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<\/a>(LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Please mark your calendars for the 2022 Temple on Mount Zion Conference<\/a>, which is coming up on 5 November 2022.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n My understanding, by the way, is that the new book by Jeffrey Mark Bradshaw, Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-day Saint Temple Ordinances<\/em><\/a>, is now available, as of today:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The topic of this book has been of interest to me for decades. Over the years, many researchers have asked me about similarities between the endowment introduced by the Prophet Joseph Smith and Freemasonry, often pointing out similarities to me. I explain that Joseph adopted and adapted, the then-popular pedagogical system of Freemasonry to teach eternal principles and that therefore they should look for the differences between the endowment and Masonic rituals if they want to find the essence of what the Lord revealed to Joseph.<\/span><\/p>\n What I have enjoyed about Jeff\u2019s work over the years is that, unlike many students of this topic, he has not confused form and substance. His work has tracked the substance of the endowment ceremony to ancient sources and shown that the Lord revealed much of it to Joseph before he reached Nauvoo and joined a Masonic lodge established there. I trust that reading this book will heighten your intellectual comprehension and deepen your spiritual understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 Richard E. Turley, Jr., former Assistant Church Historian<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n From the all-seeing eye on the Salt Lake temple to the turbaned angel and compass and square on the Nauvoo temple\u2019s weathervane, and from ritualized hosanna shouts to traversing the veil, Latter-day Saint temples share elements in common with Freemasonry. Why? And how does this square with modern temple worship as a restoration of ancient temple practices? Jeffrey M. Bradshaw\u2019s closely argued and beautifully illustrated Freemasonry and the Origins of Latter-day Saint Temple Ordinances illuminates these mysteries, beginning with a concise history and appreciative explanation of Freemasonry.<\/span><\/p>\n With intellectual rigor and spiritual insight, the author compares Latter-day Saint temple worship both to the modern Masonry amidst which it emerged and to the ancient Near-Eastern and early Christian rituals it restores. He presents Joseph Smith\u2019s revelation of ancient temple ritual and his encounters with Freemasonry not as competing accounts of the origin of Latter-day Saint temple worship but as aspects of one and the same divinely guided process. I can\u2019t imagine anyone coming away from this book without deeper insight into the origin and meaning of temple worship.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 Don Bradley, historian, author\u00a0The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon\u2019s Missing Stories<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n While Freemasonry certainly isn\u2019t a necessary prerequisite to understanding the doctrines learned within the Holy Temple, my membership as a Mason has given me a quicker comprehension of the magnificence of eternal principles. I am grateful for the blessings of the Temple and for the knowledge that those fundamentals I learned years ago have an even more significant impact when viewed with an eternal perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 From the Foreword by William S. Kranz, longtime Freemason<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve just listened to an interesting commentary on the Church\u2019s official text \u201cThe Family: A Proclamation to the World\u201d<\/a> by Brent Andrewsen.<\/a>\u00a0 I remember when the Proclamation was first issued in 1995.\u00a0 Many wondered why such a statement of obvious truisms was even necessary.\u00a0 Now, though, affirming it is controversial and indeed risky.\u00a0 It\u2019s a nice illustration of modern prophets and apostles doing their jobs.\u00a0 Brother Andrewsen and subsequent speakers called our attention to a website that is dedicated to the Proclamation, and to which I intend to pay some real attention:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n thefamilyproclamation.org<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And here are a couple of items from the Neville-Neville Land<\/em> blog that also concern prophets and apostles.\u00a0 And one of them is explicitly and directly connected with a speech that was\u00a0 just given today at the FAIR Conferenc :<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe First Presidency reviewed Saints<\/i> before publication\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cPresident Nelson and the attention to detail in Saints\u201d<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t been seeking them out, but I\u2019ve been pleased to notice yet other articles expressing admiration and gratitude for Vin Scully since I published my blog entry on Scully\u2019s death (\u201cThe passing of a legend who meant very much to me and my family\u201d<\/a>) yesterday.\u00a0 Among them are these:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Wall Street Journal<\/em>: \u201cVin Scully\u2019s Perfect Baseball Melody: An appreciation of the legendary Dodgers voice, now departed at age 94\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n National Review<\/em>:\u00a0 \u201cVin Scully\u2019s Verbal and Vocal Genius\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n National Review<\/em>: \u201cVin Scully: A Personal Remembrance: Vin Scully was my hero. Of course he was: he was family.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Elsewhere \u2014 even now, after approximately fifteen years of this sort of thing, he hasn\u2019t quite lost the capacity to astonish me \u2014 my Malevolent Stalker is describing that little blog entry of mine\u00a0as a shameless attempt to exploit Scully\u2019s passing for \u201cMopologetic\u201d purposes.\u00a0 He wonders aloud whether there is anything that I won\u2019t<\/em> abuse in order to serve my nefarious goals.\u00a0 This reminds me of the common observation that, often, individual people and even national governments accuse those whom they oppose of doing the very things that they themselves are doing.\u00a0 Is there anything at all that the Stalker won\u2019t seek to weaponize as a means of slandering me?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The hook on which he hangs this newest accusation is my mention of the fact that Vin Scully was a quietly devout Catholic.\u00a0 This was, evidently, a slam against atheists.\u00a0 (I can, by the way, state with strong confidence that it was not<\/em>.)\u00a0 In response to a reader\u2019s question in the comments following that earlier blog entry, I explained that \u201cthe proximate prompt\u201d for my mention of his quiet Catholic devotion was a passage in the National Review<\/em> eulogy that I had read: \u201cScully had a devout but unshowy Catholic faith. He was a communicant at St. Jude the Apostle in Westlake Village, California.\u201d\u00a0 At this, the Stalker complains that there was much more in the National Review<\/em> article than merely that allusion to Scully\u2019s religious faith, but that I shamelessly omitted it.\u00a0 If, though, I had borrowed more from it, he would surely have accused me of stealing from the article.\u00a0 I know how the game is played.\u00a0 He\u2019s been playing it for a decade and a half.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n By the way, the Stalker also points to my response to news of Christopher Hitchens\u2019s death, which he describes as mocking and derisive.\u00a0 I would love to see exactly what I wrote, and where it appeared.\u00a0 My very first blog entry was published on 8 February 2012.\u00a0 Christopher Hitchens had already died nearly three months before, on 15 December 2011.\u00a0 So my alleged happy cackling when I heard about Mr. Hitchens\u2019s death doesn\u2019t seem to have been recorded here<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>
Perspective matters: I was living in Israel when a \u201cJordan River Temple\u201d was announced. I remember reacting with astonishment: \u201cBut we don\u2019t have enough MEMBERS around here!\u201d I thought for just a moment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/a>