From: hall@vice.ico.tek.com (Hal F Lillywhite) Subject: Re: Mormon temples Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or. Lines: 24 In article mserv@mozart.cc.iup.edu (Mail Server) writes: >But I am interested in your claim that early Christian practices "parallel" >Mormon temple ceremonies. Could you give an example? Also, why do they only >parallel Mormon ceremonies? Why don't Mormon ceremonies restore the original >Christian practices? Wasn't that the whole point of Joseph Smith's stated >mission? If you want parallels the best source is probably the book _Temple and Cosmos_ by Hugh Nibley. It is not light reading however. As to why these early practices "only parallel" and do not exactly duplicate the modern LDS ceremony, there are a couple of reasons: 1. Quite likely we do not have the exact original from ancient times. This stuff was not commonly known but bits and pieces undoubtedly spread. (Much as bits and pieces of the modern ceremony get known.) What we have in the 40 day literature, the Egyptian ceremonies, and certain Native American ceremonies is almost certainly not exactly what Jesus taught. 2. Certain aspects of the ceremony are normally modified to fit the situation, much as the modern ceremony has been modified to fit the audio-visual tools now available.