Remembering…
former posts today:
http://templestudy.com/2008/02/26/mentally-stoning-the-living-prophets/
When did quoting scripture and the brethren become taboo in the Church?
prophet
The 1978 Temple Revelation of the Extension of Priesthood
Video created by the LDS Church to commemorate and celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ action in June 1978 to extend its lay priesthood to men of all races – entitled “He Inviteth Us All.” The revelation from God came quite clear from heaven to prophets and apostles of God, gathered in the upper rooms of the Salt Lake Temple. I imagine the revelatory experience was somewhat like Peter’s when he was commanded by God to take the gospel to the Gentiles, previous to which it had been taken only to the Jews (Acts 10:9-48). Surely the Lord God has His own timetable (Isa. 55:8).
Washing of Feet
Jesus Washing Peter's Feet by Ford Madox Brown. 1852-56, retouched several times up to 1892. Oil on canvas 46 x 52 1/4 in Tate Gallery, London.
A reader has asked, “Do you have any insight into what happened to the washing of feet? Could the washing of feet have been preparatory to the full ordinance of washing as we now have it in the initiatories?”
The ordinance of washing of feet is still performed in the temple, for it is a restored ordinance, but it is part of the culminating sealing ordinances which are reserved for those who make their calling and election sure through faith. Temple scholar Matthew Brown has offered this:
The Lord mentioned in a revelation on 1 November 1831 that he had granted unto his disciples the authority to “seal both on earth and in heaven” (D&C 1:8). During the same month he indicated that God the Father would reveal to his servants who should be sealed up “unto eternal life” by this power (D&C 68:12). The ordinance of the washing of feet was then introduced by the Lord as the means whereby someone could be rendered “clean from the blood of this generation” (D&C 88:138-141), and when Joseph Smith administered this ordinance, he stated that those who received it were not only “clean” in a ritual sense but were also “sealed up unto eternal life” (HC, 1:323-24; see also MD, 829-32). ((Matthew B. Brown, The Gate of Heaven, 235.))
School of the Prophets as a Temple Precursor
I hadn’t made this connection before, but it seems to jump out at me now like red ink. I knew that the School of the Prophets was a select group of brethren who participated in an effort to prepare themselves for the missionary work, but it also had a much more spiritual side with hints and shadows of the pending promises and revelations of an endowment of power from on high. The School of the Prophets was preparing the Church for the temple.
I’m reading Dr. Richard Bushman’s excellent biography, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, and this impressed me when I read the following about the revelation of D&C 88 and the organization of this school: [Read more…]
Priestly Initiations in the Testament of Levi
The Testament of Levi is one of the books in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and is an apocryphal and pseudopigraphal work so we do not know its original author or source. The Testament of Levi, as we have it today, was composed in its final form in the second century B.C. It is also considered an apocalyptic work, relating visions similar to John’s book of Revelation. Fragments of this text have also been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, lending more credibility to them than some of the other “testaments.”
One particularly interesting passage is about Levi’s vision of his priestly ordination in heaven, including washings, anointings, and investiture: [Read more…]