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The Seal of Melchizedek – Part 3

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Seal of Melchizedek turned into LDS cufflinks, tie bars/clips, tie tacs

Seal of Melchizedek turned into LDS cufflinks, tie bars/clips, tie tacs

(Continued from Part 2)

Having found the mosaics from Ravenna, Italy, that displayed this symbol in connection with Melchizedek, I wanted to do some more research to see if I could find the symbol mentioned anywhere else.  And, of course, I went to the best tool for online research – Google.  The difficulty with using Google is that you can usually find someone saying something about pretty much anything.  So it’s not only a task of finding the correct information, but of determining its credibility.

One of the first results you come to is a blog called “Ernest Goes to Iraq” with a blog post “The Sign of Melchizedek.”  Ernest explains:

I heard directly from one of the architect team partners that designed the San Diego Temple, he explained that the designer saw this symbol in a dream and based the floor plan and décor of the temple on this design; namely two offset, intersecting squares. Much like the 6-point Star of David but with 8 points instead.  [Read more…]

Levi Rightmyer on “Kings and Priests of the order of Melchisedec”

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Title Page

Title Page

I was doing some research this morning when I stumbled upon a very interesting passage from a book published in 1916 by Levi Rightmyer entitled, The Light of Truth as Revealed in the Holy Scriptures.  The entire text of the book is available for perusal on Google Books here.  The author is not LDS, although he appears to have known something of the Church (see page 482 for his reference to “Joseph Smith and the Mormons of Utah”).

What I found was a passage which discusses Christ, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and that “all who are called to God’s kingdom and glory are called to fill the positions of Melchisedec kings and priests in the ages to come under the Lord Jesus Christ…” and if this truth is not so today it is because of apostasy:

…mankind have been deceived by false and ignorant teachers who in the early days of the church corrupted the way of the Lord as the antediluvian sons of God did before the flood, who walked after the vain imaginations of their own evil hearts even as it is now.  The world is full of religion, but nearly empty of the true knowledge of God. There are many great revivals in which are developed a high degree of religious feeling, but unfortunately they are attended with a very low degree of scriptural knowledge and true religious intelligence. (p. 740)

[Read more…]

Salt Lake Temple in 3D with Microsoft Photosynth

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If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I like computer graphics.  I’ve worked in the industry for almost a decade, and enjoy new technologies that make computing a more visual experience.  You’ve seen my 3D model of the Salt Lake Temple for Google Earth, and the Google Street Views of the temples along the Wasatch Front.  Well, here is one more cool technology to add to the list.

Microsoft has built some free software called Photosynth with which you can take many photographs of an object or place, and the software will automatically overlay them together seamlessly and construct a 3D model from their similarities.  You can then fly around the object or place in real-time and zoom in to see details in the photographs.  It’s fascinating technology.  See a fuller definition here.  It’s been in beta for a while now, but has just been released for anyone to make their own “synths.”  A designer from the Church has picked up on it.  [Read more…]

Words: Mysticism & Orientation

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I think many times our culture produces preconceptions or stereotypes about words, images, cultures, forms, meanings, etc., that may not actually be true.  I have found this to be the case with the word mysticism.  Oft times I think we associate this word with gypsies, palm readers, fortune tellers, monks, or other so-called strange or mysterious things.  But is this a correct perception?  Often we just don’t know the origin of a word, which might give us great insight.  [Read more…]

Added ShareThis to TempleStudy.com

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I have added a new feature to TempleStudy.com.  It is called ShareThis.  This is a really great tool for sharing things about the temple that you read here with your friends, family, coworkers, associates, ward members, and anyone else you might like to pass along these articles to.  Each article now has a little green icon with the words “ShareThis” at the bottom of every post.  Clicking on this icon will allow you to share TempleStudy.com articles via:

  • Social Web – share or bookmark the article on Facebook, Digg, del.icio.us, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Google Bookmarks, and a host of other social bookmarking sites.
  • Post – post the article directly to your profile or blog on Facebook, Blogger, WordPress, Twitter, LiveJournal or others.
  • Send/Email – share the post with others directly by email, SMS (cell phone text message), instant message MySpace friends, or instant message AIM friends.

I hope you find this new tool useful, and that you will help spread the word about TempleStudy.com and help others learn more about the LDS temple.