Relationship between the temple endowment and Freemasonry

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.

Criticism

Critics of the LDS Church often cite similarities between the rituals of Freemasonry and the LDS temple endowment. It is pointed out that the development of the endowment parallels Joseph Smith Jr.'s introduction to Masonry in Nauvoo. Critics often imply or state that the temple endowment was taken from Freemasonry.

It is worthwhile to note that these critics are also often critical of Freemasonry, and thus attempt guilt by association.

Source(s) of the Criticism

• Website: josephlied.com
• Scott Abbott, Review of Mormonism's Temple of Doom, by William J. Schnoebelen and James R. Spencer, Dialogue 22/2 (1989): 151–53.
• Edward H. Ashment, "The LDS Temple Ceremony: Historical Origins and Religious Value," Dialogue 27/3 (1994): 289–98.
• David J. Buerger, "The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony," Dialogue 20/4 (1987): 33–76.
• David J. Buerger, The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship (San Francisco: Smith Research Associates, 1994).
• Michael W. Homer, "'Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry': The Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism," Dialogue 27/3 (1994): 1–113.
• Robert N. Hullinger, Joseph Smith's Response to Skepticism (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 99–120.
• Armand L. Mauss, "Culture, Charisma, and Change: Reflections on Mormon Temple Worship," Dialogue 20/4 (1987): 77–83.
• Sterling M. McMurrin, Review of Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, Dialogue 26/2 (1993): 210.
• Keith E. Norman, "A Kinder, Gentler Mormonism: Moving Beyond the Violence of Our Past," Sunstone (August 1990): 10–14.
• Lance S. Owens, "Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection," Dialogue 27/3 (1994): 166–73.
• Gregory A. Prince, Power from on High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995), 146–48.
• Allen D. Roberts, "Where Are the All-Seeing Eyes?" Sunstone (May/June 1979): 22–37
• George D. Smith Jr., Review of Evolution of the Mormon Temple Ceremony: 1920–1990, by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Sunstone (June 1991): 56.
• George D. Smith Jr., ed., An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton (Salt Lake City: Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, 1991), xxxvii–xxxviii.
• Margaret and Paul Toscano, Strangers in Paradox: Explorations in Mormon Theology (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990), 279, 287.

Response

^[1]In order to understand this issue, a few facts are needed:

1. Joseph Smith, Jr. was a Mason, as were his brother Hyrum and his father.
2. Many of the early leaders of the church were also Masons. These included Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, John Taylor, Wilfred Woodruff and other leading members.
3. Masonry was a common social institution in mid-19th century America.
4. There are similarities between the rituals of Freemasonry and those of the LDS Temple endowment. These similarities center around

• 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
• some similar hand actions in the course of the rituals.

Two aspects of temple worship

In order to understand the relationship between the temple endowment and Freemasonry it is useful to consider the temple experience. In the temple, participants are confronted with ritual in a form which is unknown in LDS worship outside of that venue. The temple endowment is, in fact, made up of two parts:

1. The teachings of the endowment, i.e., the doctrines taught and the covenants made with God.
2. The method of presenting the endowment, or the "ritual" mechanics themselves.

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?

Joseph's challenge

In developing the endowment, Joseph faced a problem. He wished to communicate, in a clear and effective manner, some new (and, in some cases, complex) religious ideas. These included such abstract concepts as

• the nature of creation
• matter being organized and not created out of nothing
• humanity's relationship to God and each other
• eternal marriage

Joseph needed to communicate these ideas to a population with limited educational attainments, many of whom were immigrants with only modest skills in English. And, ideally, people of different levels of intellectual and spiritual maturity needed to be taught by the same ceremony.

Joseph's experience with Freemasonry—including serving as the Chaplain of Rising Sun Lodge in Nauvoo—taught him the power of instruction through ritual and repetition. Many believe that Joseph seized on this insight as a tool for teaching the endowment's doctrines and covenants. By using ritual forms akin to Freemasonry—forms with which many Saints were already acquainted—he insured that their focus would be on the endowment proper, and not on the means chosen to present it.

Confidentiality

The LDS temple ceremony was, and is, considered sacred. As such, it was not to be exposed to the view or discussion of outsiders.

Joseph Smith was of the view that many of the Saints were not good at keeping religious confidences:

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.^[2]

Many early Church leaders opined that one of the goals of Masonry was to teach the Saints proper respect for promises of confidentiality:^[3]

• Joseph Smith:"The secret of Masonry is to keep a secret."^[4]
• Brigham Young: "The main part of Masonry is to keep a secret."^[5]
• John Taylor: "Freemasonry is one of the strongest binding contracts that exists between man and man." ^[6]

Masonic elements in the endowment ceremony would have reinforced, in the Saints' minds, the necessity of keeping sacred things private.

Early Saints' Views

The members of Joseph Smith's era and later clearly understood that Masonry was not the temple ordinances. These members accepted the then-common belief that Masonry sprang ultimately from Solomon's temple. Thus, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball understood Masonry to be a corrupted form of a pristine ancient temple rite.^[7] 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."^[8]

Joseph Fielding wrote in Nauvoo:

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 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.^[9]

Heber C. Kimball wrote of the endowment:

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.^[10]

Thus, to Joseph's contemporaries, there was much more to the endowment than warmed-over Masonry. None of Joseph's friends or enemies complained that he had just adapted Masonic ritual. Rather, they were aware of the ritual elements in common, but understood that Joseph had produced something that was both ritually and theologically rich and novel.

Differences

It is also worth noting that many of the similarities highlighted by church critics are only superficial. For example, critics focus on the common use of architectural elements on the Salt Lake Temple and in Masonry, even though the endowment makes no references to such elements. In almost every case, shared symbolic forms have different meanings.

The goals of Masonry and the endowment are not the same. Both teach important truths, but the truths they teach are different. Masonry teaches of man's relationship to his fellow men and offers no means of salvation; it is not a religion. The temple endowment teaches of man's relationship to God, and Latter-day Saints consider it essential for exaltation.

Modifications

With time, modern Saints have lost their connection to the institution of Freemasonry. Therefore, the understanding of these ritual forms has been lost by most members. As members no longer require or respond to such rituals elements, some have been modified or removed from the temple's ritual. The ritual of the temple has undergone (and will likely continue to undergo) modification and improvement to meet the needs of the Saints in the coming years.

Conclusion

The temple endowment is made up of two elements: 1) the "endowment proper," or doctrines taught and covenants made; and 2) the ritual presentation of the endowment.

While the ritual has elements that are shared with Freemasonry, the presentation is not the endowment. Joseph used these ritual elements because of the Saints' familiarity with them. Ritual drama provided a teaching tool which permitted the prophet to communicate the endowment to a population of limited education.

The presentation of the endowment has been (and likely will continue to be) changed under priesthood direction to meet the changing needs of Latter-day Saints around the world. Many of the Masonic elements once found in the presentation of the endowment are no longer in use. Symbolic elements in the endowment, whatever their source, are present only to aid members in a religious purpose: understanding doctrine and keeping covenants.

We live in a world of symbols. No man or woman can come out of the temple endowed as he should be, unless he has seen, beyond the symbol, the mighty realities for which the symbols stand.^[11]

Endnotes

1. [note] This article was created by Greg Kearney, Franklin Lodge #123 A.F. & A.M. of Maine, and includes edits by other FAIRwiki editors.
2. [note] Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected by Joseph Fielding Smith, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976), 194–195, (19 December 1841). off-site Direct off-site; see also History of the Church, 4:478–479. Volume 4 link
3. [note]  See footnote 20 of Matthew B. Brown, "Of Your Own Selves Shall Men Arise, Review of The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship by David John Buerger," FARMS Review of Books 10/1 (1998): 97–131. off-site
4. [note] Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, selected by Joseph Fielding Smith, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976), 329. off-site{15 October 1843)
5. [note] Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 9 vols., ed., Scott G. Kenny (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1985), 5:418, (22 January 1860, spelling standardized). ISBN 0941214133.
6. [note]  John Taylor, "?," Journal of Discourses, reported by G.D. Watt and J.V. Long, (1 March 1863), Vol. 10 (London: Latter-day Saint's Book Depot, 1865), 125–126.off-site wiki
7. [note]  See Footnote 30, Matthew B. Brown, "Of Your Own Selves Shall Men Arise, Review of The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship by David John Buerger," FARMS Review of Books 10/1 (1998): 97–131. off-site
8. [note]  H. Belnap, "A Mysterious Preacher," The Instructor 21 no. ? (15 March 1886), 91.; cited in Matthew B. Brown, "Of Your Own Selves Shall Men Arise, Review of The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship by David John Buerger," FARMS Review of Books 10/1 (1998): 97–131. off-site
9. [note]  Andrew F. Ehat, "'They Might Have Known That He Was Not a Fallen Prophet'—The Nauvoo Journal of Joseph Fielding," Brigham Young University Studies 19 no. 2 (1979), 145, 147, spelling and punctuation standardized.
10. [note]  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.
11. [note]  John A. Widtsoe, "Temple Worship," Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine (April 1921): 62 (italics added).

Further reading

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Relationship between the temple endowment and Freemasonry

Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are sacred places where Church members participate in sacred ceremonies (ordinances) that help them come closer to God and prepare to live forever in an eternal family.

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Temple sealings	Temple sealings and exaltation Latter-day Saint interpretation of "neither marry nor given in marriage" Paul on marriage in 1 Corinthians 7
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FAIR web site

• FairMormon Topical Guide: Temples: Masonic influence FairMormon link
  
• Greg Kearney, "Ask the Apologist: How does one explain similarities between Masonic and temple ritual?" FAIR link

FAIR temple articles

•  ^{[needs work]}

External links

• FARMS Freemasonry Resources, (farms.byu.edu). off-site
• The Mormon Church and Freemasonry] (freemason.org). off-site
• Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor(sacred-texts.com) off-site
• Matthew B. Brown, "Of Your Own Selves Shall Men Arise, Review of The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship by David John Buerger," FARMS Review of Books 10/1 (1998): 97–131. off-site

Printed material

Temple printed materials

• Matthew B. Brown,The Gate of Heaven: Insight on the Doctrines and Symbols of the Temple (American Fork, UT: Covenant, 1999), 1.
• Matthew B. Brown, Symbols in Stone: Symbolism on the Early Temples of the Restoration, 2d ed., (American Fork, UT: Covenant, 1997).
• William J. Hamblin and David Seely, Solomon's Temple: Myth and History (London: Thames and Hudson, 2007), Chapter 3.
• Hugh W. Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, 2nd edition, (Vol. 16 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by John Gee and Michael D. Rhodes, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2005), 1. ISBN 159038539X. 1st edition GL direct link
• Temple and Cosmos: Beyond This Ignorant Present (Vol. 12 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by Don E. Norton, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992), 1.
• Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1980), 1. ISBN 0884944115.