Mormon Temples-Do Some Believe Freemasonry is Ancient?

[FabiusMaximus]

I doubt that Joseph was a mason at the time of the publication of the Book of Mormon. It seems from the LDS church’s own history that it was Joseph’s brother Hyram who sponsored Joseph as a Freemason. That was during the Kirtland period, several years after the Book of Mormon was published.

It is interesting, though, that the Book of Mormon contains a very anti-Masonic passage:

If Joseph Smith was a Freemason before the publication of the Book of Mormon, it is further evidence that Joseph did not write it. I still believe that Sidney Rigdon wrote the religious parts of the Book of Mormon. His intellectual and religious fingerprints are all over it.

My wife and I both noticed, in our research into Mormon history and doctrine before we left the LDS church, that Joseph Smith virtually NEVER preached from the Book of Mormon. Yes, he once said it was the most correct book on the Earth, but he almost never taught from it. In fact, most everything Joseph Smith taught from 1831 forward directly contradicted the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon is a very anti-Mormon book, since none of the distinctly LDS doctrines are in it. Perhaps that is why Joseph almost never taught from it.

Also, it is more evidence that the BoM is a 19th century work of fiction, as it addresses all of the subjects that concerned religious people of 19th-century America, including Freemasonry, which did not exist in Nephi’s time.

Paul (formerly LDS, now happily Catholic)

So is membership in Freemasonry considered acceptable for an LDS member, unlike with many Christian groups where participation would be explicitly forbidden?

 

[PaulDupre1]

So is membership in Freemasonry considered acceptable for an LDS member, unlike with many Christian groups where participation would be explicitly forbidden?

Truthfully, I don’t know. Mormonism changes so quickly that you never know from one day to the next…

But from what Mormons have told me, in the past they forbade Mormons from becoming Freemasons. These days, they seem to turn a blind eye.

I think that very soon the temple endowment will be radically changed and all of the Masonic elements will be removed.

Then the endowment should take, what, 15 minutes?

Paul (formerly LDS, now happily Catholic)

 

[benjohnson]

I want to point out very quickly that there is a clear and meaningful break between English lodges and French lodges, each kind of lodge is technically Masonic but neither recognizes the other as “regular.”

Indeed there’s a huge difference between Masonry in the old commonwealth and Masonry on the European continent - I don’t know how to put it nicely, but continental Masonry can be nuts, even in modern times.

You know all those conspiracy theories about Masons trying to influence governments for their own purposes… it’s can be true: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due

To be fair, the official Grand Lodge did expel this loge when it it began to go nuts.

 

[Sabacthani]

As some may be aware, there are elements of Freemasonry found in the LDS temple Endowment ordinance (though the degree to which such similarities are found has lessened as changes have been made to the ordinance over time). Do LDS believe that Joseph Smith deliberately used elements from Freemasonry to “flesh out” his own ritual, or do some LDS believe that Freemasonry is an actual ancient system, going back to Solomon?

ETA: Do LDS believe that the ancient Christians were performing these rituals? What is the evidence?

I know only one living LDS guy who actually thinks that Freemasonry as a system dates back to Solomon. Know a few Catholics who believe that as well.

I know some LDS people who believe that Freemasonry incorporates some elements of worship which date back to Solomon’s time. That they were based on heretical forms of worship that drew true elements from the true original worship service.

I know some LDS who think that Joseph Smith used Freemasonry symbols to flesh out a ritual which was inspired in the basic concepts.

Most LDS that I know are ignorant of Freemasonry and have no idea that some of the temple worship elements echo elements in Freemasonry.

 

[Sabacthani]

Truthfully, I don’t know. Mormonism changes so quickly that you never know from one day to the next…

But from what Mormons have told me, in the past they forbade Mormons from becoming Freemasons. These days, they seem to turn a blind eye.

I think that very soon the temple endowment will be radically changed and all of the Masonic elements will be removed.

Then the endowment should take, what, 15 minutes?

Paul (formerly LDS, now happily Catholic)

My understanding is that it was the contrary: Freemasons used to forbid Mormons from joining, but now they’ve relaxed that.

I was told by one ex-LDS Freemason that freemasons were within the group that killed Joseph Smith & he recognized them which is why he died crying out the Freemason code"Oh Lord My God," in order to save the lives of his friends in the jail when he jumped out the window into the middle of the gun toting mob. That’s why after JS jumped out to let himself be killed, one of the killers yelled “the mormons are coming”, spooking the mob, and saving the lives of John Taylor and … Willard? I can’t remember the other survivor.

 

[Sabacthani]

“22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.”

The description of secret combinations does not qualify the Freemasons, or Alcoholics Anonymous, for that matter. The LDS church is neutral towards the Freemasons and actually quite supportive of Alcoholics Anonymous, despite the pledge of anonymity.

The first organization that fit the Secret Combination description from the Book of Mormon, after the publication of the book of Mormon, was the Ku Klux Klan.

 

[PaulDupre1]

“22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.”

The description of secret combinations does not qualify the Freemasons, or Alcoholics Anonymous, for that matter. The LDS church is neutral towards the Freemasons and actually quite supportive of Alcoholics Anonymous, despite the pledge of anonymity.

The first organization that fit the Secret Combination description from the Book of Mormon, after the publication of the book of Mormon, was the Ku Klux Klan.

If you knew the ceremony to induct an apprentice freemason, you would understand the reference to the flaxen cord.

Paul (formerly LDS, now happily Catholic)