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Mormonism and Freemasonry/The use of ritual in gospel ordinances
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Contents
Why would Joseph Smith use a non-religious vehicle for presenting a temple ordinance?
Questions
Freemasonry has no actual relationship to Solomon's temple, and has no actual religious elements.
- Why would Joseph Smith use a non-religious vehicle for presenting a temple ordinance?
Answer
Nothing is divine about Freemasonry and indeed Freemasonry has rejected any and all attempts to portray it as a religion. However, masonic ritual forms are very useful as a teaching tool, particularly in situations such as were found in Nauvoo in the 1840's where many members could not read. Using ritual forms found in masonry as instructive tools to teach a divine message is what we are dealing with here.
The tokens are to show our fidelity to covenants, a central point of both the endowment and the masonic rituals. God does not need them, we need them, or more precisely, we need the covenants that they represent. They help us learn to be faithful to what we want to be.