Item Detail
-
26247
-
10
-
59
-
English
-
Freemasonry and the Origins of Modern Temple Ordinances
-
Interpreter : A Journal of Mormon Scripture
-
15
-
Orem, UT
-
The Interpreter Foundation
-
159-237
-
Joseph Smith taught that the origins of modern temple ordinances go back beyond the foundation of the world. Even for believers, the claim that rites known anciently have been restored through revelation raises complex questions because we know that revelation almost never occurs in a vacuum. Rather, it comes most often through reflection on the impressions of immediate experience, confirmed and elaborated through subsequent study and prayer. Because Joseph Smith became a Mason not long before he began to introduce others to the Nauvoo endowment, some suppose that Masonry must have been the starting point for his inspiration on temple matters. The real story, however, is not so simple. Though the introduction of Freemasonry in Nauvoo helped prepare the Saints for the endowment — both familiarizing them with elements they would later encounter in the Nauvoo temple and providing a blessing to them in its own right — an analysis of the historical record provides evidence that significant components of priesthood and temple doctrines, authority, and ordinances were revealed to the Prophet during the course of his early ministry, long before he got to Nauvoo. Further, many aspects of Latter-day Saint temple worship are well attested in the Bible and elsewhere in antiquity. In the minds of early Mormons, what seems to have distinguished authentic temple worship from the many scattered remnants that could be found elsewhere was the divine authority of the priesthood through which these ordinances had been restored and could now be administered in their fulness. Coupled with the restoration of the ordinances themselves is the rich flow of modern revelation that clothes them with glorious meanings. Of course, temple ordinances — like all divine communication — must be adapted to different times, cultures, and practical circumstances. Happily, since the time of Joseph Smith, necessary alterations of the ordinances have been directed by the same authority that first restored them in our day.
-
Boundary Maintenance that Pushes the Boundaries : Scriptural and Theological Insights from Apologetics
Could Joseph Smith Have Drawn on Ancient Manuscripts When He Translated the Story of Enoch? : Recent Updates on a Persistent Question
How and What You Worship: Christology and Praxis in the Revelations of Joseph Smith: The 49th Annual Brigham Young University Sidney B. Sperry Symposium
"How Thankful We Should Be to Know the Truth" : Zebedee Coltrin's Witness of the Heavenly Origins of Temple Ordinances
Joseph Smith at the Veil: Significant Ritual, Symbolism, and Temple Influence at Latter-day Saint Beginnings
Now That We Have the Words of Joseph Smith, How Shall We Begin to Understand Them? Illustrations of Selected Challenges within the 21 May 1843 Discourse on 2 Peter 1
Pedagogy of Perfection : Joseph Smith's Perfectionism, How It was Taught in the Early LDS Church, and Its Contemporary Applicability
Temples Rising : A Heritage of Sacrifice
The Book of Moses as a Temple Text
"To Seek the Law of the Lord": Essays in Honor of John W. Welch -
A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, Vol. 4
A Ministry of Meetings : The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson
An American Prophet's Record : The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith
Approaching Antiquity : Joseph Smith and the Ancient World
A Textual History of the Book of Abraham : Manuscripts and Editions
A Translation and Commentary of the Joseph Smith Hypocephalus
A Woman's View : Helen Mar Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History
By Our Rites of Worship : Latter-day Saint Views on Ritual in History, Scripture, and Practice
Exploring the Connection Between Mormons and Masons
Go Forward with Faith : The Biography of Gordon B. Hinckley
Heber C. Kimball : Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer
History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Period I : History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself
Hugh Nibley : A Consecrated Life
In Heaven as It Is on Earth : Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
James Adams : Early Springfield Mormon and Freemason
James Adams of Springfield, Illinois : The Link between Abraham Lincoln and Joseph Smith
Joseph, Brigham and the Twelve : A Succession of Continuity
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Joseph Smith's Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844 Mormon Succession Question
Joseph Smith the Prophet
Joseph's Temples : The Dynamic Relationship Between Freemasonry and Mormonism
Keywords : Joseph Smith, Language Change, and Theological Innovation, 1829-44
Literary Form and Historical Understanding : Joseph Smith's First Vision
Mormonism and the Temple : Examining an Ancient Religious Tradition
My Life's Review
Nauvoo : A Place of Peace, a People of Promise
New Light on an Old Hypothesis : The Ohio Origins of the Revelation on Eternal Marriage
Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History : The New England States
Revelations of the Restoration : A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants and Other Modern Revelations
Salt Lake School of the Prophets : Minute Book 1883
Symbols in Stone : Symbolism on the Early Temples of the Restoration
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
Temples to Dot the Earth
The American Religion : The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation
The Authorship of the Manuscript of Doctrine and Covenants Section 132
The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley
The Cowdery Conundrum : Oliver's Aborted Attempt to Describe Joseph Smith's First Vision in 1834 and 1835
The Design, Construction, and Role of the Salt Lake Temple
The Gift and Power : Translating the Book of Mormon
"The Grand Fundamental Principles of Mormonism" : Joseph Smith's Unfinished Reformation
The History of the Saints : Or, An Expose of Joe Smith and Mormonism
The House of the Lord : A Study of Holy Sanctuaries Ancient and Modern
The Joseph Smith Papers : Journals, Volume 1 : 1832–1839
The Joseph Smith Papers : Journals, Volume 2 : December 1841-April 1843
The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri : An Egyptian Endowment
The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 2 : Journal, 1832-1842
The Pivotal Swiss Temple
The Saintly Scoundrel : The life and times of Dr. John Cook Bennett
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph
The Writing of Joseph Smith's History
They Knew the Prophet
'They Might Have Known That He Was Not a Fallen Prophet' : The Nauvoo Journal of Joseph Fielding
Translating Time : The Nature and Function of Joseph Smith's Narrative Cannon
Waiting for World's End : Diaries of Wilford Woodruff
Who Shall Ascend into the Hill of the Lord?
William Phelps's Paracletes, An Early Witness to Smith's Divine Anthropology
Wrestling the Angel : The Foundations of Mormon Thought : Cosmos, God, Humanity
Writing to Zion : The William W. Phelps Kirtland Letters (1835-1836)