Traditional Masonic symbols are rampant in older LDS temples. Representations of beehives, heavenly bodies, clasped hands, the All Seeing Eye, the square, the compass, and cloud-painted ceilings are abundant in 19th-century Utah temples.[1] Many Masonic symbols which...
Any Mason who reads even such an abbreviated account of the temple ceremony as I have outlined in The Mormon Mirage will be amazed at the similarities between temple ordinances and Masonic lodge ordinances. Joseph Smith claimed that he got much of the substance of the...
Alexander Campbell once noted that the Book of Mormon managed to comment on a surprisingly large percentage of the religious issues of their time.[1] In addition to infant baptism, authority and ordination, the nature of the Trinity, free agency of man, the fall, and...
When I began writing Latter-day Cipher (Moody, 2009), one of the themes I wanted to explore was the uneasy relationship that Freemasonry would have with Mormonism in the mind of someone who was a faithful Mormon. Here's an excerpt from Latter-day Cipher that...
Joseph Smith, founder of the LDS Church “became a first-degree Mason on the night of the installation, and the next night rose to the sublime degree,” as documented by historian Fawn McKay Brodie in her book, No Man Knows My History (page 280.) Though the...
