Freemasonry & The Early Nauvoo Endowment Ceremony - John Turner Pt. 29 | Ep. 2108

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.5 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 131 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome back to our Joseph Smith Podcast series with historian Dr. John Turner!

This is Episode 29, where we dive into Chapter 24, titled “Upper Rooms,” from John Turner’s new book Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet.

In this episode, we focus on Nauvoo in 1842 –a pivotal year when Freemasonry, the Relief Society, secrecy, and the earliest forms of the Nauvoo Endowment ceremony all intersect.

The central question we wrestle with is this: To what extent did Freemasonry shape Joseph Smith’s use of secrecy –and was it intended to protect his authority and reputation?

We explore the anti-Masonic climate of early America and the murder of William Morgan, why the Book of Mormon was once read as an “anti-Masonic Bible,” Joseph Smith’s embrace of Freemasonry, the founding of the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge, Parallels between Masonic rituals and the original Nauvoo Endowment, the secret oaths, handshakes, signs, tokens, and penalties, and Joseph Smith’s evolving theology around power and exaltation.

This conversation is historically grounded, candid, and essential for anyone trying to understand how Mormon temple theology developed –and why it still matters today!

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Show Notes

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Joseph Smith podcast, brought to you by Mormon Stories
0:06.0	Podcast. I'm your host, John DeLinn. It is January 21st, 2026, and we are here for part 29 in our
0:16.7	series with historian Dr. John Turner covering his important book, Joseph Smith, The Rise and Fall
0:26.1	of an American Prophet.
0:29.0	Today we are going to be covering again chapter 24 in his book.
0:35.3	We're going to be talking about the year 1842 in Navu, Illinois, with Joseph Smith.
0:41.5	The chapter is called Upper Rooms.
0:43.8	Last week we talked about the book of Abraham and the plan of salvation and theosis
0:51.0	and all sorts of innovations that spring forth from Joseph's 1842 time period
0:58.9	and his work on the book of Abraham and everything that came from it. But we left off two really
1:04.4	important parts of chapter 24 of John Turner's book. One is the introduction of Joseph Smith and many of his colleagues
1:14.4	to, or membership in the Masonic Lodge, the Freemasonry, you know, what Joseph and his
1:21.5	colleagues' experiences were in Freemasonry, in Naboo in 1842, and then how that influenced potentially the Mormon temple ceremony
1:33.0	and other aspects of life in Nabu in the 1840s.
1:38.6	And then we're also going to be talking about the formation of the Relief Society,
1:43.7	what the Mormon Church today would call the largest
1:46.7	female-led organization in the world. Some would take issue with that characterization, but it's
1:53.5	certainly, at least on the rolls, a seven, eight million plus membership of women, I may be overestimating there, of Latter-Disting
2:05.5	women throughout the world.
2:07.4	Well, it turns out this Relief Society that today is a women's organization run by
2:12.3	the Mormon Church.
2:14.3	It has its founding in Nabil, Illinois, in the 1842 time period, by Joseph Smith
	...

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