Adam, Enoch, and Melchizedek: The Patriarchal Age Instructions: You are responsible to understand the material in this reading assignment. Write-up will always include notes from reading that will aid you in writing the course essay. Reading Assignment Key Concepts received of his fulness, and of his glory; 57 And are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was Acquaint yourself with the key concepts that are vital to this after the order of th e Only Begotten Son. reading assignment and necessary to the course paper– Those in the celestial kingdom are governed by the same 1. Gospel Dispensation and the Patriarchal Priesthood priesthood order conferred upon Adam by God, who conferred • Priesthood is the power of God, the government that regulates, it upon Enoch. Hundreds of years later, some time after Noah controls, dictates and manages the affairs of His kingdoms and and the flood, this priesthood was conferred upon a man principalities. named Melchizedek. The order referred to in these verses is • The priesthood Adam exercised was the patriarchal priesthood; a called the Patriarchal Priesthood. This is the topic of this perfect, theocratic government. section. 2. “The Chosen Seed” Firstly, we will discuss what the Patriarchal Priesthood is. • Sealing of child to parent makes them an heir to kingdom. Secondly, we will then discuss why–of all the important individuals who ever held the priesthood including Noah, • “The Chosen Seed” begins with Abel Abraham, Moses, and Elijah–why does D&C 76 state that 3. The Adamic Theocracy those in the celestial kingdom are after the order Enoch and Melchizedek? Why are these two men singled out? • Adam received priesthood associated with his role in the creation of the earth. II. The Priesthood of God. • With the priesthood came the first government. Being a priesthood We must first understand what priesthood is. Simply stated, government it is theocratic. President Thomas S. Monson explained what the priesthood is: 4. Cain and the First False Theocracy Priesthood is the central power in the Church and the • The killing of Abel was an attempt to destroy the first patriarchal authority through which the Church is administered. government. He established the first false theocracy. (Teachings of Thomas S. Monson, comp. Lynne F. Cannegiteter [2014], p. 232) 5. Adam-ondi-Ahman Of the power of the President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008) • Adam gives to his righteous posterity the temple ordinances which made the following declarations as found in the Discourses of brings them back into the presence of God (in mortality!) President Gordon B. Hinckley, 2 vols (Published by LDS 6. The City of Enoch Church, 2005): • In a wicked, decadent world, Enoch brought his people into a state of • It is the power and authority by which God, our Eternal holiness known as Zion Father, accomplishes His work on the earth. (1:307; emphasis added) • Zion are a people who are of doctrinally one heart and mind, who dwell in righteousness (make and keep sacred covenants), and have no • This is the authority of God on the earth. It comes from poor among them (self-reliant) Him as a divine bestowal [.i.e., conferral]. It carries with 7. Melchizedek and the City of Salem it the power and authority to govern in the affairs of the Church. It carries with it the power and the authority to • Melchizedek took a people who were virtually like Sodom or Gomorrah bless in the name of the Lord, to lay hands upon the and brought them into a state of righteousness (as Enoch’s people) sick and call down the powers of heaven. It is sacred and they were eventually translated. and holy. It partakes of the divine. Its authority is expressed in mortality and reaches beyond the veil of death. (1:274; emphasis added) • Endless are its powers, endless its authority. It is by this authority that we are empowered to govern in the 1. The Adamic Dispensation–The Beginning of the affairs of the Church and kingdom of God. (2:507; emphasis added) Patriarchal Age In a general conference setting, President Hinckley restated I. The Order of Melchizedek, Enoch, and Adam the eternal nature of the priesthood in clear terms: Recall that one of the descriptions given in D&C 76 regarding There is no power on earth like it. Its authority extends those in the celestial kingdom is that they were after the order beyond life, through the veil of death, to the eternities of Melchizedek, Enoch, and the Only Begotton Son: ahead. It is everlasting in its consequences. (Ensign, Nov. D&C 76:56-57 1984, p. 53; emphasis added) 56 They are they who are priests and kings, who have The eternal nature of the power of the priesthood is essential 1 to comprehend. Recall that the consequences of Adam’s fall Translation, Hebrews 7:3]. The keys have to be brought and our own personal fall have terrible and dreadful eternal from heaven whenever the Gospel is sent. When they are consequences (e.g., 1 Nephi 10:6, 21; 2 Nephi. 2:5, 18; 9:6-9; revealed from heaven, it is by Adam's authority.... He is Mosiah 16:2-4; Alma 42:6, 14-16). The priesthood, by which the father of the human family, and presides over the we get access to the atonement of Jesus Christ (see Articles spirits of all men,(Teachings of Presidents of the Church: of Faith 3-5) has an eternal power to affect those eternal Joseph Smith [2007], p. 104) consequences, indeed, to eternally abolish them. Orson F. Whitney (1855-1931) Quorum of the Twelve From these statements we see that the priesthood is the Apostles government of God’s kingdom, on earth or in heaven: Adam was the first to receive and obey the Gospel, revealed to him out of Eternity at the very beginning of President John Taylor (1808-87) Time. Since his day it has been upon the earth What is Priesthood? It is the government of God, repeatedly, in a series of dispensations, of which this [in whether on the earth or in the heavens, for it is by that which we now live] is the greatest and the last. Adam power, agency, or principle that all things are governed on presides over all the gospel dispensations, including the the earth and in the heavens, and by that power that all Dispensation of the Fullness of Times-he presides over things are upheld and sustained. It governs all things–it them all, just as the President of the Church presides over directs all things–it sustains all things–and has to do with all the Stakes of Zion and all the outside Missions, though all things that God and truth are associated with. each has its own immediate presiding authority. Joseph (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: John Taylor [2001], p. Smith is the immediate head of this dispensation, and 119) Adam is the general head of all. Standing next to Christ in III. A Gospel Dispensation. the Priesthood, whenever that divine power is revealed from heaven to earth, "it is by Adam's authority." So says Through the governing power of the priesthood, the gospel is Joseph Smith. (Conference Report, October 1925, p.101) dispensed to man on earth. David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: VI. The Patriarchal Priesthood A gospel dispensation is a period of time in which the The priesthood Adam received was the patriarchal priesthood. necessary priesthood authority, ordinances, and doctrinal knowledge are found on the earth to implement the * Read Abraham 1:26 Father’s plan of salvation for His children. Essential to the President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876-1972) establishment of a dispensation is an authorized servant The first authority of Priesthood in the earth was of God, a dispensation head, who holds and exercises the Patriarchal. Adam was a patriarch, so were those who authority and keys of the holy priesthood. (14 Aug 2014 succeeded him. Being patriarchs, of course they were, as BYU Education Week, found on LDS.org) stated by Alma, high priests after the Holy Order. This IV. Adam was given the First Dispensation. Patriarchal (or Evangelical) order of Priesthood continued through the generations from Adam to Noah, and from President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876-1972) Noah to Moses. (The Way to Perfection [1978], p.72) Naturally the first dispensation was given to Adam. We read in the revelations given to Moses in the Pearl of President Ezra Taft Benson (1899-1994) Great Price, that an angel was sent to Adam to teach him The order of priesthood spoken of in the scriptures is the gospel. This messenger gave Adam the law of sometimes referred to as the patriarchal order because it sacrifice and commanded him to offer sacrifice in the came down from father to son. But this is order is similitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Only otherwise described in modern revelation as an order of Begotten son of God, who would come into the world to family government where a man and woman enter into a redeem the world from Adam's transgression. The angel covenant with God--just as did Adam and Eve--to be said to Adam: "Thou shalt do all that thou doest in the sealed for eternity, to have posterity, and to do the will name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God and work of God throughout their mortality. (Teaachings of in the name of the Son forevermore." (The Restoration of All Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson [2014], p.