{"id":103524,"date":"2024-01-21T20:04:19","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T03:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=103524"},"modified":"2024-01-21T20:04:48","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T03:04:48","slug":"the-lords-new-house-in-orem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/01\/the-lords-new-house-in-orem.html","title":{"rendered":"The Lord’s new temple in Orem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/a>
The new Orem Utah Temple by night, in a photo by Brent R. \u2014 our former stake president, I suspect \u2014 on ChurchofJesusChristTemples.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We participated in the first dedicatory service for the new Orem Utah Temple<\/a> this morning. \u00a0Elder Hugo E. Martinez<\/a>, whom we came to know just a bit during a tour of Israel many years ago (prior to his call as a General Authority), conducted the meeting, which featured a pre-recorded video message from President Russell M. Nelson<\/a>. \u00a0Elder Kevin R. Duncan<\/a> led those assembled in the \u201cHosanna Shout.\u201d \u00a0Elder Patrick Kearon<\/a>, who was ordained an apostle just last month, offered some quietly touching remarks. \u00a0Last of all, Elder D. Todd Christofferson<\/a> of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles \u2014 who dedicated the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple<\/a> only last Sunday \u2014 spoke and offered the prayer of dedication.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a great thing to now have a temple so close to us \u2014 indeed, to have so many<\/em> temples so close to us. \u00a0(The Orem Utah Temple is probably about a mile from our house as the crow flies, and a four- or five-minute drive on surface streets. \u00a0Two and a tenth miles.) \u00a0I was surprised to become quite emotional at one specific and entirely unexpected point during the dedicatory service. \u00a0I\u2019m Scandinavian; I don\u2019t do emotions.<\/p>\n
While in St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral in London the other day, I picked up a copy of Paula Gooder, Heaven<\/em> (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge [SPCK], 2011). \u00a0Paula Gooder<\/a> (D. Phil, Oxford) is a British theologian,\u00a0Anglican lay reader, and freelance writer who currently serves as Canon Chancellor of St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral and\u00a0specializes in the New Testament. \u00a0With the temple very much on my mind today, I think it appropriate to share a passage from the book:<\/p>\n
The Holy of Holies was considered so holy that it was only visited once a year, by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, and only then in a cloud of incense, that he might not see God on the mercy seat. \u00a0(18)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m not sure that I\u2019ve ever previously seen the claim that the purpose of the incense in the Holy of Holies was to hinder the possible seeing of a visible God. \u00a0(Note, too, that God was presumed to have location [\u201con the mercy seat\u201d].). But that purpose for the incense does indeed seem to be implicit in her quotation from Leviticus 16:11-13:<\/p>\n
Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house; he shall slaughter the bull as a sin-offering for himself. \u00a0He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of crushed sweet incense, and he shall bring it inside the curtain [i.e., inside the veil \u2014 dcp] and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, so that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the covenant, or he will die.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
She continues:<\/p>\n
One of the confusing elements of this tradition is the question of whether human beings could or could not see God and live. \u00a0The problem is that there are various strands of tradition about this throughout the Bible. \u00a0The Moses tradition itself has at least two elements. \u00a0One states that you cannot see God and live: \u2018\u201dBut\u201d, he said, \u201cyou cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.\u201d\u2018 (Exod. 33.20); the other records Moses\u2019 frequent visits to the presence of God where he stands unveiled (Exod. 34.29-35). \u00a0There are others like Elijah, who wrapped his face in his cloak before standing in God\u2019s presence (1 Kings 19.13), and others still, like the above reference in Leviticus 16.11-13 which assumes that those who see God face to face will die. \u00a0It would be easy \u2014 and wrong! \u2014 to assume that in the earliest period people believed they could see God face to face and that the idea grew up over time that they could not. \u00a0This clearly does not fit the evidence.<\/p>\n
The Moses stories contain elements of both traditions. \u00a0Elijah stands in God\u2019s presence but covers his face. \u00a0Isaiah sees the skirts of God\u2019s robe (6.1) but is nevertheless terrified in the presence of God because he is a person \u2018of unclean lips\u2019 (6.5). \u00a0Ezekiel expresses no apparent terror but does fall on his face before God\u2019s throne (1.28). \u00a0What this points to is that we cannot say, as some do, that you cannot see God \u2014 or the face of God \u2014 and live. \u00a0Nor can we build a simple trajectory from early to late, from seeing God to not seeing God. \u00a0There is a mixture of tradition in the Hebrew Bible. \u00a0Nevertheless, the tradition of danger associated with seeing God certainly grows over time, so that those who see God seated on his throne do so \u2014 to borrow a modern phrase \u2014 at their own risk. \u00a0In some of the later material extreme danger was associated with the situation of those who sought to stand in the presence of God but were unworthy to do so.<\/p>\n
Despite the variety of strands in the Bible about the seeing of God\u2019s face, there is no doubt that the Holy of Holies remained a place of great mystery associated particularly with the presence of God. \u00a0(18-19)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And, once again, the very fact that there existed a notion of the \u201cpresence of God,\u201d coupled with the association of that notion with a particular place, strongly suggests that, in the Israelite conception, God occupied a particular location.<\/p>\n
<\/a>
The Provo Utah Temple in winter (LDS Media Library). It was the first temple built in Utah County, but it will soon be demolished and a wholly new temple built on more or less the same site. \u00a0Demolition, as I understand it, has been awaiting completion of the Orem Utah Temple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
For fairly perfunctory news coverage of today\u2019s temple dedication \u2014 which was, of course, open only to holders of current temple recommends \u2014 see this, in the Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cOrem Utah Temple dedication a \u2018milestone in the progress\u2019 of God\u2019s kingdom, Elder Christofferson says:\u00a0The new temple, located just off Interstate 15 and near Utah Valley University, was dedicated in two sessions Sunday, Jan. 21\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
A more complete account, with photographs, appears on the official Newsroom website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: \u00a0\u201cElder Christofferson Dedicates Orem Utah Temple:\u00a0Dedication of Utah\u2019s 19th temple \u2018marks a milestone in the progress of the kingdom of God on the Earth,\u2019 he says\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 We participated in the first dedicatory service for the new Orem Utah Temple this morning. \u00a0Elder Hugo E. 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