Hello, there! I am a Latter-day Saint and I do have a genuine question to which I am looking for further clarification and understanding. It has to do more with doing missionary work, in terms of being able to answer more effectively people's questions concerning why Joseph Smith had to be a 33 degree Mason (and Brigham Young as well)? What I tell them is that we believe that all religions have truths and parts of the whole truth; the Masons, for example, had truths concerning the Temple, the way it should be built and some of the ceremonies that take place inside of it; so, in order to receive further knowledge on those matters, Joseph Smith joined the Free Masons and reached the highest level of their hierarchy, so he could get in touch to all the truths concerning those things that they keep only for trustworthy members of their society.
Yet, I still feel that is not all. I and many people in the world are well aware that the Free Masons are a secret society or organization that in their lodges they create conspiracies and political plots or "secret combinations" with their secret signs and oaths, as written in the Book of Mormon: “And now, my son, I command you that ye retain all their oaths, and their covenants, and their agreements in their secret abominations; yea, and all their signs and their wonders ye shall keep from this people, that they know them not, lest peradventure they should fall into darkness also and be destroyed.” (Alma 37:27); “Now behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadianton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit—Yea, that same being who did plot with Cain, that if he would murder his brother Abel it should not be known unto the world. And he did plot with Cain and his followers from that time forth” (Helaman 6:27). So, I found all that for quite disturbing, how much more people who do not belong to our faith and do not share our testimony of the truth? I think that Satan, who stands it looks like behind all religions in the world which do not have the fullness of the truth, manipulates people’s minds and beliefs by using truths which he is aware of, and twisting them and mixing them with his lies – because he is unable to create something entirely new; so, the only thing he’s left to do is to create false beliefs and religions by using the foundations of true principles and precepts; otherwise no one who consider themselves as a reasonable human being, would not be attracted by his precepts if they were entirely based on lies and false concepts: “… and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance” (2 Nephi 28:22); which confirms President Boyd K. Packer’s words: «People don't get in serious trouble in one step. I don't think anyone steps off a precipice into the depths of immorality and apostasy. They slide down the slippery sides of the chasm» (Improvement Era, May 1970, p. 7). So, what I personally believe is that the Masonic organization is a very well disguised evil order, one that pretend to support good principles and humanism in its core, even a belief in Christ himself, but in reality driven by completely different motives – “to get gain” (Mormon 8:40) and to aspire to greater power and authority over the nations as to exercise power and control over them by ways of compulsion – which is pure evil, pure Satanism. Considering all those evidences and charges against the Masons, how do we justify Joseph Smith’s membership in their “secret society” to the world, considering that the Book of Mormon itself, which he did translate, warns us of those “secret abominations” when they appear in our world (see Ether 8:22-26)? “For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations” (Ether 8:19). Thank you preliminary for your cooperation!
Additional scriptures for reference: 2 Nephi 26:20-22; Mormon 8:27; Ether 8:22-26
