From what I read, the earliest accounts of Freemasonry as we know it come from the 17th century. Certain LDS apologists are able to make this claim since the Freemasons themselves believe their fraternal organization predates the 17th century estimate and has had esoteric knowledge about King Solomon’s Temple lost to the rest of the world.
I’ve actually had conversations with particular Mormons who believe that Freemasonry is further evidence of the alleged apostasy. They believe that the Freemasons “did the best they could” in restoring the Temple rites, but Joseph Smith had to be called by God to finish the job.
So Freemason’s actually think that the organization(s) goes back to Solomon’s Temple? I found this on a freemasonry site:
“Masonry is distinguished from other fraternal orders by its emphasis on
moral character, its ornate rituals, and its long tradition and history,
which dates back to at least the 17th century in modern form, the 14th
century (c. 1350-1390) in the written evidence of its precursors, and back
to the mists of antiquity in its origin. Masonry has a continuously
documented paper history (i.e., Lodge to Lodge) since 1717, though
historical analysis shows Masonry to be much older.”
web.mit.edu/dryfoo/masonry/
“Freemasonry is the world’s oldest and largest Fraternity. While its traditions look back to earliest history, Masonry in its current form appeared when its public events were noticed by the residents of London, England in 1717. Although Masonry - particularly in its earliest days - had some elements of secrecy, the first ‘exposure’ of the supposedly highly-secret Masonic ritual actually appeared in 1696! Since that time, there have been tens of thousands of books published about this ‘secret organization’. And for over three hundred years, despite the good works done by its members, Freemasonry has continually suffered the slings and arrows of those who seek to use it’s quiet nature against it.”
masonicinfo.com/primer.htm
This site also seems to say that the source of allegory used in Freemasonry is from the Bible, specifically Solomon’s Temple. It seems to acknowledge the origins of Freemasonry in more recent history:
dcgrandlodge.org/content/origins-freemasonry
It’s interesting that so much is attributed to King Solomon and the temple, including various occult texts (some speculate that Dan Brown’s new book (which I’ll be reading
) will include something about the “Key of Solomon”, one of those texts).
Of course, there are MANY similarities between Catholic and Orthodox churches and Solomon’s temple.
I’m wondering if there is any evidence of the use of signs and tokens in Solomon’s temple or in early Christian worship.
