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Was Baptism for the Dead Practiced Deep Inside the Walls of St. Paul’s Basilica?

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There is an email being forwarded around that claims that there is a baptismal font deep inside the Basilica of St. Paul that was used for the purposes of baptism for the dead. Here is the text of the original email:

Photos from the email

Photos from the forwarded email. (Click to enlarge)

This photo was taken by Kevin Barton, grandson of Keith Barton, a Stake Patriarch, when Kevin was on his mission to Italy in 2001.  These pictures were taken in Rome at St. Paul’s Cathedral which is centuries old.  Kevin found a chained off area of the Cathedral, which he shouldn’t have entered but did, and discovered this old unused, I’m sure for hundreds of years, baptismal font with a mosaic inscription above it indicating it was used for  baptisms for the dead..  There are probably more old Cathedrals in Italy (If they haven’t been remodeled) that still have these closed off fonts that were used centuries ago..  I wonder why they stopped ?  This is truly profound and  amazing.. ((Email in my possession.))

Included in the email are a couple very blurry/grainy photos showing the wall inscription and the nearby baptismal font, with labels overlaid showing the purported translation and correlation.  These photos are shown here on the right (click to enlarge).

On the surface this sounds really exciting for LDS temple studies! Here we might have ancient evidence for baptism for the dead, mysteriously hidden from public view. But not so fast. Let’s do the requisite research. [Read more…]

The Text for our Google Hangout Discussion

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After some debate, I’ve decided to go forward with Andrew C. Skinner’s book Temple Worship: 20 Truths That Will Bless Your Life for our live Google Hangout this coming Sunday evening, August 5th at 7:30pm.  I think this is a great book, and I hope it will lead us into a great discussion.  We’ll start right at the beginning, with the introduction.  If we get through that, we may go into the first chapter.

I’m still looking for people who would like to contribute to the discussion (i.e. be “panelists”).  Please let me know if you are a Google+ user, and have a webcam, and would like to participate.  (Note: An unlimited number of you may watch and listen in on the conversation simply by visiting TempleStudy.com on Sunday at 7:30pm, or may watch the recorded version later.  The “panelists” will actually actively participate in the discussion.)

I’m looking forward to it!

Google Hangout Temple Discussions Update

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After talking with a few people, I have decided that the Temple Prep manual that the Church has published is probably not a good choice to serve as a springboard for our Google Hangout temple discussions, for a number of reasons.  One of those reasons is that we do not want to appear to be supplanting the Temple Prep course, as it is taught under the guidance of a bishop.  There is no replacement for that course, offered by the Church’s local units, and it should be taken with care by every individual preparing to go to the temple for the first time.

So I’ve turned to considering other texts as guides for discussion.  Again, I don’t want the text to be the focus, but serve as a springboard for discussion.  To achieve this end, I think the book should be relatively short, concise, but broadly consider many aspects of the temple, both modern and ancient.  It should also come from a trusted author.

One book I read recently that seems to fit these qualifications well is Temple Worship: 20 Truths That Will Bless Your Life by Andrew C. Skinner.  It is relatively short at only a couple hundred pages, it is divided between 20 different concise chapter-topics that cover a wide spectrum of temple studies, and it’s a relatively easy read because it was written for a wide audience, and in a clear and forthright manner.  Dr. Andrew Skinner is a trusted religion scholar from BYU.  I also enjoyed the book.

Have you read this book?  What were your impressions?  Is there another text that you think might be better as a guide for our discussions?  Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

Bird’s Eye View of Temple Square (and others)

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Google has recently has added photographs from planes to its “satellite” imagery in Google Maps.  What this means is that many cities in the U.S. now have higher resolution pictures from the sky as you zoom in close, and they are typically more realistic looking since they are at a 45 degree angle.

Below is an example of Temple Square, and the Jordan River temple. These are interactive embedded maps, so you can drag them around with your mouse and look at various parts of Temple Square, in exquisite detail, as if you were in an airplane.

Just think what it’ll all look like when they get 3D aerial photography in Google Maps!


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Jordan River temple (this one is a bit more finicky, if it doesn’t show the 45 degree angle at first, zoom out one level and back in):

View Larger Map

New WordPress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin for Bloggers

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Example of a popup using the new WordPress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin by DearScriptures.com

Example of a popup using the new WordPress LDS Scripture Linker Plugin by DearScriptures.com

For some time I’ve been using the excellent LDS Linker WordPress plugin, developed by Joey Day, to automatically link all scripture references on TempleStudy.com directly to the Church’s online scriptures at scriptures.lds.org.  It worked very well, and continues to be one of the most popular WordPress plugins for LDS bloggers to link their scripture references to the online scriptures.

Recently I was thinking how much easier it would be to just hover your mouse over a scripture reference and see a popup with the scripture reference written out.  It would make reading the scripture references that much quicker in a blog post, rather than clicking a link to another site.  [Read more…]