temple worship

Mammon’s Cover-up

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Scan of Temple Worship book cover

I noticed something yesterday that I thought was a good and oxymoronic example of how the adversary likes to distract us from what is important, to divert our attention onto more worldly pursuits, and tempt us to stay away, both in mind and body, from that which is holy.

This image is a scan of the front of the recent Temple Worship book by Dr. Andrew Skinner. I bought it at Seagull Book, and as you can clearly see, it was “15% OFF.” Unfortunately, this large yellow sticker directly covers a beautiful painting entitled Bountiful Temple by Al Rounds. While I am appreciative that the book cost me less than the listed price, such a bold advertisement covers up a lovely representation of the house of the Lord.

While this is likely an unconscious and unintentional cover-up, Satan uses similar tactics to divert our focus away from what God would have us think about, and to concern ourselves with those things of the world. The Adversary would have us believe that money, work, careers, fashions, gold, jewelry, cars, houses, boats, and the like are more important than holy things, particularly our participation in the temple. Don’t let him fool you. Mammon’s concerns are a cover-up of those things which are more important.

Specifics of Ordinances Foreknown in Premortality

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Cover of Temple Worship by Dr. SkinnerThis last week I finally swung by Seagull Book and picked up Dr. Andrew Skinner’s new book Temple Worship. I had heard about it before from ads, and from an excellent interview that Carol Mikita had with Dr. Skinner.

I’ve been impressed with the depth that Dr. Skinner approaches the temple subject, and the new insights he gives. It’s been very enlightening.

In the beginning he writes about the Savior’s atonement, and how in the temple we are taught that this sacrifice was established “from the foundation of the world” (Moses 7:47, Rev. 13:8, Moses 6:53-54), meaning it was central part of the plan of salvation that was established long before the earth ever existed. We knew that a Savior would be provided for us when we came to this earth, and that his name would be Jesus Christ, the same being who was the great Jehovah we knew then. We were all very aware of the suffering and sacrifice that he would make for us. We knew in detail how the atonement would work, and we were exuberantly confident in the way by which we could be rescued from the fall of Adam and Eve and our own individuals sins so that we could return to live with God. Dr. Skinner provides this sublime insight:

One ramification of this profound doctrine is that the ordinances of exaltation, including their general symbolism and specific tokens centering on the bodily sacrifice of Christ were in place and likely foreknown by us in our premortal existence. ((Temple Worship, p. 50))

Interview with Professor Andrew Skinner on “Temple Worship”

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Temple Worship

Temple Worship

This morning I heard an excellent 50-minute interview on KSL News Radio on the program “People of Faith with Carole Mikita.” Today, Mikita interviewed Professor Andrew Skinner, Excecutive Director of The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, on his recent publication of the book entitled Temple Worship: 20 Truths That Will Bless Your Life available at Deseret Book.

The interview spanned a wide range of subjects relating to Skinner’s new book, including what temples are, their purpose, ancient temples throughout the world, the restoration of temples in the latter days, temples in Church history, and many other points of interest from his new book. While I have not yet read the book, this interview has peaked my interest substantially. There is a great introduction to the book at this link.

I highly recommend this interview. You can listen to it here on the website (you’ll have to scroll to about the 8 minute mark to get to the beginning of the program):

http://pandora.bonnint.net/audio/2008_02_24_people_of_faith.mp3