Sheesh. Disinformation meant to get believers to look away..."nothing to see here."
An example:
“Some people reason that Joseph Smith initiated men and women into the endowment ordinances after he was initiated into Freemasonry; therefore, the temple rituals derived from Masonry. One problem in this theory is that Freemasonry itself borrowed much of its ritual and ceremony from elements preserved since antiquity,” Harper explains in his essay “Freemasonry and the LDS Temple Endowment,” as found in A Reason for Faith."
Except...nothing in Freemasonry comes from "elements preserved since antiquity." Its origins lie in the European middle ages.
Freemasonry's stories *claim* that the elements come from "antiquity" (the builders of Solomon's temple), but that claim is demonstrably false.
Well, yes and no. At the time of Joseph Smith Freemasonry was the biggest hodge-podge of hooha you could ever imagine. There was essentially zero standardization between lodges. Every time a new cool thing about somebody ancient was discovered, some lodge somewhere decided it was part of the true ancient order of things and therefore an essential part of true Freemasonry. New finding s about the mysteries of Isis? Absolutely always a part of true Freemasonry! Some new archeology in Greece or the Yucatan or outer Mongolia? Again, we Freemasons knew it all along, and have always had it in our ceremonies, ever since last Thursday!! And word quickly got around every time Lodge X started a new aspect or degree. Note that all those degrees in Freemasonry are really just another set of ceremonies, with no real obvious sequential logic leading from one to the "next", at least at first (the first three degrees may be seen as sequential but that's all). Sure, after a while a lodge might rework its series into a logical chronology, but this was all after the fact. Dewitt Clinton tried once to standardize the lodges in New York. He gave up. Organizing the Erie Canal was simple by comparison.
Having said that: none of it "started" with Adam. None of it "started" with Noah, or Abraham, or Peter, James and John. It totally did not come from Solomon's temple. NONE OF IT CAME FROM GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can include more exclamation marks if you want. It simply has no inherent spiritual cosmic, or divine origins or meanings. It was all made up as they went along. So no, LDS Living, you need to issue a retraction. Yeah, right.
> Freemasonry's stories *claim* that the elements > come from "antiquity" (the builders of Solomon's > temple), but that claim is demonstrably false. > > What a pile of BS.
Even Masonic historians have debunked the "dates back to antiquity" fable. The only people who keep it alive seem to be Mormons.
baura Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Even Masonic historians have debunked the "dates > back to > antiquity" fable. The only people who keep it > alive seem > to be Mormons.
They have to, it's the only way the early mormon claims that "Freemasonry had a corrupted form of priesthood, we have the full restored version" can be twisted to make any sense.
If the masons's rituals originated from antiquity and Brother Joe was an initiated member of the organization before the temple endowments came along, then the temple rituals aren't so sacred or secret after all and the rituals were never divine-sent or inspired.
Interesting. Masons still playing their pretend boys' club games, jiji. But maybe Mos could work with this info? "Stonehenge must be the altar Adam built after he was "escorted out" of the garden." Yeah, that works...
When I went thru the Endowment ceremony it still had the blood oaths. The penalties and the "tokens" (secret handshakes) were with one or two minor variations, identical to the Masonic ones.
Why would God demand that we learn certain "signs," and "penalties," and secret names etc.? None of it makes any sense in terms of Christianity.
However it makes TOTAL sense in terms of the medieval guild of Masons.
If you were building a castle or a cathedral, you wanted it built right and you didn't want it to collapse after a few years, possibly while you were inside of it. So you wanted to make SURE that whoever built it was top-knotch.
This is where the Mason's guild came in.
Suppose someone shows up to work on the project who CLAIMS to be an expert at masonry. How do you know he has the background and experience? This is medieval times so you can't Google him or phone anyone. Written credentials could be forged or stolen, so they would be no good. So how do you know that John of Pilkington is really a master mason of the multi-nation medieval guild of masons?
Simple--you have your project engineer (a high-up in the Guild of Masons) take john into a room and have John give him the signs, and grips of a Master Mason. Only a Master Mason would know these things.
Now with such valuable secret knowledge there would have to be strict secrecy, thus the "penalties" of pledging to have your throat slit from ear to ear and you breast cut open and your heart taken out and your guts spilt on the ground etc.
In the context of the medieval guild system it makes perfect sense. In the context of Christianity it's insanely absurd.