Wide as Eternity: The Visions of Enoch

The Backdrop of the Vision of Enoch

The opening verse of Moses 7 encapsulates the greatest and most persistent problem of the family of God: that “many have believed [the gospel as taught by Adam] and become the [children] of God, and many have believed not, and 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.”

Because of this revelation, Enoch began to prophesy from that time forth. (See verse 2.) As he preaches, he tells his audience about the visions he has been shown for their benefit. Those who listened and learned became the City of Enoch and were taken up into heaven. Although the story of the City remained in the Old Testament, the truths learned by them were lost from the earth until Jesus restored them in the meridian of time, and Joseph Smith restored them in the translation of Moses 7.

The vision of Enoch is a revolutionary scripture, overturning concepts that have been the basis of most nations, religions, cultures, and even individuals--that there is an “us” and a “them,” that we are right, and they are wrong, and that we will achieve happiness when we are avenged and triumph over our enemies. The vision teaches the concept that we are all brothers and sisters and only completely uniting the family of God will lead to a fulness of joy.

This concept was revolutionary in Enoch’s day--so revolutionary, it didn’t even make it into the Old Testament. It was again revolutionary in Jesus’s day and formed the basis of the original Christian church. It is revolutionary again in our day as we recover from centuries of misunderstanding about God, about sin, about judgment and salvation, and about the relationship between all the peoples of the earth. In restoring this truth, Joseph Smith upended the teachings promulgated by the greatest “Christian” thinkers and leaders since the apostles were killed. (For the history and details of this loss, I highly recommend the books by Terryl and Fiona Givens, The God Who Weeps, All Things New, and The Christ Who Heals. Really, every Latter-day Saint should read at least one of these books.)

Revolutionary Concepts #1 and #2: The mighty God of heaven is a PERSON, and He took the time to talk with one of His lowly creations.

“I saw the Lord; and he stood before my face, and he talked with me, even as a man talketh one with another, face, face” (verse 4).

Revolutionary Concept #3: Despite great wickedness and wars on the earth, a group of people could become as holy as heaven.

“The Lord came and dwelt with his people, and they dwelt in righteousness” (verse 16). “The glory [great joy] of the Lord…was upon his people.   “The Lord called his people Zion, because they were on one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (verse 18). “[Enoch, in passage of time] built a city that was called the City of Holiness, even Zion. (verse 19).  “Zion, in process of time, was taken up into heaven” (verse 21).

Revolutionary Concept #4: God experiences emotions, including sorrow; He cares about his children. Although they were “looking forth with fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them” (verse 1), God Himself was weeping at their estrangement. While Enoch was rejoicing that Zion was safe from evil, God was mourning the separation from “the residue of the people” who remained in wickedness (verse 28). (Although God cursed them [verse 20], it is an indirect cursing—simply the natural consequence of breaking His laws.) Enoch is utterly shocked that God, who is all powerful, all knowing, eternal, kind, perfect in every way, and has just seen the success of Zion, is now weeping (verse 31).

Revolutionary Concept #6: Our enemies are not our enemies, but our siblings. There are groups of people mentioned in the chapter who are hateful of each other: the people of Canaan are at war with people of Shum (verse 7). The war brings about a barrenness in the land, presumably from destruction of crops and other plants, and changes the climate of the area (verses 7-8) from which it never recovers. Possibly as a consequence of this--since it is announced in the same sentence--the people of Canaan experience a blackening of appearance that further separates them and causes all other people to despise them (verse 8). Multiple other groups of people in lands that are unknown to us today are mentioned, and the Lord commands Enoch to preach repentance to them (verse 9-10). Enoch preaches the gospel of Christ, encapsulated today in our Fourth Article of Faith, to all of these groups except the people of Canaan (verse 12). No explanation is given as to why He didn’t preach to them.

Because of the terrifying miracles Enoch can perform to protect his people, their enemies “fled and stood afar off and went upon the land which came up out of the depth of the sea. And the giants of the land, also, stood afar off…” (verses 13-15). There are wars everywhere, violence, hatred, bloodshed—separation (verse 16). The seed of Cain still were excluded from other societies because of the color of their skin (verse 22).

Only the people of Zion are spared from war, but whereas Enoch has previously been glorying that his city is rescued from their enemies, the Lord points out that the enemies are Enoch’s brethren.  “The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren… (verse 32).” From this point on, the word enemies disappears, replaced by brethren and children: family members!

Revolutionary Concept #5: Becoming holy does not create complete joy;  instead, holiness brings acute awareness of the suffering of our siblings (our enemies) because of their sins. I gave unto man his agency; and unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me [as] their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood (verses 32-33).” “Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer? (verse 37)? It is separation from God and from each other that causes suffering among human beings.

The heavens weep, not for the sin of the people, but for the suffering that sin causes before their redemption (verse 37): “Until that day they shall be in torment; wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea and all the workmanship of mine hands (verses 39-40).

Noah would build an ark to protect his family from the flood, and God would “smile” upon it, but “the residue of the wicked” would perish.

When Enoch saw this, he “wept and stretched forth his arms, and his heart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook” (verse 41). He “wept over his brethren, and said unto the heavens: I will refuse to be comforted; but the Lord said unto Enoch: Lift up your heart, and be glad; and look” (verse 44).

Revolutionary Concept #6: Christ’s atonement will cover even those who did not learn righteousness and unity while on the earth.  Enoch looked and no longer saw the wicked as his enemies, but as the families of the earth, and he asked when Christ would atone for them, and “they that mourn” will be sanctified and have eternal life (verse 45). And then he saw “the day of the coming of the Son of Man, even in the flesh; and his soul rejoiced…” (verse 47).

After the agony of the cross and the agony of the earth in response to the crucifixion, not only do “saints” arise and to be crowned at the right hand of God (verse 56), but also “the spirits as were in prison came forth, and stood on the right hand of God (verse 57). But a remainder (the word remainder suggests a small number) still waits “in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day.”

Revolutionary Concept #7: A fulness of joy is only achieved with complete unity. The earth will finally rest when Christ comes again and enmity is removed from the family of God. Then “righteousness and truth will sweep the earth as with a flood” just as the waters swept the wicked off the earth previously (verse 52). The City of Enoch will come down to join Zion on earth, the New Jerusalem, “and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other” (verse 63). There will be a thousand years of peace upon the earth. Finally at the end of the world a fulness of joy is finally achieved (verse 67).

What does this mean in your life?

We are confronted many times daily, even hourly, with the temptation to separate. We view others’ successes with jealousy.

We polarize ourselves into political groups.

We struggle to view other races and cultures as less than ours, even when we are trying to be kind.

We have no idea how to feel about people with nonbinary sexual orientations.

We may think our country is the greatest.

We may resent immigrants or refugees or people who don’t learn to speak our language.

We may be suspicious of those who are different.

We may have struggles to forgive those who have wronged us.

We may say that everyone is a child of God, but we feel that perhaps our group contains the best children of God, as if the rest are a different class of family members.

In all of these daily situations, we are only free to be truly happy when we unite ourselves with our Heavenly Father and view all “others” as our suffering siblings. Once we have this view, the Holy Ghost can guide us in how to love and accept others and how to share the gospel with them so that we can be one.

Kansas City Temple

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2022 Supplements

2022

Lesson supplements for all of the standard works can be found at the top of the home page. 

Please click on those links to find the appropriate lesson.

Best Wishes for a Joyous New Year!

Whether we get to have "precendented times" again

or whether it's another year of These Unprecedented Times,

the gospel of Jesus Christ (love) is the answer to all problems (fear).

Christmas Lessons

My Grandson Moses and the Nativity

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The Purpose of Christmas

Unto You Is Born a Savior

The Measure of Our Faith

Bonus Lessons, vaguely related to The Family Proclamation

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taken earlier this month, but you are most welcome 

to copy and use it.

I don't have time or ability to put together a lesson on The Family Proclamation right now, but here are some great lessons that are vaguely related to it.

The Family Proclamation gives us the ideals for family life. But...what if your family is dysfunctional? Is there hope for you? Well, there was for Vaughan J. Featherstone and Abraham the Prophet.

And I just really love sharing this story from Church history of a family man who turned his life over to God, helped many families, and promoted family values among all his employees: Jesse Knight

Doctrine and Covenants 124-128

Rather than posting a new lesson for these sections, I'm sharing links to old related posts. I so enjoyed researching and writing about these topics! I hope you will find them useful.

 Nauvoo

 Emma Smith's Temple Work

Our Oldest Temple: St. George, Utah

 Baptism for the Dead

I have a tradition of doing a puzzle 

while I watch General Conference at home.  

This fun puzzle is called "Celebrating the Restoration." 

General Conference

 Fun facts about General Conference:

"A Brief History of General Conference"

Photograph from JacobsenConstruction.com

Doctrine and Covenants 98-101

 THE SIMMERING POT OF JACKSON COUNTY

"The Prophet Joseph and those who accompanied him to Missouri in the summer of 1831 were joyful to learn that Jackson County was the location of the latter-day Zion.  They did not realize that within two years the Saints would be driven from their homes in western Missouri...

"The year 1833 was one of tribulation for the Saints in Jackson County, Missouri.  Irreconcilable conflicts developed with their neighbors over several issues...

"By the end of 1832 there were 800 Saints gathered into five branches in Jackson County.  New people were arriving almost every week..."

There was a clear organization of Church leadership set up in Jackson County by the Prophet. "Some members, however, tried to circumvent the Church leaders in Missouri by ignoring their authority to preside...

"Other difficulties arose in Zion.  Petty jealousies, covetousness, light-mindedness, unbelief, and general neglect in keeping the commandments of God came to the attention of the Prophet.  Some people in Zion even charged Joseph Smith with 'seeking after monarchical power and authority' and said that he was purposely putting off settling in Zion...

"The Prophet wrote back in the spirit of peace and sent a copy of the 'Olive Leaf' (D&C 88)...

"Following receipt of the Olive Leaf revelation, a council of high priests met on 26 February 1833 and called for solemn assemblies to be held in each of the branches (see D&C 88:70).  David Pettigrew wrote in his journal that Bishop Partridge appointed them 'as a day of confession and repentance.'"

The Lord was pleased with this new spirit...(D&C 90:34) Peace began to prevail.  A "school of elders," like the Kirtland "school of prophets" was organized.  Prophecies were being publicized in the Church newspapers and The Book of Commandments was being printed.  The plan for the City of Zion was drawn up, which included dwellings for 15,000-20,000 people in 1 square mile with a complex of 24 temples (probably more like the Kirtland Temple--meetinghouses/temples--as the fulness of temple worship wasn't instituted until the Nauvoo Temple).  Farmers and merchants alike would live "in town," the farmers commuting to work outside town each day.

"The happy and favorable circumstances of the Saints in Jackson County ended suddenly in July of 1833.  The original inhabitants of the area became increasingly suspicious as the number of Church members in Jackson County grew rapidly...

"Jackson County's residents were a rough-and-ready group who had come from the mountainous regions of several southern states to the western edge of the United States to find freedom from societal restraints...Many of them indulged in profanity, Sabbath-breaking, horse-racing, cock-fighting, idleness, drunkenness, gambling, and violence...

"By July 1833 the Mormon population in the county was almost 1,200 with more arriving each month.  Some members boasted that thousands more were coming to live in the county...

"Protestant ministers...resented the Mormon intrusion" into their territory.  "In addition, Mormon merchants and tradesmen successfully took over a portion of the lucrative Santa Fe Trail trade previously dominated by the Missourians...

"The Missouri frontiersmen feared and hated the [Native Americans]" who were being settled nearby by the government.  "The first Mormon missionaries came into this tense atmosphere declaring the prophetic destiny of the native Americans.  The old settlers were afraid the Saints would use the [Native Americans] to help them conquer the area for their New Jerusalem...

"The conflict between the Saints and the old settlers came to a head over the slavery issue.  Missouri had come into the Union as a slave state...Some of the Saints brought abolitionist sentiments from the North and East...Missourians were highly aroused early in 1832 by rumors that the Saints were trying to persuade slaves to disobey their masters or run away."  (Quotes are all from the Institute manual, Church History in the Fulness of Times, p. 127-132)

SUMMARY OF THE LORD'S WORDS TO SAINTS IN TROUBLE

The chapter summaries in the scriptures can often give us great clarity on the words of the Lord. In the case of Sections 98 and 101, written to the Saints in Jackson County in the time of their worst affliction, we can look at them as a list. Each point is also relevant to us in our various situations throughout the world. In the United States, I think it is instructive in regards to the current polarization of political idiologies and the criticism towards or disregard for the Constitution.

• The afflictions of the Saints will be for their good.
• The Saints are to befriend the constitutional law of the land.
• Honest, wise, and good men should be supported for secular government.
• Those who lay down their lives in the Lord’s cause will have eternal life.
• Renounce war and proclaim peace.
• The Saints in Kirtland are reproved and commanded to repent.
• The Lord reveals His laws governing the persecutions and afflictions imposed on His people:
• War is justified only when the Lord commands it.
• The Saints are to forgive their enemies, who, if they repent, will also escape the Lord’s vengeance.
• The Saints are chastened and afflicted because of their transgressions.
• The Lord’s indignation will fall upon the nations, but His people will be gathered and comforted.
• Zion and her stakes will be established.
• The nature of life during the Millennium is set forth.
• The Saints will be blessed and rewarded then.
• The parable of the nobleman and the olive trees signifies the troubles and eventual redemption of Zion.
• The Saints are to continue gathering together.
• The Lord established the Constitution of the United States.
• The Saints are to importune for the redress of grievances, according to the parable of the woman and the unjust judge.

In the end, although they had to endure severe trials and many lost their lives or their faith, those who remained with the Church ended up completely escaping the most devastating war in the history of the United States, the Civil War. Jackson County, Missouri was one of the hottest points of the Civil War, and when the war was over, General Order #11 was issued by Union General Thomas Ewing on August 25, 1863, forcing the Jackson County residents to move or be burned out. Although the Saints endured terrible trials, those very trials--their expulsion from Missouri and later Illinois--caused them to completely escape the horror of the Civil War, as Utah was not even a state yet.

THE LORD'S WORDS TO US IN OUR TIMES OF TROUBLE

The beginning of the revelation in Section 98 is one of the most comforting in all scripture. It has been not only a comfort to the Saints in the time it was originally received, but to many individuals since in their own personal trials. It is one of those scriptures through which Heavenly Father can clearly speak to us:

1 Verily I say unto you my friends, ^afear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give ^bthanks;

2 ^aWaiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

3 Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been ^aafflicted shall work together for your ^bgood, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.

Today there are groups of Saints who feel marginalized, oppressed, misunderstood, or underappreciated within the cultures in which they live and sometimes within the Church. There are doctrines we do not understand or which have not yet been fully revealed, because the Restoration is ongoing. We are still learning where faithful Saints who have gender issues, such as same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, fit in the present-day Kingdom of God on earth, as well as in the eternal doctrine of the family. We are still learning more about the role of women in the priesthood. We still don't fully understand why early Church leaders could be inspired of God and still have views that were racist.

There are also individual Saints who are going through other severe trials that are hard to understand. Every one of us will fall into this category at some time in our life because developing trust in God is a key component of our progression toward Godhood. Our trials also teach us very important lessons about each other and ourselves, and they reveal to us our total dependence upon our Savior.

If either of these categories describes you at this present time, I encourage you to read, re-read, and possibly even memorize these three verses of comfort and promise from the Lord of Sabaoth (the Lord of Heavenly Armies) and know that He is on your side if you are on His. If your prayers are inspired and ratified by the Holy Ghost, they will be answered. 

MY TESTIMONY OF GOD'S CARE

Although I usually try to not make this blog about me, I feel impressed to indulge in telling a personal story about these verses as a follow-up to the story I shared in the last post.

For several years of our married life, right around the turn of the 21st century, my husband, who is a space sciences engineer, was working on a joint satellite project between the United States and Russia. This work required him to travel frequently to Moscow for ten days or two weeks at a time. I was at our home raising 6 children, from an infant to teenagers. It was hard on our family to have our father gone so much of the time. It was hard on his health to have to flip his days and nights so frequently as he drastically changed time zones. It was very hard on me to be a single parent. These feelings of frustration worsened as it became increasingly obvious that two mighty countries with two massive governments who functioned in completely different ways would never trust each other enough to get this satellite off the ground. The project would never be completed and launched. 

One day it occurred to me that, although I had complained quite a bit about this situation of family separation, I had never asked in prayer for the Lord to take it away. Immediately I dropped to my knees beside my bed, but as I began to pray I was suddenly infused with the knowledge that I was going to pray for the wrong thing. I was immediately filled with peace and purpose in my role as the sometimes sole parent at home. I did offer a prayer, but it ended up being a prayer of gratitude for the knowledge that the travel was important in God's plan. I never felt to complain again.

As Gary walked the streets of Russia in the early years of his work there, street children would flock around him, begging for money. It was heartbreaking. It was the early days of the democracy experience for Russia and their economy had collapsed. Most of these children were orphaned or abandoned. He learned to always carry coins in his pocket to throw for the children, like one might throw candy in an American parade. This got money to the children and also got them off him so he could continue down the street. By about the year 2000 as Russia became more stable, the children gradually disappeared from the streets, placed into orphanages. Gary's flights home from Russia began to be increasingly filled with American parents and their newly adopted Russian infants and children. 

Since the birth of our sixth child, we had always felt an incompleteness in our family. Several times I had accidentally told people we had seven children! Yet the seventh child did not appear in the usual way. 

In the meantime, my husband's supervisors invited the spouses of the team to travel to Russia to tour with them in conjunction with one of their business trips. I'm not a great traveler and I had never wanted to go to Russia, but I felt I would always regret it if I didn't take advantage of the offer. It ended up being a wonderful experience. At the conclusion of the tour, I then personally experienced an airline flight from Moscow to New York City with about fifteen newly-adopted children and their American parents.  

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We began to wonder whether the Lord wanted us to adopt from Russia. It seemed silly, since we already had six biological children and since there are children in America who also need parents if we wanted to adopt one. We also didn't have the funds for a foreign adoption. But we asked the question in prayer over the next several weeks and our prayers were powerfully and unmistakenly answered: YES! And we knew the child was a four-year-old girl. We began the process of adoption. 

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We traveled to Krasnodar, Russia and met a beautiful little 4-year-old girl. We were told we would be able to return in six weeks to adopt her. But just before we were to return, we were told her paperwork had not been filed correctly and we would have to wait a little longer. Then the birthmother (from within prison, where she was serving a drug sentence) sent a letter to the child and promised to come back to get her. We would have to wait to see if she would follow through. Then adoptions in the region halted for months while a new regional Board of Education (which oversees adoptions) was appointed. We ran out of money and took out a second mortgage on our home. Our paperwork, home study, and official documents expired so we did it all again. And we waited. I carried an almost constant knot in my stomach and had to make myself eat. We could not see how this stalemate would ever resolve.

During this time, my visiting teacher, whose three children were all adopted, shared with me the scripture mentioned above, D&C 98:1-3. It had carried a personal message to her from God when she had been despairing during the long wait for their second child. I hoped it was a message for us as well.

We were sent pictures of other children to adopt, but as we prayed for guidance about whether we should change direction, we always got the answer to just continue waiting. Our ward fasted and prayed with us for our adoption. Then our Russian adoption agent suddenly emigrated to America (with our money) and we were left high and dry.

It was right then, when all hope seemed lost, almost two years after we started the adoption process, that suddenly the way cleared. We found a new Russian adoption agent through connections on an Internet support group who was more knowledgeable, more powerful and who had integrity. The area was reopened for foreign adoption, and we were sent a photograph of a sweet little four-year-old girl. The minute I saw that first photo, I knew this was our daughter. We redid all our expensive paperwork (again!) and booked our flights. We drove from Krasnodar to the orphanage in Afipsky with our new adoption agent, who said, "I was raised an atheist, but one cannot work in adoption and remain an atheist." We met a little girl with a big smile, and as I measured our new daughter for clothing, I discovered she had exactly the same measurements as the first little girl--even down to the shoe size! 

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The new Board of Education was not eager to allow adoptions into large families, but simply because we had waited so long and never given up, they allowed us to complete the last America adoption in that region before they shut it down again, and on October 11, 2004, our family was finally complete. 

As time went on, we were able to see, more and more, how everything had worked out exactly according to Heavenly Father's plan for our family: Our daughter had not actually entered the orphanage system at the time we first traveled. God sent us that early, not only so that the new Board of Education would admire us for our persistence, but so that we could meet and photograph a darling little boy and help facilitate his adoption into another Latter-day Saint family in our home town. That boy recently completed a mission to Michigan. God also chose a child for our first attempt who looked just like our actual daughter would look two years later, so that our new agent would be able to easily find the right one just by appearance once she was available. We hope that the first little girl was successfully reunited with her mother, and that her mother has been motivated to stay clean from drugs for the benefit of her child. And all those times that I "accidentally" said we had seven children, we really did because our daughter was born in Russia 9 months before our youngest son was born in Utah.

This experience, which was at first the greatest trial of my faith, turned into the miracle that has become one of the greatest anchors to my faith. As one of the members of our ward said today in his testimony, "When in doubt, zoom out." If we can "zoom out" of the moment, get a long-range, eternal perspective, and trust that God knows what He is doing, trials of faith can become anchors of faith.