Joseph Smith, Freemasonry, The Nauvoo Temple & The Mormon God.

Hello everybody and welcome back to Esoteric Atlanta the podcast. Today's episode, Joseph Smith, Freemasonry, the Nauvoo Temple, and the birth of the Mormon God. Now, if you missed the first deep dive into the God Makers, I will place that video link down in the description box below. The God Makers again was a documentary that was made in 1982 that really exposed the depth of what Mormon theology is. And this documentary of course is very controversial uh because a lot of Mormons are very upset by it and a lot of Mormons claim that the people who created the film just made stuff up and they didn't. You know, for me, I did not grow up Mormon and I but I've been studying Mormon and Mormonism. And so, I think that when you're someone who has not grown up in a faith, sometimes it's easier to research that faith because you have no emotional attachment to the outcome. And so I had previously in my own life had researched everything that was stated as Mormon theology in the Godmakers and absolutely found that it legitimately is the beliefs of of Mormonism. It's it's it all can be found on the LDS website. However, with this cartoon, the way that I'm seeing it is the cartoon puts it out, the Godmakers like animation puts it out in a very literal way. And so when you see it all together, it it looks very ridiculous, the theology. And so I think a lot of Mormons are shocked by this and therefore that cognitive dissidence hops in. And I also think a lot of Mormons have never seen the documentary because we know that the Mormon church is big on uh controlling what people research and read, right? You know, I have my thoughts about that. And so I think they've just heard from people like not to watch the documentary and so they're repeating propaganda without actually sitting down and watching the documentary and actually doing research on all the claims that are made. I'll say this again, the truth does not have to be managed. The truth can take scrutiny. The truth can take voices of dissent. The truth does not need to be, you know, held closely with kid gloves. But a lie, a lie has to be managed because a lie cannot take criticism because any criticism towards a lie, the lie falls apart. And so if I had to say anything about the Mormon church, they are really trying hard to manage what they want people to believe about them instead of just letting things be. but they can't let things be because it's all based on a lie. And we're going to get into that with Joseph Smith today. So, with that being said, if you missed the first part of this, that video is down in the description box below. You don't necessarily have to watch them in order, but if you hear me referring to the God makers in this episode, that's what that is, and that is down below. All right, let's get into it. If you've been following this series, we've already done something very important. We went back to the God makers and asked, "Where did they get this stuff?" We didn't ask, "Do I like what they're saying?" We didn't ask, "Is this offensive?" We didn't even ask, "Are these people anti- Mormon?" We simply asked, "Where are the receipts?" And we discovered something very interesting. The Godmakers did not simply invent Mormon theology out of thin air. Its authors drew from the Mormon scripture, Mormon historical documents, statements from Mormon leaders, and published theological works, including Bruce Rakony's Mormon doctrine. But now we're going to go further back, much further back. Because if we want to understand how the ideas presented in the Godmakers developed, eventually we have to go all the way back to Joseph Smith himself. And that takes us to one very specific place, Nauvoo, Illinois, and one very specific period of time, 1841 through 1844. Because this is where several seemingly separate stories suddenly begin converging. Joseph Smith, Freemasonry, the Nauvoo Temple, the Endowment, Pural Marriage, Eternal Marriage, The Council of 50, The Book of Abraham, and finally, Joseph Smith's increasingly expansive teaching about the nature of God and the destiny of human beings. So today we're going to follow the timeline and we're going to do something that I think is absolutely essential when discussing religious history. We're going to separate what we know from what we infer because there are some things we can document. There are some things we can reasonably conclude and there are some things that people on both sides of the debate have turned into certainty when the historical records simply don't allow that level of certainty. So today, we're simply following the receipts. But before we get into it, you guys, please do us a big favor and hit that like button and subscribe if you're not subscribed. If you want to help us out, you can leave a comment down in the comment section if you don't know what to leave. You can leave us your country flag. It's always really interesting to see where everybody is listening from. You can also help us out by hitting the hype button. Also, a great big thank you to all of our patronons and our producers as well as our Substack donors and our YouTube members. Without you guys, this work would not be possible. If you would like to join any of those forums or help support the work we do here, those links are down below. All right, you guys, let's get into it. Let me show you the sky below you. So close to hell. All right, you guys. Before we get into the episode with Joseph Smith, the Freemasons and Mormonism, I just want to put out a little bit of a content warning. Again, if you are a practicing Mormon and this is something that's going to trigger you, you might not want to watch this episode. Um, feelings are not facts. And just because something hurts your feelings does not mean that we need to change the narrative or rewrite history to make you feel better. Facts are facts. As I said in the opening, the truth does not need to be managed. It doesn't need to be managed, but a lie does. And so with that being said, we're going to go through the evidence that we have on record as I did with the God makers. I'm going to be putting the evidence up on screen. That's why we're doing this in podcast form as well as providing the links down in the description box below for you. You are welcome to disagree and you are welcome to put your the reasons why you disagree in the comment section below. What you are not welcome to do is to be abusive. Um I was telling Lorine off air, you know, I I've gotten a lot of push back from mainstream Christians when I go went through the missing books of the Bible or when I talk about King James or the problems with the church. the mainstream church. Now we're getting into the LDS church and I got a lot of threats from some Christians. But I will say the Mormons that have gotten upset, it's very childish. Um they just name call and and I and I I understand. I want to say like I get it. I know the Mormon leaders don't permit you to look at voices of dissent, which is again why I say the truth doesn't need to be managed. So if your church leaders are telling you the truth, they wouldn't care if you looked at voices of dissent, the things that have to be managed are lies. Lies lies have to be managed. So if your church is telling you or any anybody listening, if you're in an organization that's telling you you cannot listen to voices of disscent, you are not in an organization that's telling the truth. The the truth has nothing to hide. The truth can take scrutiny. The truth is belligerent, right? And so, um, we welcome thoughtful debate. We welcome debate and voices of dissent that are based in evidence and facts. We don't welcome voices of dissent that are based purely in emotion. Um, because that's not that's not helpful. That's not debate. That's just slinging mud and that's you just throwing a temper tantrum because you don't like what you're hearing. But again, feelings aren't facts. The truth does not care about your feelings. And I'll give you guys an example. There was a person in the last one of the last episodes, not the reason why I made the God makers deep dive with the receipts. um they person had put in the comment section that we lost all credibility for referencing the God makers and I responded that I would love for that person to send me his or her evidence showing that the God makers is not based in Mormon doctrine because I have studied Mormonism extensively and it abs from my perspective it absolutely is. It absolutely is is based in actual Mormon doctrine. And instead of this person like responding by sending me her evidence or his evidence, they just named me. They just responded by name calling me. But I knew I knew in that moment that that person had never seen the Godmakers. I knew from the way that they posted that comment and the way they responded that they had never actually seen the God makers. And because I asked for that person to send me the evidence, point different points in the documentary that they think are false and to show me the evidence supporting their opinion. When I asked for that, that's when that person freaked out because they can't do that, right? Because they never seen it. It was obvious. So, that's what I'm talking about. That is what I'm talking about. Don't come to a debate if you don't have your homework done. Also, we had a man in the comment section that was acting like a spoiled little brat, little baby, wanting me to keep ke kept asking me to show the proof, and I kept responding, I have the proof. It's on all the videos. All the links are in the description box. I can't, as Candace Owens said in her her uh debate, I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you. You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. I've given you all the evidence that I have. I put the Godmakers. I have a whole list of the evidence of where this stuff is coming from. And guess what? All I used for the research was LDS material. I went straight to the LDS website. So everything in the Godmakers that's Mormon theology that you say isn't Mormon theology is actually on your church's website as Mormon theology. So I have provided all of that for you. I cannot come to your house, open the link for you and read it to you out loud. That's your job. I'm not your secretary. I'm not your slave. And I can't do your side of the debate for you. You have to do your side of the debate. I was telling um somebody I was like this is why Mormons never win debates. They never win debates because they don't come prepared for the debates because they're not allowed to. Their church has such a strangle hold on them and has so much control over their lives. It's unbelievable how much control the Mormon church has over their lives that they're not properly prepared. And that is why I am doing these deep deep dives with Lorraine. I find them fascinating. I find cults very fascinating. I also find the connections between Joseph Smith and Freemasonry very fascinating and the occult very fascinating. And I also want to be a place where people coming out of the Mormon brainwashing where they can come and they can see the the facts and realize that they're not crazy like that they've been gaslit, they've been controlled, you know. Um, I was telling the rain just a bit of a disclaimer before we get and I think I might have mentioned this in the past episode. I don't like any of the churches like any of I I'm not I'm a spiritual person. I'm not a religious person. And because I believe in God, that's why I don't like religion because I have a belief in God. I don't like people using God as a way to control and manipulate others. I don't like it when people use God as a weapon. That's not cool. And so that's why I don't like religion in general. But I will say, and this is why Loren and I are going to do an episode comparing and contrasting bib the biblical story of Jesus versus the Mormon story of Jesus because I have noticed in my year and I I've been studying Mormonism since before you before I even knew I was going to have a YouTube channel because I found it very fascinating. I have found that a lot of ex Mormons when they come out of the Mormon church, I think Lorraine and a few a few of you guys might be like the exceptions to this rule, typically end up in like a Protestant Christian church. And I was telling Lorraine again, I might have said this on a show with you guys too. Even though I don't like the church, the Protestant churches, I feel like the Protestant churches in this case because two things can be true, right? Two things can be true in this case. I think the Protestant churches offer ex Mormons a safe place to land because they already know the Bible. They already well, they kind of know the Bible. Um, we're going to get into that, but Protestant churches specifically give the Mormons a safe place to land where they can rewire their brains um around the idea of God. That God is not a man. God doesn't live on a planet called collob. Um that God doesn't have wives that are constantly being pregnant impregnated. They can kind of let go of that and understand that God is a consciousness that's unconditional love. they can reacquaint themselves with the biblical teachings of Jesus, which the biblical teachings of Jesus do 100% conflict with the Mormon teachings of Jesus. Why? As I said in the first video, because according to mainstream Christian theology, Jesus was the Messiah. He came to to to to do a covenant with the world. And what was that covenant according to Christian theology? That covenant was that no longer would you have to do the occultlike rituals that are done in the Old Testament. So no more sacrifices, no more temple rituals, none of that stuff. Also, also part of that covenant was that you little old you as just an individual human being have the right to speak to God by yourself. So in that covenant, there's no more prophets. There's no more prophets. That doesn't happen anymore according to the New Testament teachings of Jesus. Why? Because you have a direct access to God. You don't have to go to an intermediary. This is why the Protestant Reformation happened because before the Protestant Reformation a lot of you know peasant class normal hardworking people couldn't read and certainly couldn't read Latin and so they didn't understand that what the Catholic Church itself was doing was not with the pope and with other ritual stuff was not actually in accordance to what Jesus taught. And when the mass majority of people started learning how to read and Bibles were being translated into English and other languages, we have people like Martin Luther that wanted to simply just reform the Catholic Church because um hello, there should no be no pope, you know, and so this is like that was the first step was the Protestant Reformation. Well, what the Mormons have done is they've kind of gone back to Catholicism in a lot of ways. And I know Mormons don't like Catholics and you probably don't like hearing that. But beside the Catholic Church, the Mormons are really one of the only bigger Christian denominations that believe God speaks to like the intermediary. Like Catholics believe God that pope is, you know, the Pope is God's representative on earth and that Mormons believe that God speaks to the living prophet of the church. That goes against the New Testament teachings of Jesus according to the Bible. And so I think in saying that I think that the Protestant churches for ex Mormons give them like a middle ground to land in to have support to let go of the PTSD of being a Mormon and understand that everything in Mormonism, you know, Joseph Smith in my this is just my opinion. Joseph Smith made a lot of it up. Like it's pretty like when I was reading in the last episode, I was laughing. This is kind of some behind thescenes stuff before we get into um um the Freemason stuff. I was reading uh DNC32 to you guys in in the last episode. You can listen to it when I was reading it out loud and doing my voice over. In the back of my head, I was like, "This is such a lie." Like, I don't know how people read this and think that this is like the word of God. I'm reading this right now and I'm like, "This is Joseph Smith being manipulative." And what I was telling Lorraine that makes me so sad is like for Mormons, especially the original Mormons, you know, a lot of Mormons now are born into it and they're just grandfathered into it and that's a different story compared to those that chose to follow it. So you're telling me that for all these centuries in in Christianity, especially with the Protestant Reformation and Protestant churches becoming really big, all these Christians had this peace of mind knowing that their works alone would not put them in get them into heaven and that they were saved by the grace of God. They were saved by Jesus's anointing, you know. So it's all good. Just be live a good life, be a good person, do but you're going to heaven if you believe. there's nothing you can do to get you to heaven. It's through Jesus. That's what they believe. So, they're living their lives, generations thinking this. And then Joseph, this son of a Joseph Smith, comes around and goes, "Guess what? Verily, I say unto you, psych. Psych. No, that's not what gets you into heaven." Because reading reading Mormonism literature, as someone who did not grow up Mormon, what it says to me is that they're putting Joseph Smith higher than Jesus. And Joseph Smith himself in his own writings, it reads, it clocks that he thinks himself higher than Jesus. And not only that, but when you read DNC 132, he's not only like, "Verily, I say unto you, psych, you can't get into heaven just by believing in Jesus, but you also have to be my concubine, too." What? Like reading that, I I wanted to throw up reading DNC 132. And I'm like, how do people believe that this is actual this is actually from God? God is a loving God. God is an unconditionally loving God. God loves men and women equally equally. So why in the world would a loving God make women concubines, aka plural wives? But rest assured, my friends, if you go and read DNC 132, he uses the word concubine. I'm not making that up. go back and reread it. This man was obviously now in my opinion, I also have read from Brody's uh No Man Knows My History, which is inc an incredibly uh incredibly um tell all about the deep dark world of the Smith family and their occultism and their necromancy and all that kind of stuff. I mean, literally in one part of No Man Knows My History, I'm paraphrasing, but the the pastor in the town went to Joseph and was like, "If you if you if you if you pull up one more body, if you if you if you take one more body from this cemetery, I swear to God, you know, like it's it's it's kind of comical looking back. I'm sure it wasn't funny then, but everybody knew in the area that Joseph Smith was not not someone you wanted to mess with, that he was a very dark person." and did a lot of very dark magic and folklore and all that kind of stuff. And so in saying that, you know, I get it for people who are like grandfathered into it, but for people who are just looking at this now, like look at Joseph Smith's writings with fresh eyes, like this is a con artist. It reads DNC 132 reads like a man who's a spoiled ass brat and is trying to manipulate his wife so that he can have mistresses. And I don't blame the women. I want to be very clear in this time period in history. I don't blame the women. The women didn't have much of a choice, especially the underageed women. So, it's not their fault. Let's leave them alone. It's the fault solely lies on Joseph. All right. Two, we're going to get into before we get into this too, we're going to get into um the history and the receipts of Joseph Smith and Freemasonry. And I want to make this disclaimer before we get into it. the receipts, the script that I have that I have done with the receipts is going to be probably a little bit more neutral than I actually believe or that many of you believe. And this is for a reason because we do have a lot of ex Mormons in here. And so for this first episode with Joseph Smith and Freemasons, I'm going to try to be as neutral as possible. You're going to see all the evidence that I'm working with on the screen. Those links will be down below. And then I'm hoping Loren and I can do a follow-up episode where we share our own opinions and where Loren can go even deeper into cuz she studied a lot about Freemasonry and Joseph Smith because she's an ex- Mormon. She grew up Mormon. Um she is from the Sacred Secret Society. Her links will also be down in the description box below so you can go watch her channel too. She's a whistleblower. Um, and so I just want to make that very clear that I believe that I I believe it's very weird that the history tells us that Joseph became a Mason beginner level and then like a few days later he was already like a 33rd degree master mason. That doesn't happen. Even though that's what the history tells us happened, we know that that's not that's not what happens in Freemasonry. So, I believe just to get my opinion out there first so people can calm down when they see me being more neutral in the episode. I believe that um that he had been doing a cultism. I don't know if he was actually in the Freemasons before he signed up, but I think he had been working with Freemasons in the past. I think he was a very masterful warlock and I think that it was part of a bigger picture of what was going on of mind control uh from the beast system, the establishment, the aluma, whatever you want to call them. Um, and so I think that's why he got uh initiated all the way up to 33 within like a day. Uh, because I think they already knew that he knew the wonderful ways of warlocking for Satan basically. And so I want to make that very clear. So, when we go get into the receipts, if you feel like I'm being a little bit too easy on Joseph, please understand the reason why I'm doing that is because we have a lot of Mormons who are kind of teetering on the edge of leaving and I don't want to overwhelm them too much. Okay? So, just have some cap compassion with this episode. Again, the next episode with Lorine, we'll go a little bit deeper. But for this episode, we're going to just put it out very basically in a very neutral way um and with the evidence so that people can start that unraveling of of their mind. So anyway, um again, please be nice in the comment section. Please, if you if you're triggered, if you're triggered by anything that's said, that's a you problem. That's not a me problem. That's not anybody else in the comment section, that's not their problem. That's a you problem, darling. If you're triggered, that's on you. It's not on the people saying what's triggering you. Okay? We need to be able to have hard conversations. If we want to be free, if we want to be a free society, we have to be able to have free uh u we have to be able to have hard conversations. Okay? So, I want to also make that this very clear too. Just because someone is not a Mormon or is not Christian does not believe I mean does not mean that they don't believe in God. Okay. So a lot of people for the ex Mormons that are doing these shows I can speak for myself in this. I absolutely believe in God. I have a really strong faith in God even though I don't have a religion. And I it it breaks my heart when I see people so manipulated and so abused. And no one I mean the the Mormon I mean I shouldn't say no one but like the Mormons have been abused more than anybody in you know besides like kids born into like trafficking but you know as far as like a typical American family the Mormons are heavily abused by their church heavily abused. Um and it takes sometimes leaving the abuser to see how much you were abused. And that's why I do this. That's why Lorine speaks out is for those people. Because believe it or not, to all the Mormons that want to name call me, that want to try to shut my channel down, who don't want to look at the truth, believe it or not, Lorraine and I are doing this because we care about you and we want you to be free and we don't want you abused anymore. So, with that being said, again, if you can't handle listening to this stuff, then don't listen to it. Don't listen to it. If you disagree with what we're saying, that's totally fine. Give us the evidence. Give us the evidence. We're giving you evidence of why what we believe is what we believe. You need to get do you need to respect us enough. We respect you enough to give you evidence. We respect your humanity enough to show you the evidence. So, you need to respect our humanity enough to show us the evidence as well. Also, just one side note for the Mormons who throw temper tantrums in the comment section. Just have a little think for a second. If you're trying to attract people to your church, do you think your behavior in my comment section is attracting people? No. When you're name calling people because they disagree with something, it pushes people even further away. So, if you disagree with me and you want to attract people to your church, then be respectful in the comment section. Show the evidence of why you don't agree with us. Respect other people's humanity. Respect other It's very simple. It's very simple. Respect other people's humanity. All right. With that being said, let's go ahead and get into it. So, the first thing we're going to discuss is Joseph becoming a Freemason. So, this takes place between March 15th and March 16th of 1842. Now, let's establish something that is not controversial, okay? Joseph Smith really did become a Freemason. This isn't an anti- Mormon claim. This is not speculation. We have the Masonic records. The Joseph Smith papers document that on March 15th of 1842, Joseph Smith was initiated into the Nauvoo Lodge as an entered apprentice. Okay, a beginner. This is what I spoke about earlier. The following day he was passed as a fellowcraft and raised as a master mason. And yes, as we've already established, that's extraordinarily fast. The normal progression between degrees was not supposed to happen like this. So what happened was the Illinois Grandmaster had authorized the Nauvoo Lodge to confer the three degrees upon Joseph and Sydney Rigdon as quickly as the circumstances would allow. Why? Why did he do that? That's the big question. Why? There we can only speculate, which Lorraine and I will speculate in another video. I've already given you a little bit of my opinion. But why did he do that? Why did the Grandmaster of Illinois authorize the Nauvoo Lodge to basically bump Joseph Smith and Sydney Riggden from beginners all the way up to master Mason 33rd degree level? That usually takes years if not decades to get to for Masons. Some Masons never get there. So why why did he do that? And it's not a speculation because they actually the Masons record everything. And the Joseph Smith papers actually have the Masonic minutes and they recorded that Joseph Smith received the degrees. So it is confirmed. This is a this is not this is not an opinion. Joseph Smith did in fact become a master mason in March of 1842. And because this is speculation, this is where we need to kind of slow down a little bit because the historical record does not give us a simple statement from Joseph Smith saying, "I joined Freemasonry because I wanted to copy the Masonic rituals into my temples." We don't actually have that. We don't have any clarification from Joseph Smith himself. But we what we do have is a historic timeline. And again, that timeline is very fascinating. So let's go through that timeline quickly. again. March 15th, Joseph becomes a baby mason. He enters as an apprentice. The very next day, March 16th, he gets bumped all the way up to Master Mason. And then on March 17th, the day after that, the Female Relief Society is organized in the same general space above Joseph's store. And then a few weeks later on March 4th, Joseph introduces the Nauvoo Endowment. That's less than 2 months later. The dates are not speculation. Okay? They're not speculation. They're historical records. But again, the question is, what is the relationship between those events? And what does that relationship actually mean? So here's another detail that is really interesting. So where was Joseph Smith initiated into masonry? Where did he get initiated, my friends? He got initiated above his store. And where did the first Nauvoo endowment take place? Above his store. The church's own history explains that on May 3rd of 1842, Joseph had the upper room of the red brick store prepared to represent the interior of a temple as much as circumstances permitted. The next day on May 4th, he administered the endowment to nine men. And that room had also been used by the Nauvoo Masons. So, there's a business deal going on here between Joseph Smith and the Masons as well. And if anybody knows anything about temples and masonry, especially the occult, especially things that are really heavily witchy, the temples are set up in a particular way. Think about church steeples, right? Church steeples are there for a reason. It's energy. It's an antenna up, right? That's there for a reason. Everything is is is there. It's not the temple itself is part of the spellcasting. It's part of it. So, how would somebody if Joseph Smith had never been involved in the occult, had never been involved in witchcraft or any of that ritualistic ritualistic stuff, and he got bumped up 33° in a 24-hour span, would he know enough to set up a temple? No. So this is to me other evidence that he got bumped to 33 quickly because he had already been doing this stuff. He was already well-versed in black magic and witchcraft. And so that is why I think the the grandmaster of Illinois knew that about the Smith family and knew that at that point Joseph could be an asset to the overall agenda of the Masons. And so he went ahead and gave him the the degrees so that he can go off and be even more powerful. So I hope that makes sense. So the fact that the Nauvoo that his store the room in Nauvoo where the ma the masons met where he set up a temple the fact that he even knew how to set that temple up that's very telling in my opinion. The church's historical essays on masonry acknowledged this directly. Joseph repaired the state where the Nauvoo Masons met and on May 4th he introduced the endowment to nine men all of whom were also Masons. Think about that for a moment. We're not talking about a ritual appearing decades later. We're talking about masonry. Joseph Smith, same building, same room, and boom, an endowment. That's historical. What isn't automatically historical is the conclusion we can draw from it. Again, we can only speculate. So, once again, on May 4th of 1842, Joseph introduced the Nauvoo Endowment. And this is one of the most important dates in this entire story. The church's own history says that Joseph administered the first endowment to nine men. The temple itself was not finished. So, Joseph once again used the upper room of his store. The ceremony included washing and anointings and instructions connected to priesthood and temple worship. And here's where our investigation gets really, really interesting. Because there had already been temple related rituals in Mormonism. Ding, ding, ding. This wasn't simply Joseph becomes a mason and suddenly invents the temple. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's too simplistic. The Kirkland temple had already included washing and anointings in in the 1830s. The church itself describes the Nauvoo Endowment as expanding upon those earlier Kirkland practices. So the development is more accurately understood as a process. But then something happens. The Nauvoo version becomes considerably more elaborate and some of its rituals bear striking similarities to contemporary Freemasonry. So important question. Did Joseph Smith copy Freemasonry? And this is probably the question everybody wants answered directly. Did Joseph Smith steal the temple ceremonies from Masons? And here's my answer. The historical evidence is more complicated than either side usually wants to admit. There are genuine similarities, and the Mormon historians themselves have acknowledged him. The church's own historical essays on masonry say the saints who experienced both ceremonies recognize similarities between some elements of masonry and the endowment. A scholarly history of the endowment by David John Berger makes a very important distinction. The endowment cannot reasonably be explained as a wholesale paste and copy borrowing from masonry. But it also cannot reasonably be explained as completely unrelated to masonry. This middle position is extremely important and I think that is where the evidence takes us and I think that that middle position is what actually opens us up to a deeper longer rabbit hole. And before we keep going, guys, just a brief word from one of our sponsors. And today we're going to be talking about our YouTube memberships. So, if you're not in our memberships, season 2, we're in season 2 right now, which we are talking about Blackeyed Kids, which are my They're so scary, the Black Eyed Kids, but so fascinating. Season 1, we did Bloodlines of the Gods. Season two, we're doing Blackeyed Kids. And so if you like spooky wooky stuff and things that defy science, then you would love what we're doing on YouTube members. Here is a brief advertisement and then we'll get back into the show. What if the stories you've heard weren't just stories? This season, Esoteric Atlanta Memberships takes you deep into one of the internet's most chilling mysteries, the Blackeyed Kids. Are they urban legends, psychological phenomenon, something paranormal, or something else entirely? Join us as we examine eyewitness accounts, medical theories, folklore, sleep paralysis, psychology, and the unsettling patterns that continue to emerge decades after the first report. We'll separate fact from fiction, explore the evidence, and ask the question most people are too afraid to ask. With exclusive investigations, extended discussions, expert analysis, and membersonly content, season 2 goes far beyond what we can really share publicly. If you love mysteries, folklore, unexplained phenomenon, and of course, critical thinking, this is your invitation. Become a member of Esoteric Atlanta today. Unlock season 2 and step into the investigation. But be warned, the next knock at your door might not be just your imagination. We'd love to have you around the campfire as we discuss these horrifying stories. If you want to join us around the campfire and talk about the blackeyed kids, you can hit the join button below. So now, let's talk about the Masonic fingerprints on Mormonism. We have masonry, what is called endowment in Mormonism. We have the signs, the tokens, the hand grips, the passwords, the apron, the ritual drama, the prayer circle, and the secret knowledge. Now, I want to recognize here that I understand that some of the temple ceremonies are sacred to practicing Latter-day Saints, and I know that modern versions have changed over time. We are not going to reproduce sacred ritual language here. Um, first of all, I've never done a ritual in the temple, nor am I a Freemason, so I would not be doing it justice, but when we do talk to Lorine, we can maybe talk a little bit more about what the reproduction would look like of these sacred rituals, but we're not going to do that today in this episode. We're basically looking at historical structure and documented parallels. And this again is where evidence becomes really fascinating. Scholars have identified similarities between Masonic ritual and the Nauvoo endowment, particularly involving tokens, signs, and penalties. David Dunberger's historical study describes these as especially strong parallels. So, let's put that in our receipt pile. So, the receipt is that they're very similar. But now we have to ask, does similarity prove plagiarism? Well, not necessarily because rituals can share symbolism without one being a direct copy of the other. But the bigger question is why did Joseph Smith incorporate these particular forms into a religious ceremony immediately after becoming a master mason? We cannot forget that. Even though we can acknowledge that similarities are not plagiarism and that rituals can be very similar, it is still super weird, super weird that these particular ceremonies were brought in immediately after Joseph Smith is anointed as a master mason. And unfortunately, as we already said earlier, the historical record does not give us a neat little confession. So, we have to keep investigating. Joseph Smith and other Latter-day Saints knew there were similarities. They didn't necessarily deny them. The church's historical accounts quote Hebrew C. Kimell describing the experience as involving a similarity of priesthood in masonry. So here's where they start to gaslight in my opinion because this is what Kimell said. He see Kimble. He said that Joseph's view was that masonry had originated from a Christian priesthood but had become corrupt or degenerated. If you've ever been in a relationship with a narcissist, that is absolutely what that is saying. So he is saying basically my friends that he believes that Joseph thought that Freemasonry itself started off as like a Christian priesthood good thing and then it had gotten corrupted. And so, yeah, there's similarities, duh, because Joseph is now going to clean it up and bring it back to the original rituals that were done before masonry was corrupted. Now, here's a funny little thing, right? A little nuance for me because two things can be true. Um we know through studying other cases that Freemasonry did start off as a good thing and got corrupted by um you know that German family we'll say in the late 18th century. All right. But that doesn't mean but just because we know Freemasonry started off maybe as a good thing and got corrupted does not mean that it was ever founded in like a priesthood of a church again. Because this is where Mormons where the loot or this is where the Mormon the Mormons being uneducated in the Bible gets them. This is where it bites them in the ass. Because once again in Protestant circles there is no priesthood because Protestants use the Bible as the definitive word of the religion. And Jesus part of his whole shtick was not having to do that anymore. Like that's kind of that's where Mormonism is hypocritical and where Mormonism talks out of both sides of its mouth because yes, the Freemasons could have started off as a good thing, but no, they absolutely didn't start off as a priesthood Christian thing because Christians who know the Bible know there ain't no priesthood anymore. Like Jesus did away with that. So anyway, just an interesting little thing there. That's not so Jo Joseph's opinion is is inaccurate. And I don't actually, to be honest with you guys, in my opinion, I I'm speculating here. I don't think that was actually Joseph's opinion. I think that's what Joseph just said to people in order to trick them into doing these these spells, these, you know, not not every spell is bad. Not every a cult just means hidden. Not everything we do, you know, is is bad when it comes to ritualistic stuff. Is it bad, though, in Mormonism? Absolutely it is. It is in masonry. Absolutely it is. But I think what what that tells me is that back in Joseph's time, there was probably a lot of voices of dissent. There were probably a lot of people going, hold on, shut the front door. What the are we doing? Like, you know, slap my ass and call me happy. This is not I don't think this is good. and Joseph realizing that people were clocking that this was actually black magic. You can't have a church, you can't have a massive spellcasting if you don't have people's energy to do it. So he can't Mormonism can't exist with nine people. They have to have a congregation. Right? If anything we have learned from deep diving into the roots of Christianity before the Protestant Reformation, we talked about Mithraism where there were their temples under old Christian Catholic churches where people would be up in the sanctuary praying and doing their thing while down below in the basement below them the real practitioners were pull harnessing that energy to do a blood ritual. Joseph knew this like this is not rock. I know this and I don't practice black magic and I know this, right? He needed all of the people. He needed the lay people. They couldn't do it with just nine people. Whatever it is, whatever antichrist they were trying to do, they couldn't do it with nine people. So, my opinion just off of what Heber Cimell has said, my critical thinking skills is people were clocking it. They were clocking that what Joseph was doing was bad. I think some of the people, some of the congregational members had an oh moment when he started to introduce these quote unquote endowments. And I think Joseph spun it to trick them, to gaslight them into staying. And that is why I've said over and over and over and over again, even though I think Mormonism is dumb, I think it's obviously not accurate, I don't think Mormons are dumb at all. I don't think they are. I think Mormons are very intelligent people. Cults don't don't want dumb people. Cults want intelligent people. You can't spellcast with a dumb person. You need a very thoughtful and a very intentional person to be able to harness their energy. So for the Mormons who especially the ex- Mormons listening to this, I don't think your ancestors were dumb at all. I think that they were tricked and I think they were targeted specifically because they were smart, because they were capable. Hell, they pioneered the whole western part of the United States. That takes some really tough tough people. So in me saying that that I think Mormonism is stupid doesn't mean that I think Mormons are stupid. I think that back in the 1800s we didn't know really about narcissism. People did not know about neuroscience and how the brain works or how the nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system works and how fightlight fawn or freeze happens. They didn't understand mind scrambling back then. But just because they didn't understand it did not mean it wasn't happening. Just because people weren't diagnosed as nar with narcissistic personality disorder doesn't mean there weren't narcissist. I think Joseph Smith absolutely I think Joseph Smith was a narcissist and I think Brigham Young was a psychopath. Um, and so narcissists are going to narcissist. And I think that Joseph Smith relied on people's maybe lack of knowledge from the Bible and he was able to mind scramble them to trick them into performing something through coercion that they didn't necessarily want to do. And again, we see this obviously in my opinion from Heers. Kimell's view of why Joseph brought masonry into the church. So let's read that again. again there wouldn't there would not be a need for hec Kimell to even say this if people weren't questioning right if people weren't questioning Joseph there would be no need for this to be written down okay so let's talk about that again the church the church's historical account quotes Hebrew CMell describing the experience as involving a similarity of priesthood and masonry Kimell also recorded Joseph's view that masonry had originated from priesthood but had become become corrupted or degenerated. In other words, the Mormon explanation wasn't necessarily there are no similarities. It was more like masonry preserved fragments of something older. That's a very different argument again and it matters because it gives us insight into how Joseph and his followers could have understood that relationship. So again, Joseph didn't necessarily say, "I'm copying this." He could have said instead, "This contains remnants of something ancient, and I'm restoring the authentic version." Now, here is where the story gets a little bit bigger. Because the Nauvoo Temple wasn't simply a construction project. It became the center of a development system of priesthood authority, endowment, sealing, eternal marriage, plural marriage, exaltation, and eventually theos or becoming like God. And this is where our title starts to make more sense because we're no longer talking just about what does Mormonism believe about God. were asking how did Joseph Smith's concepts of God and humanity develop into a system in which humans could ultimately become like God. And now we get into one of the biggest receipts of them all, the book of Abraham. So in 1842, Joseph Smith publishes the book of Abraham. And this is important because the book of Abraham becomes a part of a theological environment in which Joseph's Navahoo teachings developed. It contains material concerning premortal existence, a heavenly council, creation, and the organization of the earth. The timing matters because the book of Abraham was published in Nauvoo in March of 1842. That is the exact same month again, my friends, that Joseph became a master mason. And two months later, Joseph introduces again the Nauvoo Endowment. Now, I'm not saying Freemasonry calls the book of Abraham. That would be historically irresponsible. What I'm saying is these theological developments are happening in the same extraordinarily compressed period. And that's why timelines matter. Now remember what we talked about in the previous episode. The premortal world, spirit children, heavenly parents, Jesus, Lucifer, the council, the creation, the purpose of mortality. These aren't inventions of the God makers. They exist within Mormon scripture and theology. The current church's own gospel topics materials describes premortal existence in a council in heaven in which heavenly father's plan was presented with Jesus identified as the firstborn and Lucifer as another spirit son who rebelled. So when the cartoon in the God maker depicts a premortal council, we can say receipts confirmed. The question becomes how does this cosmology eventually lead to a godhead? And this is where Joseph Smith's later Nauvoo teachings become very critical. Now we have to bring up another piece onto this table because the Nauvoo period wasn't only about temple ritual. It was also the period in which Joseph Smith's practice and theology of plural marriage became increasingly developed. In the Joseph Smith papers notes evidence that Smith had become involved in a plural marriage before Nauvoo, but that the practice expanded significantly during the Nauvoo period. By the summer of 1843, historical evidence indicates he had entered into numerous plural unions. And on July 12th of 1843, Joseph dictated what would become the very disgusting and vile documents and covenants 132. This revelation dealt with eternal marriage, sealing authority, and of course plural marriage. And this becomes incredibly important for the laral theological picture because exaltation isn't merely you go to heaven. The system becomes increasingly concerned with eternal relationships, eternal families, ceilings, priesthood authority, and ultimately eternal progression. And now we arrive at the statement that changes everything. This happened on April 7th of 1844 in Nauvoo. This is the King Follet discourse. Joseph Smith is speaking at a general conference following the death of King Folet. And according to the historical records of the sermon, Joseph teaches something radically different from traditional Christian theology about the relationship between God and humanity. The church's own historical account says Joseph challenged the long-standing theological tradition that treated God as wholly different from humanity. And it records Joseph teaching that God was once as one of us. Now stop for a second, take a deep breath because this is the point where the God makers gets its title. The documentary wasn't inventing the concept that humans could become gods out of nowhere. It was taking an actual Mormon theological concept and putting it into an evangelical Christian framework. But Joseph Smith teachings go even further. According to the church's historical account, he taught that human spirits were capable of enlargement and could become like God in eternity. And that is the theological bridge. God was once like us. So therefore, humans can become like God. That is the basic conceptual structure behind the later document of exaltation. And just as a side note, my friends, for those who have studied Satanism, Satanists believe the exact same thing. They believe the exact same thing. Just putting that out there. Now, can we finally understand what the filmmakers were reacting to? Traditional Christianity, mainstream Christianity, generally begins with an enormous distinction between creator and creation. God is God. Human beings are creatures. Mormon theology developed a radically different cosmology. God and humanity exist within a much more expansive story of eternal progression. The LDS church today teaches that human beings are spirit children of heavenly parents and that the purpose of mortal life includes progression towards becoming like heavenly father. So when the godmakers are saying Mormons believe they can become gods, there is a real theological basis underneath that statement. So let's go ahead and review everything we've put out so far with our receipts. Receipt number one, Joseph Smith became a Freemason. That's documented. Receipt number two, he became a master mason extremely rapidly. That is documented. Receipt number three, the Nauvoo Endowment was introduced less than 2 months later. Yes, that is documented. Receipt number four, the first endowment was performed in Joseph's Red Brick Store. Documented. Receipt number five, that space was also used by the Masonic Lodge. Absolutely documented. Receipt number six, the endowment contains ritual elements that resembled contemporary masonry. Yep, that is documented. Receipt number seven, Joseph and early Latter-day Saints acknowledged similarities. Yes, documented. Receipt number eight, Joseph taught eternal progression and expansive concept of human divinity potential. Yep, that is absolutely documented. Receipt number nine. The King Falllet discourse contains teachings about God's relationship to humanity that differ sharply from traditional Christian theology. Documented receipt number 10. The Nauvoo period saw the development of temple ordinances, eternal marriages, plural marriages, and increasingly elaborate teachings about exaltation documented. So, I think we've been asking the wrong questions all along. Instead of asking did Joseph Smith copy Freemasonry, perhaps the better historical question is, what did Joseph Smith do with the religious and cultural material available to him? Because that's a more interesting question and I believe that there was way more quote unquote religious material available to him than we even know. Joseph Smith lived in 19th century America. He encountered Christianity, biblical restoration, revivalism, Freemasonry, ancient history, biblical temple traditions, apocalyptism, Hebrew and Egyptian ideas as they were understood in his time. And he claimed revelations. And during Nauvoo, these streams seem to converge into something increasingly elaborate. That's why the timeline matters. Think of Nauvoo as a theological laboratory. Ideas that had existed in pieces began coming together. Priesthoods, temples, ceilings, endowments, eternal marriages, plural marriages, premortal existences, eternal progression, human divinity potential, and eventually God himself becoming part of the progression story. And that's why I don't think it's enough to watch the God makers and simply say that's just anti- Mormon propaganda because it's not. And how do we know it's not? Because we go back and we look. And this brings us back full circle because remember where we started the God makers and then Bruce R. Makoni's Mormon do manki's Mormon doctrine became one of the major publications of theological resources cited by Decker and Hunt. And every receipt that we followed in these last two videos makes the source trail we're following legit. And that is just way more interesting than simply calling somebody a liar because you don't like the facts. So again, let's just make this very clear. Joseph Smith became a Freemason. That's a fact. Joseph Smith was raised to master mason in March of 1842. Again, fact. He introduced the Nauvoo Endowment of May of 1842. Again, fact. The first endowment occurred in the same building where Masons met. Fact. There are substantial similarities between some Masonic ritual forms and the Nauvoo Endowment. Again, fact. Joseph and other Latter-day Saints recognized similarities. Fact. Joseph developed teachings about eternal progression and human divine potential. Fact. His 1844 King Flet discourse taught a concept of God that differs substantially from traditional Christian theology. Fact. But we cannot say that Joseph Smith copied everything from Freemasonry. That's the interpretation. Nor can we say Freemasonry had absolutely nothing to do with the development of the Navahoo Endowment. The evidence does not support that either. And that is precisely why we're doing the series because history is often more interesting than propaganda from either side. The God makers filmmakers wanted you to see Mormonism as a secret system hiding behind the public face of Christianity. Mormon apologists want you to understand the temple as a divinely restored system that may contain similarities to older traditions but ultimately come from revelation. And historians like us have to sit in the uncomfortable space between those two narratives because the evidence tells us something neither extreme fully captures. Joseph Smith's Nauvoo theology was developing rapidly. New rituals were being introduced. New doctrines were being articulated. New ideas about priesthood authority were emerging. New ideas about eternal marriage and the ceilings were developing. Plural marriages were being practiced. The temple endowment was being introduced. And Joseph Smith was teaching an increasingly expansive concept of what human beings could ultimately become. Then in 1844, he stood before his followers and taught about the nature of God and humanity in terms that would become fundamental to later LDS theology. And suddenly the title the Godmakers doesn't seem quite as mysterious because the phrase was responding to a very real Mormon theological claim that human beings have the potential to become like God. The controversy isn't whether the concept exists. The controversy is what does it mean? Where did it come from? How did it develop? And what happened after Joseph Smith died? And that's where we're going next. Because now we've traced the story of Joseph Smith to Freemasonry to the Nauvoo Temple to the endowment to eternal marriage to plural marriage to eternal progression and finally to Joseph Smith's teaching about God. But there is one giant piece of the puzzle we haven't examined closely enough. The Nauvoo Endowment itself. Not the modern ceremony. Not what someone says happened. Not what an anti- Mormon documentary says happened, not what an apologist says happened. I want to go back to the earliest historical evidence we have and examine the development of the ceremony itself. What was actually introduced in 1842? What existed before Joseph became a mason? What appeared after his initiation? What elements can be documented? What changed over time? and what did early Latter-day Saints themselves say about it? Because if we're going to answer the question, did Joseph Smith borrow from Freemasonry? We need to actually examine the evidence. And that's exactly what we're going to do. So, next time we're going to go inside the Nauvoo Endowment, line by line, receipt by receipt, source by source, because we're not asking you to believe us. We're asking you to look at the evidence and follow the receipts.