Today I sit down with Greg Kearney. Greg is both a Mormon and a Mason and today we discuss the connection between the two in the LDS Endowment. Many Latter-Day Saints are caught off guard when they discover that the LDS Endowment is very interconnected with Masonry and its ritual. Today we address this connection and other influences of Masonry on Mormonism.
(Photo is of a 12th Century relief statue from Naples Italy)
http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/fair-conferences/2005-fair-conference/2005-the-message-and-the-messenger-latter-day-saints-and-freemasonry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_Freemasonry
Masonic Misunderstandings and Mormon Hypersensitivities
http://www.mormonmonastery.org/category/temple/references/masonry-and-the-temple/
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I loved this podcast and I would love for you to do another one on this topic. If Joesph Smith isn’t using or borrowing ANY outside sources for the translation of the Book of Mormon then why is he using and borrowing from a fourteenth centre fraternity for a saving ordinance? This is my largest problem, and I do understand that maybe it was needed for the saints to learn the ordinance in a way that was familiar to them but it still bothers me that he can’t get “original” ritualistic revelation from God like he did with the Book of Mormon.
For me nothing none of Kearney’s reasoning as to why we find a pagan ritual in god’s holy temple makes any sense. In fact Greg’s reasoning falls far short of the Church’s restoration claims. Show me another ordinance where Mormonism separates the ritual element of their ordinance from the rest. Did the Christians of old use a different prayer for baptism (3 Nephi 11:25)? No only is the prayer identical, but if someone’s toe sticks out of the water during the baptism, that ordinance must be repeated. There are witnesses and helpers to ensure that the ritual is done correctly, Confirmation and ordinations must be done by laying on of hands which is of itself a ritual. Was the administration of the sacrament different in ancient times (Moroni chapter 4)? No it wasn’t. In fact Moroni taught “The manner of their elders and priests administering the flesh and blood of Christ unto the church; and they administered it according to the commandments of Christ; wherefore we know the manner to be true; and the elder or priest did minister it”. Moroni is referring to more than just the promise, but the entire ritual. When you combine Kearney’s nonsensical rationalization and place that on top of that all the early Church’s leader’s claim about the Masonic Endowment being a restoration of god’s ordinances, it remains very destructive to their truth claims.
Brigham Young claimed revelation when he wrote the ordinance down in 1870, and the Church continues that claim of restoration when they assert “we can also receive essential ordinances in behalf of ancestors who died without having the opportunity to receive these ordinances for themselves.” How can our ancestors receive this ordinance that didn’t even exist, ever? Meaning, that Jesus, the apostles, Elijah, Moses, Abraham, Melchizedek, Enoch and all dozens/hundreds of ancient prophets that Mormons claim in their line were never exposed to this Eternal saving ordinance but rather something very different. No, it’s not viable to simply state that even if followers of Mosaic law and far earlier made promises to be chaste, adhere to the law of obedience, and law of consecration that they thus received their Endowment. Kearney plainly admitted that the old testament temp rituals were nothing like today.
The Endowment initiated my apostasy and the points Kearney made in this podcast would have only accelerated it. The reality that the Endowment is a contemporary exercise only condemns it as a poorly implemented temporal product form god’s supposedly only true church on the earth that can’t even pass the test of a couple hundred years or even these past 60 years. A contemporary ritual that the Church routinely implies to the unlearned is ancient and eternal. A claim that is nonsensical and dishonest. No Greg, the reality is that the Endowment is indeed a clear signal that the Church’s truth claims are an illusion.