Freemason Joe Steve Swick III criticizes Samuel Morris Brown’s new book on Masonic influences in Mormonism. In an editorial review, professor Richard Bushman described Brown’s book as weaving “the most exotic elements of Mormonism-seerstones, new names, hieroglyphs, angels, the Adamic tongue, Masonic catechisms, seals, ritual adoptions-into an illuminating and compelling explication of Joseph Smith’s beliefs about the temple, family, and human salvation.”

Joe Swick, however, as a Mormon and Mason, feels that Brown didn’t go far enough.

Almost unbelievably, Sam fails to anywhere significantly engage the funerary rites or traditions of Freemasons … the funeral sermon of King Follett—contained several clear Masonic references relevant to the topic of his book. These Masonic references likely exist because King Follett was the Prophet’s Masonic Brother, and the funeral itself was Masonic.

The “funerary traditions,” Swick notes, is symbolized by the apron. “Sam is unwilling to directly state that Masons – or Mormons – even wear aprons,” he writes.

Full story here.

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For further investigation, see John L. Brooke’s The Refiner’s Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844 for more evidence of Masonic influences, including that of alchemy, Rosicrucianism and Hermeticism; Lance S. Owens’ classic “Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection“; and here.

Lynn Arave - Nov. 27, 2008

The 40 years of labor it took to construct the Salt Lake Temple — much of it without the help of machines — have come to symbolize the extreme dedication, sacrifice, self-reliance and faith that early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah possessed. However, the outside (like the inside) of the iconic structure contains a wealth of symbols and representations.

“Notable among all LDS temples, the Salt Lake Temple includes significant symbolism in its architecture,” the Encyclopedia of Mormonism states.

The Salt Lake Temple “stands as an isolated mass of the everlasting hills. ? As nearly as any work of man may so do. It suggests duration,” Elder James E. Talmage wrote in “The House of the Lord.”

While it would be improper to discuss the inside of the sacred temple’s symbolism, the outside of the sacred edifice has been publicly written about over the years — because anyone can view that aspect.

Here’s a look at highlights of the temple’s extensive outside symbolism.

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