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Temples & Freemasonry
The CES Letter devotes four pages to the temple endowment. The argument is straightforward: Joseph Smith became a Freemason in March 1842, introduced the endowment seven weeks later, and therefore copied one from the other.
The claim:
"Just seven weeks after Joseph's March 1842 Masonic initiation, Joseph introduced the LDS endowment ceremony in May 1842."[1]
The CES Letter's strategy is to fixate on outward ceremonial forms -- handshakes, signs, dramatic staging -- while never engaging with the endowment's actual content: creation, Fall, Atonement, covenants, and return to God's presence. None of that exists in Masonry. The side-by-side comparison on page 109 shows the narrowest point of overlap and treats it as the whole picture.[2]
If the endowment was plagiarized from Masonry, where did the theology come from?
Seven weeks is the wrong timeline
Seven weeks. That's the entire case for plagiarism.
But the endowment didn't materialize in May 1842. Its theological content was revealed across a full decade before Joseph ever entered a lodge.
The Book of Moses (1830-31) supplied the creation and Fall narrative. D&C 84 (1832) described the oath and covenant of the priesthood. Washing and anointing ordinances were performed in the Kirtland Temple in January 1836.
D&C 124 (January 1841) commanded building the Nauvoo Temple for specific ordinances -- fourteen months before Joseph's Masonic initiation.[3] The seven-week window explains, at most, a few outward forms. It cannot explain the content.
10-17% overlap -- and none of it is theology
Nobody denies similarities exist. The question is what they account for.
David Eddington's Interpreter study compared the full texts of the endowment and the Masonic first three degrees. Conceptual overlap: roughly 10-17%.[4] The endowment shares more vocabulary with the Book of Moses and Book of Abraham (18.4%) than with Masonic rites (10.8%).
The creation narrative. The Fall. The Atonement. Progressive covenants of obedience, sacrifice, chastity, and consecration. The prayer circle. Sealing ordinances. Return to God's presence through the veil. None of these exist in Masonry.[5]
A plagiarist borrows content. What Joseph introduced in 1842 borrows a thin layer of presentation.
Ancient parallels run deeper than Masonic ones
The CES Letter argues Freemasonry has "zero links to Solomon's Temple."[6] Fine. The response doesn't depend on Masonic lineage.
It depends on the endowment's resemblance to ancient rites that predate Freemasonry by millennia.
Egyptian Pyramid Texts (c. 2600-2200 BC) contain purification, anointing, clothing, and progression sequences. Cyril of Jerusalem's Mystagogical Catecheses (c. 350 AD) describe stripping, anointing, washing, white garments, and a "new name."[7] Eddington's analysis found Cyril's text more similar to the endowment than Masonic rites are.[4:1]
Joseph Smith had no access to fourth-century catechetical texts.
The 1990 changes removed the Masonic layer and the covenants survived
The CES Letter treats the 1990 removal of penalties and the Five Points of Fellowship as proof the ceremony was never divine: "Both of these were 100% Masonic rituals."[8]
That argument works only if every element is equally essential. Remove a covenant and you've gutted a revelation. Remove a presentation detail and you've updated a form.
Every covenant survived 1990 intact. What was removed? The most visibly Masonic elements. The scaffolding came down; the structure stood.[5:1]
Joseph Smith himself told Brigham Young the endowment was "not arranged right" and needed further organization.[9] He never treated it as a frozen artifact. Biblical temple worship changed dramatically across the tabernacle, Solomon's Temple, and the Second Temple. A living church adapts its worship. A museum preserves artifacts.
The emotional appeal bypasses the evidence
The CES Letter's final move abandons evidence entirely: "Does the eternal salvation, eternal happiness, and eternal families really depend on Masonic rituals in multi-million dollar castles?"[10]
That question assumes what it's trying to prove -- that the endowment is a Masonic ritual. Strip that assumption and it's just asking whether God uses sacred ordinances. The Bible says yes.
Bottom line: The endowment shares surface forms with Masonry and deep content with ancient temple worship. Its theology was revealed years before Joseph joined a lodge, and the 1990 changes removed the most Masonic-looking elements while leaving every covenant intact. If Joseph plagiarized the endowment, he plagiarized the wrapping paper and invented the gift.
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Temples & Freemasonry," no. 1, p. 106. ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Temples & Freemasonry," p. 109. ↩︎
D&C 38:32 and 43:16 (1831) promised an "endowment of power"; D&C 84 (1832) described the oath and covenant of the priesthood; D&C 124:40-42 (January 1841) commanded the Nauvoo Temple for baptisms for the dead, washings, anointings, and ordinations. See also "Kirtland Temple," Church History Topics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/kirtland-temple ↩︎
David Eddington, "A Textual Comparison of Masonic Rites and the LDS Temple Endowment," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 66 (2025): 311-356. https://interpreterfoundation.org/journal/a-textual-comparison-of-masonic-rites-and-the-lds-temple-endowment/ ↩︎ ↩︎
Matthew B. Brown, Exploring the Connection Between Mormons and Masons (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2009). ↩︎ ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Temples & Freemasonry," no. 4, pp. 107-108. ↩︎
Hugh Nibley, "The Early Christian Prayer Circle," BYU Studies 19, no. 1 (1978): 41-78. See also William J. Hamblin, "Aspects of an Early Christian Initiation Ritual," in By Study and Also by Faith, ed. John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990), 1:202-21. ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Temples & Freemasonry," no. 5, p. 108. ↩︎
L. John Nuttall diary, February 7, 1877, recording Brigham Young's account that Joseph Smith said the endowment "was not arranged right but we have done the best we could under the circumstances." Cited in Truman G. Madsen, "Joseph Smith Lecture 7: Doctrinal Development and the Nauvoo Era," BYU Speeches, 1978. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/truman-g-madsen/joseph-smith-doctrinal-development-nauvoo-era/ ↩︎
Runnells, CES Letter (2017), "Temples & Freemasonry," no. 7, p. 108. ↩︎