Masonry - official church statement

[Guest]

Church statement on:

Masonry

[_Shulem]

Be sure to check out the graphic messages on my thread down in the telestial board wherein many additions and changes have been updated to improve the overall message. I will not let the church off the hook. I'm ramming it down its throat!

SECOND TOKEN OF THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD

[_Shulem]

It's clear to me the church is taking the apologetic path which I foresaw was the only way to defend things like the Book of Abraham translation and Masonic temple rituals. Trying to explain these things on a conventional level using scholarly approaches such as Hugh Nibley fell flat.

Here is the bottom line provided by the church regarding the Masonic connection to the LDS experience:

Others note that the ideas and institutions in the culture that surrounded Joseph Smith frequently contributed to the process by which he obtained revelation. In any event, the endowment did not simply imitate the rituals of Freemasonry. Rather, Joseph’s encounter with Masonry evidently served as a catalyst for revelation.

It reminds me very much of my apologetic approach I was pushing back in the day when the missing roll theory was standard fare:

Joseph received inspiration through Egyptian iconography in order to open his mind up to the story of Abraham. The funerary papyrus served as a proxy for Abraham’s original document which was lost in antiquity. Through revelation the story unfolded while the funerary vignettes and hieroglyphs were used as a catalyst by which the Book of Abraham was restored.

There you have it, folks. The catalyst theory is becoming standard church fare just as I had hoped when I was an apologist. But even so, it's Dead On Arrival.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

That was posted today?

The Way Back Machine thinks so

https://web.archive.org/web/20191001000 ... cs/masonry

[_Amore]

Church statement on:

Masonry

The lds church’s statement is a lie:
“They [Freemasons] ritually reenact a story based on the brief biblical account of a man named Hiram, whom Solomon commissioned to work on the temple in Jerusalem.”

1) There is NO mention of Hiram in the Bible http://www.ephesians5-11.org/hiram.htm &
2) Abiff Hiram is a fictional character. No such person worked on Solomon’s temple. https://www.evangelicaltruth.com/hiram- ... reemasonry

Moreover, those in higher degrees of Freemasonry are required to deny Christ. But the church won’t disclose this inconvenient fact.



http://entityart.co.uk/wp-content/galle ... te-god.jpg

[_I have a question]

How are members supposed to know the Church has released a new essay/statement if there is no announcements? Members who stumble across this statement will think that’s always been the Church’s position. Oh wait...

[_Shulem]

How are members supposed to know the Church has released a new essay/statement if there is no announcements? Members who stumble across this statement will think that’s always been the Church’s position. Oh wait...

What's even worse is the total lack of information or announcement when the church dropped the temple penalties from the endowment in 1990 under Benson's regime. Nothing to my mind was ever said about how these changes effect the endowment of those who were already under the penalties or why the penalties were removed from the temple. It's was a simple change and silence followed.

But now days we have the Internet and Google God to dog the church and expose its tricky ways. Now days the Internet is turning the church on its head and shouting everything on the housetops. Past church Presidents had the luxury of keeping things tight lipped and silent. No more! The Mormon temple endowment is plastered everywhere on the Internet and the secret spectacle will continue to haunt and embarrass the church.

Everyone who has anything to do with Mormonism needs to know about the penalties. This knowledge needs to be spread far and wide. It must be common knowledge and made known. The church needs to own up to this ugly practice and provide an explanation for why they performed it and why they discontinued it. But we see that the church in its cowardly way never said a thing.

[_Fence Sitter]

How are members supposed to know the Church has released a new essay/statement if there is no announcements? Members who stumble across this statement will think that’s always been the Church’s position. Oh wait...

Of course you're being factitious here but in reality it appears that from at least one source the Church is hoping that two things happen with the essays. First off they hope that the majority of the faithful do not even notice them or take the time to read them. They are afraid of what the content of their own essays will do to faithful ignorant members. And secondly they hope, as you point out, that the member will assume this is something the church has already addressed a long time ago and is really nothing to worry about. These concerns, after all, are merely "secondary concerns" and should not be a consideration when evaluating whether or not the good ship LDSinc. is sinking or not.


Regarding that source. Here is an interesting comment from a LDS historian named Adris E. Parshall who happened to be working at the Church History Library right before the news of how Jospeh F. Smith lied in 1909 about Elijah Able. (See my thread here.)

it’s been long enough now that I hope I won’t ruffle too many CHL feathers by stating this publicly: I was working short-term on a project at CHL when the first Gospel Topics essays were posted. I knew they were going live about two hours before they did so, and asked if I could post a short announcement here on Keepa. You would have thought I’d proposed throwing a kegger in the temple: No way, no how, never, on pain of who knows what, could I say anything publicly about those essays. They were certain the essays would “fly under the radar” (the exact term they used), and I could not, repeat not, say anything.
It was 20 minutes after the first essays went live when I saw the first discussion on Facebook

Link to comment here.See comment #38

[_grindael]

There is a Hiram in the Bible...

And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. (Hiram I, 1 Kings 5) But in the footnote they claim it is Hiram Abiff which is ridiculous.

[_Shulem]

Everyone who has anything to do with Mormonism needs to know about the penalties. This knowledge needs to be spread far and wide. It must be common knowledge and made known. The church needs to own up to this ugly practice and provide an explanation for why they performed it and why they discontinued it. But we see that the church in its cowardly way never said a thing.

Although we are not allowed to talk about details of the temple penalties in this forum, I want to provide links wherein readers may learn more:

---2 minute video clip, Mormon Temple Penalties

---short video clip, Mormon Temple blood oath (Pre-1990) recorded with/ hidden camera

WIKIPEDIA Penalty (Mormonism)

WIKIPEDIA Endowment (Mormonism)