Salt Lake & San Diego California Temples

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints builds temples all around the world where faithful members go to learn more of Jesus Christ and his plan, receive ordinances for themselves, and perform vicarious work for their deceased ancestors. These temples are beautifully constructed both inside and out. They are designed to direct our thoughts heavenward and seal families together for eternity. The redemptive work that is performed here is not to be found anywhere else on the earth. All people are invited to experience for themselves the grandeur and blessings of temple work by qualifying themselves to enter the House of the Lord.  In the meantime, I'll be taking you through the A to Z of our temples.

SALT LAKE TEMPLE

The Salt Lake Temple at night

The Salt Lake Temple is the most instantly recognisable temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After the early Saints were viciously persecuted and forced to leave their previous homes of Kirtland, Ohio and Illinois, they trekked west through the plains and wilderness until they reached the Great Salt Lake Basin where they settled and turned the soggy barren land into a fruitful home. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is headquartered in Salt Lake City, semi-annual General Conferences are held in the Conference Centre there, and all the top leadership of the Church comprising the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, live there. It represents the heartbeat of this worldwide church.

Holiness to the Lord inscription on the Salt Lake Temple

Door handle detail on the Salt Lake Temple

A pilgrimage to Salt Lake City and Temple Square is considered by most Latter-day Saints to be a life's ambition.

In this video below are some great aerial shots of Temple Square:

The early members of the Church, after settling in the Salt Lake Valley, determined to build a House of the Lord in their new home. They had previously been forced to leave their beloved temple in Nauvoo Illinois behind, burned by arsonists and later lashed by hurricane-force winds. The Salt Lake Temple began construction in 1853 and was finally completed 40 years later in 1893. It remains today one of the most beautiful and distinguished landmarks in America.

The Salt Lake Temple reflected splendidly in a nearby pool

At Christmastime, Temple Square is decorated with thousands of lights and is a huge attraction to tourists from all over the globe, whether members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or not. Take a look at this short video showing Temple Square at Christmas:

SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA TEMPLE

The magnificent San Diego California Temple

The distinctive San Diego California Temple

The San Diego Temple most certainly had to find a way into the A-Z of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as one of the most stunningly jaw-dropping structures it owns. There is a great story of how the San Diego Temple was thought out and designed and how it came to contain over 10,000 of these shapes:

This shape is known as the Seal of Melchizedek, or a symbol of Jesus Christ. For a detailed exploration, please see my post about the San Diego Temple and the Seal of Melchizedek.

Here is an aerial collection of shots of this magnificent temple:

And another aerial by day:

Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Seal of Melchizedek

While searching through pictures of the church's magnificent temples, I inevitably came across the San Diego California temple. At the same time, I was searching on Google for "LDS temple symbols" as I had read the words of a church authority that the temple is our symbol.

This opened up an intriguing presentation of the Seal of Melchizedek.

Two squares, with one at a 45 degree rotation over the other one, makes up the Seal of Melchizedek.

I learned that the San Diego California Temple displays the Seal of Melchizedek over 10,000 times in and around the temple and its grounds. I found that quite astonishing. What is this symbol and what does it mean?

The San Diego California Temple is awash with the symbol of the Seal of Melchizedek

Apparently, the gentlemen in charge of designing the temple, one of them a Brother William "Bill" S. Lewis Jr. (a church member), spent months to come up with the symbol of two squares superimposed on each other at a 45 degree rotation. To the architects it was simply a nice architectural design and seemed to work increasingly well the more they adopted it throughout the structure.

Coincidence or not, famous LDS scholar and historian, Hugh Nibley, immediately identified this symbol as the ancient Seal of Melchizedek when quizzed about it after a gentleman who was photo-documenting the construction of the temple developed a fascination with it.

The Seal of Melchizedek, as it has been termed, goes back to iconography in basilicas of Ravenna, Italy, featuring, prominently, the high priest Melchizedek.

One such mosaic displaying the Seal of Melchizedek, or 8-pointed star, on an altar cloth, together with Abel offering his sacrificial lamb, and Abraham offering his son Isaac as sacrifice. Melchizedek also offers sacrifice on the altar

In this mosaic, both Abel and Abraham are clearly depicted offering their sacrifices of a lamb and Isaac respectively, along with Melchizedek offering sacrifice on the altar. The hand of God can be seen protruding from behind the veil to show the sacrifices have been accepted.

As with all sacrifices in the Old Testament, they functioned to point towards the great and last sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

In fact, everything about the Seal of Melchizedek points to Jesus Christ. Seeing as this symbol appeared on the altar (in the mosaic above), this would be representative of the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Not much is written about the Priest Melchizedek. His very name in Hebrew is "Malki Tzedik" which means 'My King is Righteousness' - another reference to Jesus Christ.

The Seal of Melchizedek looks very much like an 8-pointed star, which is representative of the biggest star (The Sun) in our solar system. Jesus Christ's brightness and glory is compared to that of the Sun. 

The number 8 is also religiously significant as representing new beginnings. For example, the 6 days of creation were followed by a 7th day, the Sabbath Day, making the 8th day a new beginning, the start of another cycle. Also, the 7,000 years of recorded history of this earth, 5,000 years leading up to the birth of Christ and the 2,000 years since that event. We are now beginning the 8,000th year, another new beginning as we await the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Seal of Melchizedek has close connections with Jesus Christ. In the Doctrine and Covenants we read:

"There are, in the church, two priesthoods, namely, the Melchizedek and Aaronic, including the Levitical Priesthood. Why the first is called the Melchizedek Priesthood is because Melchizedek was such a great high priest. Before his day it was called the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God. But out of respect or reverence to the name of the Supreme Being, to avoid the too frequent repetition of his name, they, the church, in ancient days, called that priesthood after Melchizedek, or the Melchizedek Priesthood...The Melchizedek Priesthood holds the right of presidency, and has power and authority over all the offices in the church in all ages of the world, to administer in spiritual things." (D&C 107: 1-4;8)

The Seal of Melchizedek is seemingly a representation of Jesus Christ, one that perhaps has not gathered much pace or attention to the Christian world at large, but is making more waves with Latter-day Saints in these times.