Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

7:54-57 - Just like how we are so far on this end of the human timeline, Enoch is so far on the opposite side of the beginning that he’s trying to make sense of all the prophesy and covenant, etc. Enoch asks, “When the Son of Man cometh in the flesh, shall the earth rest?” He’s been told of floods and mass human destruction and wickedness and a Savior, and it’s a lot of information. Jesus answers Enoch’s question by showing him the crucifixion “and he heard a loud voice; and the heavens were veiled; and all the creations of God mourned; and the earth groaned.” It’s always been fascinating for me to consider the Savior’s death on all his creations that aren’t smothered with sin. Like we talked about yesterday, if the earth has a spirit, surely it is innocent, and all the plants and trees, they love Jesus. I was reading a book once called “Visions of Glory” and it’s about a guy who had multiple life after death experiences and one of the things that he mentioned that I thought was just ...

7:42-46 - Upon being shown human existence both past and future, Enoch reacted the way I imagine most of us would, with “bitterness of soul.” I don’t think the “bitterness” here means what I take it to be, like anger and jealousy and hatred, but instead devastation in sadness for everyone else’s suffering. Enoch saw Noah and his family and the ark and the floods, and the death of all the other people on the earth at the time and declared “I refuse to be comforted.” What this statement would mean to me is “I refuse to believe that anything good could ever come out of this,” and I’ve felt this way many times myself, I look at the horror of this world and genuinely cannot comprehend how any of this can ever be made ok. Jesus sees his distress and says, “Lift up your heart, and be glad; and look,” and shows Enoch the future of Noah and his family and all the families on the earth that follows. Enoch appears to not be impressed, which I understand, and asks “when shall the day of the Lord ...

7:28-36 - As the people of earth were slowly being taught the gospel, those who accepted it “were caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion.” The people who were left were wicked and it seems to be that it was most of them, whereas Satan laughed as he ensnared the people in sin and misery, “the God of heaven… wept.” It’s an interesting commentary on the difference between God and Satan, especially when it comes to us. When we are sad or hurt or scared, Satan loves it, he loves to see us miserable, but God is heartbroken by it, he just wants us to be happy so it’s fascinating that we still doubt His motives, myself included. Enoch is perplexed as to why God “canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?” Enoch reminds God that his creations are more numerous that “the particles of the earth” and that he is ‘just; thou art merciful and kind forever.” God answers that he has created all the wicked people and all he wants from them is for them to love Him and ...

7:20-22 - Now that Enoch was only governing the people of God and God was dwelling among his people, “Enoch talked with the Lord,” and speculated that “surely Zion shall dwell in safety forever.” To me this statement is clear, surely God’s people will always be protected, but the Lord’s response doesn’t really match that because he says, “Zion have I blessed, but the residue of the people have I cursed.” The Lord then proceeds to show Enoch “all the inhabitants of the earth,” Enoch saw that the city of Zion would be “taken up into heaven” to be with God forever. It’s important to note here was “taken up into heaven” means, which according to the IM is “translation.” I’ve always been confused about this, but the IM gives a couple of really good explanations, first from President Joseph Fielding Smith who teaches, “Translated beings are still mortal and will have to pass through the experience of death, or the separation of the spirit and the body, although this will be instantaneous, fo...

7:13 - All the people are being taught the gospel by Enoch except the people of Canaan, and presumably those who believed in what he said went to live in the congregated place with the other righteous people. Of course, probably most people rejected the gospel which led to the people of God having enemies. It’s interesting because it never says that Enoch is a warrior by trade or experience, and he doesn’t have a superior military mind where he sees strategy everywhere and is cleverer than everyone else. Enoch military strength comes from his faith in God. And he didn’t lead the people of God to slaughter all his enemies. In fact, listen to the words used here to describe the situation, “so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them.” It doesn’t say that Enoch led the people of God into battle against their enemies, it says that their enemies came to them while Enoch was their leader, spiritually and temporally presumably. ...

7:1 - With all the talk about God and Adam, it’s easy to forget that these are the words of Enoch as he’s teaching people the gospel. Enoch continues that after Adam was baptized, he “taught these things,” and those who believed “become the sons of God,” and the ones who did not believe “have perished in their sins, and are looking forth with fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them.” I don’t know how it was anciently, whether every single person had the opportunity to know and accept the gospel, but I would imagine that if the world was more wicked then than it is today, it’s most likely similar to us, that some have the opportunity to accept or reject the gospel, but probably most do not. Because the people were so much closer to the time of Adam, maybe more people knew about it, I don’t know, but people’s positions in life might have played a bigger part of their ability to learn about and accept the gospel, just like we have today. ...

6:61-63 – To understand the message of verse 61, which is long, we have to first go to verse 62 which explains, that “this is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian of time.” What is the plan of salvation, what is He referring to here? Through the atonement we can keep the commandment to be baptized, and become purified in our character by the Spirit, then we can also have ‘the peaceable things of immortal glory,” and the truth which has “wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment.” We can look to “all things” because they were “created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual… all things bear record of me.” The IM comments, “In the creation of the heavens and the earth, the Lord used physical symbols to teach us doctrines and principles of Jesus Christ and His gospel. Understanding gospel symbols requires the uniting of an earthly or concrete dimension with a tran...

6:55 - This concept of “original sin” has played a large part in the doctrine of many organized Christian religions, some of which have taken it to mean because of Adam’s sin and subsequent fall that all mankind is doomed. Another meaning is supported by certain interpretations of the following verse where God says to Adam, “thy children are conceived in sin.” Many have taken this to mean that sex is wrong or evil, some take it to mean sex is only for reproduction, and some take it to mean that babies are born sinful and must be baptized immediately to be saved. This last bit has caused a lot of heartache for many people who have had babies die before they had been able to get them baptized. It would seem like the more logical explanation for this statement comes from the IM which quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as saying, “the phrase ‘conceived in sin’ means ‘born into a world of sin.’” In the Lord’s statement to Adam he notes that these children conceived in sin “begin to grow up, si...

When a man comes around to your neighborhood exuding God’s power, it makes sense that someone stops to ask him some questions. In the case of Enoch, that guy is named Mahijah, who asks basically “who are you and where did you come from?” Enoch explains that he comes from his ancestral homeland called Cainan, which is a righteous place. Enoch explains the vision that he had where God commanded him to teach the people the gospel. I always imagined that these prophets just basically tell the people to repent, but in the case of Enoch, God has told him to tell the people who God is and the creation. Enoch also references the “book of remembrance” that they have which takes them all the way back to Adam. Maybe it’s because Adam is so far removed from us and that we have very little material to know who he is, but it just seems so weird to me to be able to point to a common figure that’s relatively recent in time who everyone can identify and say “oh yeah that’s where it all started.” Enoch...

The Lord has called Enoch to cry repentance to the people of the earth and Enoch takes it about as well as anyone else does, with a “wait, what?” Enoch “bowed himself to the earth… saying, Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?” He says “I’m too young and I don’t speak well, why are you choosing me?” But we know that whom the Lord calls, he qualifies, so he tells Enoch to do what he’s commanded and that he’ll be protected and given the words to say because ultimate “all flesh is in my hands.” God promises Enoch the Holy Ghost and promises him that He will fulfill all the promises Enoch makes “wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course.” God tells Enoch to go “anoint thine eyes with clay, and wash them, and thou shalt see.” This is reminiscent of when Jesus rubs clay into the eyes of the blind man a...

The book of Genesis is pretty light on details when it comes to Enoch, saying only the he ‘walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” That doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, only that he was one of the righteous ones. Fortunately, other scripture gives us much more insight, not only into this remarkable man, but also into the gospel and it’s workings in humanity throughout ancient times. The IM notes, “Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. He was born 630 years after the Fall, was ordained to the priesthood at 25 years of age, and at 430 years old he and his people were taken into heaven without tasting death (see D&C 107-49). An additional quotation from the prophecies of Enoch is found in Jude 1:14-15, and more information on his life is found in Luke 3:37 and Hebrews 11:5.” So it appears that the history of Enoch is found not only in exclusively LDS scripture but in the New Testament as well. This implies that the New Testament authors must have had access to a signi...

Maybe it’s because our world is so big and populated and disconnected, that it’s so hard to remember that with all the wickedness going on at the dawn of human history, these are all still A&E’s children and grandchildren who are suffering as both victims and perpetrators of violence and wickedness. In the instance of Cain and Abel, they must have felt heartbreak for the loss of their son Abel to death, but also heartbreak for the loss of their son Cain to wickedness. A&E have another son and name him Seth and Seth remained righteous even though so many of his siblings did not. Seth had a son named Enos “and prophesied in all his days, and taught his son Enos in the ways of God; wherefore Enos prophesied also.” The scriptures talk about these people living hundreds of years, which who knows, anything is possible I guess. When I listened to a lecture series on the book of Genesis, the lecturer told a story about a conversation he had with someone from the Middle East. They had ...

Even though Cain had just committed the first murder and leaves the presence of God, he leaves with a promise of protection from God. Cain and his wife, who is his brother’s daughter, live in a place called Nod which is east of Eden. They have children, the first one mentioned is Enoch, which makes me wonder if this is the Enoch with the translated city later. But footnotes clear this up saying, “Do not confuse Enoch of Cain’s lineage and the city of his name with the Enoch of Seth’s lineage and the city (Zion) of his name,” so that clears up that. There is a list of genealogy that goes through several generations and notes that Cain’s descendants were quite varied in their lifestyles and talents. Enoch built a city and named it after himself. There is Jabal which dwelled in tents and kept cattle, there was Jubal who was a musician playing the harp and organ. Tubal-cain taught others metallurgy. Lamech was a murderer, so I guess you can’t win them all. The account in Moses gives more ...