it is becoming very clear that this is a classic case of Smith mingling scripture with the philosophies of man [Masonry]. Large portions of Masonic rites combined with the biblical narrative especially Genises made up the original Mormon ceremony. Where the temple once stood as a beacon of the restoration it now stands as the most obvious example of fraud by Smith.

I have written on this subject before but in short it is clear that all church leaders since Smith taught that the Mormon temple ceremony and Masonry both have their origins from Solomon’s temple thus explaining why they are so similar. However, we now know that masonry was created by the trade guilds from England in the 1600’s. Masons secretly passing down temple rites for nearly 3000 years since the reign of Solomon make for a great story but sadly it is just that, a story.

Some years back as I was searching for answers I went to FAIR to see what they had written on the subject and was very disappointed in the explanations. The following is what FAIR offers as explanation for this serious problem:

Joseph Smith's critics want to label him as an intellectual thief by claiming that he stole some of the ritual elements of Freemasonry in order to create the Nauvoo-era temple endowment ceremony. The greatest obstacles to this theory are the facts that
1. Joseph Smith claimed direct revelation from God regarding the Nauvoo-era endowment,
2. Joseph Smith knew a great deal about the Nauvoo-era endowment ceremony long before the Nauvoo period - and thus long before his entry into the Masonic fraternity, and
3. the Nauvoo-era temple endowment ceremony has numerous exacting parallels to the initiation ceremonies of ancient Israelite and early Christian kings and priests—parallels which cannot be found among Freemasons.
http://en.fairmormon.org/Temples/Endowment/Freemasonry

My response:
1. Joseph Smith claimed direct revelation from God regarding the Nauvoo-era endowment,
• Really? This is their first line of defense, Joseph claims it to be a revelation from God. Seems like we have heard this one before. How many evangelists and other religious leaders have made claims of revelation from God.

2. Joseph Smith knew a great deal about the Nauvoo-era endowment ceremony long before the Nauvoo period - and thus long before his entry into the Masonic fraternity.
• This I would agree with them on. Many of Joseph’s family were Masons long before Joseph, it is reasonable to expect that Joseph would have been well aware of at least portions of the Masonic rites long before he was imitated into a lodge. Masonry was alive and well in his family, giving him plenty of source material to formulate his ceremony.

3. the Nauvoo-era temple endowment ceremony has numerous exacting parallels to the initiation ceremonies of ancient Israelite and early Christian kings and priests—parallels which cannot be found among Freemasons.
• How often has “parallelism” been debunked as a method of apologetics. This was Nibleys favorite method of defense for many of these difficult subjects. This is just not strong enough evidence to build your faith around. It’s much like saying that since archaeologists have found what appear to be Mesoamerican amphitheaters and since Shakespeare had amphitheaters in his day then surly the Maya must have been performing Hamlet!

We do not need to go through all the mental machinations, it is clear were Smith got his ceremony from – Masonry!

Dcharle,

Have you listened to the Mormon Expressions pod casts with George Miller?

Mormonism and Masonry

Miller sees a lot more parallels between Mormonism and Masonry than just the temple. It is one of the best ME pod casts I have heard.

Yes I have listened to that podcast and I agree it is very good. Maybe I was not very clear in my post. I also see allot of parallels between Mormonism and Masonry, my point under bullet point #3 is that FAIR wants to make the claim that the temple ceremony has parallels with other ancient rites other than "ancient masonry". They are trying to draw the focus away from masonry and put in other ancient rituals.

Dcharle wrote:Yes I have listened to that podcast and I agree it is very good. Maybe I was not very clear in my post. I also see allot of parallels between Mormonism and Masonry, my point under bullet point #3 is that FAIR wants to make the claim that the temple ceremony has parallels with other ancient rites other than "ancient masonry". They are trying to draw the focus away from masonry and put in other ancient rituals.

I agree and they pretty much have to take that approach since Masonry is only about 3-400 years old.

Dcharle wrote:As many Mormons become more aware of church history and especially temple history it is becoming very clear that this is a classic case of Smith mingling scripture with the philosophies of man [Masonry]. Large portions of Masonic rites combined with the biblical narrative especially Genises made up the original Mormon ceremony. Where the temple once stood as a beacon of the restoration it now stands as the most obvious example of fraud by Smith.

We do not need to go through all the mental machinations, it is clear were Smith got his ceremony from – Masonry!

GAIA:

I don't necessarily see the tremendous similarities (and admittedly there are many) as the problem you do, or as an indication of fraud -- though i'd feel much better about it if both he and the Church were more honest about it.

Smith had to get inspiration (using that word in a general, not "Gospel" sense) from somewhere, and it doesn't bother me that he turned to other human systems/ organizations.

Ritual can be very powerful in creating "altered states of consciousness" which have profound and long-lasting effects upon us, emotionally, socially and spiritually.

~Gaia

GAIA,

I do not understand how you can seriously make the statement that Mormon prophets need earthly or man made sources to inspire them. Mormons have been claiming since it's origination that their prophets are God's conduit to the world, no where has Mormon leadership ever made the claim that they need man made things to "prime the pump" of revelation, on the contrary they boldly claim direct inspiration from God! The following quote from President Spencer W. Kimball illustrates this nicely:

"Since that momentous day in 1820, additional scripture has continued to come, including the numerous and vital revelations flowing in a never-ending stream from God to his prophets on the earth.
There are those who would assume that with the printing and binding of these sacred records, [and he was speaking here of the four standard works] that would be the end of the prophets. But again we testify to the world that revelation continues and that the vaults and files of the Church contain these revelations which come month to month and day to day. We testify also that there is, since 1830 when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, and will continue to be, so long as time shall last, a prophet, recognized of God and his people, who will continue to interpret the mind and will of the Lord" (Revelation: The Word of the Lord to His Prophets, Ensign, May 1977, 78).

A "never-ending stream" and "revelations which come month to month and day to day." With statements like theses who needs Masonry for inspiration, God's word is a "continuous stream" to the Mormon prophet.

Comments like yours just do not jive with Mormon teaching and statements over the last 150 years, this "line upon line" method of learning has not traditionally applied to the Mormon prophet, Mormons adamantly believe their prophet is able to "interpret the mind and will of the Lord". The "line-upon-line" method of revelation is reserved for the poor schleps in the pews.

It is clear that the Mormon ceremony is full of Masonry and did not come from God, this is a machination from Smith.

[quote="Dcharle"]GAIA,

I do not understand how you can seriously make the statement that Mormon prophets need earthly or man made sources to inspire them.



GAIA:

It's not necessarily a matter of "need", and does not need to be an "either-or" matter ("Either Joseph was a Prophet of God, or he got inspiration from everyday life."). Just living everyday life often causes people (and whatever else he was or was not, Joseph was a "person" living an everyday life) to wonder / ponder about things that eventually lead to new insights -- Haven't you ever experienced that?

Furthermore, I think there is ample evidence from LDS history to make that case --

For just a couple of examples:

a) The Word of Wisdom was given after Emma complained about LDS men leaving a mess around the "spitoons" of the day, and Joseph took her complaints "under advisement";

According to Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, the Word of Wisdom was received in 1833 as a revelation from God. After Smith's death, Brigham Young stated that the revelation was given in response to problems encountered while conducting meetings in the Smith family home:

"When they assembled together in this room after breakfast, the first they did was to light their pipes, and, while smoking, talk about the great things of the kingdom, and spit all over the room, and as soon as the pipe was out of their mouths a large chew of tobacco would then be taken. Often when the Prophet [Joseph Smith] entered the room to give the school instructions he would find himself in a cloud of tobacco smoke. This, and the complaints of his wife at having to clean so filthy a floor, made the Prophet think upon the matter, and he inquired of the Lord relating to the conduct of the Elders in using tobacco, and the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom was the result of his inquiry."[3]



b) Several of Joseph's most unique and interesting doctrines, given in the latter part of his life (such as the plurality of Gods, the existence of Heavenly Mother, and Eternal Progression of men and Gods) -- came after he began studying Hebrew and Kabballah -- see "Joseph Smith and Kabballah: The Occult Connection" by Lance Owens, gnosis.org/jskabb1.htm



Blessings - Gaia

Gaia,

We all experience insights. Such everyday 'ahaa' moments are not easily confused with direct revelation from God. Most of us do not claim God revealed an answer to an everyday problem and certainly we do not claim our answers have a divine mandate. The problem is that Joseph Smith has shown, time and time again, that while engaged in such "inspiration" he was unable to distinguish facts from 19th century fiction. The Book of Mormon is full of examples of this and even worse is the Book of Abraham. In your WoW example we should have discovered that tea and coffee have the same ill effects that tobacco and strong drinks do instead of actually being good for us. He mixed the good with the bad, threw it out there, and claimed God was behind it. If somehow God was involved in the process we should see some evidence of that.

You can pretty much take any unique aspect of his religion making and show how it was a 19th century creation. He wasn't restoring so much as he was collecting.

by the way as a side note, I have read somewhere that the reason tea and coffee were included as part of the WoW was that Joseph Smith felt that if the men had to give up tobacco and strong drink the women should forgo drinking tea and coffee.

I am also not convinced that he studied Kabalballah, exposed to it maybe, but not studied. (And yes I have read the Owens article, several times.) His Hebrew studies are another area when one can see how he used 19th century beliefs to 'restore' ancient things.

Gaia,

I've read extensively on Masonry and Mormonism and there are distinct parallels and strong indications that many ideas were borrowed from Masonry in the temple ceremony itself. However, I don't think the idea of the temple or veil or being endowed and so on has anything to do with Masonry. It is clear from the scriptures that God's people have always been a temple/mountain going people. They sought the Lord in special places and had unique experiences with the Lord.

And I don't see the criticism as very reasonable either. We don't wear clothes like people wore 2,000 years ago. I really don't see why our ceremonies would reflect those cultures either. The way I view the modern temple ceremony is it is the modern day clothes that Joseph Smith chose to dress it up in. In this case, it was Masonry. Personally, I don't view any of that as necessary since the point of the temple to go to be endowed by God. If that isn't your purpose and isn't the result (which I believe is most often the case), then the temple ceremony is a waste of your time.

As a side issue, can anyone explain from a Mormon perspective the recreation of the temple veil in Mormon temples when scripture indicates that the Jerusalem temple veil was rent from top to bottom at Christ's death on the cross with all that symbolizes as explained in Hebrews. Not trying to start a debate but just want to know the reasoning since the topic came up among friends who attended the Boise temple open house recently.