David J. Larsen
Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings, edited by Stephen D. Ricks and Jeffrey M. Bradshaw. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/the-temple-symbols-sermons-and-settings/.
“There are many accounts in both ancient and modern scripture and other religious writings about individuals that ascend into heaven. We have stories of Enoch, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, and others ascending up through the various levels of heaven into the presence of God. . . . However, a major difference between the ancient stories of individuals journeying to heaven and the experience of modern temple-goers is that modern temple endowments generally involve group settings.”
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About the Interpreter Foundation Book Chapter Reprint Series
The purpose of this reprint series is to make individual chapters from books published by The Interpreter Foundation more accessible to readers. Although in some instances the formatting and pagination may have been changed, the content of this chapter, like others in this reprint series, is identical to what appeared in its original book publication. It has not been updated to incorporate research that has appeared subsequently nor to reflect the current practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the full name of the Church and to avoid terms such as “Mormon” and “LDS.”
