The Grand Kick-Off of Each of the 7 Gospel Dispensations
In LDS theology Joseph Smith is the head of the seventh
and final dispensation. A dispensation, by the way, is defined as “a period of time in which the Lord has at
least one authorized servant on the earth who bears the holy priesthood and the
keys, and who has a divine commission to dispense the gospel to the inhabitants
of the earth.”
If this is
the seventh then there have been 6 dispensations that’ve come and gone already
– each headed by it’s own prophet: Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and
Joseph Smith. There are other minor – even simultaneous dispensations, but
these are the big ones.
I was
wondering if the prophet-calls had anything in common with each other. They do,
actually. God calls each prophet
personally, for instance. Though not in every instance – the devil does try to
muck things up in several of them.
Below is a
list of each dispensation head, how they were as far as we know, and what their
favorite meal was coming off a fast. The answer to that last question is
donuts. They all really liked donuts.
You should
know, barring apples and manna, their meal choices aren’t really recorded
anywhere. Plus donuts weren’t invented until 1523 when the Duke of glaze had a
flour explosion near his sugar mill.
Now on to the dispensations!
Adam (around 4000 BC)
When Adam got called as prophet it was from a really small
list of potential candidates. His closest competition were probably 2 friendly
lions and a tame mountain goat. His call
is interesting because it kind of starts with his (and Eve’s) creation:
Genesis 1:27
So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them.
A few chapters later we
see that Adam actually could spend time in God’s presence:
Genesis 3:8
And
they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in
the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden.
That’s about as good as
it gets for actually showing the call of Adam as the first prophet. Out of the
seven prophetic calls we’re talking about here there’s kind of a pattern – the
prophet gets called personally by God himself and then in five out of these
seven times the devil kind of horns in on the action. Adam’s devil interaction
is, obviously, as follows:
Genesis 3:
1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any
beast of the field which the Lord God
had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said
unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit
of the tree which is in the midst of
the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die.
4 And the serpent
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and
ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Enoch (Around 3313 BC)
This first example of Enoch’s prophetic call pretty much
starts and stops at the same time. Blink and you’ll miss it:
Genesis 5
22 And Enoch walked with
God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and
daughters:
23 And all the days
of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
24 And Enoch walked with
God: and he was not; for God took him.
Luckily it gets
fleshed out in the Book of Moses. Some excerpts are as follows:
Book of Moses
Chapter 6:
26 And it came to pass that Enoch journeyed in the land, among the
people; and as he journeyed, the Spirit of God descended out of heaven, and
abode upon him.
27 And he heard a voice from heaven, saying: Enoch, my son, prophesy unto this people, and say unto
them—Repent, for thus saith the Lord: I am angry with this people, and my fierce anger
is kindled against them; for their hearts have waxed hard, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes cannot see afar off…
Book of Moses
Chapter 6:
31 And when Enoch had heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth, before the Lord,
and spake before the Lord, 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?
32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have
commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I
will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as
seemeth me good.
Book of Moses Chapter 7:
21 And it came to pass that the Lord showed unto Enoch all the
inhabitants of the earth; and he beheld, and lo, Zion, in process of time,
was taken up into heaven. And the Lord said unto Enoch: Behold mine
abode forever…
Now for Enoch’s encounter
with Ol’ Scratch. It’s more of a vision than hands-on evil intervention. But
here it is none-the-less. Also from chapter 7 of the Book of Moses:
26 And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his
hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he
looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced.
Noah (Around 2344 BC)
Now
batten down the hatches and anchors aweigh, here things take a nautical turn.
Because it’s Noah. The specific flood isn’t actually mentioned in any of these
selections so you don’t really need to batten anything down. Here’s Noah’s
call-story:
“In a world taken over by evil, violence, and corruption,
Noah was a righteous man. However, Noah wasn't just a
righteous man; he was the only follower of God left on the earth. The Bible
says he was blameless among the people of his time. It also says he walked with
God.”
Genesis 6:
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…
9 These are the generations of
Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in
his generations, and Noah walked with
God.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me;
for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with
the earth.
That’s
the first mention of God…
1. Noticing Noah
2. Walking with Noah
3. Speaking with Noah
There’s
really not any specific record of Noah’s dueling with Satan. Perhaps because
Noah was the last God-worshipping man on the planet. Everyone else was raging
with veins filled with Beelzebub and that may have been evil-influence enough.
There is
this old, weird Jewish tale though.
Abraham (Around 1917 B.C.)
The fourth dispensation is Abraham’s. How did he get called?
Genesis 12:
1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee
out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed…
7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and
said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there
builded he an altar unto the Lord,
who appeared unto him.
That is the first
time recorded that the Lord spoke and appeared to Abram. And here is another
face to face meeting:
Genesis 17:
1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram,
and said unto him, I am the Almighty
God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
In the Bible there are no specific references
to Abraham having direct satanic interference. There are, however, multiple
fascinating non-biblical Abrahamic accounts of evil priests trying to sacrifice
him to false gods. That counts as an evil influence, right? This link
follows one Abraham story as it gets embellished by various groups of people
through the years. It’s ever so fascinating.
Moses (Around 1487 BC)
Moses’ call to serve is definitely one of the best known of
the bunch. It doesn’t happen at the beginning of Moses’ story – but when it
comes it is in dramatic fashion:
Exodus 3:
2 And the angel
of the Lord appeared unto
him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he
looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3 And Moses said, I
will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to
see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said,
Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
5 And he said, Draw
not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground.
6 Moreover he
said, I am the God of thy
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…
What’s interesting here is it starts with an
angel (sometimes translated as messenger) of the Lord, but then in verse 4 the
Lord steps in speaking to Moses. That’s not to say Moses never had a face to
face. Oh no – Moses definitely had a face to face:
Exodus 24:
9 Then went up
Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of
the elders of Israel:
10 And
they saw the God of Israel: and there was under
his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and
as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
Joseph Smith’s inspired translation of the old
testament talks about this face to face in more detail:
Moses 1:
1 The words of God,
which he spake unto Moses at a time when Moses was caught up into an
exceedingly high mountain,
2 And
he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and
the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his
presence.
3 And God spake unto
Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty,
and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or
end of years; and is not this endless?...
The original Moses account in Genesis doesn’t
have much in the way of devel-ing. The Book of Moses, however, has quite a bit
–
Moses 1:
10 And it came to
pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his
natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for
this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had
supposed.
11 But now mine own
eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but
my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not
have beheld; for I should have withered and died in
his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face,
for I was transfigured before him.
12 And it came to
pass that when Moses had said these words,
behold, Satan came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man,
worship me.
13 And it
came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art thou? For behold, I
am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is
thy glory, that I should worship thee?
Moses
1:
18 And again Moses
said: I will not cease to call upon God, I have other things to inquire of
him: for his glory has been upon me, wherefore I can judge between
him and thee. Depart hence, Satan.
19 And now, when
Moses had said these words, Satan cried with a loud voice, and ranted
upon the earth, and commanded, saying: I am the Only Begotten, worship me.
20 And it came to
pass that Moses began to fear exceedingly; and as he began to fear,
he saw the bitterness of hell. Nevertheless, calling upon God,
he received strength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for
this one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory.
21 And now Satan
began to tremble, and the earth shook; and Moses received strength, and called
upon God, saying: In the name of the Only
Begotten, depart hence, Satan.
22 And it came to
pass that Satan cried with a loud voice, with weeping, and wailing,
and gnashing of teeth; and he departed hence, even from the presence
of Moses, that he beheld him not.
This account is the most similar to Joseph
Smith’s own experience. It’s got Moses absolutely wiped out ever his God-encounter
– requiring several flips of the hour glass before he regained his strength.
It’s got Satan stepping in trying to derail the master plan, and it’s got the
dark one eventually being banished.
Lest you think the similarities are due to
Joseph Smith himself rendering this translation – beware! Whoever pen and
papered the Apocalypse of Abraham 2000 years ago might come haunt you. Thesimilarities are uncanny.
Jesus (Around 30 A.D.)
Jesus is the clear head of the 6th dispensation.
It’s a little different because it’s been Him calling the other heads in the
form of Jehovah. This time it’s His proud Father kicking down the gates to the
next three years:
Matthew 3
16 And Jesus, when he
was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17 And lo
a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased.
Just because Jesus is Jehovah himself didn’t
stop the Red Dragon from taking a stab at swaying him – as you’ll remember:
Matthew 4:
1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2 And when he
had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was
afterward an hungred.
3 And when
the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that
these stones be made bread…
Matthew
4:
8 Again, the devil
taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all
the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And saith unto
him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus
unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Joseph Smith (1830)
Final dispensation. It’s the best documented and the most
critiqued. It’s a big deal, obviously, and although the call shares several
similarities with the others, it’s the most spectacular of all. This is Joseph’s
1835 telling:
I retired to the
silent grove and bow[e]d down before the Lord, under a realising sense that he
had said (if the bible be true) ask and you shall receive knock and it shall be
opened seek and you shall find and again, if any man lack wisdom let him ask of
God who giveth to all men libarally and upbradeth not; information was what I
most desired at this time, and with a fixed determination to obtain it, I
called upon the Lord for the first time, in the place above stated or in other
words I made a fruitless attempt to p[r]ay, my toung seemed to be swolen in my
mouth, so that I could not utter, I heard a noise behind me like some person
walking towards me, I strove again to pray, but could not, the noise of walking
seemed to draw nearer, I sprung up on my feet, and looked around, but saw no
person or thing that was calculated to produce the noise of walking, I kneeled
again my mouth was opened and my toung liberated, and I called on the Lord in
mighty prayer, a pillar of fire appeared above my head, it presently rested
down upon me head, and filled me with Joy unspeakable, a personage appeard in
the midst of this pillar of flame which was spread all around, and yet nothing
consumed, another personage soon appeard like unto the first, he said unto me
thy sins are forgiven thee, he testifyed unto me that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God; <and I saw many angels in this vision> I was about 14 years old when
I received this first communication.
I like the word choice here
for a lot of reasons. One being the words “and yet nothing consumed.” Exodus 3:2 had strikingly similar wording in regards to
Moses’ “and
the bush was not consumed.” I also like the description of two beings
appearing close together but not simultaneously - The Lord opened it and then
he saw the (other) Lord.
It’s interesting to see the kick-start of the seven major dispensations
lumped together like this. Similarities jump out, as do differences. In each
case it’s the start of something big.
Perhaps that is the understatement of the year.
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