Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

Whatever way Satan was permitted to influence A&E and their children, the people who were now inhabiting the earth were very susceptible to it, “and men began from that time forth to be carnal, sensual, and devilish.” Just like we have today, “the Lord God called upon men by the Holy Ghost everywhere and commanded them that they should repent,” and promised that those who repented would be saved and those who did not would be “damned.” We know from Moses that A&E had many children, but we don’t know much about them. The first one who is mentioned is Cain, and it seems like he might have been born later in life because Eve says about him, “I have gotten a man from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words.” It seems like by the time Cain comes around Eve is already heart broken by her other children rejecting the gospel and is hoping for better for Cain. Unfortunately for A&E Cain followed the example of his siblings and “hearkened not, saying: Who is the Lord that I s...

The plan of salvation is taught to A&E by a few different sources. First, just before they were to be expelled from the Garden, they were informed that a Savior would be provided for them so that they could repent and return to God eventually. Second, when the angel came to ask them why they were offering sacrifices, he taught them more information about the Plan, then third when they were given the gift of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit taught them more as they progressively moved forward spiritually. As they learned the gospel, they taught it to their children, with mixed results. The IM notes some of the differences between the account in Moses and the one in Genesis, saying that between verses 9-15 we learn that A&E were baptized, given the Holy Ghost, began to prophesy, which led to them better understanding the purpose of their fall. The IM continues that even though A&E teach their children the gospel, “Satan also began to influence their children and sought to persuade...

The amazing part about Adam’s answer to the angel is that he’s basically saying, “I am giving up the best parts of my food and personally suffer and I don’t know why, just to be obedient to God’s commandment.” I wonder if I have that much faith in my own life. Ever since starting the Old Testament study I’ve been listening to OT commentary by expert scriptural analysts and it’s been absolutely fascinating, but also a little bit difficult because the OT is so much different. It was difficult understanding what the apostles meant in their writings from 2,000 years ago, and now we’re talking 5,000+ years ago, and just understanding that the OT especially the first 5 books were not written to be historical narratives but instead as literature meaning that the author had a specific message to a specific people in a specific culture several thousands of years ago. So for the last few days I’ve really been struggling because so much of what I understood about the OT turns out to be incorrect,...

After being given the animal skin coats made for them by God, A&E are escorted out of the garden and into the “lone and dreary world.” When I was getting ready to go through the temple for the first time, the stake president who was giving me my temple recommend interview said that he considered the garment that we wear after being endowed to be representative of the animal skin coats made for A&E by God before being cast out of the garden. What’s interesting about that is that those coats were made in order to provide protection and comfort to A&E when they went out in the world, in the same way that our garments were ordained by God to provide protection and comfort to us. Just an interesting connection that I just recognized. A&E are able to “have dominion over all the beasts of the field, and to eat his bread by the sweat of his brown.” I’ve always wondered how the figured out what they could eat etc. They didn’t have anyone there with them to show them what was sa...

Adam and Eve have both eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At this point the scriptures say that they discovered that they were naked, but we know from modern revelation that in fact Lucifer was the one to inform them that they were naked. What’s interesting to me about this whole thing is that they didn’t appear to be embarrassed to be naked in front of each other, but it was God that they didn’t want to be naked in front of. It seems like this speaks more to their knowledge that they had disobeyed and felt guilty rather than having God see their actual bodies. So they “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” This begs the question, where did they see aprons to copy? Maybe I’m reading too much into this. They hear God calling them and they “went to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” We have to remember that God knows what has happened already so why is he calling for them? Why doesn’t he jus...

Here is where we find ourselves in the Garden of Eden with Satan facing Eve, asking her questions? It’s interesting that part of Satan’s strategy here seems to be questions, getting Eve to evaluate her own viewpoints, and then he adds his commentary in afterward, while she’s still thinking. It makes it seem like questions are a gateway for Satan, but I don’t think that’s the case. Questions are critical to our testimony, in fact, taking questions to the Lord is where most of our revelation comes from, both personally and institutionally in the church. But I guess that’s the difference, taking our questions to the Lord instead of asking other people or outside sources. That’s a really good point because I’ve been questioning things recently and I’ve been nervous that my questions will lead me to leave the Church, probably because I’ve seen almost all of my friends and family have done that. But I’ve been nervous about that and have been thinking about how to have questions and my testim...

After the conflict in pre-mortality where Satan and 1/3 of the hosts of heaven were cast out and after the creation of the world, we find Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that was created for them by the Gods. When placed there, Adam and Eve were given two commandments, 1. Multiply and replenish the earth, 2. Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The IM points out 4 characteristics of the state of Adam and Eve in the Garden, 1. Not subject to death. They had committed no sin, so they were not worthy of death. This left them in an immortal state, but not a resurrected, perfected state. It’s the same state that allows lambs and lions to lay down together, the same type that John and the three Nephites dwell in now, I think. 2. In the presence of God. I don’t necessarily think that this means that they were with God all the time, but probably like He comes and goes. 3. They had no posterity. This is a hard one because it was one of the two commandments that th...

This is one of those times when I wish I had organized the material a little better because I didn’t want to have to circle back around already, but in order to move forward with the fall, some background information must be discussed. Before we can address Satan’s role in the garden, we have to know who he is and how he got there. From Abraham we learn that we all began as “intelligences” who were visited by God and “organized before the world was.” This is a really interesting concept because it helps explain a lot of how we became to be as individuals. All the intelligences were different, at various stages of spiritual progression, “and among these were many of the noble and great ones. And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers.” Abraham was one of these noble and great ones, “chosen before thou wast born.” The IM talks extensively about pre-mortal calling for this life noting that all church leadershi...

I’m listening to an excellent lecture series on the book of Genesis by a Rutgers professor of Jewish Studies. There are a lot things that he says that really give perspective to the ancient world that Genesis was written, some I’m not so sure about but it will be interesting to talk about as we go through the material. It’s been hard not being able to write as frequently as I used to, work has been really busy and I’ve had several things come up that have required a lot of my time and attention, but I’m going to try to make more of an effort to make time, and that might mean taking smaller chunks of the scriptures per day. After creating the earth, the plants, the animals, the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve, “on the seventh day I, God, ended my work, and all things which I had made; and I rested on the seventh day from all my work… and I, God, blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it I had rested from all my work which I, god, had created and made.” Resting on ...