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Moses 1

Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 1:27-28.

JEHOVAH GIVES ALL REVELATION. All revelation since the fall has come through Jesus Christ, who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. In all of the scriptures, where God is mentioned and where he has appeared, it was Jehovah who talked with Abraham, with Noah, Enoch, Moses and all the prophets. He is the God of Israel, the Holy One of Israel; the one who led that nation out of Egyptian bondage, and who gave and fulfilled the Law of Moses. The Father has never dealt with man directly and personally since the fall, and he has never appeared except to introduce and bear record of the Son. Thus the Inspired Version [JST] records that "no man hath seen God [the Father] at any time, except he [God the Father] hath borne record of the Son." [JST, Jn 1:19.]...

CHRIST MAY SPEAK AS THE FATHER. In giving revelations our Savior speaks at times for himself; at other times for the Father, and in the Father's name, as though he were the Father, and yet it is Jesus Christ, our Redeemer who gives the message. So, we see, in Doctrine and Covenants 29:1, that he introduces himself as "Jesus Christ, your Redeemer," but in the closing part of the revelation he speaks for the Father, and in the Father's name as though he were the Father, and yet it is still Jesus who is speaking, for the Father has put his name on him for that purpose.

FIRST VISION AND REVELATION. We have a wonderful illustration of how revelation comes through Christ presented to us in the Vision given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Father and the Son appeared unto him, but it was not the Father who answered his question! The Father introduced Joseph to His Son, and it was the Son who answered the important question and gave the instruction.

Had Joseph Smith come home from the grove and declared that the Father and the Son appeared to him and that the Father spoke to him and answered his question while the Son stood silently by, then we could have accepted the story as a fraud. Joseph Smith was too young and inexperienced to know this at the time, but he made no mistake, and his story was in perfect harmony with divine truth, with the divine law that Christ is the Mediator between God [the Father] and man.

Moses 2-3

WHEN WAS GENESIS 1:26-28? WHEN DID IT HAPPEN? AN INTERESTING QUESTION WITH AN INTERESTING COMMENT BY JOSEPH SMITH. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 157. The Priesthood was first given to Adam; he obtained the First Presidency, and held the keys of it from generation to generation. He obtained it in the Creation, before the world was formed, as in Genesis 1:26, 27, 28. He had dominion given him over every living creature. He is Michael the Archangel, spoken of in the Scriptures. Then to Noah, who is Gabriel; he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood; he was called of God to this office, and was the father of all living in this day, and to him was given the dominion. These men held keys first on earth, and then in heaven.

WHAT DOES "REPLENISH" MEAN? Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 1:93-94. ADAM COMMANDED TO REPLENISH THE EARTH. MEANING OF REPLENISH. Adam was commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. Some have supposed this meant to fill up the earth again, but this is not so. The original Hebrew word appears many times in the Old Testament; only once is it translated "replenish."

It is a translation from the Hebrew word "male" pronounced malay. It is the same Hebrew word which is translated "fill" in the first chapter of Genesis, verse 22, in reference to the multiplying of fish of the sea and fowl of the air and the beasts of the field. This same Hebrew word is translated more than a score of times in other parts of the Bible and always as "fill," or "make full," never as replenish.

The Hebrew Lexicon defines the word as follows: "male intrans, to be or become full, to be fulfilled or completed." Why this word was translated "replenish" in the one case, but "fill" or "make full" in reference to fish, fowl and beasts and in a score of other places, I do not know.

In the Catholic Bible, it is translated, "fill." And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply so as to fill the earth and subdue it."

In the Smith and Goodspeed translation it reads: "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it."

In Farrer Fenton's (English) translation, it reads: "God then gave them his blessing; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply so as to fill the earth, and subdue it."

Even in the English unabridged dictionary, one meaning of replenish is "to make full."

NO REVEALED ACCOUNT OF SPIRIT CREATION
Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, 1:75–77. (Italics in original. Bold added.)

Account of Physical Creation. While it is true that all things were created spiritually, or as spirits, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth, this creation, we are informed, was in heaven. This applies to animals of all descriptions and also to plant life, before there was flesh upon the earth, or in the water, or in the air. The account of the creation of the earth as given in Genesis, and the Book of Moses, and as given in the temple, is the creation of the physical earth, and of physical animals and plants. I think the temple account, which was given by revelation, is the clearest of all of these. These physical creations were made out of the natural elements.

No Revealed Account of Spirit Creation. There is no account of the creation of man or other forms of life when they were created as spirits. There is just the simple statement that they were so created before the physical creation.

The statements in Moses 3:5 and Genesis 2:5 are interpolations thrown into the account of the physical creation, explaining that all things were first created in the spirit existence in heaven before they were placed upon this earth.

We were all created untold ages before we were placed on this earth. We discover from Abraham 3:22-28, that it was before the earth was formed that the plan of salvation was presented to the spirits, or “intelligences.” This being true, then man, animals and plants were not created in the spirit at the time of the creation of the earth, but long before.

Spiritual or Physical, and Spirit Creations. The account of creation in Genesis was not a spirit creation, but it was in a particular sense, a spiritual creation. This, of course, needs some explanation. The account in Genesis, chapters one and two, is the account of the creation of the physical earth. The account of the placing of all life upon the earth, up and until the fall of Adam, is an account, in a sense, of the spiritual creation of all of these, but it was also a physical creation. When the Lord said he would create Adam, he had no reference to the creation of his spirit for that had taken place ages and ages before when he was in the world of spirits and known as Michael.

Adam’s body was created from the dust of the earth, but at that time it was a spiritual earth, Adam had a spiritual body until mortality came upon him through the violation of the law under which he was living, but he also had a physical body of flesh and bones.

Nature of a Spiritual Body. Now what is a spiritual body? [Note: not a “spirit” body.] It is one that is quickened by spirit and not by blood. Our Father in heaven and our Savior and all those who have passed through the resurrection have physical bodies of flesh and bones, but their bodies are quickened by spirit and not by blood, hence they are spiritual bodies and not blood bodies. The immortal body is quickened by spirit, but the mortal body is quickened by blood. The Lord said to Noah, that blood is the life of the body in this mortal sphere. In latter-day revelation we have the following:

“For notwithstanding they die, they also shall rise again, a spiritual body. They who are of a celestial spirit shall receive the same body which was a natural body [i.e, a mortal body]; even ye shall receive your bodies, and your glory shall be that glory by which your bodies are quickened.” [D&C 88:27–28; 1 Cor 15:44–54.]

From this we have the Lord’s endorsement of a spiritual body being the body which has ceased to be a blood body. Now when Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he was not subject to death. There was no blood in his body and he could have remained there forever. This is true of all the other creations. This statement may not be very pleasing to our evolutionists, but it is true.

Adam: First Man and First Flesh. After the fall, which came by a transgression of the law under which Adam was living, the forbidden fruit had the power to create blood and change his nature and mortality took the place of immortality, and all things, partaking of the change, became mortal. Now I repeat, the account in Genesis one and two, is the account of the physical creation of the earth and all upon it, but the creation was not subject to mortal law until after the fall. It was, therefore, a spiritual creation and so remained until the fall when it became temporal, or mortal.

WHERE DID THE CREATION TAKE PLACE?

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 181. Joseph Smith said that after the earth is redeemed and celestialized, it "will be rolled back into the presence of God."

Journal of Discourses 17:143. Brigham Young taught that "When the earth was framed and brought into existence and man was placed upon it, it was near the throne of our Father in heaven. And when man fell . . . the earth fell into space, and took up its abode in this planetary system, and the sun became our light. . . . This is the glory the earth came from, and when it is glorified it will return again unto the presence of the Father, and it will dwell there, and these intelligent beings that I am looking at, if they live worthy of it, will dwell upon this earth."

Ibid., 9:317. President Young also said, "This earthly ball, this little opake [opaque] substance thrown off into space, is only a speck in the great universe; and when it is celestialized it will go back into the presence of God, where it was first framed. All belongs to God, and those who keep his celestial law will return to him."

John Taylor, The Mormon, August 29, 1857. Elder John Taylor taught that the earth "was organized near the planet Kolob."

EVE'S RIB STORY. Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, pg. 55-56. In after years, when Paradise was lost by sin; when man was driven from the face of his heavenly Father, to toil, and droop, and die; when heaven was veiled from view; and, with few exceptions, man was no longer counted worthy to retain the knowledge of his heavenly origin; then, darkness veiled the past and future from the heathen mind; man neither knew himself, from whence he came, nor whither he was bound. At length a Moses came, who knew his God, and would fain have led mankind to know Him too, and see Him face to face. But they could not receive His heavenly laws, or bide His presence.

Thus the holy man was forced again to veil the past in mystery, and in the beginning of his history, assign to man an earthly origin.

Man, moulded from the earth, as a brick!

A Woman, manufactured from a rib!

Thus, parents still would fain conceal from budding manhood the mysteries of procreation, or the sources of life's ever-flowing river, by relating some childish tale of new born life, engendered in the hollow trunk of some old tree, or springing with spontaneous growth like mushrooms from out the heaps of rubbish. O man! When wilt thou cease to be a child in knowledge?

Man as we have said, is the offspring of Deity.The entire mystery of the past and future, with regard to his existence, is not yet solved by mortals.

ADAM WAS BORN
Melvin A. & M. Garfield Cook, Science & Mormonism [SLC: Deseret Book Co., 1973], p. 156. In a letter to Samuel O. Bennion, February 26, 1912, Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose stated: "But President Young went on to show that our father Adam--that our earthly father--the progenitor of the race of man, stands at the head being 'Michael the Archangel, the Ancient of Days,' and that he was not fashioned from earth life and adobe but begotton by his Father in Heaven."

MEANING OF THE NAME "ADAM"
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Footnote #1 [interpolation by Joseph Fielding Smith], p.167. 1. The doctrine here taught by the Prophet that Adam was the first man, and because of that fact was named the "Ancient of Days," the "oldest of all," because he is the grand progenitor of the earth, is confirmed in several passages of scripture. In the D&C 84:16, the Lord says in speaking of the authority of Priesthood: "And from Enoch to Abel, who was slain by the conspiracy of his brother, who received the priesthood by the commandments of God, by the hand of his father Adam, who was the first man." Again in the Book of Moses, 1:34: "And the first man of all men, have I called Adam, which is many." (i.e., that is the name means many, because he is the father of all.)

Bruce R. McConkie, "Adam," Mormon Doctrine, pg. 17. " Adam was placed on earth as the first of the human family and given a name which signifies many as pertaining to the greatness of the posterity which should flow from him."

Hebrew: Adam-ruddy, to show blood, red, rosy, flush. No indication exists at all in Hebrew (or Greek) that the name Adam means "many."

Hugh Nibley, Ancient Documents and the Pearl of Great Price, p.11. Now, how many Adams are there? You can think of them. I've got ten here. There was a Council in Heaven; but before the council, Adam was on hand because he was summoned to the council. Jehovah, Michael; their attention is called and a program is suggested to them by Elohim. Elohim, of course, is the Council of the Gods, as we learn in the Book of Abraham. That's what the word Elohim means; it's plural.

You can't get away from it. That's the way it is referred to throughout the Book of Abraham. Before the council there was Adam there. We don't know how long he has been there, a very long time you can be sure, but they are not measuring time our way. The second Adam is when he joins the council and we've seen a lot about that. The Council in Heaven is when they plan the earth, its plan, its purpose etc. And Michael (he is not Adam yet) is very active in that. Then he goes down as a building inspector. He visits the earth from time to time to see how it is going. He is on the building committee. He and Jehovah go down and visit the earth from time to time then come back and report. According to some of the early Church fathers, this is where he gets his name Adam, from Adamantinos. Adamantine means "diamond." The word diamond comes from Adamantinos. Damao is "to break, to crush, to destroy." Adamanto means it cannot be destroyed. That negates it.

Adam means "to be indestructible." It's the same as our word dam, to stamp down. The word is damno in Greek. It means to injure in any way or to hold down. That can't be done to Adam in his original state. They say when he visited the earth during its construction, it was not a safe place to be. You had to be Adamantinos or you'd never get away from it. There were tremendous temperatures, whirling dust storms, and all the rest. It was in formation. So there's the Adamantinos, the indestructible building inspector.

Then he comes down and changes his name, personality and everything else-wipes out everything and becomes as a little child. He receives a new name and is now Adam. He is now man; he is now on this earth. Of course, Adam means "red earth," and it means all those other things.

We have a lot of names for Adam. We may mention them later on. This is one of the most important periods of all. This is the one that accounts for that time when he was a primitive and all that. We go on here for now. Then he wakes again. He wakes from a sleep and is blanked out like a little child, and then he goes to sleep again. He wakes up and marries Eve under the covenant. That's number five. That's before they enter the Garden of Eden. In the next phase he enters the Garden of Eden and is an immortal being. He's in paradise now. He's a food gatherer, but he hasn't fallen. He's a spiritual being and would live forever.

"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." We cannot conceive of what it was like there in Eden except that it was infinitely delightful. He could have gone on forever without it being boring.

But he does leave Eden and ends up in a totally different world. He's outcast, just like Moses in the beginning here. He's flat. There are very dramatic early Christian and Jewish accounts about how Adam, after he was cast out of the garden, found himself desperate. He didn't think the sun would ever rise again. He'd sinned; he was cast out. He was in a dark [p.12] and dreary world. He despaired of ever being forgiven or of ever living. We are told when he was cast out of Eden, his life became shorter and he became smaller in stature. So he's another one, but he doesn't stay that way. Because he has been following the rules, an angel comes to visit him. Not an angel, but angels (we are told three men in the literature) come and start instructing him. He hears the voice of the Lord, but the angels visit him and bring books and instructions and tell him what he is to do to get back into the presence of God. He now enters the covenant and becomes one of the fold. He becomes one who is receiving instructions and is on the way back to salvation, a very different state from what he was before he received that. In receiving the covenants and receiving the signs and tokens from the angels, he receives a new name too. This is an important thing. (That's eight.)

Moses 4

THE EARTH BEFORE THE FALL. Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, pg. 356. This earth was created in a terrestrial state, an Edenic state, a paradisiacal state. It was pronounced very good by its Creator. All of the land masses were in one place and the waters in another. There was no death or sorrow or disease. Then came the fall of Adam, which brought temporal and spiritual death into the world. And the effects of the fall passed upon the earth and all forms of life on its surface. It became a telestial or fallen orb as at present, a world in which death and disease, sorrow and suffering, and all of the ills of the flesh are everywhere to be found. Adam and Eve, earth's sole human inhabitants, became mortal so they could begin the process of providing bodies for the spirit children of the Eternal Father.

BRUISE THE SERPENT'S HEAD. Moses 4:21. James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pg. 43, 82. Brief mention of the plan of salvation, the author of which is Jesus Christ, appears in the promise given of God following the fall--that though the devil, represented by the serpent in Eden, should have power to bruise the heel of Adam's posterity, through the seed of the woman should come the power to bruise the adversary's head. It is significant that this assurance of eventual victory over sin and its inevitable effect, death, both of which were introduced to earth through Satan the arch-enemy of mankind, was to be realized through the offspring of woman; the promise was not made specifically to the man, nor to the pair. The only instance of offspring from woman dissociated from mortal fatherhood is the birth of Jesus Christ, who was the earthly Son of a mortal mother, begotten by an immortal Father. He is the Only Begotten of the Eternal Father in the flesh [mortality], and was born of woman....

Jesus Christ was to be born of mortal woman, but was not directly the offspring of mortal man, except so far as His mother was the daughter of both man and woman. In our Lord alone has been fulfilled the word of God spoken in relation to the fall of Adam, that the seed of the woman should have power to overcome Satan by bruising the serpent's head.

"WE'LL SING ALL HAIL" (HYMN #182, 1985 ed.) Verse 3

He seized the keys of death and hell
And bruised the serpent's head;
He bid the prison doors unfold,
The grave yield up her dead.

ENOCH'S ZION: THE GULF OF MEXICO? THE GARDEN OF EDEN. ADAM-ONDI-AHMAN. Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 30 March 1873. Again President Young said Joseph the Prophet told me that the garden of Eden was in Jackson Co., Missouri, & when Adam was driven out of the garden of Eden He went about 40 miles to the Place which we Named Adam Ondi Ahman, & there built an Altar of stone & offered Sacrifice. That Altar remains to this day. I saw it as Adam left it as did many others, & through all the revolutions of the world that Altar had not been disturbed. Joseph also said that when the City of Enoch fled & was translated it was whare [sic] the gulf of Mexico now is. It left that gulf a body of water.

Joseph Young, Enoch and His City, [pamphlet], pg. 12 footnote. "Joseph Smith said, on another occasion, in the hearing of some of the saints still surveying, that the City of Enoch would again take its place in the identical spot from which it had been detached, now forming that chasm of the earth, filled with water, called the Gulf of Mexico."

Moses 5

WE DO NOT WANT BLIND OBEDIENCE. Harold B. Lee quoting Brigham Young, Conference Report, October 1950, pg. 129-130. "I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are being led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give their leaders if they know for themselves by the revelations of Jesus Christ that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know by the whisperings of the Spirit of God to themselves whether their leaders are walking in the way the Lord dictates or not."

To me, there is a tremendous truth. It is not alone sufficient for us as Latter-day Saints to follow our leaders and to accept their counsel, but we have the greater obligation to gain for ourselves [1] the unshakable testimony of the divine appointment of these men and [2] the witness that what they have told us is the will of our Heavenly Father.

OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD DOES NOT COME FROM THE PRE-EXISTENCE. John Taylor, Gospel Kingdom, pg. 91 (see Ensign, January 1994, pg. 10-11). How did Adam get his information of the things of God? He got it through the gospel of Jesus Christ.... God came to him in the garden and talked with him...; and he was the first man upon this earth that had the gospel and the holy priesthood; and if he had it not, he could not have known anything about God or his revelations. [This is a supplement to "Man Did Not Bring Knowledge of God with Him from the Preexistence" on Reserve/Internet.]

THREE INDEPENDENT PRINCIPLES. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 189-190. May 16, 1841. There are three independent principles; the Spirit of God, the spirit of man, and the spirit of the devil. All men have power to resist the devil. They who have tabernacles [bodies], have power over those who have not. [See Moses 5:23.]

Moses 6

Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, April 1953, pg. 123-126. I would like to say just a word about my testimony of the mission of Jesus Christ. I want to go a little farther back for a moment, if I can be given guidance by the Spirit of the Lord to speak the truth accurately, and mention the great condition precedent to the efficacy of the mission of Jesus Christ. That condition precedent is the mission of Father Adam, because without the mission of Adam there would have been no need for the mission--the atonement--of Jesus Christ.

I have an assignment from the First Presidency to serve on the Church publications committee. This committee is expected to read and pass upon the literature proposed for use in the study of our auxiliary organizations. It would please me immensely if, in the preparation of this literature, we could get away from using the language of those who do not believe in the mission of Adam. I have reference to words and phrases such as "primitive man," "prehistoric man," "Before men learned to write," and the like. We sometimes use these terms in a way that offends my feelings; in a way which indicates to me that we get mixed up in our understanding of the mission of Adam. The connotation of these terms, as used by unbelievers, is out of harmony with our understanding of the mission of Adam.

"Adam fell that man might be." (2 Ne 2:25.) There were no pre-Adamic men in the line of Adam. The Lord said that Adam was the first man. (Moses 1:34; 3:7; D&C 84:16.) It is hard for me to get the idea of a man ahead of Adam, before the first man. The Lord also said that Adam was the first flesh (Moses 3:7) which, as I understand it, means the first mortal on the earth. I understand from a statement in the book of Moses, which was made by Enoch, that there was no death in the world before Adam. (Moses 6:48; see also 2 Ne 2:22.) ...

I understand from this that Enoch could read about Adam in a book which had been written under the tutelage of Almighty God. Thus there were no prehistoric men who could not write because men living in the days of Adam, who was the first man, wrote.

I am not a scientist. I do not profess to know anything but Jesus Christ, and him crucified, and the principles of his gospel. If, however, there are some things in the strata of the earth indicating there were men before Adam, they were not the ancestors of Adam.

Adam was the son of God. [Moses 6:22.] He was our elder brother, not older than Jesus, but he was our brother in the same sense that Jesus was our brother, and he "fell" to earth life. He did not come up through an unbroken line of organic evolution. There had to be a fall....

I must not go into a longer discussion, but I say again that I would be very pleased if, in our teaching of the gospel, we could keep revealed truth straight in our minds and not get it confused with the ideas and theories of men, who do not believe what the Lord has revealed with respect to the fall of Adam.

SETH AND ADAM LOOK-ALIKES.

History of the Church 5:246. Monday, 9 [January 1843].--At half-past eight in the morning, started for Plymouth [Illinois]: roads very hard, smooth and icy. When about two miles west of Brooklyn [Illinois], at half-past twelve p.m., the horses of the large carriage slipped and became unmanageable; and horses and carriage, with Lorin Walker and Dr. Richards in it, went off the embankment some six or eight feet perpendicular, doing no damage except breaking the fore-axletree and top of the carriage. It was a remarkable interposition of Providence that neither of the brethren were injured in the least. The company agreed the Lilburn W. Boggs should pay the damage; cut down a small tree, spliced the axle, drove on, and arrived at Brother Samuel Smith's in Plymouth, about four p.m. After supper, I visited my sister, Catherine Salisbury, accompanied by Dr. Richards and Sister Durphy. This was the first time I had visited my sister in the state of Illinois, and the circumstance brought vividly to my mind many things pertaining to my father's house, of which I spake freely, and particularly of my brother Alvin. He was a very handsome man, surpasssed by none but Adam and Seth, and of great strength. When two Irishmen were fighting, and one was about to gouge the other's eye, Alvin took him by his collar and breeches, and threw him over the ring, which was composed of men standing around to witness the fight.

Journal of Discourses 11:122-123. Brigham Young, 18 June 1865. God has made His children like Himself to stand erect, and has endowed them with intelligence and power and dominion over all His works, and given them the same attributes which He himself possesses. He created man, as we create our children; for there is no other process of creation in heaven, on the earth, in the earth, or under the earth, or in all the eternities, that is, that were, or that ever will be. As the Apostle Paul has expressed it, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being." "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art or man's device." There exist fixed laws and regulations by which the elements are fashioned to fulfill their destiny in all the varied kingdoms and orders of creation, and this process of creation is from everlasting to everlasting. Jesus Christ is known in the scriptures as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and it is written of Him as being the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person. The word image we understand in the same sense as we do the word in the 3rd verse of the 5th chapter of Genesis, "And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." I am quite satisfied to be made aware by the scriptures, and by the Spirit of God, that He is not only the God and Father of Jesus Christ, but is also the Father of our spirits and the Creator of our bodies which bear His image as Seth bore the image of his father Adam. Adam begat many children who bore His image, but Seth is no doubt more particularly mentioned, because he was more like his father than the rest of the family.

Journal of Discourses 26:34. John Taylor, 14 December 1884. In regard to the earth, is it the Lord's? Yes. We are told that he made it, that he created all things, visible and invisible, whether pertaining to the earth or the heavens. And where did man originate? As we read it, he originated also from God. Who formed man according to the Bible record? The Lord. Whence came our spirits? We are told that God is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh. Then He of course is interested in the welfare of all flesh and all people of all languages, of tongues, of every color, and of every clime. That is the way that I understand these things. Our spirits are eternal and emanate from God. So we, as a people, have always understood and do understand to-day. We possess our bodies also, and they also emanated from God. The Bible tells us something in relation to these matters in tracing out genealogies. Who was Seth? He was the son of Adam. Who was Adam? The son of God. [Moses 6:22.] In another place we are told that "all we are His offspring" [see Acts 17:28]--that is, according to that, we are all the offspring of God.

See D&C 138:40 and D&C 107:43 for more about Adam and Seth.

Moses 7

WE DO NOT HAVE ALL PRIESTHOOD KEYS. Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple, pg. 151. I heard President Kimball say on one occasion, as other Presidents of the Church have said, that, while he holds all of the keys that are held upon the earth, there are keys that have not been given to him as President of the Church, because they are reserved to higher power and authority. For instance, he said that he does not hold the keys of the resurrection. The Lord holds them, but He has not delegated them--neither anciently, nor to modern prophets. President Kimball mentioned also the authority to command the elements, to walk on water. The Lord has this power, but He has not given it to mortals, although there are times when righteous men have been inspired to command the forces of nature and have been obeyed.

PRE-FLOOD CONDITIONS. Hugh Nibley, Enoch the Prophet (SLC: Deseret Book, 1986). Pg. 71. " 'Ye have gone astray that your riches shall not remain ... because you have done evil in everything,' [F. G. Kenyon, The Chester Beatty Papyrus (London: Emery Walker Ltd., 1941) 96:10. Samuel the Lamanite plainly drew on the Enoch texts that must have been included in the brass plates of Lehi. (Cf. Hela 13:31.)] with all manner of perversions, including "men dressing like women and women like men.' [Ibid., 98:1.]"

Pg. 73. " 'they transgressed ... from the Covenant of Heaven ... sinned, and betrayed the ethos [law of the gospel], mingled with women and sinned with them; they also married and bore children, but not according to the Spiritual but by a carnal order only.' [Ibid., 106:13.]"

Pg. 74. " 'eating flesh [before the flood] and drinking blood...' " [Gizeh Fragment, VII, 4.]

Pg. 76. " 'Slavery was not given from above but came by transgression, and the barronness of our women does not come by nature but by your own willful perversions.' " [Greek Enoch 98:5,]

Pg. 78. "A significant aspect of the Apocalyptic picture is the technological advancements of the doomed and wicked world, in which men defy God confident in their technical and scientific knowledge. To the various fallen angels, designated by name, the Greek Enoch texts assign the introduction among men of chemistry, 'the manufacture of weapons and jewellery, cosmetics, the trade-secrets of angels,' formulas and incantations, drugs, astrology, semeiotika, asteroscopy, selenagogias, and so on. [G. Syncellus, Chronol., 23; Greek Enoch 8:3.] They thought to emancipate themselves from dependence on God through technological know-how [Zohar, Noah 74b.] ..."

NAME OF THE CHURCH IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES. Hugh Nibley, Since Cumorah, (1st ed.), pg. 21. ...the observation of one of the foremost Catholic authorities on the Dead Sea Scrolls, in one of the first and best books ever to appear on the subject that the correct title for the community at Qumran should be Latter-day Saints, but that the title could not be used because unfortunately it had been preempted by a "so-called" Christian sect. [The Mormons.]

Moses 8

SHEM AND MELCHIZEDEK. Hugh W. Nibley, "Man's Dominion," The New Era, October 1972, pg. 26. There is a tradition that Melchizedek, instructing Abraham in the things of the priesthood, explained to him that Noah earned his blessing by his charity to the animals, recalling how in the Ark, "We did not sleep because all night long we were setting food before this one and before that one." Taking this lesson to heart, Abraham himself made a sort of Garden of Eden near Hebron, and there practiced charity toward all creatures that thus he might "become a possessor of heaven and earth."

Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol.2, Ch.4, Pg.143. Abraham, when he set up his model Garden of Eden at Hebron, also established a school in the midst of it; in the preexistence Abraham had already learned the art of writing and was given the Book of Creation, but on earth he was not able to read it without assistance, and so his teacher Shem helped him at it.

Alma E. Gygi, Ensign, November 1972, pp. 15-16. ... In this patriarchal order of priesthood, Shem stands next to Noah. He held the keys to the priest-hood and was the great high priest of his day. [Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p. 474; D&C 138:41.]

Living contemporary with Shem was a man known as Melchizedek, who was also known as the great high priest. [D&C 107:2; Hebr 7:4; Alma 13:17; Gen 14:18-20.] The scriptures give us the details of Shem's birth and ancestry but are silent as to his ministry and later life. Of Melchizedek, however, the opposite is true. Nothing is recorded about his birth or ancestry, even though the Book of Mormon states that he did have a father. (Alma 13:17-18.) Concerning his ministry and life we have several interesting and important facts. (Gen 14:18-20; Hebr 4:1-4; Alma 13:17-18.)

All of this provokes some questions and calls for answers. Were there two high priests presiding at the same time? Why is the record silent concerning Shem's ministry? Why is nothing known concerning Melchizedek's ancestry?

Because of this state of knowledge on our part, many Saints and gospel scholars have wondered if these men were the same person. The truth is, we do not know the answer. But an examination of the scriptures is fascinating, because it seems to indicate that these men may have been one and the same. For example, here is the case for their oneness:

• The inheritance given to Shem included the land of Salem. Melchizedek appears in scripture as the king of Salem, who reigns over this area.
• Shem, according to later revelation, reigned in righteousness and the priesthood came through him. Melchizedek appears on the scene with a title that means "king of righteousness."
• Shem was the great high priest of his day. Abraham honored the high priest Melchizedek by seeking a blessing at his hands and paying him tithes.
• Abraham stands next to Shem in the patriarchal order of the priesthood and would surely have received the priesthood from Shem; but D&C 84:5-17 says Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek.
• Jewish tradition identifies Shem as Melchizedek. ["When Abraham returned from the war, Shem, or, as he is sometimes called, Melchizedek, the king of righteousness, priest of the Most High God...." (Ginsberg, Legends of the Jews, p. 233.) "Jewish tradition pronounces Melchizedek to be a survivor of the Deluge {Flood}, the patriarch Shem." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, p. 393.) "And Adonizedek king of Jerusalem, the same was Shem...." (Book of Jasher 16:11.)]
• President Joseph F. Smith's remarkable vision [D&C 138:41] names Shem among the great patriarchs, but no mention is made of Melchizedek.
• Times & Seasons (vol. 6, p. 746) [John Taylor, editor] speaks of "Shem, who was Melchizedek." [Lundwall, Lectures on Faith, (Bookcraft, n.d.), p. 93.

On the other hand, there is a case for their being two distinct personalities. Many persons believe D&C 84:14 is proof that there are perhaps several generations between Melchizedek and Noah. The scripture says, "Which Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah."

If it does turn out that Shem and Melchizedek are the same person, this scripture should prove no stumbling block, because it could be interpreted to mean that priesthood authority commenced with Adam and came through the fathers, even till Noah, and then to Shem.

Bruce K. Satterfield, "Melchizedek," Encyclopedia of Mormonism 2:880. It was asserted by some early LDS leaders that Melchizedek was Shem, son of Noah (see, e.g., Times and Seasons 5:746). Though Shem is also identified as a [the] great high priest (D&C 138:41), it would appear from the Doctrine and Covenants 84:14 that the two might not be the same individual (Mormon Doctrine, pg. 475), and Jewish sources equating Melchizedek and Shem are late and tendentious [biased].

The Book of Abraham

SUMMARY OF THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. Mark E. Petersen, Abraham, pg. 139. [1] It shows us the process by which Jehovah was chosen to be the Savior of the world. [2] It gives us a glimpse into the pre-mortal life. [3] It explains how God's leaders in this world were selected in the pre-earth life, since they were also leaders in that pristine period. [4] It provides a remarkable description of the creation by "the Gods," showing a plurality of Personages engaged therein. [5] It gives us a divinely inspired lesson in astronomy, as taught by the Lord himself. Abraham was shown the vast creations in the heavens, with the Almighty himself making the explanations, for creation came about by divine action. {Not just the effects of "natural law."} [6] It also adds some history concerning the early life of Abraham, his relation to God, and a further understanding of the divine promises made to than ancient patriarch.

DATING ABRAHAM. Ensign, May 1979, pg. 111-112. The date normally assigned to Abraham is about 1800 b.c., yet because so little is known about the world of the ancient patriarchs, "many believe the patriarchs have lost their historical standing" [according to David Noel Freedman, a non-LDS biblical scholar from the University of Michigan, speaking at BYU in March of 1979].

But in 1974 a team of Italian archaeologists reported excavating Ebla, a site in northwestern Syria that included possibly fifteen thousand clay tablets or fragments containing cuneiform writing dating to about the middle of the third millennium--2500 B.C....

...among the names of the cities with which it [Ebla] traded appear the names of Sodom and Gomorrah. "This is the first reference ever, outside of the Bible, to these cities while they still existed," he stressed.

Like most Biblical cities, they were destroyed. Unlike most Biblical cities, they were destroyed "in a spectacular fashion and they were never rebuilt." That they were "destroyed once and forever had great theological impact" as we can tell from the later prophets' references.

How does the information that Ebla traded with these cities increase our knowledge of Abraham? No cities are known to have existed in the vicinity of the Dead Sea around 1800 b.c. that could have been Sodom and Gomorrah. However, there are ruins of cities that were destroyed but not rebuilt dating back to the time of Ebla. Therefore the 1800 b.c. date for Abraham may be too late. Should the patriarchal period actually be pushed back several hundred years to 2500-2200 b.c.? "To put it mildly," said Professor Freedman, "the implications are revolutionary."

Abraham 1

ABRAHAM AND PHARAOH (NIMROD) Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, pg. 61. ... it is significant that the Abraham apocrypha, widely scattered in time and place, tell very much the same stories, suggesting their common origin in a lost portion of the record, for which "a number of scholars are beginning to recognize the historical foundations to important parts of the tradition." [M. Mauss, "Critique interne de la Legende d'Abraham, Review des Etudes Juives 82 (1926:35.)]

The central theme throughout is the machinations of a great cosmocrator [world ruler], who fears, due to the findings of his astrologers, that the infant Abraham is a threat to his kingship and priesthood, a deadly rival. In a series of dramatic encounters he tries to prevent the birth of the child and then to destroy it, is duly confounded by the boy Abraham, and attempts to sacrifice the young man on an altar.

To Abraham's challenge that his God is the giver of life, the would-be ruler of the world responds: "It is I who give life and I who take it!" [H. Nibley, "A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price," Improvement Era, January 1969, pg. 28ff.]

The supermonarch often goes by the name of Nimrod in the stories, but in the oldest versions he is plainly identified with Pharaoh. [Ibid., Apr. 1969, pg. 62-72.] In making the confrontation between Abraham and Pharaoh the pivotal theme of its history, with rival claims to priesthood and kingship the issue, the Book of Abraham has got off on the right foot and cleared a formidable hurdle. [In other words, it fits with the other Abraham literature that has been discovered!]

G. H. Box, M.A., The Apocalypse of Abraham (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1919.) [From the "Introduction," pp. viii-x.]: The Book opens with a description of Abraham's activities as a maker and seller of idols, his father Terah being a manufacturer of idols. His doubts as to the justifiable character of the idol-worship are roused especially by an accident that befell the stone image called Merumath, and by a similar accident that happened to "five other gods," by which they were broken in pieces (chaps. i.-ii.). Reflecting on this, he is led to protest to his father against the unreality of asking a blessing from such helpless images, thereby rousing Terah's anger (chaps. iii.-iv.). He is led to test further the powers of the idols by placing a wooden god Barisat before the fire, and telling the idol to see that the fire must not be allowed to die down during his absence. On returning he finds Barisat fallen backwards and "horribly burnt" (chap. v.). He again protests to his father against the futility of such worship, sarcastically contrasting the relative merits of gold, silver and wooden idols (chap. vi.). He then proceeds to show that the elements of fire, water, earth, and the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, and stars) are more worthy of honor than the idols, and yet, as each is subjected to some superior force, they can none of them claim to be God (chap. vii.). While he was yet speaking to his father a voice came from heaven bidding him leave his father's house. He had scarcely left the house when fire descended and consumed all within it.

The apocalyptic part opens with a divine command to Abraham to prepare a sacrifice with a view to receiving a divine revelation concerning the future (chap. ix.). Abraham, terrified at the experience, is confronted by the angel Jaoel, who encourages him, and explains his commission to be with Abraham, and act as his celestial guide. Under the direction of the angel he proceeds to Horeb, the Mount of God, journey of forty days (chaps. x.-xii.), and there, with the help of Jaoel, accomplishes the sacrifice. At the point Azazel, the fallen archangel and seducer of mankind, intervenes and attempts to dissuade Abraham from his purpose. In the form of an unclean bird he flies down "upon the carcasses" (cf. Gen xv. 11), and tries to induce Abraham to leave the holy place, but in vain. Jaoel denounces the evil spirit, bidding him depart, and telling him that the heavenly garment which was formerly his has been set aside for Abraham (chaps. xiii.-xiv.).

After this Abraham and the angel ascend on the wings of the unslaughtered birds (of the sacrifice) to heaven, which is described at length. It is filled with "a strong light" of power inexpressible, and there they see the angels who are born and disappear daily, after singing their hymn of praise (chaps. xv.-xvi.). At this point Abraham, hearing the divine voice, falls prostrate, and, taught by the angel, utters the celestial song of praise, and prays for enlightenment (chap. xvii.). He sees the divine throne with the Cherubim and the holy Creatures (hayyoth), of whom a description is given, and particularly of their rivalry which is mitigated by the activity of Jaoel (chap. xviii.). God now speaks and discloses to Abraham the powers of heaven in the various firmaments below (chap. xix.). God promises him a seed numerous as the stars (chap. xx.). In answer to a question by Abraham about Azazel, God shows him a vision of the world, its fruits and creatures, the sea and its monsters (including Leviathan), the Garden of Eden, its fruits, streams, and blessedness. He sees also a multitude of human beings "half of them on the right side of the picture, and half of them on the left" (chap. xxi.). The fall of man is explained to him, being traced to the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden, a vision of which appears in the picture and also of its results upon the destinies of mankind, who are divided into the people of the right side of the picture, representing the Jewish-world, and the people on the left representing the heathen world. In particular the sin of idolatry resulting in impurity and murder is sketched and made manifest (chaps. xxii.-xxv.). The question, why sin is permitted, is answered by God (chap. xxvi.), and this is followed by a vision of judgement in which the destruction of the Temple is portrayed. In answer to Abraham's anguished question it is explained to him that this is due to the sin of idolatry on the part of his seed. At the same time a hint is given him of coming salvation (chap. xxvii.). In answer to the question, how long shall the judgement last? a description is given of the troubles preceding the Messianic Age, and the dawn of the latter (chaps. xxviii-xxix.); the latter chapter contains a long Christian interpolation). At the point Abraham finds himself "upon the earth," but receives a further disclosure regarding the punishment of the heathen and the ingathering of Israel (chaps. xxx.-xxxi.). [c. a.d. 180-225.]

THE SACRIFICE OF ABRAHAM Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 1:45-46. Recently someone has noted that mention of the attempted sacrifice of Abraham is to be found in the once widely read Bayle's "Dictionary" as early as 1732 and suggested that that is where Joseph Smith got the story. But all Bayle says on the subject is that there is a rabbinical tradition "that he was cast by the Chaldeans into a fire, from which he emerged unscathed," with the usual stereotyped observation that the story arose from a misreading of his escape from "Ur," Ur meaning both "Ur" (the city) and "fire."

WHERE IS UR OF THE CHALDEES? Hugh Nibley, Abraham in Egypt, pg. 49. For all these years nobody has any idea of where Ebla was--it was just another city mentioned in the Babylonian archives far to the south. And suddenly it emerges as the capital of a mighty empire. Nor has nay ancient record beside the Bible ever mentioned Abraham's five "cities of the plain"; such silence put the whole Abraham story in doubt: "In its heyday the older criticism became quite skeptical about this material, writing it off as a legend of no historical worth." [Anderson, F. I. "Ebla, the more we find out, the less we know," Buried History 13 (March 1977):6-12.] Those were the same critics who dismissed the Book of Abraham with a contemptuous glance and flick of the hand. But now in the Ebla records the mysterious Cities of the Plain emerge in a everyday business document, waiting for the traveler, as large as life on the very route that Abraham was supposed to have followed. [Freedman, D. N. "The Real Story of the Ebla Tablets," Biblical Archaeologist 41 (December 1978):143-64.] And along with them there is another city specifically called "Ur in Harran." "An especially intriguing notice," write the editors of the Biblical Archeology Review, "is a reference to 'Ur in Haran.' Does this mean that the Ur from which Abraham originally came was near Haran rather than a thousand miles further away in southern Mesopotamia where 'Ur of the Chaldees' is supposedly located?" ["The Promise of Ebla" (editorial), Biblical Archeology Review 2 (December 1976):41-42.] We have noted elsewhere how the Abraham legends and traditions strongly favor that northern as against the southern Ur, a theme to which we shall return presently. [Nibley, Improvement Era, January 1968--May 1970.] The name of Jerusalem also appears in the tablets, which abound with biblical matter. Thus the discoverer of the tablets, the Roman archaeologist G. Pettinato, calls the place "Canaanite Ebla," and notes that this big city of over a quarter of a million had a king called Eber and referred to its god as both Ya and El. In fact, in one tablet a man changes his name from Mika-il to Mika-ya, thus adding a new dimension to the long controversy over which was Israel's special God--Yahweh or El. [Pettinato, G. "The Royal Archives of Tell-Mardikh-Ebla," Biblical Archaeologist 39 (May 1976).] The kings at Ebla were "anointed," and "their governors were called 'judges,' " and their prophets were nabi'utum. ["The Promise of Ebla."] All of which reminds us of Israel. Long ago when "the Egyptian and Mesopotamian texts thrust Israel into a real world," the picture of Abraham as the simple wandering shepherd should have been erased, though artists and Sunday School teachers still cling to it. [Roeder, G. Urkunden zur Religion des Alten Aegypten. Jena: E. Diederichs, 1923:6.]

Ibid., pg. 68. The Book of Abraham brings the patriarch in his earlier years together with a priest of Pharaoh in "the land of Chaldea." Though until the late nineteenth century the consensus of scholarly opinion placed the Ur of Abraham in the Haran area of northern Mesopotamia, as Cyrus Gordon notes, "the excavations at Sumerian Ur [in the 1930s] threw us off the track," and for a while the great Sumerian Ur was favored as Abraham's city, but today "Ebla is putting us back on it." [Gordon, C. "Where Is Abraham's Ur?" Biblical Archeology Review 2 (June 1977):21f., 52.] When your friendly informant discussed the matter in he April 1969 Improvement Era, the experts were about evenly divided between the northern and the southern Ur, but in 1976 Ebla definitely turned the scales in favor of the north.

Ibid., pg. 69. Gordon would push into the extreme northwest, "the Urfa-Haran region of south central Turkey near the Syrian border, rather than in Mesopotamia." [Gordon, 20.] N. Weeks finds that names like Nakhur (Nahor) and Banyuamina (Benjamin) in the Mari tablets "may confirm the northern Mesopotamia origin of the patriarchs" [Weeks, N. "Mari, Nuzi and the Patriarchs," Abr-Nahrain 16 (1975-76).] while J. L. Kelso rests everything on the proposition that Abraham "was a caravaneer running a trade route from Haran to Damascus to Egypt" [Kelso, J. "Abraham as Archaeology Knows Him," Perspective 13 (Winter 1972):74.] In the Ebla tablets the key passage is "a reference to 'Ur in Haran.' Does this mean," asks the editor of the Biblical Archeology Review, "that the Ur from which Abraham originally came was near Haran rather than 1,000 miles further away in southern Mesopotamia where 'Ur of the Chaldees' is supposedly located?" ["The Promise of Ebla."] This most recent of sources is to be taken very seriously in view of the fact that it mentions not only Abraham's Cities of the Plain in their correct geographical setting, but also Canaan, Haran, and "Haran in the territory of Ur." ["The Promise of Ebla," Freedman:43.]

Ibid., pg. 70-71. That "country in the Haran region which the Bible calls Aram of the Two Rivers" was that Naharina ("Two Rivers") which M. Gemoll describes as "the classic land of the Chaldeans between Ararat and Mesopotamia" [Gemoll, J. Israeliten und Hyksos. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1913:36], which contained that "Ur in Haran" which the Ebla tablets now identify as the most likely home of Abraham. It was a land that figures largely in the dynastic histories of the Late Kingdom of Egypt, and important members of the royal family came from there.

Paul Y. Hoskisson, "Where Was Ur of the Chaldees?" The Pearl of Great Price: Revelations from God, pg. 119-136. As long ago as 1969, Hugh Nibley stated, "any way we look at it, Abraham's 'Ur of the Chaldees' was not the great city of the south identified in the 1920s by Sir Leonard Woolley." [The Unknown Abraham, Improvement Era, April 1969, pg 68.] ...
It is possible to draw some conclusions about the location of Ur based on the book of Abraham.

1st, the land of the Chaldees, or at least part of it, was under strong Egyptian influence on cult and religion, and probably on culture and politics. It is even possible that the land was under Egyptian hegemony. Therefore, we must limit our search for Ur of the Chaldees to areas that could have been under Egyptian sway during Abraham's day.... there is no evidence Egypt ever exercised cultural or religious influence on Mesopotamia at any time before the Late Bronze Age (1600 b.c.). In fact, no evidence exists that Egypt and Mesopotamia were even aware of each other during the Middle and Early Bronze periods.... the absence of any mention of Egypt in the Middle Bronze archives of Mari would tend to preclude any Egyptian influence in Syria further east than Ebla.

2nd, when Abraham left the land of the Chaldees, he probably went immediately to a place outside the direct influence of Egypt, that is, away from the reach of Pharaoh and his priest.... it [is] evident that Abraham would have moved away from the land of the Chaldeans but not in a direction radically away from the land of Canaan. Abraham's first prolonged stop was in Haran, a site that may be located with relative certainty on the east of the Euphrates on the Balikh River just north of the present day Syrian-Turkish border. Therefore, we must look for an Ur from which, in relation to Canaan, Haran would not be far removed or present a circuitous route. This would rule out all of Lebanon and probably all of Syria south of Aleppo.

3rd, when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees there was a famine in progress. Apparently that famine also held sway in Haran when Abraham arrived there (2:4-5). For the same famine (if it were the same famine) to have held in both places, Ur of the Chaldees must lie within the same ecosystem with Haran and must not have been a great distance away. Haran lies within an upland area of the Fertile Crescent that receives adequate rainfall to sustain agriculture without the necessity of artificial irrigation.... [The Ur in the south] lies in a low plain which, though technically within the Fertile Crescent, can only be fecund with artificial irrigation. It is unlikely that both would have experienced a water or elevation related famine at the same time, unless the conditions causing the famine applied to vast areas over an extended period of time for the entire ancient Asian Near East.

4th, while a case could be made that the mentioning of Chaldeans in Genesis is anachronistic, the same cannot be said of the book of Abraham. The content of the book of Abraham did not pass through numerous revisions, the hands of countless scribes, and does not rely upon material and information available only during or after the Babylonian exile. It purports to be a rendering of an ancient document originally composed by Abraham himself. Therefore, the use of "Chaldeans" in the book of Abraham cannot be an anachronism. Because we may safely date Abraham to at least the first half of the Middle Bronze Age, possibly earlier, and because neither the Kassites nor the Kaldü, the two possible referents of the Hebrew kasddïm, were in southern Mesopotamia by 1600, the end of the Middle Bronze Age, the Ur of the Chaldees of Abraham must be sought in an area other than southern Mesopotamia.

There is no convincing reason to locate Ur of the Chaldees in southern Mesopotamia, as most of the Bible commentaries continue to do. The book of Abraham presents more compelling reasons to place Ur of the Chaldees elsewhere. If all the actual and possible restrictions and requirements suggested by the book of Abraham are taken into account, the Ur of Abraham is to be found in north-western Syria or south-central Turkey, i.e., from the Syrian coast inland as far as Ebla, north to Maras in Turkey, then west and eventually south to include the plains of Adana on the coast of Turkey.

SEED OF CAIN

John Taylor, The Gospel Kingdom, p.103. NOAH AND THE ANTEDILUVIANS.--The flood came and destroyed the unrighteous, and their spirits were confined in prisons, as they are termed. And I think I hear the devil laughing, as some of them did when we were driven away from our homes, thinking that Mormonism had gone to perdition. But we live yet; and they were mistaken; and so was the devil. For although they were destroyed in the body, yet when Jesus came and was put to death in the flesh, yet quickened by the spirit, he went and preached to the spirits in prison that were disobedient in the days of Noah. And then the devil put on a long face and said, I imagined I had got rid of these fellows; but they are going to have a chance yet that I did not think of. And after the flood we are told that the curse that had been pronounced upon Cain was continued through Ham's wife, as he had married a wife of that seed. And why did it pass through the flood? Because it was necessary that the devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God; and that man should be a free agent to act for himself; and that all men might have the opportunity of receiving or rejecting the truth and be governed by it or not, according to their wishes, and abide the result; and that those who would be able to maintain correct principles under all circumstances might be able to associate with the Gods in the eternal worlds. It is the same eternal program. God knew it, and Adam knew it.

Abraham 2

OBEY GOD. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 256. Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire."

Abraham 3

ASTRONOMY. Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 1:133. A passage in the Apocalypse of Abraham is very good on this point. Abraham sees what's going on inside of a star. A very exciting picture is displayed. (Like the process of conversion from one element to another--helium to hydrogen, then to the carbons; the cycle goes on.) Here is how he describes it. He's taken there by an angel. Abraham has been praying, wanting to know how the stars were made, so the angel actually takes him. He says his spirit left his body. He didn't go there physically, but he saw it all, and he was completely bowled over. He saw an indescribably mighty light, and within the light was a tremendous fire, and within that was a host of mighty forms that are constantly seething and exchanging with each other; they constantly change their shape as they move, altering themselves, one exchanging with another.

WAR IN HEAVEN. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 357. The contention in heaven was--Jesus said that there would be certain souls that would not be saved; and the devil said he could save them all, and laid his plans before the grand council...

Marion G. Romney, Ensign, November 1978, p. 14. Though that birth process, self-existing intelligence was organized into individual spirit beings.

Bruce R. McConkie, Promised Messiah, p. 46. as a conscious identity, he [Jesus Christ-Jehovah] had a beginning. He was born, as were all the spirit children of the Father. For him [Christ], as for all men - and he is the Prototype-the eternal spirit element that has neither beginning nor end, and is self-existent, by nature, was organized into a spirit body.

William Barrett, The Illusion of Technique, p. 148. The Greeks were the people of the light. The root for 'light' runs through their verbs for speaking and saying: to utter something is to bring it into the light. The older poetic word for man is phos: a mortal creature of the light.

Spencer W. Kimball, Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 5. Our spirit matter was eternal and coexistent with God, but it was organized into spirit bodies by our Heavenly Father.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions 3:125. Why he [God] cannot create intelligence is simply because intelligence, like time and space, always existed, and therefore did not have to be created. However, intelligences spoken of in the Book of Abraham were created, for these are spirit children of God, begotten sons.

"INTELLIGENCE," Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 387. Intelligence, or light and truth, is also used as a synonym for spirit element. Scriptures using both terms speak of the self-existence nature of the substance [stuff - not people] involved. (D&C 93:29; 131:7-8.) Abraham calls the pre-existent spirits "the intelligences [people] that were organized before the world was" (Abr 3:22) because the intelligences wer organized intelligence [stuff] or in other words the spirit bodies were born from the spirit element [stuff - not from individualistic entities]."

"SPIRIT ELEMENT," Ibid., p. 751. "There is no such thing as immaterial matter," the Prophet tells us. "All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." (D&C 131:7-8.) This spirit element [stuff-not people] has always existed; it is co-eternal [see coeval] with God. (Teachings, pp. 352-354.) It is also called intelligence or the light of truth, which "was not created or made, neither indeed can be." (D&C 93:29.)
Speaking of pre-existent spirits, Abraham calls them "the intelligences that were organized before the world was." (Abr 3:22-24.) Thus, portions of the self-existent spirit element [stuff] are born as spirit children, or in other words the intelligence [stuff] which cannot be created or made, because it is self-existent [not necessarily self-conscious], is organized into intelligences [people].

Abraham 4-5

CREATION IN ABRAHAM COMPARED WITH MOSES. Sidney B. Sperry, Knowledge Is Power, pg. 57. ...the account in Genesis is nothing more or less than an abridgment of that in the Book of Abraham.

James R. Harris, Ensign, December 1972, pg. 28. [Abraham] may be the most accurate account of the creation now available in print.

WHY DIFFERENT CREATION ACCOUNTS?

Hugh Nibley, "Before Adam," in The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley: Old Testament & Related Studies, 1:64. The Latter-day Saints have four basic Adam stories, those found in the Bible, the book of Moses, the book of Abraham, and the temple--each seen from a different angle, like the four Gospels, but not conflicting if each is put into its proper context. And what is that context? One vitally important principle that everyone seems to have ignored until now is the consideration that everything is presented to us in these accounts through the eyes, or from the point of view of, the individual observers who tell the story.

"CREATION"-Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 169. To create is to organize. It is an utterly false and uninspired notion to believe that the world or any other thing was created out of nothing or that any created thing can be destroyed in the sense of annihilation. "The elements are eternal." (D&C 93:33.) This earth was not the first of the Lord's creations. An infinite number of worlds have come rolling into existence at his command. Each is an earth; many are inhabited with his spirit children; each abides the particular law given to it; and each will play its part in the redemption, salvation, and exaltation of that infinite host of the children of an Almighty God. The Lord has said that his work and glory is to bring to pass immortality [live forever as a resurrected being] and eternal life [the kind of life God lives] for his children on all the inhabited worlds he has created. (Moses 1:27-40; 7:29-36; D&C 88:17-26.)

SEVENTH DAY CREATION. Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 15:266, December 29, 1872. In the work of creation the first is last and the last first. God made the spiritual part of this creation during these six days' work that we read of; then he commenced the temporal work on the seventh day. He planted the garden on the seventh day; he placed man in that garden on the seventh day; formed the beasts and brought them before the man on the seventh day, all this being the temporal work, the first being spiritual. Not so in the last of his work--the great work that is to come. When the seventh millennium shall arrive the Lord will redeem man and bring him forth from the grave, and he will begin to redeem this creation not making it entirely immortal and spiritual, like a sea of glass. It will exist for a thousand years in a temporal condition, as it was before the Fall. This will be the first of his temporal work in the last days. By and by when the millennium has passed, and the earth passes away and dies and its elements are melted with fervent heart, and there is no place found for it as an organized body, he will again speak and there will be another creation--a creation of this earth out of the old materials; in other words a resurrection of the earth, a literal resurrection. That will be the last of his work. In the morning of creation spiritual first, and lastly temporal. But in the ending temporal first in the redemption, and lastly spiritual, which will be the perfection or ending of his work.

ORSON PRATT ON THE 7TH DAY OF CREATION, Journal of Discourses 21:200-201, November 12, 1879.

We learn, therefore, when speaking of this spiritual [spirit] creation, that not only all the children of men, of all generations, and of all ages, were created spiritually [“spiritly”] in heaven, but that fish and fowls, and beast, and all animated things, having life, were first made spiritual [spirit] in heaven … before bodies of flesh were prepared for them on the earth; and that there was no flesh upon the earth until the morning of the seventh day. On that morning God made the first fleshly tabernacle and took man’s spirit and put within it, and man became a living soul—the first flesh upon the earth—the first man also. Though it was the seventh day no flesh but this one tabernacle was yet formed. No fish, fowl and beast was as yet permitted to have a body of flesh.

The second chapter of Genesis, (new translation [JST or Moses]) informs us that the spirits of fowls were created in heaven, the spirits of fish and cattle, and all things that dwell upon the earth, had their pre-existence. They were created in heaven, the spiritual [spirit] part of them; not their flesh and bones.

We are also told in this inspired translation [JST or Moses], that these living trees which we behold—for God has given life unto all things—had their spiritual [spirit] existence in heaven before their temporal existence; every herb and every tree, before it was planted out on the earth, that is, the spiritual [spirit] part of it, the life of it, that which, in other words, animates that which gives power to the vegetable to bring forth fruit after its likeness—the spiritual [spirit] part existed in heaven. It was a spiritual [spirit] creation first.…

Abraham also obtained a knowledge of the spiritual [spirit] creation, as well as the temporal. In giving a history of the creation, he speaks of the formation of man out of the ground, how he took man’s spirit that was created in heaven and put it within the body of man, and man became a living soul—the first flesh upon the earth, as recorded in the second of Genesis.

Now, we have been in the habit of thinking that the various kinds of animals that have lived, according to geologists, were the first flesh on the earth, and we go away back millions [billions? trillions soon?] of ages to see that these lower formations of life existed before man.

But the Lord gives us different information from this. He shows us that among all the animated creatures of flesh, man was the first that was ever placed upon the earth in this temporal condition, contradicting the theories of geologists—that is, so far as placing man on the earth in this present probation is concerned. What may have taken place millions of ages before the world was organized temporally for man to inhabit is not revealed; but, so far as this present change is concerned, that took place about six thousand years ago, man was the first being that came upon the earth and inhabited a body of flesh and bones. Afterwards, on the seventh day, out of the ground the Lord God created the beasts of the field.

WHERE DID THE CREATION TAKE PLACE? NEAR KOLOB? Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 181. [After the earth is redeemed and celestialized, it] will be rolled back into the presence of God.

Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 17:143. When the earth was framed and brought into existence and man was placed upon it, it was near the throne of our Father in heaven. And when man fell...the earth fell into space, and took up its abode in this planetary system, and the sun became our light.... This is the glory the earth came from, and when it is glorified it will return again unto the presence of the Father, and it will dwell there, and these intelligent being that I am looking at, if they live worthy of it, will dwell upon this earth.

Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 9:317. This earthly ball, this little opake [opaque] substance thrown off into space, is only a speck in the great universe; and when it is celestialized it will go back into the presence of God, where it was first framed. All belongs to God, and those who keep his celestial law will return to him.

John Taylor, The Mormon, 29 August 1857. [The earth] was organized near the planet Kolob.

THE FALL FROM KOLOB Times and Seasons, III (February 1, 1842), p. 672. The earth no longer [at the transgression of Adam] retained its standing in the presence of Jehovah; but was hurled into the immensity of space; and there to remain till it has filled up the time of its bondage to sin and Satan. It was immediately cursed, and Adam and Eve were obliged to procure their food and raiment by the sweat of the brow. The beasts became ferocious, and went prowling about the wilderness seeking the inferior animals for a prey.

But says one, Wherein did the sin of man affect the whole creation? We answer, that Adam was placed in the garden or capitol [temple] of the whole earth, and power was given unto him to sway his sceptre over all things upon the earth; therefore, when he fell from the presence of the Lord, the whole of his dominions fell also.

Spencer W. Kimball, "Our Great Potential," Ensign, May 1977, pp. 49-51. While we are in the mortal body we cannot "fashion kingdoms [or] organize matter, for [that is] beyond our capacity and calling, beyond this world. In the resurrection, men who have been faithful and diligent in all things in the flesh [who] have kept their first and second estate, and [are] worthy to be crowned Gods, even the sons of God, will be ordained to organize matter. How much matter do you suppose there is between here and some of the fixed stars which we can see? Enough to frame many, very many millions of such earths as this, yet it is now so diffused, clear and pure, that we look through it and behold the stars. Yet the matter is there. Can you form any conception of this? Can you form any idea of the minuteness of matter?" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 15:137.)

PURPOSE OF MORTALITY-TO PREPARE TO DO WHAT GOD DOES Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 283. And the fact that we receive this Comforter, the Holy Ghost, is proof that the spirit in warring with the flesh has overcome, and by continuing in this state of victory over our sinful bodies we become the sons and daughters of God. Christ having made us free, and whoever the Son makes free is free indeed. Having fought the good fight we then shall be prepared to lay our bodies down to rest to await the morning of the resurrection when they will come forth and be reunited with the spirits, the faithful, as it is said, receiving crowns, glory, immortality and eternal lives, even a fulness with the Father, when Jesus shall present His work to the Father, saying, "Father, here is the work thou gavest me to do." Then will they become Gods, even the sons of God; then will they become eternal fathers, eternal mothers, eternal sons and eternal daughters; being eternal in their organization they go from glory to glory, from power to power; they will ever cease to increase and multiply, worlds without end. When they receive their crowns, their dominions, they then will be prepared to frame earths like ours and to people them in the same manner as we have been brought forth by our parents, by our Father and God.

Joseph Smith--Matthew

Will the Missionaries Cover the Earth Before the 2nd Coming? Teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith, pg 87. The servants of God will not have gone over the nations of the Gentiles, with a warning voice, until the destroying angel will commence to waste the inhabitants of the earth, and as the prophet hath said, "It shall be a vexation to hear the report." [Cp. Isaiah 28:19.]

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 160-161. We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object. When wars come, we shall have to flee to Zion. The cry is to make haste. The last revelation says, Ye shall not have time to have gone over the earth, until these things come. It will come as did the cholera, war, fires, and earthquakes; one pestilence after another, until the Ancient of Days [Adam] comes, then judgment will be given to the Saints.

D&C 45:54. After the 2nd Coming there will still be those who "knew no law." They will be resurrected in the first resurrection (celestial or terrestrial).

"for a witness" or "to a witness"? Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 364-365. The last time I spoke on this stand it was on the resurrection of the dead, when I promised to continue my remarks upon that subject. Let us this very day begin anew, and now say, with all our hearts, we will forsake our sins and be righteous. I shall read the 24th chapter of Matthew, and give it a literal rendering and reading; and when it is rightly understood, it will be edifying.

I thought the very oddity of its rendering would be edifying anyhow--"And it will be preached, the Gospel of the kingdom, in the whole world, to ["for" in KJV] a witness over all people: and then will the end come." I will now read it in German [which he did, and many Germans who were present said he translated it correctly].

The Savior said when these tribulations should take place, it should be committed to a man who should be a witness over the whole world: the keys of knowledge, power and revelations should be revealed to a witness who should hold the testimony to the world. It has always been my province to dig up hidden mysteries--new things--for my hearers. Just at the time when some men think that I have no right to the keys of the Priesthood -- just at that time I have the greater right.

The Germans are an exalted people. The old German translators are the most nearly correct -- most honest of any of the translators; and therefore I get testimony to bear me out in the revelations that I have preached for the last fourteen years. The old German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew translations all say it is true: they cannot be impeached, and therefore I am in good company.

All the testimony is that the Lord in the last days would commit the keys of the Priesthood to a witness over all people.

Has the Gospel of the kingdom commenced in the last days? And will God take it from the man until He takes him Himself? I have read it precisely as the words flowed from the lips of Jesus Christ. John the Revelator saw an angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth.
The scripture is ready to be fulfilled when great wars, famines, pestilence, great distress, judgments, &c., are ready to be poured out on the inhabitants of the earth. John saw the angel having the holy Priesthood, who should preach the everlasting Gospel to all nations. God had an angel--a special messenger--ordained and prepared for that purpose in the last days. Woe, woe be to that man or set of men who lift up their hands against God and His witness in these last days: for they shall deceive almost the very chosen ones!

SIGNS OF THE 2ND COMING. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 286-287. [1] Judah must return, [2] Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and [3] the temple, and [4] water come out from under the temple, and [5] the waters of the Dead Sea be healed. It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple, &c.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make his appearance. There will be wars and rumors of wars, signs in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, the sun turned into darkness and the moon to blood, earthquakes in divers places, the seas heaving beyond their bounds; then will appear one grand sign of the Son of Man in heaven. But what will the world do? They will say it is a planet, a comet, etc. But the Son of Man will come as the sign of the coming of the Son of Man, which will be as the light of the morning cometh out of the east. (April 6, 1843. HC 5:336, 337.)

KNOWING THE DATE OF THE 2ND COMING. C. S. Lewis, Fern-seed and Elephants, pg. 76-77. In King Lear (III, vii) there is a man who is such a minor character that Shakespeare has not given him even a name: he is merely "First Servant". All the characters around him--Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund--have fine long-term plans. They think they know how the story is going to end, and they are quite wrong. The servant has not such delusions. He has no notion how the play is going to go. But he understands the present scene. He sees an abomination (the blinding of old Gloucester) taking place. He will not stand it. His sword is out and pointed at his master's breast in a moment; then Regan stabs him dead from behind. That is his whole part: eight lines all told. But if it were real life and not a play, that is the part it would be best to have acted.

The doctrine of the second coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment: say, before you have finished reading this paragraph. This seems to some people intolerably frustrating. So many things would be interrupted. Perhaps you were going to get married next month, perhaps you were going to get a raise next week: you may be on the verge of a great scientific discovery; you may be maturing great social and political reforms. Surely no good and wise God would be so very unreasonable to cut all this short? Not now, of all moments!

But we think thus because we keep on assuming that we know the play. We do not know the play. We do not even know whether we are in Act I or Act V. We do not know who are the major and who the minor characters. The Author knows. The audience, if there is an audience (if angels and archangels and all the company of heaven fill the pit and the stalls), may have an inkling. But we, never seeing the play from outside, never meeting any characters except the tiny minority who are "on" in the same scenes as ourselves, wholly ignorant of the future and very imperfectly informed about the past, cannot tell at what moment the end ought to come. That it will come when it ought, we may be sure; but we waste our time in guessing when that will be. That it has a meaning we may be sure, but we cannot see it. When it is over, we may be told. We are led to expect that the Author will have something to say to each of us on the part that each of us has played. The playing it well is what matters infinitely.

THE RAINBOW.Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 305. The inhabitants of the earth are asleep; they know not the day of their visitation. The Lord hath set the bow in the cloud for a sign that while it shall be seen, seed time and harvest, summer and winter shall not fail; but when it shall disappear, woe to that generation, for behold the end cometh quickly.

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 340-341. I have asked of the Lord concerning His coming; and while asking the Lord, He gave a sign and said, "In the days of Noah I set a bow in the heavens as a sign and token that in any year that the bow should be seen the Lord would not come; but there should be seed time and harvest during that year: but whenever you see the bow withdrawn, it shall be a token that there shall be famine, pestilence, and great distress among the nations, and that the coming of the Messiah is not far distant."
But I will take the responsibility upon myself to prophesy in the name of the Lord, that Christ will not come this year, as Father Miller has prophesied, for we have seen the bow ...

THE SIGNS OF THE LORD'S COMING. Joseph Fielding Smith, Improvement Era, June 1966, pg. 499. The words of the prophets are rapidly being fulfilled, but it is done on such natural principles that most of us fail to see it. Joel promised that...wonders in heaven and in the earth would be seen, and there would be fire, blood, and pillars of smoke. Eventually the sun is to be turned into darkness and the moon as blood, and then shall come the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Some of these signs have been given; some are yet to come. The sun has not yet been darkened. We are informed that this will be one of the last acts just preceding the coming of the Lord.

The Color of Christ's Clothing. (See D&C 133:46-51.)

FLEXIBLE DATE FOR THE 2ND COMING? President Wilford Woodruff, discourse of 7 April 1893; Lundwall, The Vision, p. 96. The day is appointed, the hour is appointed, but not revealed, neither to the angels nor to anybody else, but held by the power of God with the Son.

Bruce R. McConkie, "Millennium," Mormon Doctrine, p. 494 [paperback edition]. The time for the beginning of the millennium is fixed. It has been definitely set and is known to the Father. It cannot be advanced by the righteousness of the saints nor the repentance of people in the world. Nor can it be postponed either because of increasing wickedness or for any reason. By definition the millennium is the 7th period of 1000 years duration to which this earth is subject. It will commence when Christ comes, and his coming is set by revelation to be in the beginning of the 7th thousand years of this earth's temporal existence.

Four Appearances. Alvin R. Dyer, The Refiner's Fire, [1st edition], pp. 126-127.

• Priesthood meeting @ Adam-ondi-Ahman. (D&C 27; 116; 78:15-16; HC 3:386-387.)
• The temple of the New Jerusalem, Independence, Missouri. (D&C 42:35, 36; 133:2.)
• Jews @ Jerusalem. (D&C 45:51-53; Revelation 11:2-11; Zechariah 14.)
• General appearance to the world. (D&C 88:95-97; 133:46-57; Luke 21:7-28.)

ADAM-ONDI-AHMAN Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 157-159. The Priesthood is an everlasting principle, and existed with God from eternity, and will to eternity, without beginning of days or end of years. The keys have to be brought from heaven whenever the Gospel is sent. When they are revealed from heaven, it is by Adam's authority.

Daniel in his seventh chapter speaks of the Ancient of Days; he means the oldest man, our Father Adam, Michael, he will call his children together and hold a council with them to prepare them for the coming of the Son of Man. He (Adam) is the father of the human family, and presides over the spirits of all men, and all that have had the keys must stand before him in this grand council. This may take place before some of us leave this stage of action. The Son of Man stands before him [Adam], and there is given him glory and dominion. Adam delivers up his stewardship to Christ, that which was delivered to him as holding the keys of the universe, but retains his standing as head of the human family.

The spirit [intelligence] of man is not a created being; it existed from eternity, and will exist to eternity. Anything created cannot be eternal; and earth, water, etc., had their existence in an elementary state, from eternity. Our Savior speaks of children and says, Their angels always stand before my Father. The Father called all spirits before Him at the creation of man, and organized them. He (Adam) is the head, and was told to multiply. The keys were first given to him, and by him to others. He will have to give an account of his stewardship, and they to him....

Christ is the Great High Priest; Adam next....

I saw Adam in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman. He called together his children and blessed them with a patriarchal blessing. The Lord appeared in their midst, and he (Adam) blessed them all, and foretold what should befall them to the latest generation.

This is why Adam blessed his posterity; he wanted to bring them into the presence of God.