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Video: Mormon Temples – A Walkthrough Tour of LDS Temples

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The LDS Church Public Affairs has just published a fantastic video explaining what temples are all about to Mormons.  In it they have a conversation with Elder William R. Walker, Executive Director of the Church Temple Department.  Elder Walker gives a great walkthrough tour of LDS temples, somewhat like a video walking tour through many of the rooms and parts of modern day temples, very similar to what you might see during an open house of a new temple.  Some of the video shown of the interiors is some I’ve never seen before, including video of inside the Salt Lake Temple celestial room and baptistry.  It is gorgeous, in full 1080p Hi-Def resolution.

I’m very pleased and excited about this new video from the Church.  I’m glad that we are taking this opportunity now, with such a great spotlight on us as a people, to explain our beliefs, particularly about the temple, and have this kind of open “conversation.”  We too need to learn how to similarly converse with others about the temple.  There are so many misconceptions that abound, even still today, and it is great to see the Church use such innovative media to help explain things.  Some believe that by taking our temple practices out of context, in exposé fashion, they might do damage to us.  I have always felt that those who are honest in heart, who truly want to learn about something, will go to the source.

The video is unusually quite lengthy, at 15 minutes, which is great!  I hope that everyone that sees this video shares it, and helps pass it on to others.  I think things like this will go a long way in helping others learn what LDS beliefs truly are, and what the temple is all about.  Watch the video below.

The Seal of Melchizedek – Part 5

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The seal of Melchizedek as seen on the entrance doors of the Salt Lake Temple

The seal of Melchizedek as seen on the entrance doors of the Salt Lake Temple. (Click for larger view)

(Continued from Part 4)

It’s been a long time coming, since September 2008 to be exact, and I’d like to finally complete this series of posts on the seal of Melchizedek.  It is probably one of the most trafficked series of posts on this website.  It’s drawn a lot of attention, and may have even been part of what compelled a BYU scholar, Alonzo L. Gaskill, to publish an article about it in The Religious Educator at BYU in 2010, which article I’d like to talk about.

But first, there are a few other artifacts related to the symbol that I’d like to share.  As I pointed out in Part 2, this seal is most prominently found as displayed in the mosaics and iconography in the basilicas of Ravenna, Italy.  Indeed, this is very likely where Hugh Nibley saw this symbol originally, as perhaps did Michael Lyon, and where he may have coined the name the “seal of Melchizedek.”  The symbol is shown on the altar cloths in these mosaics, shown next to Melchizedek, Abel, and Abraham, in making sacrificial offerings to God.  The altar cloth also shows gammadia in the corners, right-angle marks like the Greek letter gamma, which is also very interesting, and worthy of a study in and of itself.

To begin, I want to note again that to date I have not found any evidence for this symbol being called the “seal of Melchizedek” by any other scholar, historian, or historical figure in recorded history before Hugh Nibley and Michael Lyon.  That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but it is likely a conception that began with the Latter-day Saints, making a logical connection between the symbol and the Biblical figure found adjacent to it in the mosaics. [Read more…]

Alethiology – How to Know the Truth?

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I posted this originally as a comment on a blog post over at Times & Seasons, by David Earl Bohn.  I thought I’d share it here:

I understand David Bohn. Scholarship in general does not represent an unassailable uncontested platonic absolute truth, no matter the source from whence it comes. It may be trying to get at the truth, from many different angles, but it can’t quite reach the destination, ever. How close it gets is entirely subjective in each person absorbing it, depending on their experience and resulting perspective.

Truth is like an opaque cloth bag with an object inside, but no opening. You can poke, prod, twist, squeeze, kick, hike, spin, sit on, stretch, slam, or feel it through the bag for eternity, but you won’t know for certain what is inside that bag until you take it out, or ask who put it in there (which still involves some doubt, because now you must judge that individual). You may have an excellent idea, but no certainty. What is its color, for example? No one will ever know, while its still inside the bag.

In terms of religion, I would argue that God is inside the bag, and in Mormon-speak that bag’s the veil. He may also have been the one that put Himself there, or know who did. And this for a reason, perhaps only He knows (another bag). Some day the veil will drop, and we will Know Him.

Alethiology, or the study of the nature of truth (related to epistemology, the study of knowledge its acquisition), would be a good topic to bring up in these discussions. How do we come to a knowledge of truth, in whatever degree? Scholarship certainly helps, but is not an end all. It provides evidence, up for the taking in a never-ending discussion and debate to determine its truthfulness.

Of course, some “truth” is more “simple” than other truth. The fact that I drove a car to work today is pretty incontestable, you’d think. But was it really a “car”? Did I really “drive” it, or can my Utah driving even be considered by that term?  Was it even in the past tense, “drove” (to God it was likely the present)?  Can a rusted out 1993 Honda Civic with malfunctioning speedometer, odometer, A/C, radio, steering fuel leak, and tail lights still be considered an automobile? Is what I do at “work” really work, or is it unrelated blogging on an online Mormon forum?

This is part of the reason I’ve stopped blogging, as of recent. Too distracting from the truth in my work, but often worth it for the truth in the subject matter. Which is more true? Which should be true? Which would I like to be true?

Back to work…

I need a sabbatical all of the sudden.  I feel completely overcome (literally trembling right now) by the creative muse which seems to have engulfed me.  I don’t know where it is coming from, but this isn’t standard Bryce.  And I’m not talking only about what’s been happening in this Maxwell Institute debate.  It’s flowing like a fire hose into all areas of my every day life, from my work, to my home life, my children, my hobbies, my calling, my wife, my language.  Where is it coming from?  I feel incredibly sharp, and quick.  Words are coming to me that I haven’t ever before envisioned or had slip from my tongue.  It’s an amazingly transcendent feeling, which I can’t fully explain.  Maybe I can, but maybe not right now.

Another time when I felt so inspired was when I spouted a sonnet, “A Reply to Sonnet 18.”  I don’t write sonnets folks.  I leave that up to my wife!  See also my post on the hymn “Oh Say, What is Truth?”

Ok, now!

The Creative gift, where does it go?
From the mountains on down, through the rivers flow
Flow through my head, without end
Out of my fingers, without pen
I don’t know, and can’t explain
That which so engulfs me again
The Spirit bloweth where it listeth
To and fro, it  won’t ceaseth
Overcome with thought, I imagine
I’ve been here before, my King!

The Joseph Smith Papers Volume 1 Available for Pre-Order!

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Book cover

“The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Vol. 1: 1832-1839” is available for pre-ordering at Deseret Book.  The description reads:

“The Joseph Smith Papers project is the single most significant historical project of our generation.”  —Elder Marlin K. Jensen, LDS Church Historian

Joseph Smith is known to history as the founder and first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The publication of his papers, 200 years after his birth, will open a window on a life filled with what he called “marvelous experience.”

For one who had little schooling, Joseph Smith left an extensive legacy of letters and other written records. Now, the full collection of that documentary heritage is being made widely available.

The Joseph Smith Papers is not a “documentary history” project composed only of important documents relating to Joseph Smith. Instead, it is a comprehensive “papers” project that will publish, according to accepted scholarly and documentary editing standards, all documents created by Joseph Smith and by those whose work he directed.

The Joseph Smith Papers Project will eventually constitute approximately 30 volumes, organized into six series. This first volume is a part of the Journals Series.

Volume by volume, you can build and enhance your personal library with these crucial studies of the life, leadership, and legacy of Joseph Smith.

In the works for several decades, The Joseph Smith Papers will be the largest, most authoritative collection of original Smith documents in the world, replacing and transcending many earlier published works.

With access to texts not previously available, and certainly never in one collection, the Papers project provides new information and insights about Joseph Smith, early Mormonism, and nineteenth-century American religion.

Documents include correspondence, journal entries, revelations, translations, discourses, official histories, court cases, and business dealings—qualitatively researched and carefully annotated.

Although vast in scope, the aim of the Project is relatively simple: to make available to general readers and scholars the sources essential to the study of Joseph Smith—the religious leader, the city builder, the pioneer, the husband and father—a truly visionary man.

The ambitious Joseph Smith Papers is the inaugural publishing project of The Church Historian’s Press and sets new standards for the organization and editorial presentation of historical documents by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In recognition of the high scholarly standards being employed in all phases of this project, The Joseph Smith Papers Project has earned an endorsement by the National Archives’ National Historical Publication and Records Commission (NHPRC).

For more information on The Joseph Smith Papers Project, visit JosephSmithPapers.org.

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…]