Elder Nuttal's Journal vs. Lecture at the Vail

I'd like to compare some things from these two texts, as well as throw in a little commentary of my own observations.  I dare use HTML "table formatting" in a blog post, hopefully it works alright.   I've tried to bold phrases and words to illustrate correlations in the left and right side:

Text from the Pre-1990 Lecture at the Vail: [Preface to Lecture] PETER: A lecture will now be given which summarizes the instructions, ordinances, and covenants, and also the tokens, with their keywords, signs, and penalties, pertaining to the endowment, which you have thus far received.	Text from Elder Nuttal's Journal, and my own Commentary in Italics. It is important to realize the Masonic literary traits present in this preface. The Entered Apprentice Degree has a concluding lecture that begins with a "recapitulation of the ceremonies through which you have just passed" and explains "why you were caused to submit to the various ceremonies of your initiation." It also explains "what constitutes a Lodge, its form, supports, covering, furniture, ornaments, lights, jewels; how situated, and to whom dedicated," This first paragraph appears to be essentially someone's recollection of how the Entered Apprentice Lecture started, with the content of the Endowment ceremony applied to it. The reason I point this out, is that such Masonic language was common to Brigham Young's sermons, and it is therefore very likely that the recapitulation section of the modern lecture originated with Brigham in spite of it not being present in the journal.
Introduction LECTURER: Brethren and sisters, the ordinances of the endowment as here administered, long withheld from the children of men, pertain to the dispensation of the fullness of time and have been revealed to prepare the people for exaltation in the celestial kingdom, where God and Christ dwell. The deep meaning of the eternal truths constituting the endowment has been set forth in brief instructions and by symbolic representation. If you give prayerful and earnest thought to the holy endowment, you will obtain the understanding and spirit of the work done in the temples of the Lord. The privilege of laboring here for the dead permits us to enter the temple frequently, and to refresh our memories, and to enlarge our understanding of the endowment.
[Excerpt from the "Creation" Section] As the creation of the earth progressed, you heard the commands and the reports of the persons representing the Gods. If we are faithful, we shall enter the celestial kingdom and there hear and know the Gods of heaven. They are perfect; we are imperfect. They are exalted; we may attain exaltation. Our spirits at one time lived with the Gods; but each of us was given the privilege of coming upon this earth to take upon himself a body, so that the spirit might have a house in which to dwell. Michael, one of the council of the Gods, became the man Adam, to whom was given the woman Eve. However, as Adam he did not remember his life and labors in the council. It is so with us all. We came into the world with no memory of our previous existence.	1. In the creation the Gods entered into an agreement about forming this earth. & putting Michael or Adam upon it. (I realize this isn't a very good match, but the statement here is actually corresponding to the recapitulation of the entire creation sequence.) 6. Adam was an immortal being when he came. on this earth 7. he had lived on an earth similar to ours he had received the Priesthood and the Keys thereof. and had been faithful in all things and gained his resurrection and his exaltation and was crowned with glory immortality and eternal lives and was numbered with the Gods for such he became through his faithfulness. and had begotten all the spirit that was to come to this earth. and Eve our common Mother who is the mother of all living bore those spirits in the celestial world. 3. We were once acquainited with the Gods & lived with them but we had the privilige of taking upon us flesh that the spirit might have a house to dwell in. 8. And when this earth was organized by Elohim. Jehovah & Michael who is Adam our common Father. Adam & Eve had the privilege to continue the work of Progression. consequently came to this earth and commenced the great work of forming tabernacles for those spirits to dwell in. (you may notice that paragraphs 3 and 8 both have significant commonalities with the same paragraph from the modern lecture.) 9. and when Adam and those that assisted him had completed this Kingdom our earth he came to it. and slept and forgot all and became like an Infant child.  4. we did so and forgot all and came into the world not recollecting anything of which we had previously learned.
[Conclusion of Lecture] Brethren and sisters, you will have received this day the sacred ordinances of the endowment. The eternal plan of salvation for man, as he journeys from his pre-existent state to his future high place in the celestial kingdom, has been presented to you. You have covenanted to obey all the laws of the gospel, including the laws of obedience, sacrifice, chastity, and consecration, which make possible an exaltation with the Gods; and you have received the first and second tokens of the Aaronic priesthood and the first and second tokens of the Melchizedek priesthood, with the names, signs, and penalties of these tokens, except the name of the second token of the Melchizedek priesthood, which will be given you at the veil. All this is done for the glory, honor, and endowment of the children of Zion. Brethren and sisters, strive to comprehend the glorious things presented to you this day. No other people on earth have ever had this privilege, except as they have received the keys of the priesthood given in the endowment.  The pre-1990 Lecture at the Vail ends with this text: These are what are termed the mysteries of godliness--that which will enable you to understand the expression of the Savior, made just prior to his betrayal: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent."  May God bless you all. Amen.	6. Adam was an immortal being when he came. on this earth 7. he had lived on an earth similar to ours he had received the Priesthood and the Keys thereof. and had been faithful in all things and gained his resurrection and his exaltation and was crowned with glory immortality and eternal lives and was numbered with the Gods for such he became through his faithfulness. and had begotten all the spirit that was to come to this earth. and Eve our common Mother who is the mother of all living bore those spirits in the celestial world. Nuttal's Journal entry practically begins with this text: 2. these things of which I have been speaking are what are termed the mysteries of godliness but they will enable you to understand the expression of Jesus made while in Jerusalem. This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Complete Text from Elder Nuttal's Journal, in its original sequence, with sentences/ideas numbered.  Bold sentences represent the areas that have been entirely purged from the modern Endowment.

1. In the creation the Gods entered into an agreement about forming this earth. & putting Michael or Adam upon it.

2. these things of which I have been speaking are what are termed the mysteries of godliness but they will enable you to understand the expression of Jesus made while in Jerusalem. This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

3. We were once acquainited [acquainted] with the Gods & lived with them but we had the privilige of taking upon us flesh that the spirit might have a house to dwell in.

4. we did so and forgot all and came into the world not recollecting anything of which we had previously learned.

5. We have heard a great deal about Adam and Eve. how they were formed &c some think he was made like an adobie and the Lord breathed into him the breath of life. for we read "from dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return" Well he was made of the dust of the earth but not of this earth. he was made just the same way you and I are made but on another earth.

I believe the above concept was removed as part of the mainstream LDS Adam-God purge.

6. Adam was an immortal being when he came. on this earth

7. he had lived on an earth similar to ours he had received the Priesthood and the Keys thereof. and had been faithful in all things and gained his resurrection and his exaltation and was crowned with glory immortality and eternal lives and was numbered with the Gods for such he became through his faithfulness. and had begotten all the spirit that was to come to this earth. and Eve our common Mother who is the mother of all living bore those spirits in the celestial world.

8. and when this earth was organized by Elohim. Jehovah & Michael who is Adam our common Father. Adam & Eve had the privilege to continue the work of Progression. consequently came to this earth and commenced the great work of forming tabernacles for those spirits to dwell in.

9. and when Adam and those that assisted him had completed this Kingdom our earth he came to it. and slept and forgot all and became like an Infant child.

10. it is said by Moses the historian that the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam and took from his side a rib and formed the woman that Adam called Eve-

11. this should be interpreted that the Man Adam like all other Men had the seed within him to propagate his species. but not the Woman. she conceives the seed but she does not produce it. consequently she was taken from the side or bowels of her father.

12. this explains the mystery of Moses's dark sayings in regard to Adam and Eve. Adam & Eve when they were placed on this earth were immortal beings with flesh. bones and sinews. but upon partaking of the fruits of the earth while in the garden and cultivating the ground their bodies became changed from immortal to mortal beings with the blood coursing through their veins as the action of life.

13. Adam was not under transgression until after he partook of the forbidden fruit that was nesesary that they might be together that man might be. the woman was found in trans-gression not the Man-

So, I actually agree with making some changes to the above section; as I think Brigham wasn't quite on track with this as far as the process of procreation goes.  It has interesting implications concerning Eve's relation to Adam which I'm hesitant to knock down or to bouy up.  But I again want to point out the similarity to the Masonic EA Lecture.  "It is said by Moses the historian..."  and "This explains the mystery of Moses' dark sayings" are very similar to phrases from the Master Mason lecture "as the great Jewish historian, Josephus, informs us", and from the Entered Apprentice Lecture, "You have this evening during your initiation passed through many ceremonies which to you no doubt seem dark and unexplained, it becomes my duty to explain them."  I wouldn't point out these vague similarities if it were not that they exist in roughly the same place in the corresponding ritual. As Masons commit these lectures to memory, these ideas would likely be springing to mind as a Mason writes a new lecture for a similar ritual.  I am also unfamiliar with people, particularly those who believe in Prophets, referring to Moses as a historian.

14. Now in the law of Sacrifice we have the promise of a Savior and man had the privilege and showed forth his obedience by offering of the first fruits of the earth and the firstlings of the flocks- this as a showing that Jesus would come and shed his blood [Four lines without any writing on them.]

(This sentence #14 wasn't present in the correlation because it has been worked into the body of the Endowment as part of the explanation of the law of sacrifice, one of the only parts of the Endowment that contains blatant misinformation; Sacrifice didn't end with the death of Jesus Christ, but later, around 70 A.D. when the Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed, and also, the explanation given about Adam doing things in similitude of the Son and calling upon God in the name of the Son forevermore is contradictory to Brigham's own theology.  I believe this area of the Endowment was tampered with later, and prior to that, this statement resided in the Lecture at the vail rather than in the preamble to the Law of Sacrifice.)

15. Father Adam's oldest son (Jesus the Saviour) who is the heir of the family is Father Adams first begotten in the spirit World. who according to the flesh is the only begotten as it is written.

16. (In his divinity he having gone back into the spirit World. and come in the spirit [glory] to Mary and she conceived

17. for when Adam and Eve got through with their Work in this earth. they did not lay their bodies down in the dust, but returned to the spirit World from whence they came.

18. I felt myself much blessed in being permitted to associate with such men and hear such instructions as they savored of life to me-

On the state of Jesus

This post is formulated from comments I made on a post over at Millennial Star.

Mortal death, a consequence of the fall, was due to Adam and Eve being required to leave the garden, thus they were no longer able to partake of the Fruit of the Tree of Life. (This fruit being the only thing keeping the Gods alive eternally, as it sustains their celestial bodies in a way that restores them or prevents them from decaying.) Lack of this fruit for any extended period of time would cause man to decelestialize: as the celestial sand in his veins is replaced with blood he becomes mortal. The fruit, the Tree of Life, and the positive consequences of partaking of this fruit are quite ancient concepts, perhaps as widespread as the story of a world flood.

My current view of MMP is this: You are born a mortal (I'll use telestial as an example word here). You die. If righteous, you are born a baby again but this time you have become perfected to the point that you are able to live sinless (I'll use terrestrial as an example word here). You die again. You are resurrected (as Christ) and now have a celestial, resurrected body. This same adult body goes on to become the Adam of your new world. You are sustained by the fruit of the Tree of Life.

I object to the idea that Jesus Christ could be sinless straight out of the gate. I believe Jesus lived a life as a sinner in order to become worthy of being sinless. If not, he would be acting as a prototype of the original Satanism (Denial of Agency), he never would have tasted of evil in order to know good, he would be like Adam and Eve before the fall, in a condition of innocence and lack of joy. The only way I see it working is that Jesus Christ was a sinner and earned his way to being Christ; Just as Adam was a sinner and also earned his way through that office and to eventually become exalted (a celestial being).

If Jesus was sinless out of the gate, it would had to have been due to his own choices in his mortal life on this earth and we too would have equal opportunity to be and remain sinless throughout our own lives and save ourselves without his help. (For we are all literal children of God, ultimately, both by Adam-God reasoning, or without it: For Adam himself would have been a literal offspring of God.)

How is such a sinless "Terrestrial" body (as I am calling it) created? By an exalted, resurrected Celestial being (like Adam) procreating with a mortal (like Mary). This creates sinless offspring. Why is Seth different? Because he is the consequence of a decelestialized, mortal Father and Mother (each having blood in their veins). Note, I am not saying anything here about Mary's own condition except that she at this point is mortal (subject to impending physical death).

Without considering Adam-God, the question becomes why can Adam, created by God, sin, while Christ created by the same process could not, and remained sinless? If it was only due to Christ's righteous choices, that's a lot of spirits to put up for gamble - what if it had gone wrong?

Was Jesus really sinless in the way we think he was? Jesus certainly must have made indiscretions, mistakes, and what we would consider sins, even in this mortal probation, but his Elder Brother (and Father by Adoption), had already suffered as a sacrifice on a previous earth so that all of Jesus's sins past, present, and future, could be forgiven with an attitude of penance.

If Jesus hadn't already completed one probation, and if it is indeed possible for God to father a sinless child in one step while allowing this child to retain its agency, why would he not just make every one of us sinless and eschew the whole programme?

Divine Investiture of Authority, properly applied

Spencer W. Kimball taught that:

"The priesthood is the power and authority of God delegated to man on earth to act in all things pertaining to the salvation of men. It is the means whereby the Lord acts through men to save souls. Without this priesthood power, men are lost."

Jesus Christ holds the Melchizedek Priesthood:

Hebrew 5:8-10

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

The Divine Investiture of Authority is the same thing as the Priesthood: God has given his authority to an individual (or group of individuals) to act in His behalf on the earth. It is evoked any time a priesthood blessing is given, and any time a sermon is preached by the Spirit. However, it does not give one avatar status as God: You retain your own identity.

Jesus was invested with authority to act in God's behalf, healing people, cast out devils, performing all sorts of miracles.

Difference between the Priesthood Authority which Jesus wielded and that that we ourselves may exercise? He had become perfect (perhaps in a previous probation,) and we have yet to do so.

Equal does not mean The Same

I keep running into the idea that equal somehow means clone. For instance, for two people to be perfectly equal, they must have the same strengths and weaknesses, be just as smart, just as strong, etc.

Hogwash!

I'll use a simple math equation as an example:

3 + 8 = 15 - 4

Now, does 3+8 look the same as 15-4? no, they have nothing in common except their equality. To take this into the realm of human beings, it's likely that two random people aren't exactly equal, but, it's also likely that they are much more equal than meets the eye. An old plumber-man could be totally equal with a young athlete . . . if you took all their attributes together. The old man might have great compassion, or be a brilliant mathematician (gee, that would make a cool movie ;) ) while the young athlete might not be very bright, or have harmful addictions to various substances that hurts his life more than being old hurts the first man.

That was just a very silly example, but it illustrates how we could be compared to the mathematical equation above.

In mormonism, I hear a lot about perfection - how Our Heavenly Parents are perfect, how we will be perfect if we make it to the highest glory, etc. And then, individual ideas of what it means to be perfect are superimposed onto these people - "Heavenly Mother would never hide out in heaven while her Husband took care of the kids", well, what if she is shy, and wants you to come to her? Is there something inherently wrong with that? Are all the shy people going to hell? or be "cured"? The same goes for a very long list of attributes. The saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure" comes to mind. One person prizes their ability to be neat and tidy, while the other prizes their ability to be detached from worldly concerns such as messes and cleaning. Take a look in any personality list, and start comparing the "bad" and "good" characteristics in each personality and you will find there are distinct similarities.

hundredth post, woo-hoo!

Multiple Mortal Probations in the Blue Lodge

I often think of theology as it is mystically represented in the Masonic Lodge. We are craftsmen, at work in our labor. Joseph Smith sits in the South as the Junior Warden, Jesus Christ in the West as the Senior Warden, and Father sits in the East as the Worshipful Master. Upon consideration of this, I realized that it is the usual custom of a Lodge, each Masonic year (from St. John's day of one year, to the same on the next - or perhaps more meaningfully, on the Winter Solstice (the Darkest time of year), to have the officers of the Lodge advance up the line of "chairs", the old Junior Warden becoming the new Senior Warden, the old Senior Warden becoming the new Worshipful Master, and the old Worshipful Master becoming a "Past Master."

Could this be symbolic of progression from mortal to being "a Christ" to being "an Adam" of our own planet, and then eventually retiring amongst the wise Elohim?

To me, it is.