Temples & Freemasonry
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"Because of their Masonic characters the ceremonies of the temple are sacred and not for the public."– OCTOBER 15, 1911, MESSAGE FROM THE FIRST PRESIDENCY, 4:250
Temple ceremonies are sacred and so should only really be discussed in private. So because of that, I won't be discussing this section in the kind of detail as other sections, and if you feel more comfortable skipping to the Science section, go right ahead. If you would like resources from the Church, here is their article on the Temple Endowment, and for some history, see Saints volume 1 Chapter 37 and volume 2 Chapter 28, as well as the supplementary Church History Topics on Masonry and the Temple Endowment. I will discuss my opinions on the seven items Jeremy brings up, but I'll remove the concluding quote he added in 2017 to the CES letter that quoted the pre-1990 endowment.
For the opening quote, this comes from an article published by the Oakland Tribune on 15 October 1911, where they published a "special mammoth edition" with articles showing how the west was built up. They gave the Church the privilege of telling their own story, and the history was signed by the First Presidency. The article was republished in the Deseret News on November 4th. Near the end of the very long article, it talked about the temples:
The temples are not open to the public. They are for the performance of sacred ordinances, having in view the salvation of the living and the dead. The principal ceremonies are baptisms, endowments, marriages, sealings and adoptions. Much of this work, that in behalf of the dead, is of a vicarious character. …
Because of their Masonic characters the ceremonies of the temple are sacred and not for the public. But there is nothing disloyal in them, as so often asserted, nor in their performance is there the slightest departure from the principles of decorum and propriety.
You can see that they are explaining what the temple is and refuting common rumors. Presumably, it is the word "masonic" that interests Jeremy, given that this is what the section is about. As the Church talks about in the linked Church history topic on Masonry, "There are some similarities between Masonic ceremonies and the endowment, but three are also stark differences in their content and intent."
1. Just seven weeks after Joseph’s March 1842 Masonic initiation, Joseph introduced the LDS endowment ceremony in May 1842.
This is correct. On 15 March 1842 the Illinois Grand Master Mason installed the officers for the Nauvoo Lodge and initiated Joseph and Sidney Rigdon to the degree of "Entered Apprentice" in the upper floor of Joseph's Red Brick Store. The next day, Jonas passed Joseph and Sidney as "Fellow Craft" and raised them as "Master Masons."
Exactly seven weeks after his initiation was 3 May 1842. Fearing that his life would be taken before the temple was completed, Joseph Smith called for a handful of men to arrange the upper room of his Red Brick Store to represent the interior of a temple as much as circumstances would permit. The next day, Joseph administered the endowment for the first time to a group of nine men. The ordinance expanded upon the washing and anointing ceremony introduced in the Kirtland temple in 1836.
During the next two years before his death, he gave the endowment to a small group of men and women and instructed and prepared them to officiate in the ordinance so that other worthy Saints could receive it when the temple was finished.
Jeremy doesn't say what he sees as a problem with this until the third item. It appears that his complaint is that Joseph Smith just copied the masonic ritual to become the endowment. However, he doesn't explain why that is a problem either.
Consider, we don't have a problem with baptism or any of the other ordinances we have existing previously in other churches. Many sections in the Doctrine and Covenants even came after Joseph Smith had a question, so it seems reasonable to have a hypothesis that Joseph asked God about the masonry ritual after experiencing it. The difference is that freemasonry is not a religious organization, and one that modern Latter-day Saints are less familiar with.
That being said, not everything in the endowment ceremony comes from masonic rites. The doctrinal and narrative elements instead draw from earlier revelations that Joseph Smith had received, namely what is now the Book of Moses.
2. President Heber C. Kimball, a Mason himself and a member of the First Presidency for 21 years, made the following statement:“We have the true Masonry. The Masonry of today is received from the apostasy which took place in the days of Solomon, and David. They have now and then a thing that is correct, but we have the real thing.”
The article in turn references the Manuscript History of the Church, in case you're like me and want the original source.
Like the previous item, Jeremy doesn't say what problem he has with this statement, but rather serves again as background information for the next two items. I don't really have much to say on this one by itself, except to point out that early precipitants of the Endowment were also Freemasons, and therefore were aware of the similarities.
3. If Masonry had the original Temple ceremony but became distorted over time, why doesn’t the LDS ceremony more closely resemble an earlier form of Masonry, which would be more correct rather than the exact version that Joseph Smith was exposed to in his March 1842 Nauvoo, Illinois initiation?
Jeremy will answer his own question in the next item, but Freemasonry can only be reliably traced to the middle ages. So for an analogy, it's like asking why Latter-day Saint beliefs and practices don't more closely resemble medieval Catholicism than the exact version of Methodism that Joseph Smith was exposed to in Palmyra?
The analogy is also good for pointing out that the Temple Endowment is not the exact same as the masonic rituals. As described in the Church history topic,
Masonic ceremonies promote self-improvement, brotherhood, charity, and fidelity to truth for the purpose of making better men, who in turn make a better society. During temple ordinances, men and women covenant with God to obey His laws for the purpose of gaining exaltation through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Masonic rituals deliver stage-by-stage instruction using dramatization and symbolic gestures and clothing, with content based on Masonic legends. The endowment employs similar teaching devices, but it draws primarily upon the revelations and inspired translations given to Joseph Smith for its content.
Much of our temple worship is found in Joseph's earlier revelations, in the Bible, and elsewhere in antiquity. More on that in the next item.
4. Freemasonry has zero links to Solomon’s Temple. Although more a Church folklore, with origins from comments made by early Mormon Masons such as Heber C. Kimball, than being Church doctrine, it’s a myth that the endowment ceremony has its origins from Solomon’s Temple or that Freemasonry passed down parts of the endowment over the centuries from Solomon’s Temple. Solomon’s Temple was all about animal sacrifice. Freemasonry has its origins to stone tradesmen in medieval Europe – not in 950 BC Jerusalem.
FairMormon admits these facts:“Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence to support a continuous functioning line from Solomon’s Temple to the present. We know what went on in Solomon’s Temple; it’s the ritualistic slaughter of animals.”
“Masonry, while claiming a root in antiquity, can only be reliably traced to medieval stone tradesmen.”
“It is clear that Freemasonry and its traditions played a role in the development of the endowment ritual…”If there’s no connection to Solomon’s Temple, what’s so divine about a man-made medieval European secret fraternity and its rituals?
Jeremy somehow missed the point. There is nothing divine about freemasonry. The Temple Endowment isn't freemasonry. When Heber C. Kimball said, "we have the true masonry" that implies that regular masonry is false. The Temple Endowment is a divine ordinance where we covenant with God, and the rituals in freemasonry is not.
What makes the Temple Endowment divine is that it came from God, not about whether it traces to antiquity or not. That being said, as I said before, there are many ancient aspects to the Latter-day Saint temple worship outside of masonry.
- Part of the temple instruction is regarding creation and the Garden of Eden. The garden itself is symbolic of the temple of the Old Testament, as also described in the Bible Project, made by scholars and with a protestant viewpoint. In the Book of Moses, you find Adam and Eve making the same covenants with God as you find in Latter-day Saint temples.
- Noah and the ark is also symbolic of the temple.
- The outline of the Square and Compass make a hexagram, better known as the Star of David, which is two intersecting triangles, one pointing up, the other down. There is a lot of symbolism there. These symbols appears anciently, one I find interesting is from Chinese folk religion Nuwa and Fuxi, the "original humans" and depicted in this ancient painting holding the square and compass.
- In Genesis 28, there is also symbolism as Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder. He names the place Beth-el, the House of the Lord. In Genesis 32, he wrestled with a messenger of God, desiring a blessing. After asking Jacob's name and Jacob gives it, the messenger names him Israel and gives him a blessing. Jacob names the place Peniel "for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
- Regarding ceremonial clothing, there is reason to believe that the clothing of Adam was passed down through Noah, and was representative of the authority to rule. The "coat of many colors" that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, while the Septuagint word indicates many colors, the Hebrew term may indicate simply a long coat with sleeves. One tradition is that these were the clothes of Adam passed down. Then, of course, the Book of Exodus describes the clothes the priests wear.
- Early Christians performed washing and anointings, and there exist records describing them praying in circles.
- The entire Gospel of John might be symbolic of the temple.
No, there weren't people going through the Temple of Solomon to receive their endowments, as that was not the purpose of the temple during the time when the Law of Moses was in effect. However, it is symbolic of our return to the presence of God, which our modern-day temples make heavy use of.
5. Why did the Church remove the blood oath penalties and the 5 Points of Fellowship at the veil from the endowment ceremony in 1990? Both of these were 100% Masonic rituals. What does this say about the Temple and the endowment ceremony if 100% pagan Masonic rituals were in it from its inception? What does it say about the Church if it removed something that Joseph Smith said he restored and which would never again be taken away from the earth?
This paragraph doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Jeremy asks why it was removed, but in the middle wonders what it was doing there in the first place. But he exhibits several incorrect assumptions that seem to feed whatever his concern is.
For one, masonry is not pagan. It's not even a religion, it is a fraternal organization. While some churches forbid participation in masonry, many Freemasons are Christians. But even if pagan, so what? Ancient Jews performed animal sacrifice, something that pagans are known to have done. Does that mean that it was wrong? And even if it were wrong, then why be against the change?
When Joseph Smith first gave the endowment on 4 May 1844, rather than saying it would never change, he told Brigham Young, "this is not arranged right but we have done the best we could under the circumstances in which we are placed, and I wish you to take this matter in hand and organize and systematize all these ceremonies". Brigham Young said that he continued to learn as he performed ceremonies under Joseph Smith's direction, and so was able to perform them when the Nauvoo Temple was completed, saying, "We had our ceremonies pretty correct."
In 1877, after the dedication of the St. George temple, Brigham Young asked Wilford Woodruff and other Church leaders to write down the endowment ceremony for the first time. They worked for weeks, and Brigham accepted or revised them as the Spirit directed. When they finished, Brigham said, "Now you have before you an example to carry on the endowments in all the temples until the coming of the Son of Man."
The way the ordinance is administered has changed over time. Originally, it lasted the better part of a day. Later generations of Church leaders sought divine guidance to streamline the ceremony, making it easier for members to perform vicarious endowments for the dead. Through inspiration, the methods of instruction have changed many times to enhance the temple learning experience to help members better understand and live what they learn in the temple.
Regarding the changes in 1990, Beverly Campbell, the East Coast director for public communications for the Church said, "the ceremony itself needs to meet the needs of the people" and that the changes are "more in keeping with the sensitivities we have as a society." And that is the point of having modern-day revelation, that if we need to make changes, then we can.
6. Is God really going to require individuals to know secret tokens, handshakes, and signs to get into heaven? What is the purpose of them? Doesn’t Heavenly Father know our names and know us personally? Indeed, aren’t the very hairs on our heads numbered? And couldn’t those who have left the Church and still know of the secret tokens, handshakes, and signs (or those who have watched the endowment ceremony on YouTube) benefit from that knowledge?
As with all ordinances, the endowment is for our benefit, not God's. Yes, Heavenly Father knows who we are, but do we know who we are? We are entering a covenant with God, and that is the purpose of the endowment. A covenant is a two-way promise where God grants certain blessings as we keep certain commitments. No, people cannot sneak into heaven without keeping their covenants.
7. Does the eternal salvation, eternal happiness, and eternal families really depend on Masonic rituals in multi-million dollar castles? Is God really going to separate good couples and their children who love one another and who want to be together in the next life because they object to uncomfortable and strange Masonic Temple rituals and a polygamous heaven?
I find it odd to criticize a polygamous heaven in the same breath as criticizing a god for separating families. But that's not really his point. Jeremy is purposefully being derogatory here presumably to distract from the obvious answer is that yes, you can't receive blessings from God while rejecting Him. I would flip the question around, are good families who actually love one another really going to let their family relationships dissolve because God's terms are a little uncomfortable?
Due to the nature of mortality, everything is temporary, but Heavenly Father prepared a plan, and through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we will be raised from the dead, become clean of our sins, and may enjoy eternal life. If people don't enter the Celestial Kingdom, it is because they choose not to go there because they will be happier elsewhere.
Jesus is reaching out to us, and we would be better off letting Him save us rather than blame Him as we fall victim to the natural consequences of our actions. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ isn't comfortable or easy, but it is worth it.
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