Recommitment

This blog has seen far too few updates of recent. I’ve been extremely busy starting a couple small businesses, while working two other jobs, all while serving as an assistant stake clerk, a husband, and friend.

I recently stopped working on another blog, and expect to shuffle up the job situation in the near future (hopefully Heavenly Father agrees).

C S Lewis

On top of this, a friend I haven’t been in contact with for several years, asked me about a quote I used once in a lesson in church. I found it after a little searching and was surprised and intrigued to become reacquainted:

“Vice is a monster of so frightful face, as to be hated needs but to be seen; but seen too often, familiar with her face, we first endure, then tolerate, then embrace.” – Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man)

Then just the other day I ran across a related quote from C.S. Lewis:

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (The Weight of Glory)

These, combined with other things in my life have encouraged me to recommit to studying the scriptures and the gospel, not just reading talks and scriptures. For me a true study only reaches a climactic plateau when I have written about it. I take what I have learned in this round of study, organize and present it. Even if only for myself to read later, it makes the study exponentially more valuable for my personal understanding of the subject.

This recommitment should mean more activity on this blog. The 2nd half of Church as an Aaronic Priesthood Temple is long overdue, as are several other topics that have been in my head for greatly varying amounts of time, such as: children learn best through methods akin to repetitive symbolism, our bodies as symbolic temples goes much deeper than we normally think, and what is Priesthood?

I challenge anyone who reads this to make a recommitment to studying the gospel, if needed. And if your studies result in writing you think may be appropriate for this blog, please let me know. I would love to have others contribute articles, even if its only a one time thing.

The Washington Bible

Both to include something in this post other than my own repentance, as well as to make good on it, I’d like to share a little interesting part of American History, that has sacred and symbolic ties to the gospel.

My wife and I have been watching the amazing HBO mini-series John Adams,¹ based on the book by David McCullough (for which he won a second Pulitzer). This has rekindled some of my appetite for American History, which had previously waned purely from exhaustion and joy of completing my degree in history.

I was reading a fictional book that talked about something called the Washington Bible and researched it further to find out how much of it was true. Most of it was, here’s the story:

Inauguration of Washington

When General George Washington was elected the first President of the United States, he traveled from Mt. Vernon to New York City. Towns and cities all along his route were decorated and celebrated as he passed through. Upon arrival at Federal Hall on Wall Street (the nation’s capitol at that time), the ceremonies commenced. Washington was dressed in a plain brown suit and wore a ceremonial sword.² Suddenly somebody realized that in spite of all the preparations, a Bible for the first President to be sworn in on, had been overlooked.

Robert R. Livingston, Chancellor of New York, was also a Grand Master Mason.³  He knew that just down the road in the St. John’s Lodge (a meetinghouse for Masons) a Bible was sitting on the podium. Someone was sent, and the Bible was retrieved shortly before it was required. The Bible was opened to the page that contained the end of Genesis 49 and the beginning of 50. The Library of Congress website states that the Bible was randomly opened to this page, “because of haste.” However, it also names specifically Genesis 49:13 as the scripture the bible was opened to.⁴ The two facts don’t seem to agree with one another. Either way, Washington placed his hand on that page and with his right arm raised, followed Robert Livingston’s lead in the Oath of Office.

Washington Inaugural Bible

Other Presidents have since used the same Bible, including some with it open to the same page. Today, only Presidents are allowed to touch the Washington Inaugural Bible without gloves on, due to its age.

Upon completing the oath, Washington ad-libbed “So help me God” at the end, then leaned over and kissed the bible; something most Presidents have done ever since. I thought at first it was just a nice touch to solemnize and show the sincerity of his oath. However, with a little further research, it appears that this phrase and the action of kissing the bible after swearing on it, were something Washington would have learned as part of the ritual oaths of Masonry. Unfortunately most sources that describe any Masonic ritual are anti-Masonic sources, as Freemasonry keeps the specifics of their ritual sacred. However, it does appear that both ending the oath with “So help me God,” and kissing the Bible are a part of at least one Masonic oath-rite, and similar things are included in others.⁵

Statue of George Washington in the Washington Masonic Memorial, Washington, DC

Washington was reportedly pleased that it was a Masonic Bible as Mason’s are a brotherhood and not a religion. Thus it avoided the controversy of seeming to endorse any one religion by using a Bible from a particular denomination. Since that time, Masonry has had some extreme ups and downs in popularity in America. Even to the point that many were persecuted.

I find several things very interesting about this little historical tidbit:

• Joseph Smith was a Mason and probably received revelation regarding temple covenants and rituals in answer to questions that arose as the result of his participation in the local Masonic lodges/chapters of the Nauvoo area. It seems he joined for civic reasons, but almost surely questioned if these rituals had ties back to Solomon’s Temple as the Masonic teachings suggested.
• Genesis 49 is Jacob (Israel) giving Patriarchal blessings to his 12 sons shortly before he died. It takes place in Egypt, but many of the prophecies are regarding events that will take place in the Holy Land (e.g. the birth of Christ) and the new world (Joseph’s seed to “run over the wall”).
• According to Cleon Skousen, the Founding Fathers saw themselves as the intellectual  progeny of the Greek and Roman democracy and republics, but also as the literal inheritors of the traditions and representative government of the Angles and Saxons, whom they believed to be among the lost tribes of Israel.

Its really an amazing bit of symbolism when you stop and think about it. We know from scripture that Heavenly Father guided the hand of the Founding Fathers, to establish a land wherein the Church could be restored. But he doesn’t just tell us that in the scriptures. There are many symbolic connections between the establishment of the United States, and the truths of the Restored Gospel, such as:

• As the first President of US is sworn in, he uses words and action that later contribute to Joseph Smith receiving the highest and holiest orders and ordinances of the Priesthood.
• Washington also places his hand on the prophecy concerning Joseph’s “branches running over the wall.” George Washington, as well as many early Americans, and members of the church, were probably a literal fulfillment of that prophecy, as descendants of Ephraim. They were a later branch in the Americas, while Lehi and others–descendants of Manasseh–would have been earlier ones.
• The Founding Father’s use patterns and ideas from their forefathers, whom they believe to be the literal descendants of Israel, to create a country wherein the final fulfillment of Israel’s prophecies in Genesis 49-50, can begin to take shape.

When Alma says: “all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30: 44), he really means it. I believe God also puts symbolism in all things, if we just look for it. Its an operative testimony to be found and studied out, if we really “see with [our] eyes, and hear with [our] ears, and understand with [our] heart” (2 Ne. 16:10).

Here is the Washington Inauguration faithfully recreated in John Adams:

[See post to watch Flash video]