Reading the Records of Zion – Abraham Learns of the Cosmos
Chapter 3, part 2 of The Blessings of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People
By E. Douglas Clark
What Abraham Learned about Cosmos and Creation, Fall and Atonement
To understand Abraham, we need to understand, to the extent possible, what he learned from the sacred records, beginning with the cosmos and creation.
The Book of Abraham tells that the patriarchal records dealt with “the planets, and … the stars, as they were made known unto the fathers” (Abr. 1:31), while 1 Enoch contains extensive astronomical material, [1] while 2 Enoch records that God told Enoch “all the things of heaven and earth …, the sun and the moon and the stars, their courses and their changes.” [2] And in 3 Enoch, Enoch explains “the Holy One … has given to every single star a name,” for “as it is written, ‘He counts the number of the stars and gives each of them a name.'” [3]
Similarly, in the Book of Abraham, Abraham tells that from the patriarchal records he obtained “a knowledge of the beginning of the creation” (Abr. 1:31). The apocryphal Enoch literature describes what God revealed to Enoch about the premortal existence, [4] the rebellion and expulsion of Satan, [5] and the creation. [6]
Abraham would have also read what we can read in the Book of Moses about God teaching Enoch that “thy brethren … are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency” (7:32). Similarly, in 2 Enoch the Lord tells Enoch that “I created man … and I gave him his free will; and I pointed out to him the two ways – light and darkness. And I said unto him, ‘This is good for you, but that is bad’.” [7] Abraham also would have read about the fall of man, as we can read in Enoch’s record in the Book of Moses (6:48-49, 53-56).
In his youth, Abraham had correctly deduced the existence of the Creator by observing the majesty of His creations. Now, reading the patriarchal records, Abraham discovered that the Creator was also the Redeemer, who in time would leave his glorious heavenly abode to come to earth as a man and minister in power, and to suffer untold agony for the sins of mankind, only to die and rise again in glory. Abraham may well have had a version of what we can now read in the Testament of Adam about how Adam, while still in the Garden of Eden, learned of the future mission and ministry of the Savior. [8]
Abraham would have read what we can read in restored scripture about how Adam, after being expelled from the garden, obeyed the Lord’s commandments by “offer[ing] the firstlings of [his] flocks, for an offering unto the Lord” without understanding why.
“And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me. And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth. Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore. (Moses 5:6-8)
Similarly in the Combat of Adam and Eve, after Adam had made “an offering on the altar, and had begun to pray, with his hands spread unto God,” the voice of Lord explained what would later happen to the Lord himself “when I shall be pierced and blood shall flow.” [9] The restored writings of Enoch report what the voice of God further taught Adam:
If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you. (Moses 6:52)
When Adam inquired why repentance was necessary, the Lord explained:
Inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory; for by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified; therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment. And now, behold, I say unto you: This is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian of time. (Moses 6:59-62)
Then Adam prayed, apparently asking for these blessings, and “was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water. And thus he was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man” (Moses 6:64-65).
This may have been the occasion when, as related by Adam in the Life of Adam and Eve, while he and Eve were praying, a “messenger of God came to me. And I saw a chariot like the wind and its wheels were fiery. I was carried off into the Paradise of righteousness, [10] and I saw the Lord sitting and his appearance was unbearable flaming fire.” [11]
If this account was part of the record that Abraham read, he would have reflected on the time when he had seen a fiery chariot, and would now have understood that it represented transport to the realm of Paradise.
What Abraham Learned about Adam’s Posterity and Enoch’s Zion
But Adam’s mission was to continue on earth, where he was commanded to teach the gospel “freely” to all his posterity. He did so faithfully, and many believed (Moses 6:57-58).
According to the chronicle of Syncellus, Adam’s son Seth was granted an apocalyptic experience like that of Adam: Seth was temporarily taken up into heaven and received a revelation about the “transgression of [mankind], the coming cataclysm [the Flood] and the advent of the Savior.” [12] Further, according to the chronicle of Dionysus, Seth “received a heavenly book of secrets, which was passed down from generation to generation.” [13]
Not all of Adam’s posterity hearkened to the truths he taught. In fact, “many … believed not (Moses 7:1), but rebelled, being led by Satan into increasing wickedness (5:12-13). Abraham probably read what we can read in Enoch literature now extant, that the generation of the Flood “rejected [God’s] commandments” [14] and “committed adultery and erred, and all their conduct became corrupt.” [15]
They made “molten images” and practiced idolatry, “worship[ing] vain gods”and delving into “occult powers” as they “practice[d] sorcery.” [16] They were so given to violence and bloodshed that they “delight[ed] in seeing the murder of their beloved ones,” even “the destruction of their children.” [17] Nation rose up against nation and people against people to such an extent that mankind was engulfed in “wars and bloodshed” (Moses 7:16) and “the whole world was filled with blood and oppression.” [18] In short, it was a cruel age of wickedness and warfare when “Satan had great dominion among men” (Moses 6:15).
Abraham may well have recognized in such descriptions a distant mirror of his own day. But he would also have read what is now available in a restored portion of a lost Book of Enoch (see D&C 107:57) about the society of the righteous, led first by Adam and in turn each of the patriarchs, noble men who were “preachers of righteousness, and spake and prophesied, and called upon all men, everywhere, to repent” (Moses 6:23).
These were the men who, in the lineage of the firstborn sons, were heirs to and received their ordination to that exclusive order of the patriarchal priesthood given to Adam and passed on to the righteous firstborn, but exercised only by the senior living patriarch, as when the aged Adam gathered his righteous posterity and gave them his final blessing (see D&C 107:40-53).
And on that sacred occasion, “the Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel. And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam, and said unto him: I have set thee to be at the head; a multitude of nations shall come of thee, and thou art a prince over them forever. And Adam stood up in the midst of the congregation; and, notwithstanding he was bowed down with age, being full of the Holy Ghost, predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation” (D&C 107:54-56). [19]
That Adam did gather his posterity to give them his final instruction and blessing is also recounted in the Conflict of Adam and Eve, which proceeds to tell that the patriarchal authority was passed on from Adam and held successively by each of the antediluvian patriarchs as each in turn presided over all of Adam’s posterity, and cared for and taught and nurtured all who would join the society of the righteous, [20] a happy people who “because of their own purity … were named ‘Children of God'” [21] – as attested also in the Book of Moses (7:1; 8:13).
As Abraham also discovered, something remarkable happened with the seventh patriarch, Enoch, who, as related in restored scripture, suffered from a speech impediment so severe that nobody expected he could follow the pattern of his patriarchal forefathers in becoming a powerful preacher of righteousness. But it was God Himself who called Enoch to go forth and open his mouth in proclaiming the gospel to mankind (see Moses 6:26-33). [22]
As Enoch did so, his words flowed forth with such eloquence and power that “fear came on all them that heard him,” and “the people trembled, and could not stand in his presence” (6:39, 47). Those who accepted his message joined the people of God, but not without tribulation, for “their enemies came to battle against them.”
Despite apparently overwhelming odds, Enoch courageously “led the people of God” and then with unprecedented faith invoked heavenly powers to defeat the earthly powers threatening Zion as “he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly” (7:13).
Under Enoch’s continued leadership, the Saints of his day built a city of such peace and love that it “was called the City of Holiness, even Zion” a community of Saints who achieved such unity and righteousness that “the Lord came and dwelt with his people” (Moses 6:18-19). It stood out in the sharpest contrast with the rest of the world, literally a city of light in a dark world, causing all nations to fear because “so great was the glory of the Lord, which was upon his people” (7:17).
And it was a city so beloved by God that he finally took it up from this world to a higher realm: “and lo, Zion, in the process of time, was taken up into heaven” (6:21), to a terrestrial paradise [23] or, as indicated in Jubilees, the Garden of Eden. [24]
If the Garden of Zion could not come to earth, Enoch’s Zion would go to it, and remain there until the last days when it will return to earth to join another city of Zion that would be built on earth (Moses 7:62-64). [25] The people of Enoch’s city were changed from mortality to a sanctified condition (see 3 Ne. 28:36-40) so that they “should not die at that time,” but should serve as “ministering angels” [26] until that future day when they will experience “a change equivalent to death” and then enter into the fullness of God’s rest. [27]
1. Enoch 72-82, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:50-61.
2. Enoch [J] 23:1, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:140.
4. Enoch [J] 23:4-5 speaks of “all the souls of men, whatever of them are not yet born, and their places, prepared for eternity. For all the souls are prepared for eternity, before the composition of the earth.” This passage, notes the translator, “implies the pre-existence … of all souls.” Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:140-41. See also 3 Enoch 43, in Odeberg, 3 Enoch, part 2, 132-35, and see Odeberg’s extensive notes on the unborn spirits. See also the same chapter of 3 Enoch in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:293-94, and translator’s comment on 294 n. 43c, that “the pre-existence of the soul is implied throughout the chapter.”
5. In 2 Enoch [J] 29:4-5, God says: “But one from the order of the archangels deviated, together with the division that was under his authority. He thought up the impossible idea, that he might place his throne higher than the clouds which are above the earth, and that he might become equal to my power. And I hurled him from the height, together with his angels.” Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:148.
8. Adam said to Seth, his son, “You have heard, my son, that God is going to come into the world after a long time, (he will be) conceived of a virgin and put on a body, be born like a human being, and grow up as a child. He will perform signs and wonders on the earth, will walk on the waves of the sea. He will rebuke the winds and they will be silenced. He will motion to the waves and they will stand still. He will open the eyes of the blind and cleanse the lepers. He will cause the deaf to hear, and the mute to speak. He will straighten the hunchbacked, strengthen the paralyzed, find the lost, drive out evil spirits, and cast out demons.
“He spoke to me about this in Paradise when I picked some of the fruit in which death was hiding. ‘Adam, Adam, do not fear. You wanted to be a god; I will make you a god, not right now, but after a space of many years. I am consigning you to death … But after a short time there will be mercy on you because you were created in my image, and I will not leave you to waste away in Sheol. For your sake I will be born of the Virgin Mary. For your sake I will taste death and enter the house of the dead … And after three days, while I am in the tomb, I will raise up the body I received from you. And I will make you a god just like you wanted. And I will receive favor from God, and I will restore to you and to your posterity that which is the justice of heaven.” (Testament of Adam 3:1-4, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:994)
10. The phrase “Paradise of righteousness” is “found almost exclusively in Enochic literature.” Reeves, Heralds of That Good Realm, 203 n. 56.
15. 1 Enoch 8:2, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:16. They practiced fornication. Jubilees 7:21, in VanderKam, Book of Jubilees, 47. They were “steeped in licentiousness.” Leviticus Rabbah 12:5, in Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, Leviticus, 160. They were “steeped in whoredom.” Leviticus Rabbah 23:9, in Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, Leviticus, 298.
18. 1 Enoch 9:9, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:17. It was a “cruel” generation. Sibylline Oracles 1.177, in Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 1:339. “They forgot to be merciful to their fellow men, therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, made His mercy forget them.” Genesis Rabbah 33:5, in Freedman, Midrash Rabbah, Genesis, 1:265.
19. As Joseph Smith explained, “Our father Adam, Michael … is the father of the human family, and presides over the spirits of all men.” Galbraith and Smith, Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 179.
20. See Combat of Adam and Eve with Satan 2.8 through 3.6, in Malan, Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, 114-51.
23. Galbraith and Smith, Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 194. For the translated Enoch’s association with the Garden of Eden, see Toorn, Becking, and Horst, Dictionaries of Deities and Demons, 302.
24. Jubilees 4:23, speaking of Enoch: “He was taken from human society, and we led him into the Garden of Eden for (his) greatness and honor.” VanderKam, Book of Jubilees, 28.
25. The Conflict of Adam and Eve tells of Enoch that “God transported him . . . to the land of life, to the mansions of the righteous and of the chosen, the abode of Paradise of joy.” Combat of Adam and Eve with Satan 2.22, in Malan, Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, 141.
