Some modern Christians may not realize the "orthodox" origens and meanings of the 12 oxen with the baptismal font on their backs. It was a common motiff in historical Christianity and art. it is based on the biblical passage in Kings. As a restorationist Church IMO, it is nice the LDS have brought the beauty and symbolism of the old Christian art back.
AD IMAGINEM DEI Thoughts on the history of art, from a Catholic viewpoint
“The sea was then cast; it was made with a circular rim, and measured ten cubits across, five in height, and thirty in circumference. Under the brim, gourds encircled it, ten to the cubit all the way around; the gourds were in two rows and were cast in one mold with the sea. This rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east, with their haunches all toward the center, where the sea was set upon them. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim resembled that of a cup, being lily-shaped. Its capacity was two thousand measures.” I Kings 7:23-26
Notice this hypocrisy from the LDS prophet, Joseph F. Smith (who isn't Joseph Smith the
original charlatan).
(BTW, stick with this post to the end...because I have a unique dialogue you haven't seen anywhere...)
(1) First, JF Smith accuses Joe Smith, Jr. of "...not yet envision[ing] the soul-expanding concept of salvation for the dead":
From this, it is clear that whatever the scriptures said about the promises made to the fathers, about all the seed of Abraham having the right to special blessings, and about the preaching of the gospel in the spirit world, the Prophet had not yet envisioned the soul-expanding concept of salvation for the dead.
Immediately JF Smith launches into a dream he has and writes: In this setting, the answer was given and the gospel spread forth its light to embrace the living and the dead. “Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying—All who have died without a knowledge of this Gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom, for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.”
(2) So, did you all catch that last line? The major thrust here, according to JF Smith, is that God will "...judge all men according to their works." But the bigger context of JF Smith's dream was the gospel being preached to these folks post-death. Does anyone see the open disconnect there?
If not, here it is: If the Mormon god puts a heavier emphasis on judging men according to their works as the basis of what post-death kingdom they wind up in...then please explain what difference it's going to make to...
...do billions of hours of genealogical research...
...do millions of ritualistic proxy baptisms...
...do millions of post-death ritualistic sealings...
...because, after all, what good works are these spirits going to perform in the netherworld even if they are receptive to the post-death Mormon gospel???
The true order of it all was revealed by the writer of the book of Hebrews: "It is appointed for man to die once, and then the judgment." (Heb. 9:27)
Mormons would have you believe that Christians took a knife and excised much out of Heb. 9:27. Their version of an expanded Heb. 9:27 would read something like this:
Heb. 9:27(a): It is appointed for man to die once, and then wait in the big netherworld waiting room zillions of times worse than your worst doc's office, 'cause after all, the records process of this whole thing is even worse than your worst doctor-office nightmare...
Commentary: Why? Because those Mormon missionary "physician attendants" on the other side are held up by lack of accurate records among humanity, especially for the bulk of humanity whoever lived up until the first 16 centuries post-Christ. And even for those who lived between the 17th and 21st centuries, you have to await for people scrounging around tombstones for records confirmation, and then await a paper bureaucracy trail worst than Washington D.C. just to get the proxy baptism approved -- minus duplication.
Additional commentary: ...then, when or if the records are even located and properly processed past the bureaucratic snafus on the blue-earth side of things, a Mormon-spirit missionary has to be found -- someone who's been primed all his life that "families are forever" and yet is now being told he needs to leave that family, again, to go to some spirit who most likely rejected his doorbell rings in the previous life...
Heb. 9:27(b): ...then, when the Mormon gospel is presented to this netherworld spirit, he can either receive it or reject it...
Heb. 9:27(c) ...if he rejects it, he's gonna in all likelihood be "saved" and "resurrected" anyway, thus saith the Mormon "gospel"...
Commentary: ...he'll just be kept out of the elite Kolobian Heights star neighborhood...and as long as he wasn't a liar, adulterer, sorcerer or whoremonger and the like, he'll avoid the 1,000-year jail sentence in hell...thus, when LDS spirit-world missionaries zoom on by Telestialville and see all these resurrected, saved souls who rejected the Mormon gospel on both sides of the divide, they think, "Why did we bother with all the missionary ventures & geneology & temple rituals & spirit-side gospel presentations again?"
Heb. 9:27(d): ...some netherworld spirits receive the Mormon gospel...
Commentary...if this netherworld spirit receives the Mormon gospel, it dons on him that it's not really going to make much of a spiritual real estate difference, anyway, because, he's told, he's about to be judged on something he can't do anything about -- the works he did or didn't do while he was in the body...which brings me to the question that if the heart of the Mormon gospel is doing good works after receiving it, then why offer it to somebody who can't really do those good works given he's now minus a body?
Heb. 9:27(e): ...then he finally is brought before God the judge, who proceeds to judge him on his sins of commission in the body, sins of omission while he was in the body...
Commentary: "But you don't understand Mormon afterlife theology, C! Don't you see! At least by receiving the-Mormon-gospel-in-the-afterlife-based-upon-his-proxy-baptism-in-this-life-he-can-get-bumped-up-from-telestialville-to-terrestialville!"
And my response to that? "You're telling me that because of what a spirit does in the afterlife --
-- receive by 100% faith what a substitute has done for you by proxy --
--and believe in that act 100% --
--you receive a higher degree of heavenly glory, right?"
"Right"
"And you're telling me that these spirits receiving this Mormon gospel won't be able to do any good works because they won't have yet have their resurrected body, right?"
"Right."
"Boy, this kind of sounds a bit like the Christian gospel right now.
--"You receive by faith what somebody (Jesus Christ) did on your behalf-by-proxy.
--"You trust in this act on the cross -- 100% complete faith.
--"And, whatever good works you do after receiving this act done on your behalf still gets you the same real estate in the afterlife
--"'cause it was the act of receiving the gospel and believing in what Christ did for you that opened that particular door to heaven."
"Oh."
"Yeah, Oh."
