Priesthood, the authority to represent God, have officiated for him and
ministered in behalf of mankind. And other good and great spirits, not
holding that authority, but imbued with a desire to benefit and uplift
their fellows, have been sent into different nations, to give them, not
the fulness of the Gospel, but that measure of truth and light that
they had the power to appreciate and put to worthy use.
Why came Socrates, Confucius,
Zoroaster and Gautama?
Why not Christ alone?
Truth answers:
Graded are the Master's teachings,
Lest come wasteful overflowing,
With a swifter condemnation
For indifference or rejection.
Milk, not meat, for infant palates,
Spirit babes, though mental giants,
Unprepared for strong nutrition,
Ministered by agents mightier. [5]
The Arab and the Caliph.--But spirit waters, like the waters of earth,
will lose their sweetness and purity, if separated too far or too long
from their Fountain-head. They will become stagnant and unwholesome,
like the drink carried by the poor Arab in his leathern bottle, from
the sparkling spring in the desert to the distant palace of the
Caliph, who magnanimously rewarded the giver, not for the rank draught
presented for his acceptance, but for the goodness of his motive, the
sincerity of his soul.
An Oft-restored Religion.--Man's proneness to depart from God and to
mix with the clear precepts of divine truth his own muddy imaginings,
has made necessary more than one restoration of the primal and pure
religion. The Gospel of Christ did not make its first appearance upon
this planet at the time of the Savior's crucifixion. While it seemed a
new thing to that generation, who were "astonished at his doctrine,"
in reality it was older than all the ages, older than Earth itself.
Originating in the heavens before this world was framed, it had been
revealed to man in a series of dispensations, beginning with Adam and
extending down to Christ.
The Book with Seven Seals.--Revelation is silent as to the number of
the Gospel dispensations. But there are those--and the present writer
is among them--who incline to the belief that seven is the correct
figure; a belief partly founded upon the Scriptural or symbolical
character of that number, and partly upon Joseph Smith's teachings
relative to the seven great periods corresponding to the seven seals of
the mystical book seen by John the Revelator in his vision on Patmos.
[6]
The World's Hidden History.--According to the Prophet's exegesis,
the book mentioned in the Apocalypse "contains the revealed will,
mysteries and works of God--the hidden things of his economy concerning
this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance or its
temporal existence." Each thousand years is represented by one of the
seals upon the book--the first seal containing "the things of the first
thousand years, and the second also of the second thousand years, and
so on until the seventh." [7] The opening of these seals by the Lamb of
God signifies, as I understand, the revealing of a Heaven-kept record
of God's dealings with man upon this planet. [8]
Are They Dispensations?--These seven periods--millenniums--may or may
not be Gospel dispensations, periods of religious enlightenment, during
which the Plan of Salvation and the powers of the Priesthood have been
among men, alternating with seasons of spiritual darkness. But whether
or not they be so regarded, it is interesting to think of them as
covering the same ground, paralleling those dispensations, or extending
through the same vast stretch of duration, and dealing with events and
epochs, principles and personages, connected therewith.
Symbolical and Prophetic.--Whatever their number, or the names by which
they may be properly known, it is evident that the Gospel dispensations
are inter-related and progressive, each preparing the way before its
successor. Altogether, they represent God's special dealings with
man, from the beginning down to the end of the world. They are also
symbolical and prophetic, pointing forward to a great and wonderful
Consummation, the long-heralded era of Restitution, when part will
blend with perfect, when past dispensations will all be gathered into
one--the Eternal Present, God's great Today, wherein is neither past
nor future. [9]
Footnotes
1. Gal. 1:6-9.
2. Rev. 14:6.
3. Rev. 14:1, 4; D. and C. 77:11.
4. Alma 29:1-8.
5. "Love and the Light," pp. 74, 75
6. Rev. 5, 6, 8.
7. D. and C. 77:6, 7, 12.
8. Rev. 20:12.
9. Alma 40:8.
PART FOUR
A GLANCE DOWN THE AGES
ARTICLE FOURTEEN.
The Adamic Age.
"Dispensation" Defined.--What is meant by "dispensation." The term has
a variety of meanings. To dispense is to deal out or distribute in
portions, as when the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is dispensed to
a religious congregation. "Dispensations of Providence" is a phrase
used to describe the Creator's dealings with his creatures, either
for joy or sorrow. In theology "dispensation" signifies the method or
scheme whereby Deity has at different times developed his purposes
and revealed himself to man. As I now use the term, it stands for the
opening of the heavens and the sending forth of the Gospel and the
Priesthood for purposes of salvation. It also denotes the period of
time during which the saving and exalting principles thus sent forth,
continue operative in pristine power and purity.
The Great Patriarch.--Adam, the patriarch of the human family, is
over all the Gospel dispensations, including the Dispensation of the
Fulness of Times, which is virtually all dispensations rolled into
one. Nevertheless, each has its own immediate presiding authority,
holding the keys of his particular period--holding them under Adam, the
universal head. [1]
Distinctive Features.--Each Gospel Dispensation has certain
distinguishing characteristics, and stands for some particular
development of the Divine Purpose. Thus, the First Dispensation
presents the following distinctive features:
1. The institution of the Law of Sacrifice, foreshadowing the Atonement
that was to be made for the redemption of fallen man.
2. The introduction and earliest promulgation of the Gospel, for which
the Law of Sacrifice had prepared the way.
3. The initial exercise of the Patriarchal Power, in behalf of the
whole human race.
The Law of Sacrifice.--The Law of Sacrifice was revealed from Heaven
soon after our First Parents were banished from Eden. God, from whose
presence they were shut out, spoke "from the way toward the Garden,"
commanding them to "offer the firstlings of their flocks for an
offering unto the Lord." Adam obeyed, and after many days an Angel
appeared to him, saying: "Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the
Lord?" Adam replied: "I know not, save the Lord commanded me." The
Angel then said: "This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the
Only Begotten of the Father. 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." So runs the sacred story, as
rendered by Joseph the Seer. [2]
The Past Obscured.--It is not to be supposed, however, that this was
Adam's first knowledge of the sacrificial statute, concerning which he
must have known before it was revealed to him in mortal life. Adam was
no ordinary man. He was a great and wonderful character, and the world
has not seen the last of him. Undoubtedly he was among those who sat in
the eternal councils when the Gospel plan was instituted and its mighty
Executor chosen. Surely he knew about the Lamb of God, already slain
in the spirit before the creation of the world, and, in Adam's time,
yet to be slain literally in the world--an event symbolized by the very
sacrifice that the first man was offering when the Lord's messenger
appeared to him.
But Adam had lost the knowledge of his spirit past. It had been
temporarily taken from him in order that his agency might be free and
untrammeled, his conduct uninfluenced by any recollection of a former
experience. Hence the need of the Angel's coming to enlighten him, and
the further need of revelation by the Holy Spirit, bringing things past
to remembrance and showing things to come.
Acceptable and Unacceptable Offerings.--Adam's worship was acceptable
to God, for he was in every way obedient to the divine instruction; his
offering truly symbolizing the heavenly Lamb, subsequently foretokened
in the Feast of the Passover. Abel made a similar offering--of the
firstlings of his flock; "and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his
offering." [3]
But Abel's elder brother, Cain, who also had been taught the Law of
Sacrifice, took it upon himself to deviate from the course marked out.
Instead of a lamb, he "brought of the fruit of the ground"--an offering
in no way symbolical of the Savior. His offering was rejected; [4] for
"the ordinances must be kept in the very way God has appointed." [5]
The Gospel Introduced.--The way was now prepared for the introduction
of the great redemptive scheme that was to lift fallen man and open to
him the opportunities for endless increase and progression. Instead of
preaching "another gospel," or inventing some new form of ordinance,
as the misguided Cain might have done, Adam adhered to the Gospel in
its purity, carrying out to the letter the instructions God had given.
He, by his own voice, commanded Adam to believe, to repent, and to be
baptized; and, as it is written: "He 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;" after which the Spirit
descended upon him, "and he heard a voice out of heaven, saying: Thou
art baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost." [6]
"And thus the Gospel began to be preached from the beginning, being
declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by
his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost. And thus all things
were confirmed unto Adam by an holy ordinance, and the Gospel preached,
and a decree sent forth that it should be in the world until the end
thereof." [7]
Seeming Differences Reconciled.--Apropos of that ancient decree, I was
once asked to reconcile the statement concerning it with the idea of a
new dispensation. The question came to me in this form: "If the Gospel
was to be 'in the world' from Adam's time 'until the end,' what was the
need of restoring it--bringing it back again?"
I answered, in substance: "The two propositions do not really
contradict each other. The Gospel has been in the world from Adam's day
until now, by a series of dispensations, reaching through the entire
range of human history. The gaps between, so wide to us, count for
little with Deity, to whom past, present and future are one. [8] The
finite mind is prone to take short and narrow views of things, tangling
itself up in little quibbling details that often give a great deal of
trouble. But the Eternal sweeps the whole universe with infinite gaze,
and what seem mountains to men are less than mole-hills in His sight.
He has found it necessary, at different times, to withdraw the Gospel
and the Priesthood from the midst of mankind; and yet, by repeated
restorations, forming a continuous chain of dispensations, he has kept
the Gospel and the Priesthood in the world from the beginning down to
the present." [9]
Seth Succeeds Abel.--Abel fell a martyr to the Truth. Slain by his
envious brother [10], he was succeeded by Seth, another brother, born
subsequently. Seth was typical of the Son of God, not only because he
was "a perfect man," but because "his likeness was the express likeness
of his father's, insomuch that he seemed to be like unto his father in
all things, and could be distinguished from him only by his age." [11]
Adam-ondi-Ahman.--Says Joseph the Seer: "I saw Adam in the valley of
Adam-ondi-Ahman. He called together his children and blessed them with
a patriarchal blessing." [12] The vision was of course retrospective,
having reference to the time when Adam dwelt on earth. The same
event is more fully set forth as follows: "Three years previous to
the death of Adam, he called Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel Jared Enoch
and Methuselah, who were all High Priests, with the residue of his
posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and
there bestowed upon them his last blessing.
"And 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." [13]
Ancient of Days.--But Adam is to come again--is to come as the Ancient
of Days, fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel. [14] And he will come
to the very place where, bowed with the weight of more than nine
centuries, [15] he blessed his posterity before the ending of his
earthy career. In the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman [16] will sit the
Ancient of Days, counseling his children--all who are worthy of that
high privilege--and preparing them for the coming of the Son of God.
A Close Relationship.--I have said that the Gospel dispensations are
inter-related. It need only be added that the mighty patriarchal
blessing--the mightiest ever given--in which Father Adam forecast the
history of the human race, taken in connection with his prospective
advent into the midst of his righteous descendants, upon the precise
spot where he bestowed his farewell benediction and uttered his
wonderful world-covering prophecy, indicates a very close relationship
between the First and the Final dispensations of the Gospel.
Footnotes
1. Hist. Ch. Vol 4, pp. 208, 209. In this connection we are told that
Adam's son Abel holds "the keys of his dispensation;" that is to say,
of the First Dispensation, the one in which Abel figured (D. and C.
84:16). And yet it is called the Adamic Dispensation, for Adam also
figured therein.
2. Moses 5:4-8.
3. Gen. 4:4.
4. Ib. 4:5; Heb. 11:4.
5. Hist. Ch. Vol. 4, pp. 208, 209.
6. Moses 6:64-66.
7. Ib. 5:58,59.
8. Alma 40:8.
9. It might also be argued that in the spirit World, which is a part
of the planet that we inhabit, the Gospel has been preached for ages;
so that the dead or the departed might have opportunity to embrace it
(I Peter 4:6). And the withdrawal of the Gospel from this temporal
sphere would not necessarily involve its withdrawal from that spiritual
sphere. Thus, the divine edict, that the Gospel "should be in the world
until the end thereof," receives additional vindication.
10. Gen. 4:8.
11. D. and C. 107:43.
12. Hist. Ch. Vol. 3, p.388.
13. D. and C. 107:53-56.
14. Dan. 7:9, 13, 22; Hist. Ch. Vol. 3, p. 386.
15. Gen. 5:5.
16. D. and C. 116.
ARTICLE FIFTEEN.
Enoch and his City.
"Glorious things are sung of Zion,
Enoch's city seen of old,
Where the righteous, being perfect,
Walked with God in streets of gold.
Love and virtue, faith and wisdom,
Grace and gifts were all combined;
As himself each loved his neighbor,
All were of one heart and mind."
"The Seventh from Adam."--Enoch, "the seventh from Adam" in patriarchal
succession, was contemporaneous with the father of the human family.
Indeed, he was ordained and blessed by Adam, and was with him in the
historic Valley where the future of the race was foretold by its
venerable founder, [1] Enoch's period was prolific of wonderful events,
but the two standing out most prominently are:
First:--The successful practice of the Law of Consecration, resulting
in the founding of Zion, City of Holiness, which was sanctified through
obedience to that high and holy principle, and translated or taken into
Heaven without tasting of death. [2]
Second:--Enoch's vision of the future, extending past the Deluge, past
the Crucifixion, down even to the Last Days and the glorious coming of
the Christ.
The Power of Godliness.--Did the Zion-builder of the Adamic age stand
at the head of a Gospel dispensation? Whether he did or did not, it is
evident, from what has been revealed concerning him and his ministry,
that the message of salvation was preached by him in mighty power and
with marvelous success. The world, though young, had grown old in
wickedness, and the need for repentance was urgent. [3] "So great was
the faith of Enoch," and so powerful the language that God had given
him, "the earth trembled and the mountains fled, even according to his
command; and 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, so powerful was the word of Enoch." [4]
The Law of Consecration.--Among warring nations and in the midst of
sanguinary strife, Enoch, inspired and directed by the Almighty,
introduced and established a social order which cannot be better
described than in the simple, sublime phrasing of the Book of Moses,
the sacred volume just cited:
"And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart
and one mind and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among
them." [5]
"Zion is Fled."--"In process of time" consecration brought
sanctification, and eventually translation, to the City of Enoch,
regarding which, after its ascension, went forth the saying: "Zion is
fled." [6]
The Tower of Babel.--The people who built the Tower of Babel are said
to have done so in order that its top might "reach unto heaven." It
was to prevent them from accomplishing this purpose, that the Lord
confounded their language. [7] Tradition credits Joseph Smith with the
statement that the "heaven" they had in view was the translated city.
The Jaredites.--A righteous remnant of the people, namely, the
Jaredites, had been exempted from the general curse of tongue
confusion; [8] and through them the pure Adamic language was preserved
on earth. [9] The Jaredites, divinely led, separated themselves from
the other inhabitants of the land, and migrated to North America. Here
they flourished for many centuries, and then fell, a slaughtered race,
ruined by internal dissension. [10]
Translation and Resurrection.--Translation, says the Prophet Joseph,
does not take men "immediately into the presence of God." For
translated beings there is a terrestrial "place of habitation," where
they are "held in reserve to be ministering angels unto many planets,"
and "have not yet entered into so great a fulness as those who are
resurrected from the dead." Enoch received from God an appointment to
minister to beings of this character. [11]
The Future Unveiled.--Enoch walked with God, and was shown "the world
for the space of many generations." [12] He beheld the Millennial Dawn,
and the darkest hour before the dawn. "He saw great tribulations among
the wicked, and he also saw the sea, that it was troubled." [13] In a
splendid outburst of epic poetry, the inspired oracle tells how Zion
was taken up into heaven; how Satan "veiled the whole face of the earth
with darkness;" how he and his angels rejoiced; how "the God of heaven
looked upon the residue of the people and wept;" and how the heavens
wept also, shedding "their tears as the rain upon the mountains." [14]
Enoch, addressing the compassionate Creator, inquires: "How is it
that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity
to all eternity? And were it possible that man could number the
particles of the earth, yea millions of earths like this, it would not
be a beginning to the number of thy creations, and thy curtains are
stretched out still. . . . . And thou hast taken Zion to thine own
bosom from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and
naught but peace, justice and truth is the habitation of thy throne;
and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou
canst weep?" [15]
The Holy One answers, portraying the impending doom, the destruction
of the wicked by the Flood, and their imprisonment in spirit dungeons
until the coming of the Christ, bringing deliverance to the penitent.
[16]
The Mother of Men.--Enoch hears a voice from the depths of the Earth:
"Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of
the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest . . . . when shall my
Creator sanctify me, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face?"
[17]
The Creator's Covenant.--"And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live,
even so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and
vengeance, to fulfill the oath which I have made unto you concerning
the children of Noah. And the day shall come that the earth shall rest.
"But before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of
darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake, and also
the earth; and great tribulations shall be among the children of men.
But my people will I preserve." [18]
Another Zion Promised.--"And righteousness will I send down out of
heaven, and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony
of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also
the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause
to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the
four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy
City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for
the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall
be called Zion, a New Jerusalem.
"And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet
them there, 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:
"And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come
forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of
a thousand years the earth shall rest." [19]
Awaiting its Return.--According to these teachings, the City of Enoch
is now on a terrestrial plane, awaiting its return to Earth, when the
season shall be ripe and the preparation complete for its reception.
The change wrought upon its inhabitants by translation not being
equivalent to resurrection, they will undergo a further change to
prepare them for celestial glory. The Saints remaining on earth to meet
the Lord will likewise be changed, not by the "sleep" of death, but
"in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," at the time of the Savior's
coming. [20] When he comes, Enoch's City will come with him, Zion
from above blending with Zion from below, as spirit and body in the
resurrection.
The Ancient Types the Modern.--The Ancient Zion foreshadowed the Zion
of the Last Days, with which it is destined to blend. [21] In Enoch's
day the Lord's people, consecrating to Him their all, became equal in
earthly as in heavenly things; and the righteous unity resulting from
that blest condition brought forth the peace and power of sanctity. So
shall it be and more when the Lord brings again Zion.
Footnotes
1. D. and C. 107:48, 53-56.
2. Heb. 11:5.
3. Moses 6:27, 8.
4. Ib. 7:13.
5. Ib. 7:18. Compare Acts 4:32, 34, 35; 4 Nephi 1:2, 3.
6. Moses 7:69.
7. Gen. 11:1-9.
8. Ether 1:33-37.
9. Orson Pratt, citing an unpublished revelation, says: "What is the
name of God in the pure language? The answer says: 'Ahman.' What is the
name of the Son of God? Answer, 'Son Ahman, the greatest of all the
parts of God, excepting Ahman.' What is the name of men? 'Sons Ahman'
is the answer."--Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, p. 342.
10. Omni 1:21, 2; Mosiah 8:6-12; 28:17. See also Article Five.
11. Hist. Ch. Vol. 4, pp. 209, 210.