John Tvedtnes has an outstanding article at FAIRLDS.org, “Early Christian and Jewish Rituals Related to Temple Practices.” If you’ve been to the Temple, this article may be extremely interesting. It’s amazing how insights into the ancient world continue to reinforce the concept of the Restoration of ancient, divine concepts through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Early Christian and Jewish Rituals Related to Temple Practices
Thank You for sharing that amazing article. My wife and I were endowed and had our children sealed to us last Saturday at the Washington DC Temple. This article helps prove how sacred these ordinance are.
P.S I have been reading your website since my family became members in June 2003. You are doing a great work and have it has helped strengthen our testimony through the rough times we had in the beginning.
-John
The question comes down to, exactly WHAT is it the restoration of? Read through Temple and Cosmos by Nibley and you’ll find that better than 95% of his examples from the past that bear resemblance to the temple and its ceremony, are from pagan and/or occult traditions, as opposed to the Hebrew traditions they are supposed stem from.
I, too, have seen many similarities that ancient practices and current practices have with pagan practices. Portions of the truth are everywhere and we all started out on this mortal journey with the same goal. It is not unusual at all that some things have significance to many people of different beliefs. I would be surprised if there weren’t similarities.
While anon may like to think of this as a blow to the legitimacy of Judaism or Christianity, I see it as confirmation.