'Bat Shit' Crazy Beliefs Part Two, or More Mormon Myths

August 2009.
Our last child to be officially indoctrinated into the cult of Mormonism by baptism at age 8 was our oldest daughter. 

As a Mormon I was taught that as we live our life here on Earth, it is our responsibility, and our purpose, to discover God’s one true church. The Church that will lead us back to Him. I was taught that Joseph Smith was the restorer of God’s true path. Jesus Christ came and fulfilled His part as our redeemer by dying for our sins; but, the church he established on the Earth was lost due to corruption from within that church after Jesus died. That is why Joseph Smiths’s role as God's new prophet was so essential. He restored Christ’s true gospel back to the planet. 

John Taylor 3^rd prophet of the Mormon Church said this about Joseph Smith after he was killed, “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it….” (Doctrine and Covenants 135: 3) This quote is from the Mormon scriptures. It states exactly how most Mormons feel about this prophet/man, Joseph Smith Jr. He is just as significant as Jesus Christ, almost an equal with Jesus in the eyes of the members of this church, because he reestablished Christ's religion. 

          The loss of Jesus’ true gospel, and the restoration of it, was all a part of God’s plan of salvation/happiness for mankind. According to Mormons, Jesus lived and preached pure Mormonism at the time of His ministry 2000 years ago, but it was corrupted, and forsaken, over the years after His death on the cross by the Roman Catholic Church. That is why a restoration was needed. I grew up being programmed to believe that the Catholic Church was ‘the great and abdominal church of Satan’ because of the corruption it had brought into Christ’s original church and His teachings. The Romans changed it and great truths were lost like polygamy. It was up to Joseph Smith to restore the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ back to the Earth in the last days before Christ's second coming.

          As I've said, to Mormons, Joseph Smith Jr. is the next most important person for the salvation of mankind after Jesus Christ. I grew up convinced that this quote from Brigham Young was true. He said, “No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom (Heaven) without the consent of Joseph Smith. Every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, Junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are.” If Joseph Smith didn’t approve of my life on Earth as well as Christ, I wouldn’t get into Heaven. Joseph had that much authority and power given to him from God.          

     Both Joseph Smith Jr., his brothers, and his father, Joseph Smith Senior, were involved with occult practices. Occult simply means hidden mysteries. It is a body of science not well known to the general population, consisting of hidden knowledge relating to the workings of the human psyche and the Laws of Nature. Manly P. Hall defined the occult this way, “Occultism is the ancient science which deals with the hidden forces of nature, the laws governing them, and the means by which such forces can be brought under the control of the enlightened human mind.” Joseph’s family was deeply involved with occult practices and the occult order of the Freemasons.

          In Nauvoo, Illinois, in March, 1842, several weeks after Joseph became a Master Mason in the Freemasonic lodge, he introduced the first temple ordinances to certain special men in the church. Is that just a coincidence, or is there a significant connection between Joseph’s advancement in Masonry and the Mormon temple rituals? Some people believe Joseph actually stole parts of the Freemasons temple ceremonies for the Mormon temple ceremonies. There are many similar symbolic elements in the Mormon temple rituals that are Masonic as well.

Symbolism is universal. No single group or organization owns these symbols. These symbols are ancient and used by many other religions as well. Yet, many symbols associated with Masonry also adorn the outer Mormon temple walls for all to see, especially on the SLC temple, and the Nauvoo temple; if people have the ‘eyes of understanding’ in what they are viewing on the temple exterior, they can clearly see the connection. Symbols such as the Masonic handshake, the ‘all seeing’ eye, the sun, the moon, and the stars, the beehive, pentagrams, and inverted pentagrams are just a few of the symbols that can be seen on the external SLC temple walls, and also on the streets of downtown SLC, UT. The compass and the square are two more important symbols that both the Freemasons and the Mormons consider sacred. In fact, every faithful, ‘card carrying’, temple attending Mormon wears those symbols on their body every single day under their clothing. I’ll explain more about that symbolism in a later post which will be all about the temple and its ceremonies. 

The Mormons and the Freemasons connection is a complicated and important one. Many of the early church leaders were also Freemasons. Still today, there is a significant relationship between the Mormons and the Masons. For over 60 years, Mormons were banned from even becoming Masons in Utah because of the bad blood between them. This ban didn’t come from the Mormon church, it came from the Freemasons. In January of 2016, for the first time in nearly a century, a Mormon was elected Grand Master of the Freemasons in Utah. That is a big deal. It has only been about 25 years since Mormons were even allowed back into this fraternity in Utah. There is a Masonic temple in downtown SLC, UT as well.
The temple ordinances are the rituals Joseph supposedly restored to the Earth that were lost after Christ died. Theoretically, they are needed in order to get back to God, and into Heaven, so why are those rituals connected to the Freemasons too? Mormons have many explanations for why the Masons had these cherished rituals in the first place. Some say that the Masons kept portions of the ceremony preserved since the time of Solomon and then Joseph restored the rest of the truth to it making them whole and complete. However, these excuses don’t add up when you do the research.

      There have been many books written about this unique connection between the Mormons and the Masons. There are two books that I recommend for learning more about both sides of this issue. The first is titled Mormonism and Masonry published by the Grand Lodge F. & M. of Utah and written by S. H. Goodwin in 1929, explaining why the masons in Utah would not open their doors to any Mormon men. This, of course, was during the ban for members of the L.D.S Church. In a book written in 1934 by Anthony W. Ivins titled, The Relationship of “Mormonism” and Freemasonry, Anthony defends the connection between the Mormons and the Masons. Anthony was the first counselor, and cousin, to the prophet of the Church, Heber J Grant, at the time he wrote his book. He died before it was published; both books are available on amazon.com. It is a fascinating connection and intriguing piece of church history, definitely a worthy subject for further investigation into the occult, or hidden, associations of the Mormon Church and Freemasonry.

      The temple ordinances are the rituals Joseph supposedly restored to the Earth that were lost after Christ died. Theoretically, they are needed in order to get back to God, and into 'Mormon' Heaven. Temple ordinances are sacred, and covert, ceremonies that bind families together in this life and the next. Temple ordinances give you the secret codes of God. You need tokens, signs, and special handshakes in order to pass the angels guarding the entrance into Heaven. The only place these rituals can be learned, and performed, is on Earth in a Mormon temple. They cannot be done in the afterlife. Temple work is extremely important to the Mormons. Their lives revolve around the temple. Children are taught about it from their earliest moments in the church. Going to the temple is the ambition of every good member.

If you don’t attend the temple before you die you are basically screwed in the 'after' life. Fortunately, God has planned for that, because not everyone can be reached by the Mormon missionaries before they die. And, not everyone is ‘lucky enough’ to be born into a Mormon family. To make up for that, temple rituals can be performed on behalf of ‘the dead’ as well as the living. This is why the church is trying to build as many temples as they can throughout the world, as it is an eternal life saving experience we all must go through, or have done for us by someone else on our behalf, in order to get into Heaven, to be with our loved ones after we die, and to be with God, our Father, once again.   

When a person dies, there are only two places they can go, a sort of Heaven and a sort of Hell. These are not the final Heaven or Hell. This is a temporary holding place before Judgment Day. If the dead person is a good, worthy, Mormon, they will go to Spirit paradise, ‘Heaven’; where they will do missionary work to those in Spirit prison, ‘Hell’. That’s right, Spirit prison or Spirit paradise; those are the only two choices when you die! Spirit prison is where all the dead will go who were not active Mormons when they passed. Only worthy Mormons get to go to Spirit paradise when they die. (If you thought the missionaries on Earth were annoying, just wait until you pass away! According to Mormonism, they won’t stop trying to get you to convert even when you are departed from this life.)

Spirit prison, Hell, will be extremely crowed since the majority of people on the Earth will go there; meaning all other Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindu’s, atheists, ex-Mormons, etc. will all go to Spirit prison when they die, the saints of those religions and the sinners alike. Think about that. This means the Jews Hitler had murdered went to the same place in the afterlife as Hitler himself, and none of those Jews went into ‘Heaven’, according to Mormonism. The good news is Mormons have a ‘get out of Spirit prison’ free card for the dead, which is temple work. That is why Mormons do so much genealogy. They are trying to get their deceased relatives, who are not members of the church, or who were inactive members of the church, out of Spirit prison by doing their temple work for them. 
        The church actually got into trouble for the posthumous baptizing of those Jews killed in concentration camps. In February of 2012, the church publicly issued an apology for Jewish baptisms for the dead, admitting they were wrong to perform them. It is rare the Mormon Church apologizes for anything! Church members of color, those who were denied the priesthood for over a century just because of the color of their skin, are still awaiting their apology for the racist, bigoted actions of the L.D.S church in the past, which is an apology that is long overdue! And, I would say that the Mormon Church also owes a huge apology to the LGBTQ community for its treatment of the LGBTQ members of the church and the churches bigoted policy change regarding LGBTQ member in November of 2015. (See my post Ignorance Is Not Bliss.)

The Mormons have baptized many historical figures and famous people, righteous ones and evil ones alike. “Charlotte Haven, a non-Mormon visitor to Nauvoo, in the 1800's, wrote home about an account she witnessed of Mormons performing proxy baptisms in the Mississippi river, she wrote: ‘We followed the bank toward town, and rounding a little point covered with willows and cottonwoods, we spied quite a crowd of people, and soon perceived there was a baptism. Two elders stood knee-deep in the icy cold water and immersed one after another as fast as they could come down the bank. We soon observed that some of them went in and were plunged several times. We were told that they were baptized for the dead who had not had an opportunity of adopting the doctrines of the Latter Day Saints. So these poor mortals in ice-cold water were releasing their ancestors and relatives from purgatory! We drew a little nearer and heard several names repeated by the elders as the victims were douched, and you can imagine our surprise when the name George Washington was called. So after these fifty years he is out of purgatory and on his way to the ‘celestial’ heaven!” A Girl’s Letters From Nauvoo, December 1890, pg 630.” George Washington has been re-baptized into the L.D.S church on several different occasions!

          Once the deceased has had their entire temple work completed on Earth, they get to make a choice in Spirit prison. They can accept the work, become a Mormon, and leave Spirit prison for Spirit paradise where they too will become missionaries; or, they can reject it, and stay in Spirit prison waiting there until the second resurrection. Those in Spirit paradise are going to be resurrected at Christ’s Second Coming. They will take part in the first resurrection, or the resurrection of the just. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ will bring the start of the Millennium. This is what the Mormons are looking forward to with much anticipation!

          Joseph Smith actually inquired of the Lord to ask when the Second Coming would be. This was one of his answers, “I have asked of the Lord concerning His coming; and while asking the Lord, He gave a sign and said, ‘In the days of Noah I set a bow in the heavens as a sign and token that in any year that the bow should be seen the Lord would not come; but there should be seed time and harvest during that year: but whenever you see the bow withdrawn, it shall be a token that there shall be famine, pestilence, and great distress among the nations, and that the coming of the Messiah is not far distant.’”  ‘The bow’ is a rainbow in the sky. So, anytime you see a rainbow you can know for certain that Christ will not be coming that year according to Joseph Smith and the Mormons. 

I was consistently educated to know that only good Mormons, those who are temple worthy at the time Christ returns, will be caught up in the rapture to join Jesus in the sky. This is when the first resurrection will take place. Those in Spirit Paradise will rise up from their graves in their perfected bodies to reign on Earth with Jesus. This is why Mormon men and women are buried in their actual temple ceremony clothing. They believe they are literally going to rise out of their graves when Christ comes, so they must be dressed in their ritualistic temple cloths in order to meet Him in the clouds. The men will rise first, of course, then they will call the women they are married to, to come forth next to join the other faithful Mormons with Jesus in the firmament. (I learned that little piece of ‘the plan’ after I went through the temple.) All the rest of the citizens of the planet will burn to a crisp as the Earth is cleansed by a literal baptism by fire. It was always joked about in church, Sunday school, and in seminary that paying our tithing was in fact, ‘fire insurance’. If we paid 10% of our income to the church faithfully, meaning every single month before taxes, we are guaranteed not to burn when Christ returns. Paying tithing is something only Mormons can do. Non-Mormons cannot pay tithing to the Mormon Church. They can make contributions to missions, or other donations, but not tithing. Tithing is a privilege for members only. Paying tithing is also required in order to enter the temple, more on that in another post as well.

Those in Spirit prison will have to wait until the Millennium is over before being resurrected. That is when the second resurrection will take place. The Millennium will last 1000 years. Christ, and the Mormons, will reign over the Earth for those 1000 years. It will be a time of peace where Satan and his followers are bound, and temples will fill the Earth. Temple work will thrive giving all those trillions upon trillions of lost souls in spirit prison one more chance to repent before the final Judgment Day. 
           After the second resurrection comes the Day of Judgment. Christ, Joseph, and other high ranking Mormons will judge all Souls. They will decide where the inhabitants of this world are going to spend eternity. People can be sent to four different places for infinity. In Mormonism, there are three kingdoms of Heaven, and Outer Darkness, which is everlasting Hell. People will be positioned into one of these places with their resurrected bodies for eternity. 
      In part three, I will explain these kingdoms, the criteria for admittance into each one, and the conditions of each level of Heaven. 
The crazy has just begun.....

          Happy New Year!
          Namaste!

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