noah

“The Temple on Mount Zion” Conference Livestream and Videos

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Today we are fortunate to be participating in “The Temple on Mount Zion” Conference in Provo, Utah, in memory of Matthew B. Brown, and sponsored by Interpreter Foundation.  Of course, the theme of the entire conference is the temple.  There have been some excellent presentations on numerous topics including noah, the ark, divine handclasps, egyptology, creation, Job, the Psalms, Dead Sea Scrolls, the “terrible questions,” Jacob’s sermon, axes mundi, Nephites and Mesoamerica, the Torah, the design of temples, and others.

The conference is being live streamed online, and can be watched here: http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/live-video-stream-of-the-temple-on-mount-zion-conference/

YouTube videos of the presentations are available on Interpreter’s YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MormonInterpreter

A printed book of proceedings will be published in the coming months by Interpreter Foundation.

The Doctrine of Continual Revelation

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President Thomas S. Monson

President Thomas S. Monson

The emails I receive these days give me ample opportunity to teach the gospel. Below is my response to a fundamentalist.

I will explain why you do not understand the doctrine of continual revelation, and why it is leading you away from the truth.

First, a scripture:

And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.

Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written. (2 Ne. 29:9-10)

Revelation can be a nebulous thing.  It is not always so clear cut that it builds on top of prior revelations and is in harmony with them.  Every prophet that has ever lived on the earth was rejected by his own generation because they thought he did not conform to the “old revelations,” that they changed them, and gave them something new.  Joseph gave us the script.  And I repeat.  [Read more…]

Nüwa and Fuxi in Chinese Mythology: Compass & Square

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An ancient painting of Nüwa and Fuxi unearthed in Xinjiang.

An ancient painting of Nüwa and Fuxi unearthed in Xinjiang, holding the tools of creation - compass and square.

Hugh Nibley gave a lecture in 1975 on “Sacred Vestments” which was later transcribed and included in the collected works volume Temple and Cosmos (pgs. 91-132).  The entire paper is fascinating, and highly recommended reading.  One of the things he wrote about were certain Chinese artifacts which had been found depicting two mythological gods, Nüwa and Fuxi, and the tools they hold:

Most challenging are the veils from Taoist-Buddhist tombs at Astana, in Central Asia, originally Nestorian (Christian) country, discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in 1925… We see the king and queen embracing at their wedding, the king holding the square on high, the queen a compass. As it is explained, the instruments are taking the measurements of the universe, at the founding of a new world and a new age. Above the couple’s head is the sun surrounded by twelve disks, meaning the circle of the year or the navel of the universe. Among the stars depicted, Stein and his assistant identified the Big Dipper alone as clearly discernable. As noted above, the garment draped over the coffin and the veil hung on the wall had the same marks; they were placed on the garment as reminders of personal commitment, while on the veil they represent man’s place in the cosmos. (pg. 111-12)

Nibley included drawings of this depiction found on veils in the Astana Tombs in Xinjiang, China, with a caption that reads:

In the underground tomb of Fan Yen-Shih, d. A.D. 689, two painted silk veils show the First Ancestors of the Chinese, their entwined serpect bodies rotating around the invisible vertical axis mundi.  Fu Hsi holds the set-square and plumb bob … as he rules the four-cornered earth, while his sister-wife Nü-wa holds the compass pointing up, as she rules the circling heavens.  The phrase kuci chü is used by modern Chinese to signify “the way things should be, the moral standard”; it literally means the compass and the square. (pg. 115)

See the photos at the end of the post for more examples of this icon.  The veil redrawn in Temple and Cosmos is shown photographed in the second row, fourth from the left.  [Read more…]

The Rainbow – A Token of the Covenant

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Noah's Thanksoffering (c.1803) by Joseph Anton Koch. Noah builds an altar to the Lord after being delivered from the Flood; God sends the rainbow as a sign of his covenant (Genesis 8-9). (click for larger view)

Noah's Thanksoffering (c.1803) by Joseph Anton Koch. (click image for larger view)

This morning I was listening to the ABC News report on the incoming hurricane Ike, which is heading straight towards the Galveston/Houston area of Texas, and the forecast of widespread destruction that it is provoking.  The news anchor was reporting from Galveston Island, Texas, where the brunt of the storm is said to be bearing down quickly.  The reporter ended his news clip by saying that there was a rainbow directly over Galveston Island.

It is destructive times like these that cause us to reflect on God, and His place in our world.  It seems like cruel irony that the rainbow was placed as a sign of the covenant that God made with man that He would not flood the earth again.  But then again, that was surely a deliberate decision, that each time we witness these horrific natural events like hurricanes we remember God is still there, and that He knows our trials and tribulations (cf. Hel. 12:3).  Yes, even “if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good” (D&C 122:7).  Events like these turn us back to God, and remind us to worship Him who is the Creator of heaven and earth.  It is only by obeying God’s commandments and enduring trying times such as these that we can “triumph over all [our] foes” (D&C 121:7-8):  [Read more…]