The Masons and the LDS Temple

Joseph Smith said that the Masons, sometimes called Freemasons, were a group with an apostate form of the endowment (a portion of the LDS Temple ceremony), just as sectarian religion of the day was the apostate religion.  That pretty much sums it all up right there.  You can stop right here if you want, or read on if you are interested in more.  On faith, I take that statement as truth from the beginning and learn from there.  I have come to enjoy learning about the Masons.  As I do I see more that his statement is indeed true.  In understanding them, I think we can learn an important principle.  

Joseph Smith and many of the 12 apostles in Nauvoo were Masons, and I think it is significant to point out, none of them nor any other person previously a Mason questioned the similarities.  Now Joseph probably joined for brotherhood and some community protection, but I believe that the Masons were shown to him for the same reason that religious excitement was in the area of his youth.  These things caused him to seek out the Lord for understanding.  This is the same method that prophets have always learned—something comes up they have a question on, and they go to God for the answer.  As the answers came to Joseph, they came to the world, and the restoration of the gospel, including the restored Temple is the result.  The majority of the Doctrine and Covenants came to us in the same manner.  Pray about life lessons—get an answer—write it down and live the law.  As a matter of fact, much of scripture came to us this way.

I have 2 complete writings of the Masonic ceremony.  There are some very stark similarities, but mostly vast differences.  Most of the ceremony of the Masons would seem unfamiliar and strange to the LDS.  However, the similarities are sometimes exact and make no mistake of the fact that at least parts of the two ceremonies are from the same source.  Enemies of the LDS church therefore love to claim that we stole the Masonic ceremony from them, but was it the chicken or the egg?  You might as well say that Protestants stole the religion of the Catholics, which is actually much closer to the truth.

As Augustine wrote in his Retractions, "What is now called Christian religion has existed among the ancients, and was not absent from the beginning of the human race, until Christ came in the flesh: from which time true religion, which existed already, began to be called Christian."  The gospel of Jesus Christ has been had by people of God off and on and in various forms from the time of Adam.  Man has taken it and time and time again has changed or lost it, including Temple knowledge.  There are bits and pieces of similarities to the gospel and its temple found with many different peoples all over the world, not just the Masons.  Therefore, to say that the gospel or any part of it is new and derived from something similar is what many would like to conclude, but that is simply not the case--it is a restoration.  There are and have been literally thousands of Temples of many beliefs throughout history.  I believe they all came from the same original idea.

The dictionary says that a mason is one who works with stone.  The brotherhood of the Masons claims to have been formed out of the stone workers on the Temple of Solomon.  This is probably not true.  But what should be tested and can be tested is whether these things were had anciently.  The similarities they have only go up to the order of the Aaronic Priesthood as seen in the LDS Temple.  The people in the time of Solomon only had the Aaronic Priesthood, therefore this makes perfect sense.  The men that worked on this Temple formed an alliance and worked on many other buildings through the ages.  They were so good at what they did that they were given authority to travel freely from one country to the next to do their trades—thus the name Free Masons.  But again, we should ask, did the Masons get them from a more ancient source, or can we indeed find any?  Yes!

Just as an example, Cyril of Jerusalem very accurately describes what we see in the Temple in the washing and anointing when speaking to new initiates.

I know of a couple of LDS scholars who are also Masons.  One of them, James Carroll said, “I am working on a comparison of common elements between the Masons, Mormons, Greko-Romans, Egyptians, and Gnostics. How anyone could deny an ancient origin to the Endowment is beyond me. The question is always asked "Why is the Endowment similar to Free Masonry?" The question that is never asked is "What elements are similar, and do those elements have a more ancient source?" What is staggering to me is the consistency with which Joseph removed those things in Masonry that had no ancient origin, and kept only those elements that did! Joseph was amazing. If he was not inspired he was the best guesser ever!”  What he is saying is that if you know what things are truly of an ancient origin, the similarities and differences tell us that if you believe Joseph borrowed from the Masons, then you must ask how this unlearned farm boy knew to take only what was truly ancient religious symbolism, exclude what was modern, then add even more ancient to come up with the Temple we now have.

As I alluded to, there are many societies besides the Masons that have bits and pieces of the Temple as it has been passed down by man through the ages.  Though most of them would not have a clue, even Catholics had many parts of this teaching as it is known today in the LDS Temple.  A related article of interest is "The Catholic Liturgy and the Mormon Temple" by Marcus von Wellnitz.  This can be found in BYU Studies, Vol. 21, No.1, Winter 1981, pp. 3-35.  He shows that a variety of elements in ancient Catholic rites and architecture are shared with the LDS Temple. For example, rituals of washing and anointing were important, and the oil was applied to specific regions in a specific order with blessings being spoken that all reverberate remarkably well with the modern LDS Temple. (See especially pages 10 and 11 of Wellnitz.) Then, after application of water and oil, the Christian would receive a new white garment.

Other aspects of ancient Catholic rites discussed by Wellnitz include:

q  the giving of new names to those entering monasteries

q  the ancient practice of keeping men and women separate in the church, just as they were kept separate in the temple at Jerusalem.

q  the use of a veil or covering for women's heads

q  the atrium of the church as a symbol of paradise or the garden of Eden

q  the porter at the door of the chapel in the primitive church to ensure that only worthy persons entered

q  details of ritual clothing and related symbolism

q  altars and veils in church buildings

q  the use of the All-seeing Eye as a symbol in Renaissance and Baroque churches (shown in photographs of two old churches in Germany)

q  the raising of the hands of the priest done anciently

q  the hand symbol of a hollowed palm in the left hand when approaching the altar (see Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 23:21-22)

q  the prayer offered for the church and the world by the priest which was repeated by the congregation, praying for names of those in need.

q  people written on folded parchments (diptychs), especially for those who were ill or needed special consideration

q  the ritual embrace and "kiss of peace" to welcome the initiate into the community

q  ritual knocking (three times) with a hammer on the portal of a door, now acted out in the ritual of the Porta Santa at St. Peter in Rome, representing entry of the children of God into the presence of the Lord. (To this day, every 4 years the Pope will come to a predetermined place at the wall, knock three times, wherein a hand is extended to him through a passageway and he enters heaven in behalf of all in the Catholic church.)

Note also the interesting ways in which some orthodox Jews act at the Temple wall in Jerusalem:

·       The men and women are separated

·       The men are seen to put on a certain kind of paper hat

·       They will take off their coat, put it over their left shoulder and tie the arms at the waist

·       They will anoint with water at certain parts of the body

Only those familiar with the modern Temple will recognize these acts that surely must seem strange to the rest of the world looking on.

I hope the point can be seen that one can claim the Temple came from any number of people besides the Masons.  The Bible itself tells many of these things apparently unknown to the rest of Christianity.  Some that have indisputable similarities besides the Masons and Catholics are the ancient Essenes, the early Druids, the Odd Fellows, Egyptians, and Native Americans.  Even ruins in Central America and Mexico show that “Masonic” secrets were known to them.  There have been verifiable "Masonic" symbols found, among other places, at the base of ancient Egyptian obelisks, which would predate even the Masons.  With this we can ask, did the Masons actually steal these things from the Egyptians?  This is yet another mystery to the world, but what the world does not realize is that these symbols do not predate Temple ordinance symbolism.  Modern Masons discovered these symbols and had one of these obelisks relocated to Central Park in New York City.

In the first decades of this country the Masons were still known for their will to do good, for brotherhood, vows to be honest, and help others in the community and the world.  Many great and honorable men were Masons, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  Much of the Masonic ceremony today is very different from even Joseph Smith's time.  By the late 1800’s their reputation was marred by members that were caught killing to keep their ceremonies secret.  A secret society itself became suspect of evil doing.  They have made a bit of a comeback in recent years, but I don’t think they are quite what they were in Joseph’s time.