The Holy “Ancient” Order of Things
READ Moses 6:1-9
What is taught here about how and why God “made Himself
known” unto Seth?
God is no respecter of
persons, so He followed the same process He did with all of Adam’s other children
and posterity.
Adam called upon Seth to
repent; he would have also have taught him all he knew about God from his
experiences with him (inside and outside of the Garden of Eden).
Seth reacted positively to the
message to repent, as Abel (and initially Cain) had earlier.
Seth sought after God, to know
Him for himself (as God honors our agency and will not force Himself upon us)
and offered the required sacrifice.
God accepted his sacrifice and
revealed Himself to Seth.
Seth was married in the covenant
and bore a son.
Seth called upon the Lord (to
receive the Holy Order) and was blessed with the High Priesthood (see Abraham
1:1-4).
A Book of Remembrance,
chronicling those who received the Holy Order or High Priesthood from God was
kept, so that those who held domination over the earth would be recorded in the
book – this would have included Adam, Seth and Enos and their wives.
READ Moses 6:15
If the Holy Order holds dominion upon the earth, what
does Satan hold dominion over?
Over the hearts of men.
The elements of the earth and
the beasts of the field obey the God of heaven, but mankind have their agency
and most choose to love Satan more than God because Satan’s way is easier and
appeals to their pride and selfishness and will gain for them a kingdom upon
the earth.
Enoch the Wild Man
READ Moses 6:26-29
What is the message of all true prophets?
Repent and come unto Christ in
the flesh.
Why is the Lord angry at the people?
They have gone astray (implies
they had the truth but they rejected or left it).
They “deny me” (put other Gods
before Him - implies they know other gods).
Seek their own counsels (rely
on the arm of the flesh not God).
In the dark (secret
combinations - Master Mahan; trying to hide from God… rather they are oblivious
to the reality of God and are hiding from men).
Abominations (religious rites
or Godly religion turned and used for evil).
Murder (taking the right of
another man to live and obtain salvation – possibly damning him via a premature
death; and playing God by dictating when a man leaves this probation).
READ Moses 6:32-34
What priesthood power has God given to Enoch?
The sealing power (see also
Moses 6:7).
The Holy Order.
The High Priesthood.
Power over the elements, over
people/armies, the ability to stand in God’s presence, to subdue the powers of
heaven/angels, and come up to heaven through the fiery portal (see JST Genesis
14:27-34).
What is the relationship between "open thy mouth
and it will be filled - I will give thee utterance" with "all thy
words will I justify"?
Enoch has become a person that
the Lord can have faith in – he is not freelancing.
Enoch has submitted his will
totally to the Lord and in so doing has been changed - he is totally filled
with the spirit (Moses 5:9-10), the record of heaven and mind of God (LOF 5) –
God’s will is Enoch’s will, at this point.
READ Moses 6:35-36
What does it mean to "see" but not with the
"natural eye"?
He is given a spiritual gift
to see through the veil to the “unseen” or spiritual realm.
He can see what is really
there, but which the natural man cannot see; he can see energy waves which
human eyes cannot see.
His spiritual eye has been opened.
Why does the Lord ask him to first anoint his eyes with
clay?
It was a trial of faith -
"do this and that will happen... if you have faith".
He may have needed a physical,
tangible element to help him believe or to help Him focus his faith on the Lord’s
power; this is why the Lord gave us rites – to symbolize the “real thing” and
increase our faith in it by teaching us truth in ways we can better grasp
because our minds are darkened.
But it wasn’t “magic” clay;
the clay itself was not actually needed for the transformation.
READ Moses 6:37-38
Why were “all” men offended because of Enoch?
He told them what they didn’t
want to hear: repent; he called out their weaknesses and errors.
The “evil” love Satan and
being carnal, sensual and devilish more than they love God and righteousness. They do not want to hear that what they are
doing is wrong as it might begin to prick their hearts and disturb their
blissful state of natural evil.
The “righteous” are offended
because they say in their hearts - “how dare you judge me - I am righteous - I
know and live the commandments”; their self-image is wrapped up in being better
than others but Enoch’s message of repentance (i.e. there are many things you
need to change) is like an attack to the jugular, so it must be fought and
rejected.
What does calling Enoch a “wild man” imply?
He is embarrassing to the
world.
He is primitive in his
beliefs, not sophisticated.
They turn up their noses at
him - they are better than him.
He is crazy; he does not
conform to their view of acceptable (i.e. virtuous) behavior.
He is a spectacle, an
entertainment.
READ Moses 6:42, 47
Why can Enoch stand in the presence of God but the
people cannot even stand in Enoch’s presence when he speaks the words of God?
He is resonating at God’s
frequency, filled with His power and clothed in His glory (Moses 7:3) which is
very uncomfortable for those who do not also resonate there to abide – even if
they can’t see the light that emanates from him, they can feel his energy and it
makes them ill and afraid.
READ Moses 6:52, 57
What were the words God gave to Enoch?
If you will believe and turn
unto me and repent and covenant with Christ by being baptized…
You shall receive the Gift of
the Holy Ghost…
And whatever you ask in His
name, will be given unto you.
You will be made clean and be
able to dwell in God’s presence.
But if you do not do this, you
will not be able to be where God is.
They were the words of a
covenant, which if lived, would give Enoch power to do God’s will in the
physical world because he would be clean/filled with light, enabling him to have
priesthood (i.e. an association through the veil with the Powers of Heaven) to
act in the spiritual realm, which directly affects the physical world.
READ Moses 6:61
What is the Gift of the Holy Ghost?
God’s spirit or mind to abide
IN you.
The record of heaven.
The Comforter.
Peaceable things of immortal
glory.
The TRUTH of all things.
Quickeneth all things.
What makes all things alive.
Knowth all things.
Has all power.
READ Moses 6:59-60, 64-66
What does it mean to be “born again?”
Come to life spiritually; it
is the opposite of remaining spiritually stillborn (dead), which is our default
position here in this fallen world.
Given a new heart - a mighty
change in our disposition or desires or intentions.
Justified - “not guilty” of
the sins we’ve committed.
Sanctified - “cleansed and
perfected” from the affects of the sins we’ve now been justified (made not
guilty) of.
Entered the “Gate” on the path
back to the presence of God in this life.
What does it mean that water, blood and spirit are the
elements by which we are born into mortality?
Water = we are carried in the
womb in a sack of water, which provides protection; when it breaks, we are
born; the largest single element of our bodies is water, with the percentage of
our mass ranging from 78% at birth to 60% as an adult; without constant
hydration, we will die – we can go without food for a much longer time than
without water.
Blood = we are nourished in
the womb by our mother’s blood; our own blood is what gives life to us and
without it, we die.
Spirit = our spirits are
placed into our bodies by God sometime before birth (see D&C 84:27; Luke
1:41; 3 Ne 1:13); our spirits animate our bodies, which is the “tabernacle” or
temporary dwelling place for our spirit; physical death is the separation of
the spirit from the body; spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from
God’s direct presence.
What does it mean that water, blood and spirit are also
the elements with which we are born of the Spirit?
Water = we enter the Gate back
to God’s presence in the flesh by being cleansed – which starts with taking
upon ourselves the Gospel covenant, which we do by being immersed in living
water; Christ is the “living water” without which our spirits will die; we must
be “connected” to the “living vine” or have within us a spring of “living
water” to be spiritually alive (i.e. come back into the presence of God and
“abide” there via an actual spiritual connection to Him of spiritual life
giving “water”).
Blood = the blood of Christ,
shed in the Garden of Gethsemane, was evidence of the eternal suffering that
Christ endured to save our souls and enable us to reenter His presence clean
and pure; His blood is the symbol of the vehicle through which we are cleansed
spiritually from all impurity – His atonement; He gave his life blood because
He had life in Himself and was not dependent upon the blood in His veins to
sustain Him; we partake of His blood during the sacrament – taking the symbol
of His sacrifice and life into ourselves to sustain us in the form of nourishment
and to gladden our hearts (the property of the wine).
Spirit = the mind of God or
Holy Spirit is what quickens us (raises or increases our frequency) and is the
actual vehicle through which we are cleansed – the water symbolizing our desire
to be clean but the Spirit does the actual refining or mighty changing of our
spirit to make us a new creature; we are filled with Christ’s Spirit or light,
which if we do not chase away through rebellion (rejection), will help us
become precisely like Him and nothing else.
READ Moses 6:67-68
What has happened to Enoch?
He’s been chosen - given the
Fullness of the Priesthood - the Holy Order After the Son of God.
He’s been made a Son of God
himself.
He is one in God.
He abides with God.
What does “thus may ALL become my sons” mean?
Just as Moses tried to get the
children of Israel to receive all that he received and Joseph Smith attempted
the same thing, the Lord is telling Enoch that these experiences are not
intended to be exclusive to a few individuals.
All may become children of God
– implied is that why we are His spirit children, we are not “His children” in
the way the phrase is being used here: specifically, to become a or be called
to be a “son of God”.
Enoch’s Zion
READ Moses 7:1
What happened in Enoch’s time?
Many became Sons of God.
This is how they become Zion:
individually listening to the voice of the Lord calling them to ascend and
become Sons of God by believing and receiving the birth of the Spirit and
eventually the Fullness of the Priesthood and Second Comforter.
Enoch didn’t “make” this
happen to the others; but he taught what he had learned from his first-hand
experiences with God and the people did not reject the teachings but embraced
and applied them by proving them through their own experiences; Enoch was not a
strongman leader – because that doesn’t work, as is evidenced by Moses (the
children of Israel wanting him to stand between them and God – thinking that
this arrangement would still save them – but eternal life is to know God,
yourself, see John 17:3).
READ Moses 7:13-17
How did the Lord protect His people from the armies of
the world?
He gave Enoch power - His Word
and language (implied is that the spoken words had an effect in the physical
world).
Cursed the enemies of God.
The wicked kill the wicked –
He let the natural order of the natural man take its natural path, rather than
intervening and stopping what happens naturally in this telestial kingdom.
Came and lived/dwelt with His
people; took up His habitation with them – with His associated glory.
The world could see the glory
of the Lord, which was upon His people (see clothed in glory Moses 7:3).
READ Moses 7:18-19
How did the people of Zion live, as a result of being
in the presence of the Lord?
One heart… with the Lord (via
Birth of the Spirit); their hearts were knit together such that sin had no
place among them (see 4 Nephi 1:15-18).
One mind… with the Lord (via
Holy Ghost) such that they could perform mighty miracles as they received an
increasing measure of faith and connection to the mind of God or Holy Spirit
(see 4 Nephi 1:13; LoF 5:2).
Dwelt in righteousness…they do
the works of their Lord - because they have become like Him; they “do” because
that is how they “are” (see 4 Nephi 1:2).
No poor among them… the
temporal law follows the spiritual man (see 4 Nephi 1:3); they treat each other
as they would treat their own immediate family.
In the Nephite Zion, it seems
like these same elements are present but that they developed over time – first
with stopping obvious contentions so that they could dwell in righteousness
with each other and taking care of the poor among them; then later they were
filled with a fullness of the Holy Spirit such that they were of “one mind”;
and later still, they were filled with charity to the point that they were of
one heart; even after receiving the Second Comforter at the time of His visit
in 3 Nephi 11, it took the Nephites some time to become refined enough to truly
establish Zion – but it is vitally important to see that each of them individually
knowing Christ with a surety was the prerequisite for all of the rest to happen.
READ Moses 7:20-21
What happens to this Zion people and why?
They are translated and lifted
up to heaven; they walk through the fiery portal through the “paths” of the
heavens.
Because God was about to
destroy the wicked from off the face of the earth with the flood and while God
will allow the wicked to destroy the righteous, they couldn’t destroy Zion
because it was too “terrible” with the glory of God and the Powers of Heaven
there, and God will not destroy the righteous – so He had to take the city up
to heaven.
They then receive a calling to
minister to those on the earth, as well as to be Christ’s “entourage” when He
comes again in His glory at the end of the world.
READ Moses 7:61-63
What will happen to the latter day Zion?
The people of Enoch will come
back from Heaven to dwell with Zion on earth.
They will see in the Zion of
the New Jerusalem a people just like themselves, such that they will feel
comfortable hugging and kissing them.
It
is also possible that those in Zion on earth have journeyed to the heavenly
realm prior to Christ’s return in glory and have made friends there (or visa
versa), such that when Enoch’s Zion returns, both parties are so overjoyed to
see the other one that they embrace and kiss each other because they already
know each other personally.
READ Moses 7:27
What is the role of the angels or messengers of God?
To bear testimony of the
Father and the Son to those who are left on earth.
That those to whom they
minister might also be caught up and escape the destruction.
They prepare mankind to
receive the Birth of the Spirit and the Lord Himself.
