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| ==Claim== | | ==Claim== |
| Some critics of Mormonism point to similarities between the rites of Freemasonry and LDS temple ceremonies and conclude that since Joseph Smith was initiated as a Freemason shortly before he introduced the Nauvoo-style endowment he must have plagiarized elements of the Masonic rituals. | | Some critics of Mormonism see similarities between the rites of Freemasonry and LDS temple ceremonies and assume that since Joseph Smith was initiated as a Freemason shortly before he introduced the Nauvoo-style endowment he must have plagiarized elements of the Masonic rituals. This viewpoint leads them, in turn, to conclude that the LDS endowment is nothing but a variant form of Masonic initiation and therefore not from a divine source. |
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| {{CriticalSources}} | | {{CriticalSources}} |
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| ==Response== | | ==Response== |
| | Joseph Smith was initiated as a Freemason on the 15th and 16th of March 1842. But previously, on the 19th of Janaury 1841, the Lord gave a revelation to Joseph Smith (D&C 124) wherein He stated that He was going to restore through the Prophet the lost ordinances which had once been practiced inside of the Tabernacle built by Moses and the house built in the land of promise, meaning the temple of Solomon. The Lord also provided a list of many ritual elements that would be restored and practiced inside of the Nauvoo Temple. The elements named in this 1841 revelation are the same which Joseph Smith is accused of plagiarizing from the Freemasons. |
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| | A detailed look at LDS history before March of 1842 reveals that the Prophet Joseph Smith and some of his collegues were aware of many Nauvoo-style temple items early on - including ideology, vestments, language, forms, architecture and actions. Knowledge of many of these things predated the revelation given on 19 January 1841 (D&C 124). A careful look at the pre-1842 scriptural texts produced through Joseph Smith's instrumentality is also instructive. They reveal a wealth of knowledge about the rites that would be introduced among the Saints on 4 May 1842. The ritual activities associated with the Kirtland, Ohio temple must also be taken into consideration when evaluating the charge that Joseph Smith borrowed things from the Freemasons. |
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| In order to understand this issue, a few facts need to be understood:
| | A great weakness in the claim that Joseph Smith 'borrowed' from the Freemasons and 'created' the LDS temple ceremony is that Joseph Smith's version of things can be compared with the rites of ancient Israel and early Christianity in order to see if a restoration of orthodox material has indeed occurred. The Mormon and Masonic patterns can be weighed against what was once practiced among God's covenant peoples and a determination can then be made about whose pattern is closer to the original (i.e., the biblical pattern). A comparison between the LDS rites and modern Christian ordinances (particularly of the Eastern variety) is also most instructive. |
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| #Joseph Smith, Jr. was initiated as a Freemason in Nauvoo, Illinois on the 15th and 16th of March 1842; his brother Hyrum and (possibly) his father Joseph Sr. were Masons before the Church's organization in April 1830.
| | Another thing that needs to be taken into consideration about the 'Mormonism/Masonry' issue is that depsite the claims of some people the origin of Masonic patterns (lodge make-up and arrangement) and ritual can be readily determined. Several Masonic historians have pointed out the striking parallels between what they do and what the orthodox Christians have done for a very long time. These correspondences correlate very well with what Joseph Smith and other nineteenth century Mormons said about the origin of Freemasonry. |
| #A few of the early leaders of the Church were Masons before the Church's organization while many others were initiated into the Masonic institution after the Prophet was in 1842.
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| #Masonry was a well-known social institution in mid-19th century America.
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| #There are similarities between the rituals of Freemasonry and those of the LDS Temple endowment. These similarities center around
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| ::*the use of a ritual drama—the story of Hiram Abiff is used by the Masons, while the LDS endowment uses the story of Adam and Eve and the creation (the LDS versions have parallels to ancient Israelite temple worship).
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| ::*some similar hand actions in the course of the rituals (the LDS versions having distinct parallels to ancient Israelite temple worship and early Christian usage).
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| Symbolist F. L. Brink suggested that Joseph Smith successfully created an "innovative and intricate symbology" that suited well the psychic needs of his followers.{{ref|roberts1}}
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| ===Two Aspects of Temple Worship Suggested===
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| Some individuals have surmised that in order to understand the relationship between the temple endowment and Freemasonry it is useful to consider the temple experience as consisting of two different aspects.
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| #The ''teachings'' of the endowment, i.e., the doctrines taught and the covenants made with God.
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| #The ''method'' of presenting the endowment, or the "ritual" mechanics themselves.
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| Some people feel that it is in the ritual ''presentation'' of the endowment teachings and covenants that the similarities between the LDS temple worship and Freemasonry are the most apparent. The question is, why would this be the case?
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| It should be noted that this overall suggestion has not gone unchallenged.
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| ===Joseph's Challenge===
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| It is the opinion of some people that in developing the endowment Joseph Smith faced a problem. He wished to communicate, in a clear and effective manner, some different (and, in some cases, complex) religious ideas. These included such abstract concepts as
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| * the nature of creation (matter being organized and not created out of nothing)
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| * humanity's relationship to God and to each other
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| * eternal marriage and exaltation in the afterlife
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| The theory is that Joseph needed to communicate these ideas to a diverse population; some (but definitely not all) with limited educational attainments, some of whom were immigrants from foreign countries; several with only modest understanding of the English language; all of whom possessed different levels of intellectual and spiritual maturity—but who needed to be instructed through the same ceremony.
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| Joseph Smith's very brief experience with Freemasonry before the introduction of the full LDS endowment may have reminded him of the power of instruction through ritual and repetition. Some people believe that Joseph may have seized upon Masonic elements as teaching devices for the endowment's doctrines and covenants during the Nauvoo era. Other people are of the opinion that since these elements were previously present in the worship of the Kirtland Temple they were not 'borrowed' by the Prophet at all.
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| Regardless, the use of symbols was characteristic of Joseph Smith's era; it was not unique to him or Masonry:
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| :Symbols on buildings, in literature, stamped on manufactured goods, etc. were not endemic to Mormons and Masons but were common throughout all of mid-nineteenth century American society (as even a cursory inspection of books, posters, buildings and photos of the periods will bear out.) So, '''assuming''' [Joseph] Smith felt a need to communicate specific principles to his Saints, he '''might''' naturally develop a set of easily understood symbols as were already in familiar use about him.{{ref|roberts4}}
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| ===Confidentiality===
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| The LDS temple ceremony was (and is) considered to be sacred. As such, it was not to be exposed to the view or discussion of outsiders.
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| Joseph Smith felt that some of the Saints were not good at keeping religious confidences. He said:
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| :The reason we do not have the secrets of the Lord revealed unto us, is because we do not keep them but reveal them; we do not keep our own secrets, but reveal our difficulties to the world, even to our enemies, then how would we keep the secrets of the Lord? I can keep a secret till Doomsday.{{ref|js1}}
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| A few of the early leaders of the Church pointed out that one of the aims of Masonry was to teach adherents proper respect for promises of confidentiality.{{ref|brown1}} For instance,
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| * '''Joseph Smith''': "The secret of Masonry is to keep a secret."{{ref|js2}}
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| * '''Brigham Young''': "The main part of Masonry is to keep a secret."{{ref|by1}}
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| Even though secrecy was an established Masonic principle the Lord stated before Joseph Smith became a Freemason that there were certain aspects of the temple rites He was about to restore that were "kept hid" (see D&C 124:40-41).
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| ===Early Saints' Views===
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| The Saints of Joseph Smith's era accepted the then-common belief that Masonry ultimately sprang from Solomon's temple. Thus, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball understood Masonry to be a corrupted form of a pristine ancient temple rite from the Solomonic time period.{{ref|brown2}} One author later wrote that masonry as an "institution dates its origins many centuries back, it is only a perverted Priesthood stolen from the Temples of the Most High."{{ref|brown3}}
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| Joseph Fielding wrote during the Nauvoo period that Masonry was derived from an earlier, divinely-sanctioned set of rituals:
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| :Many have joined the Masonic institution. This seems to have been a stepping stone or preparation for something else, the true origin of Masonry. This I have also seen [i.e., the temple endowment] and rejoice in it.... I have evidence enough that Joseph is not fallen. I have seen him after giving, as I before said, the origin of Masonry.{{ref|jf1}}
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| Heber C. Kimball wrote of the endowment:
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| :We have received some precious things through the Prophet on the Priesthood which would cause your soul to rejoice. I cannot give them to you on paper for they are not to be written so you must come and get them for yourself...There is a similarity of Priesthood in Masonry. '''Brother Joseph says Masonry was taken from Priesthood but has become degenerated.''' But many things are perfect.{{ref|hck1}}
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| Thus, to Joseph's contemporaries, there was much more to the LDS temple endowment than just warmed-over Freemasonry. None of Joseph's friends complained that he had simply adapted Masonic ritual for his own purposes. Rather, they were aware of the ritual elements that were common between the two systems of initiation, but understood that Joseph had restored something that was both ritually and theologically ancient and God-given.
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| ===Timing of the Endowment Revelations===
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| Critics have noted that Joseph's initiation into Freemasonry (15–16 March 1842) predates his introduction of the full temple endowment among the Saints (4 May 1842). They thus claim that Masonry was a necessary element for Joseph's self-generated "revelation" of the Nauvoo-era temple ceremonies.
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| But one LDS author draws attention to the fact that there is much more to the history of the endowment restoration than critics of the Church are willing to admit. He states:
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| :Plenty of evidence...is available that Joseph Smith had a detailed knowledge of the Nauvoo temple ceremonies long before he introduced them in May 1842 and long before he set foot inside a Masonic hall...While Joseph Smith was translating the book of Abraham from Egyptian papyri, he wrote a series of short explanations for three of the illustrations that accompanied his translation. The Prophet noted that in Facsimile 2, figures 3 and 7 were related in some manner to "the grand Key-words of the Holy Priesthood" and "the sign of the Holy Ghost." When he came to figure 8, he explained that this area on the Egyptian drawing contained "writings that cannot be revealed unto the world; but is to be had in the Holy Temple of God."...
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| :Other writers have used the Facsimile 2 material to sharpen the chronological argument against Joseph Smith. Facsimile 2 and its temple-related explanations were first printed in the 15 March 1842 edition of the ''Times and Seasons'', the same day that the Prophet received the first of three Masonic initiation rites. Latter-day Saints have traditionally argued that this issue of the newspaper was published during the day while the Prophet's Masonic initiation did not occur until that evening. Thus Joseph Smith must have had temple knowledge before he had Masonic knowledge. But critics point out that the 15 March issue of the paper was not actually published until 19 March, several days after the Prophet witnessed the Masonic ceremonies.
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| :This is where terminology becomes crucial. Critics claim that the phrases employed by Joseph Smith in the Facsimile 2 explanations are Masonic and that it was not until several days after his Masonic induction that Joseph Smith "first spoke of 'certain key words and signs belonging to the priesthood.'" These critics assume the terms are necessarily "Masonic," yet it must be remembered that Freemasonry's rites are little more than borrowed baggage. Then what about the supposedly incriminating timing of these incidents? This is precisely the point at which the entire argument falls apart. On 5 May 1841 William Appleby paid a visit to Joseph Smith, who read to him the revelation on temple ordinances, now identified as Doctrine and Covenants 124, that was received 19 January 1841. After the two men discussed baptism for the dead, the Prophet got out his collection of Egyptian papyrus scrolls and, while exhibiting Facsimile 2, explained to Appleby that part of the drawing was related to "the Lord revealing the Grand key words of the Holy Priesthood, to Adam in the garden of Eden, as also to Seth, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, and to all whom the Priesthood was revealed."
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| :It is also clear from Doctrine and Covenants 124 that Joseph Smith was well aware of the main ritual elements of the Nauvoo endowment ceremony at least as early as 19 January 1841. (See {{s||DC||124||}}.){{ref|brown4}}
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| The note from Appleby is found in his journal under the date of 5 May 1841, a little less than a year before Joseph's initiation in the Masonic Lodge at Nauvoo.{{ref|appleby1}} It should be emphasized that there is a great deal more evidence that the Prophet Joseph Smith knew of Nauvoo-era endowment ritual, phraseology, vestments, and theology long before he ever became a Freemason.
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| ===Differences===
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| It is worth noting that some of the similarities between the endowment and Freemasonry which are highlighted by Church critics are only superficial. For example, critics typically focus on the common use of architectural elements on the Salt Lake Temple and in Masonry, even though the endowment makes no reference to such elements. Critics also fail to acknowledge that the Saints were employing these particular symbols many years before Joseph Smith became a Freemason. And in almost every case, shared symbolic forms have different ''meanings'', and thus should not be seen as exact parallels.
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| It should also be emphasized that the goals of Masonry and the LDS endowment are not the same. Masonry teaches of man's relationship to his fellow men but offers no means of salvation; i.e., it is not a religion. Yet, there is still a common expectation in some lodges about good Masons ultimately residing where God is. LDS temple ordinances, on the other hand, are seen as absolute requirements for not only admittance into God's presence in the afterlife but also necessities for exaltation or becoming like God.
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| ==Conclusion==
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| 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
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| #Joseph Smith claimed direct revelation from God regarding the Nauvoo-era endowment,
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| #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
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| #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.
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| ==Endnotes==
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| #{{note|roberts1}}T. L. Brink, "The Rise of Mormonism: A Case Study in the Symbology of Frontier America," ''International Journal of Symbology'' 6/3 (1975): 4; cited in {{Sunstone1 |author=Allen D. Roberts|article=Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?|vol=4|num=15|date=May 1979|start=26}} {{link|url=http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/searchable/mag-text.asp?MagID=15}}
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| #{{note|roberts4}} {{Sunstone1 |author=Allen D. Roberts|article=Where are the All-Seeing Eyes?|vol=4|num=5|date=May 1979|start=26}} {{link|url=http://www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/searchable/mag-text.asp?MagID=15}}(emphasis added)
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| #{{note|js1}}{{TPJS|start=194|end=195, (19 December 1841)}} {{link|url=http://www.boap.org/LDS/Joseph-Smith/Teachings/T4.html Direct}}; see also {{HC|vol=4|start=478|end=479}}
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| #{{note|brown1}} See footnote 20 of {{FR-10-1-4}}
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| #{{note|js2}}{{TPJS1|start=329}}{15 October 1843)
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| #{{note|by1}}{{WWJ1 |vol=5|start=418, (22 January 1860, spelling standardized) }}
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| #{{note|brown2}} See Footnote 30, {{FR-10-1-4}}
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| #{{note|brown3}} {{Instructor1 | author=H. Belnap | article=A Mysterious Preacher|date=15 March 1886|vol=21|num=?|start=91|}}; cited in {{FR-10-1-4}}
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| #{{note|jf1}} {{BYUS1|author=Andrew F. Ehat|article='They Might Have Known That He Was Not a Fallen Prophet'—The Nauvoo Journal of Joseph Fielding|vol=19|num=2|date=1979|start=145, 147, spelling and punctuation standardized}}
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| #{{note|hck1}} Heber C. Kimball to Parley P. Pratt, 17 June 1842, Parley P. Pratt Papers, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, spelling and punctuation standardized.
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| #{{note|brown4}} {{FR-10-1-4}}
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| #{{note|appleby1}} William I. Appleby Journal, 5 May 1841, MS 1401 1, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.
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Important note: Members of FAIR take their temple covenants seriously. We consider the temple teachings to be sacred, and will not discuss their specifics in a public forum.
Claim
Some critics of Mormonism see similarities between the rites of Freemasonry and LDS temple ceremonies and assume that since Joseph Smith was initiated as a Freemason shortly before he introduced the Nauvoo-style endowment he must have plagiarized elements of the Masonic rituals. This viewpoint leads them, in turn, to conclude that the LDS endowment is nothing but a variant form of Masonic initiation and therefore not from a divine source.
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]
Response
Joseph Smith was initiated as a Freemason on the 15th and 16th of March 1842. But previously, on the 19th of Janaury 1841, the Lord gave a revelation to Joseph Smith (D&C 124) wherein He stated that He was going to restore through the Prophet the lost ordinances which had once been practiced inside of the Tabernacle built by Moses and the house built in the land of promise, meaning the temple of Solomon. The Lord also provided a list of many ritual elements that would be restored and practiced inside of the Nauvoo Temple. The elements named in this 1841 revelation are the same which Joseph Smith is accused of plagiarizing from the Freemasons.
A detailed look at LDS history before March of 1842 reveals that the Prophet Joseph Smith and some of his collegues were aware of many Nauvoo-style temple items early on - including ideology, vestments, language, forms, architecture and actions. Knowledge of many of these things predated the revelation given on 19 January 1841 (D&C 124). A careful look at the pre-1842 scriptural texts produced through Joseph Smith's instrumentality is also instructive. They reveal a wealth of knowledge about the rites that would be introduced among the Saints on 4 May 1842. The ritual activities associated with the Kirtland, Ohio temple must also be taken into consideration when evaluating the charge that Joseph Smith borrowed things from the Freemasons.
A great weakness in the claim that Joseph Smith 'borrowed' from the Freemasons and 'created' the LDS temple ceremony is that Joseph Smith's version of things can be compared with the rites of ancient Israel and early Christianity in order to see if a restoration of orthodox material has indeed occurred. The Mormon and Masonic patterns can be weighed against what was once practiced among God's covenant peoples and a determination can then be made about whose pattern is closer to the original (i.e., the biblical pattern). A comparison between the LDS rites and modern Christian ordinances (particularly of the Eastern variety) is also most instructive.
Another thing that needs to be taken into consideration about the 'Mormonism/Masonry' issue is that depsite the claims of some people the origin of Masonic patterns (lodge make-up and arrangement) and ritual can be readily determined. Several Masonic historians have pointed out the striking parallels between what they do and what the orthodox Christians have done for a very long time. These correspondences correlate very well with what Joseph Smith and other nineteenth century Mormons said about the origin of Freemasonry.
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