057 The Origins of the Temple Endowment

What Latter-day Saints today call the Temple Endowment was first given by the prophet Joseph Smith in 1842, two years prior to his death, to a small group of nine of his trusted associates in Nauvoo, Illinois. It was a key piece of the larger vibrant temple liturgy then developing in Nauvoo. But where did this temple endowment come from? What was its relationship to the prophet’s previous revelations? And what, if anything, was its relationship to masonry which Joseph Smith had joined only two months before administering that first endowment to his nine friends (who, by the way, were all masons as well)? 

In this episode of Church History Matters, Casey and Scott dig into the details of what we know (or think we know) about the origins of the Temple endowment ritual. They discuss several of what they believe are primary source materials the Prophet Joseph drew from as he formulated this important ordinance under inspiration. And they also offer a Nauvoo angle to the meaning of the word “Restoration.”

For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/   

Episode Transcript

Scott Woodward (00:05):
What Latter-day Saints today call the temple endowment was
first given by the Prophet JosephSmith in 1842, two years prior to his
death, to a small group of nine of histrusted associates in Nauvoo, Illinois.
It was a key piece of the larger, vibranttemple liturgy then developing in Nauvoo.
But where did this templeendowment come from?

(00:26):
What was its relationship to theProphet's previous revelations?
And what, if anything, was itsrelationship to Masonry, which Joseph
Smith had joined only two monthsbefore administering that first
endowment to his nine friends (who,by the way, were all s as well)?
In today's episode of ChurchHistory Matters, Casey and I dig
into the details of what we know,or think we know, about the origins

(00:48):
of the temple endowment ritual.
We'll discuss several of what we believeare primary source materials the Prophet
Joseph drew from as he formulated thisimportant ordinance under inspiration.
And we'll offer a Nauvoo angle tothe meaning of the word restoration.
I'm Scott Woodward, and my co-hostis Casey Griffiths, and today Casey

(01:09):
and I dive into our fourth episodein this series about the development
of Latter-day Saint temple worship.
Now let's get into it.

Casey Griffiths (01:22):
Hello, Scott.

Scott Woodward (01:24):
Hey, Casey.
How are you, my friend?

Casey Griffiths (01:26):
Good.
Just, I have a mountain of material,like, so much stuff that I want
to talk about today, and so
. . . Scott Woodward: Yeah.
So buckle up, everybody.
We plan on going deep today,particularly on the Nauvoo endowment.
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (01:41):
How are we going to cover all this in one episode?
I don't know, but we're goingto give it our darndest.

Casey Griffiths (01:46):
This happens every time.
Church history is very rich, and sowe're trying to streamline for you guys,
but there's a lot of stuff that we wantto talk about that might not make it
in, but we're going to do the best wecan to at least give you the outline
or point you towards some sources thatcan allow you to do a deeper dive, but
I think this is a pretty deep dive.

Scott Woodward (02:04):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (02:04):
Okay, so let's talk about what happened last time, Scott.
Do you want to give us a little recap?

Scott Woodward (02:09):
Yes.
We mentioned how in the KirtlandTemple, as the capstone of the
Kirtland endowment, Joseph Smith wasgiven keys from Moses, Elias, and
Elijah, but no instruction manual asto how to use those keys, exactly.
So we likened it to being given the puzzlepieces that he needed to assemble a later

(02:31):
temple theology that we will come toknow, that will start to develop richly in
Nauvoo and then kind of finalize in Utah.
The horrific persecution experienced bythe church in Missouri and then the trials
of settling Nauvoo is going to lead JosephSmith to search deeply about how the keys
he was given in Kirtland could be usedto help both the living and the dead.

(02:55):
And so at the funeral of Seymour Brunson,one of Joseph's friends, bodyguard,
Joseph announced that it was possibleto carry out baptisms on behalf of
the dead, and the first baptisms aregoing to commence shortly thereafter
with a bunch of enthusiasm, not muchstructure, down in the Mississippi River.

(03:15):
It was in January of 1841 that Josephreceives the official revelation,
Doctrine and Covenants 124, that commandsthe saints to build a Nauvoo temple,
and he even says in verse 34, he says,“For therein are the keys of the holy
priesthood ordained, that you may [have]honor and glory.” In other words, those
keys that you receive, Joseph, they areordained to function completely and in

(03:38):
their fullness inside the temple, right?
So that's what is going to be sort offigured out over the next several years.
But one of the first things the Lord saysis your river baptisms are only going to
be accepted for a time, in your poverty,but as soon as you've had sufficient time
to build up the Nauvoo temple, I will nolonger accept river baptisms for the dead.
That is to be done in the temple.

(04:00):
Joseph is later going to write twoletters while he's in hiding, in exile,
in September 1842, instructing thesaints to keep a record of the baptisms
they perform, to present to the Lordas part of their labors for the dead,
to put together a book, he says, thatwill become, like, an offering to
offer unto the Lord in righteousness.
In the midst of that, as this continuesto unfold, Joseph is going to add, on

(04:21):
top of baptisms for the dead, the nextpieces of washing and anointing and
endowment, and then temple sealing isgoing to happen with husbands and wives.
So that's kind of where we'replanning on going with all of this.
There was something that Joseph startedto understand early on, or at least
started to articulate early on in Nauvoo,kind of the theological wrapper that
Joseph put around all of the work of thetemple that I think is really important

(04:45):
for us to always keep in mind as wetalk temple, as we participate in the
temple, as we think about the temple.
It's what Joseph called, “therestoration of the priesthood.” You
remember in D&C 124 the Lord said thatthe purpose for building the Nauvoo
temple was so that the fullness ofthe priesthood could be restored.
I think that's worth chewing on.
We tried a little bit last time, chewingon what that meant, but the way that

(05:07):
Joseph refers to it, the way that hetalks about the restoration of the
priesthood in the Nauvoo era, is thisidea of connecting or sealing together
the living and the dead from everydispensation into the eternal priesthood
order of God, AKA the Church of theFirstborn, AKA the Celestial Kingdom.

(05:28):
And what that does is makes them heirsof God's kingdom and prepares them to
rule and reign with him as kings andpriests and queens and priestesses.
I mean, this is where thetemple theology is going, right?
It's about preparing humans to riseup to the full measure of their
creation from Genesis 1, right?
The very first time mankind is mentioned,God says that he creates men and

(05:49):
women in His image to rule this world.
And then if you jump to the end ofthe Bible, in the Book of Revelation
the final scene that John theRevelator sees when the earth becomes
sanctified and God the Father comeshere is humans are doing what?
Ruling and reigning with God.
Sitting on thrones ruling and reigning.
So how do you get humans preparedto rule and reign with God, to be

(06:10):
heirs of His kingdom, and to fulfillthe measure of their creation?
The answer in Nauvoo theology is temple.
You get them into theeternal priesthood order.
You help them become heirs of all of that.
And this is what the temple is all about.
That's where all of this is going today.
So anyway, rich stuff,really interesting stuff.

Casey Griffiths (06:29):
Good stuff.
Nauvoo is where the dead becomepart of the temple story.
We're going to create the templeas a bridge between the worlds
of the living and the dead.

Scott Woodward (06:38):
Yes.

Casey Griffiths (06:38):
But one thing that sometimes gets neglected as part of the
story of Nauvoo is that there's morefor the living as well that's revealed
here, also pieces that were put together.
So the endowment which was givenin Kirtland, which we talked about
those component pieces, is expandedand enlarged in Nauvoo, and this
is mostly done for the living.

(06:59):
We don't actually do endowments forthe dead until we get to Utah, the St.
George Temple, and so this is JosephSmith showing his focus on improving
the quality of life and the closeness ofthe men and women in his orbit to God.

Scott Woodward (07:15):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (07:15):
And so he's doing work for the living and the dead,
but it's all going to eventuallycome together as things that we do
for both the living and the dead.

Scott Woodward (07:23):
Yeah.
Well said.
We might assume that it was all givento Joseph all at once, it was set up
just the way that we have it today,and it was for the living and the dead
all at once, but that's not the story.
That's not how itactually unfolded, right?
It was line upon line.
It was one piece at a time.
It was baptisms for the dead, washingsand anointings for the living, endowments

(07:45):
for the living, marriage sealings forthe living, and then we circle back
around to do all of those other thingsfor the dead as well, and that's later.
That's, like you said, after Nauvoo.
And so that's pretty interesting.

Casey Griffiths (07:56):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (07:57):
So today we want to go into that next piece.
So there's the development of washingsand anointings and the endowment,
which oftentimes those are justput together, aren't they, Casey?
Just washing and anointing is kindof part one of the endowment, and
then kind of the ritual of theendowment as we call it today is
kind of part two of the endowment.
They're basically two parts ofthe same whole, wouldn't you say?

Casey Griffiths (08:17):
Yeah.
And sometimes the mistake we makein the modern church is seeing
them as two separate things.
Like, I'm going to go in, and I'm goingto do initiatories in the temple, which is
the washing and anointings, or I'm goingto go and I'm going to do an endowment.
That's common nomenclature, when in Nauvoothey were both presented as part one and
part two of the same thing, essentially.
And that's an important thing to keep inmind, too, that what happened in Kirtland

wasn't lost (08:39):
it was just expanded.
It was updated.
It was brought to include and encompassthe entire church, male and female.

Scott Woodward (08:46):
Yeah.
The washing and anointing in Kirtlandseemed to be primarily about being clean
from the sins of that generation, right?

Casey Griffiths (08:54):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (08:54):
It was about kind of presenting yourselves clean before
God, that you've done your part or aredoing your part to not be accountable
for the sins of those who might rejectthe message of the gospel, right?
Something like that.
And in Nauvoo, another layer is added tothe anointing piece where the anointing
becomes more associated with thatbigger sort of theological picture of

(09:15):
preparation to rule and reign with God.
President David O.

McKay, he once put it like this: this is in an address on the (09:18):
undefined
temple ceremony back in 1941.
Super helpful quote.
He said, “In the anointing weare anointed to become a king and
priest of the most high, a queenand priestess in the realms of God.
I don't know how long it will take toachieve that, but we are anointed that
we may become such.” So that anointingpiece seems to be really clarified in

(09:41):
Nauvoo, added upon to the Kirtland piece,where it's being directly connected again
to mankind's destiny to rule this worldwith Christ in its sanctified state.
And so, again, you see the theologicalpicture sort of coming together.
Part one of the endowment, you'rewashed, anointed in preparation
to rule and reign with God.
Part two.

Casey Griffiths (10:00):
The next piece.

Scott Woodward (10:01):
Well, anything you want to say before we go on there?
Are we doing okay, by the way,according to Elder Bednar's guidelines?
I know in our first episode,Casey, we laid down Elder Bednar's
guidelines about talking aboutthe temple and what goes on there.
Are we doing okay?

Casey Griffiths (10:15):
Yeah.
We probably ought to review them becausewe're going to get into some detailed
stuff about the endowment today.

Scott Woodward (10:21):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (10:21):
We mentioned these in our first episode, but back in 2019 Elder
Bednar gave a talk in General Conferencewhere he actually said, you know, temple
preparation should happen at home, but hementioned some people are really concerned
about what's appropriate and what's notappropriate to talk about when it comes
to the temple if you're not in the temple.

(10:42):
So he gives two guidelines.
Let me review them really fast.
He says guideline one, because welove the Lord, we should always speak
about his holy house with reverence.
We should not disclose or describe thespecial symbols associated with the
covenants we receive in sacred templeceremonies, neither should we discuss
the holy information that we specificallypromise in the temple not to reveal.

(11:04):
So that's what's off-limits,the special symbols, and also
the stuff in the temple that wespecifically promise not to reveal.

Guideline two (11:12):
The temple is the house of the Lord.
Everything in the temple pointsus to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We may discuss the basic purposes ofthe doctrine and principles associated
with temple ordinances and covenants.
So the basic purposes and the doctrineand principles associated with temple
ordinances and covenants, he says, wecan and we should be discussing here,

(11:34):
and so we're going to keep it to that.
We'll try and err on theside of caution here.
So if we're not getting into very specificsymbols, it's partially because Elder
Bednar has cautioned us not to talkabout those things outside the temple.
So we're just laying down some groundrules before we get into this today.

Scott Woodward (11:50):
And so we've done that today already a little bit, right?
The purpose—how does he say it?
The basic purposes of and the doctrineand principles associated with the
temple ordinances and covenants.
So the basic purpose of the washingand anointing is to prepare us to
rule and reign with Jesus as kingsand queens, priests and priestesses.
That's the basic purpose, right,that helps us to fulfill our

(12:12):
created purpose to rule with God.

Casey Griffiths (12:14):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (12:15):
Alright, so that's piece one of the endowment.
Let's talk about part two of theendowment and what we know about
how it came about, all right?
We have nothing like it in Kirtland.
We do have something like washingand anointing in Kirtland, and
like we just said, that was builtupon in Nauvoo, but we have nothing
like the endowment in Kirtland.
Like, a lot of people wonder,like, where did it come from?

(12:37):
Did it just come as one big revelation toJoseph Smith, and then he rolled it out?
Or was it something that came line uponline, here a little and there a little?
So maybe let's start by asking aquestion about the first option.
Is there any record of that, Casey,where Joseph received a revelation,
boom, that was the endowment?
Anything in the historical record?

(12:57):
Any eyewitnesses saying thatthe endowment came as one big
revelation, and it was done?

Casey Griffiths (13:02):
No.

And I want to be clear (13:03):
that doesn't rule that out as a possibility.
I mean, not all revelations arein the Doctrine and Covenants.

Scott Woodward (13:11):
That's true.

Casey Griffiths (13:11):
But, Joseph Smith never on any occasion says,
“I got a revelation, and this iswhere the endowment came from.”

Scott Woodward (13:18):
Right.
And that was the point I was driving at.
So then what can we decipher from thehistorical record about its origins?

Casey Griffiths (13:25):
The endowment is something that draws from several sources.
So what we're going to try and do is sortof say, okay, where did it come from?
Did Joseph Smith assemble it?
And sometimes that's notprecluding a revelation either.
Like, sometimes a revelation is justthat everything clicks and you see the
connections between certain things.

Scott Woodward (13:43):
Right.
Just because we can't pinpoint onesingular revelation as the source
of the endowment doesn't mean therewasn't revelation involved in the way
the endowment comes together, right?

Casey Griffiths (13:53):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (13:53):
And we think this is important to point out because it seems
from the historical record that Josephis drawing from multiple sources,
inspired sources, from his previousrevelations and other sources to sort
of synthesize together kind of aninspired fusion of various elements,
the end result of which is what we calltoday the endowment ceremony, right?

Casey Griffiths (14:14):
Yeah.
This ceremony is clearly drawnfrom a couple different sources,
and we can point that out.

Scott Woodward (14:20):
Yeah.
So let's dive in and discusswhat we think those sources were.
And we're saying this with adegree of tentativeness, right?

Casey Griffiths (14:27):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (14:27):
What we're saying is that here's a few places that
likely influenced the prophet ashe shaped the endowment ceremony.

Casey Griffiths (14:34):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (14:47):
Let me start off with the first one, which is the Joseph
Smith Translation of the Bible.
That seems the most obvious sourcefor the instruction we receive in the
endowment, which was particularly Moses2-5, where it covers the creation of the
earth, the instructions given to Adamand Eve, and then Moses 4 introduces
a council in heaven, which we see inthe endowment; the rebellion and fall

(15:08):
of Lucifer; the intervention of Satanin the Garden of Eden, right; and a
significant portion of the endowment alsodeals with what happens to Adam and Eve
immediately after they leave the garden.
And much of that material goes beyondwhat the Bible teaches, including
this idea that Satan tempted Adamand Eve directly—the Bible just
mentions that it was a serpent—andthat angels minister to Adam and Eve

(15:30):
after they leave the garden, right?
And so we should also not underestimatethe importance of the Bible as a
source for the endowment because theBible was the source for the JST, and
so we're layering here a little bit.

Casey Griffiths (15:42):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (15:42):
And so there might be, again, various elements from
scripture, but primarily it seemslike the narrative of the endowment
follows the narrative in Moses 2-5.
There are also things in the endowmentthat are not in Moses 2-5, and so we also
need to look at other sources as well,but I think that is safe to say that forms
the narrative backbone for the endowment.

Casey Griffiths (16:03):
Yeah.
And some of this isreceived really early on.

Scott Woodward (16:06):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (16:07):
Moses 1-5, which is the closest you can get to actually, you know,
seeing the text of the endowment outsidethe temple, is revealed from June to
December of 1830, so we're talking meremonths after the church is organized.

Scott Woodward (16:20):
1830.

Casey Griffiths (16:22):
Yeah, and if you look at a side-by-side comparison with the book
of Genesis, which is what he's translatinghere, there's some major additions.
Like, Moses 4 adds in this huge prologuethat describes the council in heaven, the
fall of Lucifer, that ties the temptingin the garden to Lucifer, and then Moses
5 adds in this episode after Adam and Eveleave the garden, where an angel appears

(16:43):
to them and explains the atonement.
So creation, fall, and atonement areall taught there clearly, and a lot of
this is taught in the temple as well.
The primary narrative of the second partof the endowment is to show and depict
the creation of the earth, the fall ofAdam and Eve, and then how they came to
know about and receive the endowment.
I mean, for those of you that haven'tbeen through the temple yet, there's a

(17:07):
film that shows and depicts all theseevents and even ties into the council
in heaven and everything like that.
All of this stuff comes from theJoseph Smith translation, and then
a lot of the other symbols justcome from the Bible, straight up.
Like, the clothing that you wearin the temple closely parallels the
clothing explained in the book of Exodusand associated with the tabernacle.
Much of the symbolism is the same.

(17:29):
We don't have a system of animalsacrifice like they did in Moses's time,
but a lot of the things that we see inthe temple, if we want to understand
better, read the book of Moses and thenread the second half of Exodus, and
you'll have a listing of a lot of thesymbolism that's used in the temple.

Scott Woodward (17:44):
I love that.
And so I think you're highlightingsomething really important, too, that
this is something that has existed inthe church since 1830, but it's in the
1840s that that becomes fused as a partof the temple endowment, and so that's
what, about a dozen years from thetranslation of Moses before it really

(18:04):
plays a big part in the endowment.

Casey Griffiths (18:06):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (18:06):
It's interesting to watch how the pieces of the restoration
start to come together in Nauvoo as kindof the capstone, all the forces rushing
together before Joseph's death to getthe prototype here, the prototype that,
again, crescendos in the temple, andthen that becomes the thing that Joseph
Smith's successors are going to scalethroughout the world to take temples
everywhere to get the fullness of thegospel into the hearts and minds of

(18:30):
men and women everywhere and to helpmen and women everywhere be connected
with each other and with their deadto become part of this eternal family
that will rule and reign with God.

Casey Griffiths (18:38):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (18:51):
Moses 2-5 seems to be huge, and the book of Exodus.
Okay.
Where else would you go after that?
Any other sources?

Casey Griffiths (18:57):
Okay.
Second place, and I know you mightdisagree with me a little bit on this
one, but I think the Book of Mormonis a big source for the endowment.

Scott Woodward (19:05):
Okay.
Okay.
Make your case.

Casey Griffiths (19:07):
Not the story per se, but in the Book of Mormon, there
is this pattern that's presented overand over again that the most important
teachings, that where you should startwhen you're teaching a person, is with
the creation of the earth, the fall ofAdam and Eve, and the atonement of Jesus

Christ (19:22):
the three pillars of eternity, as they've been called in the church.
And so, to wit, 1 Nephi 5, verse 10,they talk about the brass plates.
This is right after they've retrievedthe brass plates, which is the Old
Testament plus, I guess you'd say.
There's a bunch of stuff in the brassplates that isn't anywhere else.
Nephi talks about the brass platesby verse 11, saying they did

(19:42):
contain the five books of Moses.
What's the most important thingin the five books of Moses?
According to Nephi, “which gave an accountof the creation of the world and also of
Adam and Eve, who were our first parents.”And then if you jump forward to 2 Nephi
2, Lehi starts talking about the fall inrelation to opposition, in relation to
the reason why bad things happen down hereon earth, and he teaches a whole bunch

(20:05):
of stuff that is extrabiblical, that goesbeyond what the Bible teaches, like the
fact that one of the major purposes of thefall was so that we could have children.
“Adam fell that men might be, andmen are that they might have joy.”
That the fall wasn't wholly negative,that it was necessary, that it was
a fortunate fall, we would say, thatactually allowed Adam and Eve to know

(20:25):
good and evil, so that they could havechoice, that they could make decisions.
Lehi connects creation, fall,and atonement all together and
starts to set up some of the ideasthat are taught in the temple.

Scott Woodward (20:38):
So you're saying that Joseph is taking the motif of creation,
fall, atonement, maybe, taking it fromthe Book of Mormon and synthesizing
that into the endowment story.

Casey Griffiths (20:47):
I wouldn't underestimate that.
Now, in his public statements, theweird thing about Joseph Smith is even
though he translates the Book of Mormon,he quotes a lot more from the Bible.

Scott Woodward (20:56):
That's true.

Casey Griffiths (20:56):
But when we're founding the foundational doctrines of
the church, for instance, section 20,which is spoken of as the constitution
of the church, once it deals with thehistory of the church, which is about
the first 16 verses, about verse 17 itpivots into the teachings of the church.
And the very first things taught there areGod created the earth, Adam and Eve fell,

(21:17):
and there's an atonement that rescues us,and then it deals with atonement theology.
And so, I mean, I think that we shouldn'tunderestimate that the Book of Mormon—the
Book of Mormon isn't the first place thesedoctrines are revealed, but the Book of
Mormon does kind of take a highlighterand say, hey, in the scriptures, creation,
fall, and atonement are the most importantideas a person can be familiar with.

Scott Woodward (21:37):
And those are there again in Moses, right?
Moses 2.

Casey Griffiths (21:40):
Yep.

Scott Woodward (21:40):
We have creation.
Moses 3 we have fall.
I guess 3 and 4 is the fall.

Casey Griffiths (21:46):
Yeah, 4 is the fall.

Scott Woodward (21:47):
Yeah, what's 3?
3 is creation as well, yeah.
And then 5 is the storyof redemption, right?
It's where Adam and Eve firstlearned the story of redemption.

Casey Griffiths (21:54):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (21:54):
They're given the laws of obedience and sacrifice.
They start sacrificing animals.
Angel comes and says, what are you doing?
And Adam says, I have no idea.
God commanded me to do this.
That's why I'm doing it.
And then that's when he teaches, thisis a symbol of the sacrifice of the
only begotten son of God and startsto unfold the plan of redemption.
So there you have it in Moses aswell: creation, fall, atonement.

(22:17):
And if Joseph is also drawing fromthe Book of Mormon on this, like, I
have no problem with that at all, so
. . . Casey Griffiths: And I'm just saying the translation of the Book of
Mormon wasn't just a translationprocess: it was a teaching process.
Yeah.
Good point.

Casey Griffiths (22:31):
This is before the book of Moses is translated, right?
The Lord is using the Book ofMormon to basically say, here's the
most important parts of the story.
The whole story is a big deal, butthe crucial instruction a person
receives is in the creation of theearth, why it's here, the fall of
Adam and Eve, why we experienceadversity, and the atonement of Christ,
which is how we overcome adversity.

(22:54):
And then you're backinto the presence of God.
So I wouldn't underestimate the Bookof Mormon as a doctrinal source here,
because it seems like it's just amotif in the Book of Mormon that
these are the most important ideas.
And there's a lot of ideas, like afortunate fall, purposeful creation,
and that the atonement was known wellbefore Jesus came to the earth, that

(23:14):
all show up first in the Book of Mormon.
So I'm going to make my plug forthe Book of Mormon as a major
source for the endowment, too.

Scott Woodward (23:20):
Okay.
Excellent.
And everything we're doinghere is speculative, so you're
on safe speculative ground.

Casey Griffiths (23:29):
We're spitballing here.

Scott Woodward (23:31):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (23:31):
We're in the brainstorming phase.
There's no bad ideas.
I just think this is a really good one.

Scott Woodward (23:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very good.
Okay, let me throw out a thirdlikely source from which the prophet
Joseph drew in his inspired piecingtogether of the endowment ceremony,

(23:57):
and that is the book of Abraham.
Let's think about the timelineof the book of Abraham here.
So Joseph is translating much of the bookof Abraham in 1835, but in Nauvoo he goes
back to work on the book a little more.
We're not sure exactly how thepercentages work out in terms of
Kirtland versus Nauvoo, but theydo get published there in Nauvoo.

(24:18):
He publishes the three facsimilesthat are found in the current book
of Abraham, and some of them makeexplicit reference to the temple, right?
So, for instance, Joseph's interpretationof facsimile two, that's the
circle hypocephalus, has severalexplicit connections to the temple.
So you go down to figure three, andthen you look down in the footnote,

and it says this (24:38):
Figure 3 “Is made to represent God, sitting upon his throne,
clothed with power and authority;with a crown of eternal light upon

His head.” And then it says this: “Representing also the grand Key-words (24:46):
undefined
of the Holy Priesthood, as revealedto Adam in the Garden of Eden.” Okay.
Figure 7 says, “Represents God sittingupon His throne, revealing through
the heavens the grand Key-words of thePriesthood.” And then figure eight says,
“Contains writings that cannot be revealedunto the world; but is to be had in the

(25:09):
Holy Temple of God.” So here in the bookof Abraham, you have explicit mention of
what's being called “the grand Key-wordsof the priesthood,” which in public
records Joseph Smith and Brigham Youngtie directly to the temple endowment.
For instance, in Joseph's history ofgiving the first endowment to nine men,
he says that he instructed them “in theprinciples and order of the priesthood

(25:32):
and the communication of keys,” there'sthat word, “pertaining to the Aaronic
priesthood, and so on to the highest orderof the Melchizedek priesthood, setting
forth all those principles by which anyoneis enabled to secure the fullness of
those blessings which have been preparedfor the Church of the Firstborn, and
come up and abide in the presence of theElohim in the eternal worlds.” And here's

(25:55):
a few statements from President BrighamYoung years later on this point of key
words of the priesthood that make an eventighter connection with the endowment.

First quote (26:02):
he said, “Your endowment is to receive all those ordinances in the
house of the Lord which are necessary foryou, after you've departed this life, to
enable you to walk back to the presenceof the Father, passing the angels who
stand as sentinels,” and then this part,“being enabled to give them the key
words, the signs and tokens pertainingto the holy priesthood and gain your

(26:24):
eternal exaltation in spite of earthand hell.” Next quote, he said, “Go
on and build the temples of the Lord,that you may receive the endowments in
store for you and possess the keys ofthe eternal priesthood, that you may
receive every word, sign, and token,and be made acquainted with the laws
of angels and the kingdom of our Fatherand our God, and know how to pass from

(26:46):
one degree to another and enter fullyinto the joy of your Lord.” And here's

one more (26:51):
President Young said, “Those counted worthy to dwell with the Father
and the Son have been fully acquaintedwith every password, token, and sign
which has enabled them to pass by theporters through the door to the Celestial
Kingdom.” So from those quotes we seea very tight connection between the
endowment ceremony on the one hand andwhat facsimile two of the book of Abraham,

(27:14):
published in Nauvoo, is here calling“the grand Key-words of the priesthood.”

Casey Griffiths (27:18):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (27:19):
And by the way, timeline-wise, doesn't this fit
perfectly with when the endowmentis about to be rolled out?
Doesn't this come outin, like, April of 1842?
Is that when this facsimile is published?

Casey Griffiths (27:28):
That was a major surprise to me when we were prepping this outline,
is the first endowments are given inearly May 1842, and the manuscripts
published in Nauvoo Joseph Smith wasworking on in February and March of 1842.

Scott Woodward (27:43):
Of the book of Abraham, you're saying?

Casey Griffiths (27:44):
Of the book of Abraham.

Scott Woodward (27:45):
Okay, the manuscripts of the book of Abraham are being
prepped in February and March of 1842.
Okay.

Casey Griffiths (27:50):
Then the endowment is given for the first time in May 1842.
So if you're just trying tosay, hey, what was Joseph Smith
working on during this time?
It's hard to deny that there is atemporal connection, that around the
time the endowment is first administeredin Nauvoo he's working on the book of
Abraham manuscripts, and the facsimiles,especially facsimile two in the book

(28:11):
of Abraham, tie closely and justoutright mention things that will be
revealed in the temple, priesthoodand key words and things like that.
So there's definitely aconnection that's there.
Can't deny it.

Scott Woodward (28:22):
Yeah.
And then the book of Abraham, when itdoes come out, it explains the premortal
council and the creation of the earth.
It talks about the creationof the earth occurring through
a council of gods, right?
Something that's implied, but notdirectly mentioned in Genesis.
And so you see these elements that are,again, not in the book of Moses, but are
in the endowment and the book of Abraham.
So it seems like there is a synthesishappening of these different elements,

(28:47):
the book of Moses, book of Abraham,you're putting in a plug for the
Book of Mormon, that are bringingthese together into sources for the
endowment part two in Nauvoo, what wecall the endowment ceremony, right?
And so I think, whoo.

Casey Griffiths (29:02):
I think we've got a case here, right?

Scott Woodward (29:04):
I think this is really interesting.
I think it's pretty compelling.

Casey Griffiths (29:19):
There is one more source, but it's sort of controversial.

Scott Woodward (29:22):
Oh, yeah?
And what's that?

Casey Griffiths (29:23):
The Masonic ceremonies that are introduced in Nauvoo.

Scott Woodward (29:26):
Wait, you're suggesting that the Masonic ceremony could be
a possible source for the endowment?

Casey Griffiths (29:31):
Oh, yeah.
I mean, I think it was, but I'll giveyou a couple reasons why I think that.

Scott Woodward (29:37):
Yes, please.

Casey Griffiths (29:38):
And before we do that, we've got to also explain a couple
things, because most people don'tknow a ton about Masons or Masonry.

Scott Woodward (29:45):
No.

Casey Griffiths (29:45):
What they do know comes from the excellent Nicolas
Cage movie National Treasure—

Scott Woodward (29:51):
Yes.

Casey Griffiths (29:52):
—which at least doesn't depict the Masons as, like,
sinister bad guys or anything, butoutside of that, people are largely
ignorant about Masons and what theydo and how they fit into the story.

Scott Woodward (30:03):
So we probably need to back up and lay some
contextual groundwork here, yeah.

Casey Griffiths (30:07):
Back up, lay context, or go on a completely different
tangent, which we're probablygoing to do all three here, so
. . . Scott Woodward: Okay, let's do it.
Masonry is a primarily fraternal organization.
They do have organizations for womennow, but back then, only with a few
exceptions did they include women.
It's this group that meets together,and they are founded on the concept of

(30:28):
a supreme being, on brotherly love, andthey also kind of help each other out.
And Masons have buildingsthemselves that they call temples.
For instance, in Salt Lake City rightnow, there is a Masonic temple that's
on South Temple Drive, just about a fewblocks away from the Salt Lake Temple.
I got to go up and tour through.

(30:49):
Scripture Central is putting out a videowhere we tour through the Masonic Salt
Lake Temple, and they perform theseceremonies where Masons kind of make
promises to each other designed tocreate this brotherhood, this fraternity.

Scott Woodward (31:02):
And the Masons are a service organization in
a sense as well, aren't they?
It's a fraternity, and part ofit is to serve the community.
Is that correct?

Casey Griffiths (31:10):
Yeah.
They serve the community, they raisefunds for charities, they hold pancake
breakfasts and stuff like that.

Scott Woodward (31:17):
To me, like, the mystery was all blown away when the connection
was made between Masons and Boy Scouts.
You know, I think I mentioned this ina previous series we talked about, but
Masonry is basically Man Scouts, right?
This is where it's a fraternity, it'smen who are committed to God and their
country and to serving their fellow man.
In fact, Boy Scouts actually grows outof Masonic influence, Lord Baden Powell.

Casey Griffiths (31:41):
Lord Baden Powell is a Mason, yeah.

Scott Woodward (31:43):
And so it's basically, like, the junior version of Masonry
is what Boy Scouts is, right?
And so think about the hand signs, likeputting their left hand up and, you know,
three fingers up or Boy Scout handshake.
They have certain handshakes,certain uniforms, right?
Kerchiefs.
And then there's different levels anddegrees within Boy Scouts, you know?
You're a wolf and then—oh,shoot—and then a Life.

Casey Griffiths (32:08):
Like levels, right?

Scott Woodward (32:09):
Yeah, you want to get up to Eagle and beyond.
And in Masonry, they havethat too, don't they?
You start out as—I don't know what thelowest one is, but, like, an apprentice
type of a level, and you go up throughdegrees of Masonry, become Master Mason,
and then you can be Third Degree Masons.
Like, there's degrees ofbeing Master Mason, right?
To me, that was very helpfulto say, this is a lot like Boy

(32:31):
Scouts, but it's Man Scouts.
It's the next level.

Casey Griffiths (32:35):
Yeah.
The folks at the Salt Lake MasonicTemple were actually good enough
to let us, a Scripture Centralteam, witness a Masonic ceremony.

Scott Woodward (32:42):
Oh, really?

Casey Griffiths (32:42):
It was just them placing in the new head of a lodge, but I was
struck at how formal and ceremonialand uniform it was, like they have
ceremonial clothing that they wear.
Now, because by and large theseceremonies are not open to the public,
Masons are often viewed with suspicion.
And the fact that Masons are inNauvoo only kind of feeds that
whole conspiratorial mindsetof, ooh, what are the Masons

(33:06):
and the Latter-day Saints up to?
Let me emphasize a couple things.
There's four things Latter-day Saintsdo in their temples: baptism for the
dead, the initiatory ceremony, whichis part of the endowment, the endowment
ceremony, and then sealings, which arehusband to wife or parents to children.
Three of those four haveno equivalent in Masonry.
There's no such thing as baptismfor the dead or the initiatory

(33:28):
ordinances or sealings.
In fact, at this time the Masonsthat Joseph Smith associated
with wouldn't permit women totake part in the ceremonies.
But that set aside, there aresimilarities between the second part
of the endowment, the ceremonialpart, and the Masonic ceremonies that
would have taken place in Nauvoo.

Scott Woodward (33:47):
So why would there be similarities between those two?
You know, that's what people wonder.

Casey Griffiths (33:53):
That's what we're going to tackle.
And in order to tackle that,let's just back up and say, why
were there Masons in Nauvoo?

Scott Woodward (33:58):
Oh, okay.

Casey Griffiths (33:59):
Because one of the things you'll find when you go to
Nauvoo is right on Main Street, oneof the biggest and most impressive
buildings is called the Cultural Hall.
It was not called the CulturalHall in Joseph Smith's day.
It would have beencalled the Masonic Hall.
And building it was animportant civic duty.
One of the things that you'll notice isif you go from Nauvoo down to Warsaw,

(34:20):
where the people that killed JosephSmith came from, on Main Street in Warsaw
there's an abandoned Masonic Hall as well.
If you go to Palmyra in New York, upstateNew York, there's a Masonic Hall there.
The Masons were ubiquitous andspread throughout the early
American Republic in a lot of ways.
And in Nauvoo, we never talk aboutthis for some reason, but the Lord

(34:41):
had commanded the church to actuallyreach out to people, to make friends.
Again, the context of Nauvoo is that whenthey get there, they've just been through
some horrible things in Missouri, andthere's some internal examinations of
the church, saying, are we too insular?
And the Lord actually commands them tobe more outgoing, to be more inclusive.

(35:02):
In section 124, for instance, whichsection 124 is the revelation that
commands them to build the Nauvoo temple,before the Lord commands them to build the
Nauvoo temple, the house of the Lord, hecommands them to build a different house.
This is in verse 23 ofDoctrine and Covenants 124.
The Lord describes it as “a house forboarding, a house that strangers may come
from afar to lodge therein; thereforelet it be a good house, worthy of all

(35:25):
acceptation, that the weary traveler mayfind health and safety while he shall
contemplate the word of the Lord; and thecornerstone I have appointed for Zion.”
So they're commanded to build the temple,which is for Latter-day Saints, right?
But they're also commanded to buildthis house, the Nauvoo House, which
is for anybody, and it's kind of theLord's way of saying, hey, you guys will
get into less trouble if you'll openup a little bit and stop sort of just

(35:48):
catering to the needs of your own andstart taking care of the needs of others.
So in Nauvoo there is this desireto reach out to other groups.
They reach out to the Illinois StateLegislature and get the Nauvoo Charter,
which is incredibly generous, andone of the groups that it just made
logical sense to reach out to werethe Masons for a number of reasons.
First, they need allies.

(36:09):
They're trying to stop whathappened in Missouri from happening
again, and Masons are influential.
There's a number of key churchleaders—this includes Joseph Smith's
own father, who was a Mason; and HyrumSmith, who was a Mason; and Heber C.
Kimball; Joseph Smith'suncle John Smith; Newel K.
Whitney—I've seen Newel K.
Whitney's Masonic Certificate.
Collector in Provo has it—George Miller,who's another bishop in the church,

(36:32):
were all Masons before they joined thechurch, and all of them were able to say,
basically, hey, Masons are good people.
They reach out to others, andthey have each other's backs.
And so it might not be a bad idea ifwe form connections with them, and
with that in mind, a Masonic Lodgeis sought and then set up in Nauvoo.

Scott Woodward (37:05):
Joining Masonry or encouraging Masonry to flourish in Nauvoo
would likely have created a network ofallies that could hopefully, you know,
protect the Saints against Missouri-likepersecution and maybe also help them
get some political influence, right?
Because Masons are pretty well-connected.

Casey Griffiths (37:25):
Yeah.
It's like, we need friends.
Let's figure out a way toreach out to these people.
And just so you know, I mean, Masonrywas an embedded part of American life.
It's difficult to see now because Masonryhas shrunk to a large degree, but in
the 19th century there were tons ofMasonic lodges all over the country.
A couple years ago I went to Philadelphia,and in downtown Philadelphia there is

(37:47):
a huge Masonic temple, probably thebiggest one in the Western Hemisphere.

Scott Woodward (37:50):
It's so cool.
Yeah, I went there two years ago.
It's amazing.

Casey Griffiths (37:53):
Yeah.
You walk up and pay $15, and they'relike, “Go on in.” They'll give you a tour.
You can walk around.
You can take pictures.
In the main hall in Philadelphia there'sa stained glass window that shows George
Washington wearing his Masonic clothing.
Right next to him is Andrew Jackson.
Right next to Andrew Jackson is TeddyRoosevelt, and right next to Teddy
Roosevelt is Harry Truman, all Mason.

Scott Woodward (38:15):
And then a huge, massive, like, 15-foot statue of Ben Franklin,
right, with his Masonic apron on.

Casey Griffiths (38:22):
Yeah.
You can go into their littlemuseum, and George Washington's
Masonic apron is there.
And all in all, I mean, aboutfourteen presidents of the
United States have been Masons.

Scott Woodward (38:32):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (38:32):
I think the last one was Gerald Ford.
I don't think anybodysince him has been a Mason.
But in the early American Republic Masonrywas a way to be well connected, to have
a brotherhood that would watch your back.
Now, I should mention, though, thatMasonry's influence was kind of on an
ebb when the Saints go to Nauvoo, sothe peak of Masonry is in the 1820s

(38:54):
when a lot of adult men in the UnitedStates are Masons, but there's a scandal
linked to a guy named William Morgan.
He's this guy who threatens to publishMasonic secrets and then publishes
some of the ceremonies, and thenhe kind of mysteriously disappears.
And the circumstances ofhis death are mysterious.
Like, this is a whole other podcastepisode, if you want to get into it.
But basically the Morgan scandal,the fact that this guy disappears,

(39:18):
causes many people to sortof disaffiliate with Masonry.
For instance, in New York, in 1825, sothis is right when the Smith family's
in the middle of First Vision, comingforth of the Book of Mormon, there were
480 Masonic lodges with 20,000 members.
By 1835, this is ten yearslater, there were seventy-five
lodges with 3,000 active members.

(39:40):
And a lot of people duringthe time were anti-masonry.
When the Book of Mormon was published,some people actually thought that the
secret combinations, the Gadiantonrobbers in the Book of Mormon,
were a reference to the Masons.
And so some people in the AmericanRepublic saw them as, like, secret
combinations, and other people,including a prominent number of

(40:00):
members of the Church, were Masons.

Scott Woodward (40:02):
So they would think of them as Gadianton robber type
because they had rituals that theywouldn't tell anybody about or they
wouldn't explain what they do exactly.
You have to become a member of thefight club to know what happens in
the fight club kind of a thing, right?
Like, you have to join Masonryto know what's going on within
Masonry, and so that veil of, like,nondisclosure created serious suspicion.

(40:23):
And so when William Morgan goes outand tries to expose what they're
doing, tries to give away theirsecrets, and then he goes missing,
that seemed like there was a conspiracythat Masons had killed him, right?

Casey Griffiths (40:33):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (40:34):
So basically to be connected with the Masons is to be
politically connected in some circles,but to be connected with the Masons in
other circles was to be connected witha organization that is now carrying
some conspiratorial baggage because ofthe disappearance of William Morgan.

Casey Griffiths (40:52):
Yeah, and so by the time the Saints try to connect with the Masons,
they're kind of at the lower end of theirinfluence, but they're still influential.
And the past connections with Masonrymakes it more likely that they'll connect.
Now, Masons, for, just for a publicservice announcement, are not a religion,
though it is required that you believein a higher power or supreme being.

Scott Woodward (41:14):
Kind of like Boy Scouts.

Casey Griffiths (41:16):
Yeah.
This is coming from a guy Italked to in the Masonic Temple in
Philadelphia, and a guy I talkedto in the Salt Lake Masonic Temple.
Just, you have to believein a higher power.
Like, a common Masonic symbolis you'll see the word G
surrounded by some kind of seal.
A Mason would tell you the G standsfor God, or it stands for geometry,

(41:36):
meaning the order of the universe isa sign of a higher power to Masons.
Masonic rituals, in fact the titleof Mason, comes from the fact that
some of their ceremonies depict thecreation of Solomon's Temple and
the building of Solomon's Templeand the Masons that worked on it.
Now, that's just one ofseveral ceremonies that exist.
If you talk to a Mason, some of thembelieve that Masonic rites go all the

(41:59):
way back to Solomon's Temple, whichwould obviously interest the Saints.
Some of them don't believe that.
The earliest records we have ofMasonry is that it starts about A.
D.
1400.

Scott Woodward (42:12):
Okay, that's a far cry from Solomon's Temple time period.

Casey Griffiths (42:16):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (42:16):
So that's a problem.

Casey Griffiths (42:17):
Yeah.
So how far back does it go?
We don't know.
Some Masons believe it goesall the way back to Solomon.
Some believe it goes back to Adam.
I would say, just from the random sampleof Masons I've talked to, most of them
believe that it doesn't go back that far,but that there are righteous principles
contained in it that are scriptural.

Scott Woodward (42:34):
But it's not a religion.

Casey Griffiths (42:35):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (42:35):
It's a God-based fraternity.

Casey Griffiths (42:38):
It's not a religion.
So these people in Nauvoo would say,we can be Masons, and we don't have
to sacrifice being Latter-day Saints.
We don't have to sacrifice our religiousidentity that we've suffered for.

Scott Woodward (42:48):
But it would give us the advantage of
being socially more connected.

Casey Griffiths (42:51):
That's correct.
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (42:52):
Giving us a network of allies to be protected
and politically tied in.

Casey Griffiths (42:57):
Which is smart, right?
They're—they've just comethrough some horrific stuff.

Scott Woodward (43:00):
Yeah.
Makes sense.

Casey Griffiths (43:01):
So here's where the timing comes in
Several church members who were alsoFreemasons submitted a request for
a lodge in Nauvoo, and shortly afterthe establishment of the lodge,
Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and fortyother Latter-day Saints petitioned
for membership in this lodge.
The Nauvoo Lodge begins holdingregular meetings in January 1842.

(43:22):
Remember, the temple endowment is goingto be first administered in May 1842.
While the Book of Abraham stuff ishappening, even the Relief Society
is organized during this time.
The winter of 1842 was busy.

Scott Woodward (43:34):
Things are poppin'.

Casey Griffiths (43:35):
So in March of the same year, this is in March, the leader of
the Freemasons in Illinois, who is a mannamed Abraham Jonas, who is Jewish, by
the way, sent a letter giving instructionsthat should the ballot be unanimous
in favor of said Smith and Rigdon at afull meeting of said Nauvoo Lodge, then,
and in that case, the said lodge isauthorized to confer the three degrees of
ancient York Masonry on the said JosephSmith and Sidney Rigdon as speedily

(43:57):
as the nature of the case will permit.
And this is a whole other discussionfor another day, but there's two

types of Masonry (44:02):
There's the Scottish Rite and the York Rite.
They were part of the York Rite.
Sometimes you hear rumorslike Joseph Smith became a
high-level-degree Mason in one day.
He did, but it's because theywere allowed to choose their own
leaders, and it would make sensethat they would choose Joseph Smith.
In fact, Joseph Smith was the chaplainfor the Masonic Lodge in Nauvoo.
Hyrum Smith was the Grandmaster.

(44:23):
But Joseph and Sidney are both broughtin, and Joseph Smith is inducted into
the Masonic fraternity and goes throughthe Masonic rites on March 15, 1842.

Scott Woodward (44:32):
Boom.
Okay.
March 15 he becomes officially a Mason.

Casey Griffiths (44:37):
Yeah.
So the timing here lines up prettyclose with the first temple endowment
that's going to be administered.
And so he administers the firsttemple endowment to nine men,
they're all Masons, in the NauvooRed Brick Store on May 3, 1842, okay?
And Joseph Smith's journal just mentionsthat he was instructing the priesthood

(44:58):
in the orders of Melchizedek and Aaronic.
Later on, when the history of the churchis written, some of these men go back and
augment that entry to say the following.
So here's what the history of the churchsays: “Joseph Smith explained his plan,
instructing them in the principles andorder of the priesthood, attending to
washings, anointings, endowments, andthe communication of keys pertaining
to the Aaronic Priesthood, and so onto the highest order of the Melchizedek

(45:21):
Priesthood, setting forth the orderpertaining to the Ancient of Days, and
all those plans and principles by whichanyone is enabled to secure the fullness
of those blessings which have beenprepared for the Church of the Firstborn
to come up and abide in the presenceof Elohim in the eternal worlds.” So
these nine men are given the endowment.
They're all Masons.

Scott Woodward (45:41):
And he says that he was instructing them in things pertaining
to Aaronic priesthood and Melchizedekpriesthood, which at the time were also
understood to be fraternal orders, right?
The order of Aaron and theholy order of Melchizedek.
And so certainly there's parallelsthat are being drawn there as well.

Casey Griffiths (46:00):
Yeah.
And, I mean, it's clear—we're not going togo into it because one of the things Elder
Bednar said to handle with care were thesymbols in the endowment, but some of the
symbols in the Masonic ceremonies and usedin the endowment overlap with each other.

Scott Woodward (46:14):
Like hand clasps and the way that you would raise
your arms, those kinds of things.

Casey Griffiths (46:19):
Yeah.
And so because of these similarities—we'renot denying that they exist—it's possible
that Joseph Smith may have been inspiredby or adapted certain parts of the
Masonic ceremonies to meet his needs.
One theory is that Joseph Smithjust adapts their pedagogy.
Like, the Masons present theirceremony as a kind of play, where they
act out certain things that happen.

(46:39):
The ones Joseph Smith would have goneto linked back to Solomon's temple and
some of the things that happened there.
Joseph Smith takes this framework fromthe Joseph Smith Translation and the
Book of Mormon and the Bible of creation,fall, and atonement, and he may have
just said, hey, they present a play.
Maybe a play would be a moreinnovative way of introducing these
principles to every single person.

(47:00):
And then he adopts some of the symbols.

Scott Woodward (47:02):
So theory one is Joseph pulled the ritualistic teaching
style, the kind of outward form,symbolic gestures, and maybe even
some clothing, as a teaching form.

Casey Griffiths (47:13):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (47:14):
This would be a fantastic vehicle to deliver the more inspired
goods, something like that, like theMoses 5, the Abraham stuff, in addition
to being more explicit about certaincovenants, right, that you make.

Casey Griffiths (47:27):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (47:27):
So theory one is he's pulling in the forms of
Masonry to deliver the content thatis not Masonic at all, actually.

Casey Griffiths (47:36):
It's a good delivery system.

Scott Woodward (47:38):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (47:38):
To make an analogy, in the 20th century, when we were building
the temple in Switzerland, they were goingto have to administer the endowment in
something like twenty different languages.
A man who was working forthe church named Gordon B.
Hinckley said it would be a loteasier if we did this with a film.
We could record a film.
We could dub it into different languages.
We could use film as themedium of instruction.

(47:59):
And today, that's—I mean, as of today theSalt Lake and the Manti temples are both
being renovated so that they use film.
That became the predominantway of delivering it.
Joseph Smith may have seen the Masonicsystem and said, a play is a great way
to depict this, and adopted that, andthen adopted a lot of their symbols.
And so that's theory one.
And again, it seems like it's justobvious, the similarities show

(48:22):
and the timing lines up, that heborrowed, that he adapted from them.

Scott Woodward (48:26):
I feel like theory one needs a name.
What should be the name of theory one?

Casey Griffiths (48:29):
Theory one is the pedagogy theory.
So he just adapts theirmethodology, their way of teaching.
Theory number two is the—what'sa good word for this?

Scott Woodward (48:52):
Restoration?

Casey Griffiths (48:53):
Restoration.
And this seems to have been believed by alot of people in Nauvoo, that was that the
Masonic ceremonies were originally fromGod, but that they had been corrupted.
For instance, Benjamin Johnson, whois a close friend of Joseph Smith,
said, “Joseph told me Freemasonry,as at present, was the apostate

(49:14):
endowments, as sectarian religion wasto the apostate religion.” Heber C.
Kimball says a similar thing ina letter he writes to Parley P.
Pratt.
He says, “There is a similarityof priesthood and Masonry.
Brother Joseph says Masonry was takenfrom the priesthood but has become
degenerated, but many things are perfect.”

Scott Woodward (49:32):
So there's some secondhand accounts suggesting that
Joseph's theory is Masonry is ancientand has become degenerated, dilapidated,
and it needs to have the life kind ofbreathed back into it, essentially.

Casey Griffiths (49:46):
Yeah.
And so this is the restoration hypothesis,where Joseph Smith is taking something
that was inspired, but had kind ofdrifted from where it was, and restoring
it back to what it was meant to be.
Steve Harper writes a lot about this.
We love friend of the show SteveHarper, who's been our guest before.

Scott Woodward (50:05):
We love Steve.

Casey Griffiths (50:06):
This is what Steve wrote, and this is an excellent
essay he wrote on Masonry.
He said, “What if the divine restorationwas not wholly new, but like the
restoration of an old house, where therestorer keeps all that's useful and
charming, and replaces or refurbishes allthat's broken, weak, or no longer useful?
It requires a logical leap to bridgethe evidentiary gap between the

(50:27):
similarity, which was obvious tothose who knew both Masonry and the
endowment, and the dependence whichis assumed but not known.” So Steve is
pointing out that the first nine men toreceive the endowment are all Masons.

Scott Woodward (50:41):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (50:41):
And none of them accused Joseph Smith of
plagiarizing the Masonic ceremony.

Scott Woodward (50:46):
No.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.

Casey Griffiths (50:48):
They're familiar with both.
They don't see them as a theft in any way.
Some of them describe it as a restoration.
Some of them don't say anything,but all of them are okay
with it as a delivery system.
And these nine men, eventually women,are given the endowment as well, and
then before they leave Nauvoo they tryand endow and seal everybody that they

(51:11):
can possibly get through the temple.
Most of these men are Masons.
They don't cry foul.
They don't say that anything's wrong.
They accept the endowment either as anadaptation of the teaching methodology and
symbols of the Masons or as a restorationof an apostate temple ceremony.
Theory two.

Scott Woodward (51:29):
Theory two.
Okay, so theory two is essentiallythat Masonry was, like, the vestige
of some bygone inspired ritual fromGod that had basically fallen into
disrepair and needed to be restored,air quotes, the way that we would, like,
restore an old building, restore someold house like Steve Harper is saying.

(51:50):
Like, restoration doesn't just meanbringing things back from heaven
that are lost from the earth.
It can also mean repairing thingsthat are still here but just need to
be recontextualized and they need tohave the life breathed back into them.
Right?
Something like that.
Is that a fair characterization?

Casey Griffiths (52:05):
Fair characterization.
And this openness where they'renot trying to cover anything up
is totally evident in Nauvoo.
For instance, the angel that's onthe top of the Nauvoo temple is
wearing, like, robes and clothingsimilar to what you would wear in the
endowment, and some of the symbolsused in the endowment are present
on that angelic weathervane as well.

(52:25):
And so doesn't seem like they'retrying to cover things up.

Scott Woodward (52:29):
And, like, the all-seeing eye of God is on the
temple, and it's also a Masonic thingthat's on our money, for instance.
So they're borrowingthese symbols as well.

Casey Griffiths (52:39):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (52:40):
The saints were okay with, and maybe it would help us if we got more
okay with this, it would just at leasthelp our understanding if we understood
that Joseph Smith's restoration projectisn't wholly about bringing things from
heaven to earth, but also about bringingthings that are already on earth into
the circumference of the divine, right?
He's reworking.
He's salvaging thingsthat already are here.

(53:03):
He's assimilating preexistingthings on earth into the
circumference of the church, right?

Casey Griffiths (53:09):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (53:09):
It reminds me of that verse in D&C 27 where the Lord says, “I
will gather together in one all thingsboth which are in heaven and which are
on earth,” and I think we often thinkof the restoration as that heaven piece.
This is where God's bringingthings from heaven to earth.
But there's that second piece, hesays, gathering together all things

(53:29):
in one, both in heaven and, and,things that are already on earth.

Casey Griffiths (53:34):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (53:34):
I think it's helpful and useful to think of Masonry that way.
Either theory one or theory two allowsfor that, that there's something that
already existed on earth called Masonry,which is an effective teaching style,
which may also be a dilapidated trueritual of some kind from the ancient
past, and what Joseph the prophet doesis assimilates it, gathers it, as Jesus

(53:55):
said in D&C 27, gathers it togetherin one in Christ into this broader
circumference of the restoration.
And so I think that's really helpful.
I think the saints in Nauvoo understoodthe restoration that way, and I think
sometimes we've lost that to some degree.
If we just think of the restorationas things from heaven coming back to
earth, we're going to struggle withJoseph bringing things that already

(54:16):
exist on earth into the church.
But if we have that Nauvooparadigm, that's not a problem.

Casey Griffiths (54:21):
Yeah.
We've been talking aboutsimilarities, and we're not denying
that there are similarities.

Scott Woodward (54:37):
That's not really negotiable here.

Casey Griffiths (54:39):
Yeah.
But this is where we've got to talkabout the dissimilarities, too.
This is how they're different.

Scott Woodward (54:43):
There are some differences.
Okay.
What are the differences?

Casey Griffiths (54:46):
A major thing, Freemasonry was intended to be
kind of this exclusive fraternity.

Scott Woodward (54:50):
Okay.

Casey Griffiths (54:51):
It consists only of a small group of select members.
Joseph Smith made it pretty clearthe endowment was intended to
be given to all of the saintsthat were ready to receive it.
For instance, his history from the daythe first nine men received the endowment,
and again, this is probably a lateraddition by people that participated,
says there was nothing made known tothese men but what will be made known

(55:12):
to the saints of the last days so soonas they are prepared to receive, and a
proper place is prepared to communicateto them, even to the weakest of saints.
So it's never intendedto be wholly exclusive.
Anybody that joins the church andqualifies can receive the endowment.
The big message here is women.
Other than a few obscure groups thatexisted in France during this time,

(55:33):
Freemasons didn't involve any women.
Now, there are several organizationslinked to Freemasonry today that involve
women, but Joseph Smith intends for allmen and women to receive the endowment.
First women received theendowment in September of 1843.

Scott Woodward (55:47):
And that makes sense, right?
That Masonry by definition isa fraternity, and fraternity
is by definition a male group.
It's not a sorority.

Casey Griffiths (55:56):
It's not a sorority.

Scott Woodward (55:57):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (55:57):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (55:58):
So it was a fraternity.
But Joseph is saying the templeendowment’s for everybody, men and women.
This is not a fraternity.

Casey Griffiths (56:04):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (56:04):
Okay.
Got it.
That is a big difference.

Casey Griffiths (56:07):
The other thing, too, is when we say there's similarities, we're
talking about similarities in procedureand symbolism, the way they do things
and some of the symbols that they use.
The story told by the Masons in theirceremony was totally different than
what's told in the temple endowment.
So, for instance, the templeendowment centers on Jesus Christ

(56:27):
and redemption through Jesus Christ.
The Masonic ceremonies, and I'mspeaking very generally here
because I want to be respectful.
I have friends that are Masons.
The Masonic ceremonies talk aboutHiram of Tyre and Solomon's Temple.
Totally different things.

Scott Woodward (56:38):
Hiram of Tyre was the architect of Solomon's Temple?

Casey Griffiths (56:41):
Yeah.
He's the person who sends thematerials and acts as architect in
Masonic lore for Solomon's Temple.

Scott Woodward (56:48):
Right.
Okay.

Casey Griffiths (56:49):
The endowment, as we've talked about earlier, focuses on Adam
and Eve as representatives of all men andwomen in a cosmological journey through
God's plan of salvation, and the contentis more closely tied to those first

sources we were talking about (57:01):
the JST—

Scott Woodward (57:04):
Moses and Abraham.

Casey Griffiths (57:05):
Yeah.
So in substance, it's telling avery different story but adapting
some of the methodology andsymbolism that's used in Masonry.

Scott Woodward (57:13):
So the Masonic story does not talk about Adam and Eve.
Doesn't talk about the fall of Adam.

Casey Griffiths (57:18):
No.

Scott Woodward (57:18):
Doesn't talk about their journey back into God's
presence, anything like that.

Casey Griffiths (57:22):
Yeah.
And the covenants that a person makesin the temple, which—the church has
been very open in publishing thecovenants of the endowment, which are
. . . Scott Woodward: Obedience and sacrifice.
Law of obedience and sacrifice, law of the gospel, law of
chastity and the law of consecration.

Scott Woodward (57:37):
Yes.

Casey Griffiths (57:38):
Now, those are the five—are not in the Masonic ceremonies.
And we would say that's the primarysubstance of what's going on is
these covenants that people make.

Scott Woodward (57:48):
So Masons don't do anything like that.
They don't make any sortof covenants like that.

Casey Griffiths (57:53):
Well, they make covenants to be good men and to
help each other, but they don't doanything that talks about Jesus Christ.
Like I said, Masons just haveto believe in a Supreme Being.
They don't have to be Christian.
They don't have to accept the Bible.
In fact, Masonic ceremonies dorequire them to use a sacred text,

(58:14):
but from the Masons I've talkedto, a Mason could use the Quran
or use the Bible or use the Torah.
They could even use the Hindu text,the Bhagavad Gita, if they wanted to.

Scott Woodward (58:27):
So you could be a Hindu Mason, a Jewish Mason, a Muslim Mason
. . . Casey Griffiths: Yeah.
Doesn't matter, as long as you believe in God.

Casey Griffiths (58:35):
As long as you believe in a higher power, yeah.
So that's different, whereas oursis very specific to Latter-day Saint
teachings and doctrines and ideas.
The way we look at creation, fall, andatonement is a little bit different.
We believe a council created the earth.
We believe the fall wasfortunate, that it was good.
We believe that the atonement has beentaught since the time of Adam and Eve and

(58:55):
wasn't introduced in the New Testament,that it's an ancient teaching, not a New
Testament teaching, I guess you'd say.

Scott Woodward (59:01):
So again, back to theory one, if Joseph is seeing this
as a marvelous way to ritually walkpeople through a story, A, and then
B, help them make promises—so inMasonry they're making promises to
be better men, but Joseph, again, inthis case, as an inspired prophet, can
recontextualize the situation and say,let's tell the story of Adam and Eve.

(59:24):
And then in the midst of that, let'smake these sacred covenants with God
that will help us prepare ultimatelyto achieve our eternal destiny.

Casey Griffiths (59:31):
Yeah.
So it definitely influenced the endowment,but one scholar's broken it down by
sources, and his estimate is that about15 percent of the endowment—well, no,
actually, I'm looking at the chart here.
He says about 10 percent of theendowment is linked to Masonry.
And I don't know how hecame up with these metrics.

Scott Woodward (59:51):
Okay.

Casey Griffiths (59:51):
Was that about 87 percent comes from the Bible and ancient sources.
So the stories told are stuff thatcan all be found biblically, and
then about 3 percent we're nottotally sure where it comes from.

Scott Woodward (01:00:03):
Okay, wait.
So according to that scholar only 10percent of the endowment as we have
it today has any analog with Masonry.
Is that right?

Casey Griffiths (01:00:12):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (01:00:13):
And the rest of it comes from Biblical, Book of Moses,
Book of Abraham, Bible sources.

Casey Griffiths (01:00:19):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (01:00:19):
Wait.
87 percent plus 10percent doesn't equal 100.
What's the other 3 percent?

Casey Griffiths (01:00:23):
3 percent he just lists as a toss up, that we don't know.
We don't know where itcame from specifically.
It seems to be unique.
And that leaves open thepossibility that there was
revelation linked to the endowment.

Scott Woodward (01:00:36):
Yeah.
A hundred percent.

Casey Griffiths (01:00:37):
I would say revelation a lot of times is taking existing things and
just allowing God to kind of connect themtogether for you, to connect the dots.

Scott Woodward (01:00:47):
Yeah.
And that's how I wouldcharacterize all of this.
This is a fusion of biblicalelements, Masonic elements,
restoration scripture elements withthe book of Moses, book of Abraham.
I mean, this is an inspired fusion.
It's a recontextualizing, it's anassimilation, bringing together of
different pieces in an inspired waythat I think is actually incredibly

(01:01:09):
helpful, as one who's been endowed.
I mean, the endowment teaches soclearly what men and women need to do to
qualify to re-enter into God's presence.
And we even ritualized that as we makeour way into the celestial room, right?

Casey Griffiths (01:01:22):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (01:01:22):
And so having participated in it and having
benefited from it—like, I've feltthe inspiration of the endowment.
Like it's—it feels inspired, Casey.

Casey Griffiths (01:01:31):
It does.
It does.
Again, inspiration sometimes comesfrom connecting things together
that we've already known about.
Like, the first time I went to thetemple, I felt like somebody had just
taken a highlighter and highlightedall these passages in the scriptures as
to, “I know that you thought this wasimportant, but this is really important.
Pay close attention to this.

Scott Woodward (01:01:51):
I like that.
So why don't we do Masonryanymore in the church?
We were such big fans of it in Nauvoo.
What happened?

Casey Griffiths (01:02:12):
So you can still do Masonry in the church.
The guy that toured us through the SaltLake Masonic Temple, he is an active
Latter-day Saint and was a formerGrandmaster of Utah, and he told us that
outside of Utah, it's not a big deal.
Like, if you're a Latter-day Saint andyou want to be a Mason, nobody cares.
But inside Utah, because of theseaccusations that Joseph Smith stole

(01:02:33):
the Masonic ceremony, there can besome intense feelings linked to it.
In fact, this goes back to Nauvoo, whereMasonry is maybe accepted too well.

So let me break down some numbers: So by October of 1842 the lodge (01:02:42):
undefined
in Nauvoo consists of 253 members.
So this is less than ayear after it's introduced.
Now compare that to the total number ofall Freemasons in Illinois, which was 227.

Scott Woodward (01:03:00):
Oh, boy.

Casey Griffiths (01:03:01):
So within a year there's more Masons in Nauvoo than
there is in the rest of the state.
And Masons operate democratically.
Like, if you have the numbers, youcan take over and run the place.
And so in Nauvoo in 1843, two additionallodges open, and the growth of the
Masonic lodge begins to sort of freakout the other Masons in Illinois.

(01:03:22):
And then Latter-day Saints start openinglodges in Iowa, on the other side of the
Mississippi River, and even though thelodges in Nauvoo try to, you know, reach
out, connect with these other Masoniclodges, tensions just continue to rise
because, A, the Saints are growing innumbers faster than everybody else, and
B, there started to be accusations thatthe Saints are mixing religion with

(01:03:45):
Freemasonry, which they kind of are.
The temple endowment's an example of that.

Scott Woodward (01:03:48):
Yeah.
Interesting.

Casey Griffiths (01:03:50):
So other people were ticked off that Joseph Smith
and Sidney Rigdon became MasterMasons so quickly and felt like
it was growing too fast in Nauvoo.
One Masonic history from the time recordedthat Illinois Masons began to develop,
“A well-founded fear that within a shorttime, the Mormon lodges, if allowed to
continue, would become more numerousthan all others in the jurisdiction, and

(01:04:12):
thus be able to control the Grand Lodge.
So it's a question of power as well here.

Scott Woodward (01:04:17):
Political influence.

Casey Griffiths (01:04:18):
Yeah.
If all the Masons are Latter-daySaints, or if they even have a
majority, then they'll be ableto take over the whole Masonic
fraternity in the state of Illinois.
And so eventually relations start to sour.
The other Masons revoke the chartersof the Lodges in and around Nauvoo
and suspend their activities, and whenJoseph and Hyrum Smith are killed in

(01:04:39):
Carthage Jail, Masons are actuallyused of being complicit in the killing.
And that's probably true as well.
Some of the people that killedJoseph Smith were Masons from
Warsaw or Carthage, where there wereboth Masonic lodges at the time.
In fact, no less a source than thechurch newspaper, the Times and
Seasons, after Joseph Smith was killed,said Joseph and Hyrum were, “shot to

(01:05:02):
death, while with uplifted hands theygave such signs of distress as would
have commanded the interposition andbenevolence of savages or pagans.”
They were both Masons in good standing.
Joseph's last exclamation was, “O Lord,my God!” Many church members at the time
thought that Joseph Smith's last pleawas actually a Masonic cry for help.
And so Joseph Smith did say, “OLord, my God.” At the time, Masons,

(01:05:25):
if they were in trouble, weresupposed to say, “O Lord, my God, is
there no help for the widow's son?”

Scott Woodward (01:05:29):
And then if you were a Mason, you were sort of obligated
to jump in and help that person.

Casey Griffiths (01:05:33):
You were obligated to help, yeah.
But they didn't help, and thisreally, really ticked off the
Latter-day Saints who were Masons.
But today things have chilled out a littlebit between Latter-day Saints and Masons.
Like I mentioned, a Latter-daySaint can be a Mason.
It doesn't seem to be thatcontroversial anywhere except kind of
in the Intermountain West, accordingto the Masons I've talked to.

Scott Woodward (01:05:53):
Okay, so if I understand what you're saying, then,
to back up to that question aboutwhy we don't emphasize Masonry at
all in the Church anymore is becausethere was something of a break that
happened at the death of Joseph Smith.
We felt betrayed by our Masonic friends.
They felt like we weregetting too much power.
We felt like they shouldhave helped at Carthage.
Is that right?

(01:06:13):
Am I understanding correctly?
Like, that's the moment ofrift in the connection between
Masonry and church members?

Casey Griffiths (01:06:20):
Yes.
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (01:06:22):
Okay, so that's helpful.
So then by the time we get outto Utah, we're not really doing
much with Masonry anymore.
Is that correct?

Casey Griffiths (01:06:29):
Yeah, and when Masonry arrives in Utah, it comes from
people that aren't Latter-day Saints.

Scott Woodward (01:06:34):
Interesting.

Casey Griffiths (01:06:34):
And so the Masons that set things up in Utah are acting in
the assumption that Joseph Smith stole,that he co-opted their ceremonies.
Latter-day Saints are acting under theopinion that Masons were complicit in
the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

Scott Woodward (01:06:49):
That creates some bad blood between us.

Casey Griffiths (01:06:51):
There's a long history of animosity.
I think the first Grand Masterof Utah who's a Latter-day
Saint is elected in 2007.

Scott Woodward (01:06:59):
Okay.

Casey Griffiths (01:07:00):
So it goes right up to the first, and some of the Masons
I've talked to have said that, like,when—they're Latter-day Saints.
They became Masons—that there was still,I mean, in the 21st century, at least in
Utah lodges, a little bit of animosity.
Like, hey, who do theseguys think they are?
And why do they think they can comein and become part of this when

(01:07:21):
they're part of this religion thathas a bad history with Masonry?
But since then there's been severalgrandmasters who were Latter-day Saints.
The guy who toured us through thetemple, look for that video, was
an active Latter-day Saint, and itseems like some of the animosity
has died down a little bit.

Scott Woodward (01:07:37):
That's good news.
Meanwhile, we no longerpromote Boy Scouts.

Casey Griffiths (01:07:42):
Right.

Scott Woodward (01:07:44):
So there's—

Casey Griffiths (01:07:44):
There's that.

Scott Woodward (01:07:45):
So there's that.
Not connected at all withany of the animosity.

Casey Griffiths (01:07:50):
You just had to twist the knife, right?
Because—are you an Eagle Scout?
Are you an Eagle Scout?

Scott Woodward (01:07:54):
Are you going to judge me based on my answer?

Casey Griffiths (01:07:57):
Yes.

Scott Woodward (01:07:58):
People always do.
It's so weird.

Casey Griffiths (01:08:00):
You haven't given an answer yet.
Are you going to?

Scott Woodward (01:08:03):
I'm going to let you wonder about that.
Do I strike you as the kind ofperson who is an Eagle Scout?

Casey Griffiths (01:08:08):
Yes, you do.
But the fact that you're notanswering I think is the answer.
I was an Eagle Scout at age 12.
I love Scouts.
I was really sad when it ended, but Iunderstood why they did what they did.
So
. . . Scott Woodward: It wasn't because of animosity between the two groups, and it
was just time to part ways, that's all.
Anyways, back to Masonry.

(01:08:28):
They sound like great people, and I'mjust glad we're on friendly terms again.
Yeah, all the Masons I've met have been delightful,
wonderful people, and I've read acouple books on Masonry since I went
through the Masonic Temple, and justfind them to be endlessly fascinating.

Scott Woodward (01:08:44):
Mm-hmm.
That's super intriguing stuff.
Thanks for digging up allthat history for us, man.

Casey Griffiths (01:08:48):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (01:08:49):
So, okay.
As we wrap up today's discussion,do you want to summarize all
this for us, then, Casey?
The origins of the endowmentceremony, and then maybe talk to us
about where we want to go next time.

Casey Griffiths (01:08:59):
Yeah.
Ultimately what happens is wetake these four sources, okay?

So let's review really quickly (01:09:03):
possible sources for the endowment, and maybe
in order of importance, the JosephSmith Translation of the Bible okay?
It's just clear if you go through theendowment, creation, fall, and atonement.
The Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon talks aboutcreation, fall, and atonement,
emphasizes all these things.
The Book of Abraham.
There's just a temporal connection there.
Joseph Smith is working onthe Book of Abraham when he

(01:09:25):
administers the first endowment.
And with the Masons it's the same thing.
There's some stuff in the endowment,not in the other ceremonies of the
temple, but in the endowment, that justdirectly parallel some of the procedure
and symbols in the Masonic ceremonies,and there's a temporal connection, too.
Joseph Smith is inductedas a Mason in March.
In May he administers the endowment.

(01:09:46):
There's also big differences, too.
By September 1843 Joseph Smith hasbrought women into the endowment.
The endowment was intended for allpeople, and Joseph Smith intended for
everyone to receive the endowment.
So the next part of the story is thatJoseph Smith starts to administer the
endowment to this group of men andwomen that are informally known as the

(01:10:09):
Quorum of the Anointed, or the HolyOrder, and best way to think of them
is that they're the temple workers.
Like, their job, once the Nauvoo Templeis completed, because all this is being
done while the Nauvoo Temple is stillunder construction, most of them are
brought into the Nauvoo Red Brick Store,which by the way, Scott and I did a
video on temple ordinances in Nauvoo,and the good people at Scripture Central

(01:10:32):
actually created a computer model of whatthe Red Brick Store would have looked
like when they were administering theendowment, how they partitioned it off.
It's really cool.
Go and take a look at it.
We're really proud of that video.

Scott Woodward (01:10:42):
Yeah.

Casey Griffiths (01:10:43):
But these groups, they're primarily the twelve apostles
and their wives, and then their jobis to administer the endowment to
everybody once the temple is finished,which they do prior to the exodus.
So, that's our detective work on,you know, where the endowment comes
from, what the major sources are, andthen how it's administered in Nauvoo.

(01:11:04):
So we've got an endowment, but we'vestill got one temple ordinance we've
got to put into the docket here, right?
And that's sealing.

Scott Woodward (01:11:11):
Yes.
So next up we need to talk aboutthe development of temple sealing.

Casey Griffiths (01:11:16):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (01:11:16):
And this really reaches to the very heights
of Latter-day Saint theology.
I mean, this is the capstoneof where everything has been
going from the beginning.

Casey Griffiths (01:11:28):
Yeah.

Scott Woodward (01:11:28):
We are excited to talk about that in our next episode, and we
will look forward to seeing y'all there.

Casey Griffiths (01:11:33):
See you there.
Scout's honor.
We'll all be there.

Scott Woodward (01:11:41):
Thank you for listening to this episode of Church History Matters.
Next week Casey and I bring you a specialbonus episode of an interview we did
with our friend Lon Tibbetts, who hasserved both as an LDS ward bishop and as
a master of his Masonic Lodge in Utah.

That's right (01:11:56):
Lon is currently both a practicing Latter-day
Saint and a practicing Mason.
And so Casey and I are excited to shareour interview of Lon with you as something
of an addendum to today's episode.
You won't want to miss it.
Then the following week we willbe back to discuss the history
of marriage sealings in Nauvoo.
If you're enjoying Church HistoryMatters, we'd appreciate it if you

(01:12:18):
could take a moment to subscribe, rate,review, and comment on the podcast.
That makes us easier to find.
Also, we'd love to hear your suggestionsfor future series on this podcast.
If there's a church history topic youthink would be worth exploring for
multiple episodes, send us your ideato [e-mail].
We promise to consider all suggestions.

(01:12:38):
Today's episode was produced byScott Woodward and edited by Nick
Galieti and Scott Woodward, with shownotes and transcript by Gabe Davis.
Church History Matters is a podcastof Scripture Central, a nonprofit
which exists to help build enduringfaith in Jesus Christ by making
Latter-day Saint scripture and churchhistory accessible, comprehensible,
and defensible to people everywhere.

(01:12:59):
For more resources to enhance yourgospel study, go to scripturecentral.org,
where everything is availablefor free because of the generous
donations of people like you.
And while we try very hard to behistorically and doctrinally accurate
in what we say on this podcast, pleaseremember that all views expressed in
this and every episode are our viewsalone and do not necessarily reflect the

(01:13:19):
views of Scripture Central or The Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Thank you so much for beinga part of this with us.