Part 2- The Great Awakening
Continued from Part 1: From Apostles to Apostates
Category: Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles
CHAPTER 1: THE REFORMERS: Protestants and Martyrs
Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles
Prior to Constantine, the various fractions of the church rarely agreed with each other. After Constantine became Emperor, he was determined to wipe out this dangerous practice and unite the factions under a single banner.
The faction that Constantine favoured to carry the banner wanted assurance that the deal that would allow it to banish all of its opposition from the Empire. This included the rights to the other factions’ properties as well. This favoured Church was thereby able to gain complete control over the masses by the support of the Empire, and also by its unique claim to be able to act as the intermediary power between mankind and God. By this power they could forgive sins or condemn to “the fires of hell” any and all who dared to oppose them.
But power has its price. Like Dante’s Inferno, a deal with the Devil always means, in the end, you lose your soul, even if you think you won. In this case, the Popes and Bishops sold their souls and they were now owned by the devil who owned the Empire. This became even more obvious as time went on.
After the separation of Rome in the West and Constantinople in the East, even when the Bishops and Popes were grossly immoral and owned by powerful Italian families, the masses clung to the idea that somehow the Church Leaders were still the representatives of God. All this common folk had left was their lives and to not accept the current belief of what God was, would rob them of even that. No faith, no hope, no life.
The Emperor Constantine forced unity through his military power. When he needed help to ensure his orthodoxy and to stamp out opposition, Constantine first called upon the Frankish Kings, then the French Kings, followed by the Kings of Spain. Terrible abuses followed in the wake of this overwhelming military might and power. Bribes to obtain offices, torture to force compliance, cronyism to gain revenue, selling of indulgences to sweeten obedience, Mafia like tyranny from powerful Italian families who bought the office of the Pope, the redirecting of two of the crusades to capture the Christian City of Constantinople and the crushing of the Albigensians in Southern France, all led to the growing conviction that the Church was as black as bile and had to be gutted – starting with its head and reaching into all vile extremities.
Only a person of sufficient bold, cold courage, willing to risk torture worse than death, would attempt to raise a voice of opposition against that sort of deeply established regime. One such was Peter of Bruys, a priest in a parish in the High Alps. He began preaching vehemently against the Church basing his outbursts on the Gospels in the New Testament. He had gathered a stack of wooden crosses to burn when a furious mob tied him to one of the crosses and burned him with them.
Henry of Blois, Dean and Monk of Cluny in France, was next. He began preaching against the immorality and vice of the clergy. His license to preach was revoked and he was imprisoned by the Archbishop.
Then Arnoldo of Brescia began to preach of the separation of Church and State. He accused the Pope of living a life unlike the apostles and preaching nothing they taught. He said the Pope should be given no obedience or respect. Pope Adrian III had Arnaldo strangled, then burned and threw his ashes into the Tiber River.
Peter Waldo, a converted rich Merchant, paid two of his friends who were Priests, to translate the Latin Bible into the French provincial language and set out to preach from it. Quickly, the Archbishop demanded he stop. Waldo appealed to Pope Alexander III. Unfortunately, the Pope was dealing with many dissenters and in a desperate move, had them all banned, including Waldo and his followers. They were expelled, persecuted and banished from Lyon, their stronghold. The dissenters moved into other parts of France, Italy and the valleys of Piedmont where they are still found today.
During the inquisition, many were sought out and slaughtered. Later, during the crusades, an army headed for Jerusalem was redirected to Beziers in the South of France where they slaughtered men women and children. More were slaughtered at Carcasonne. At a later day, Pope Innocent III offered feudal Lords a remission of their sins if they would take part in the extermination of the Waldenese. As a result, over 100,000 heretics were reported killed.
Another group of dissenters called the Albigensians, who were considered the most numerous of the groups of heretics, was totally annihilated.
In England, the country was exhausted from a long and bitter war. King John had indebted England to pay tribute to the Pope, but they had been unable to do so for 35 years.
John Wycliffe (Wyclif), a leader of a strong reform movement, saw the difference of what was taught in the Bible and what was being taught by the Roman Church. He contended that no foreign power, especially if it was religious, should have authority over governments and States. Parliament declared than neither King nor citizen had the right to subject England to any foreign power without its consent. Wycliffe was invited to give his opinion as to whether King John’s action was null and void from the civil and cannon laws. He confirmed it was and assailed the practice of the confession, the doctrine of transubstantiation and the self-seeking clergy for their subservience to the Pope. He supported the literal interpretation of the Bible and of Priests teaching in the language of the people. He was equally critical of the selling of indulgences, the squandering of charities by unfit priests, the misuse of properties, and the evils of the papal courts. In his judgment, the King had authority over the Pope in temporal matters.
In Jan 1377, Pope Gregory XI sent copies of a Bull against Wycliffe to the Bishop of London, Edward III, the Chancellor and the University of Oxford. Wyciffe was supported by the Mendicant Order, many of the Nobility and John of Gaunt. While most of his writings had formerly been written in Latin, he now began to write in English. Wycliffe was the first responsible for having the Bible printed in English.
The Roman Church retaliated and brought a charge that Wycliffe allowed even laymen to have the Bible.
Despite his reform measures and differences with it, Wycliffe remained a member of the Church until after the Great Schism. The Great Schism occurred when two Popes were elected by the same College of Cardinals. It strengthened Wycliffe’s position and intensified his protests. In 1384 Wycliffe suffered a stroke while hearing New Year’s Eve mass and died. At the council of Constance in 1414, Wycliffe was declared a heretic and the Church and State united to suppress Wyclifism. His remains were dug up, burned and thrown into the River Swift.
While his works were spurned in England, they found fertile soil in Bohemia and that is where it bore fruit. That fruit was John Huss.
John Huss was a lecturer at the University of Prague and was born to poor parents in the Bohemian town of Husinec in 1369. In 1401 Huss was chosen to be preacher over a Church called Bethlehem, or House of Bread. It had been founded by John of Milhiem, a member of the Royal Council of Bohemia.
Very early the writings of Wycliffe had found their way to Huss’s region through the sister of the King Wenceslaus. Coincidentally, she was also the wife of Richard II of England. Huss was attracted to the teachings of Wycliffe and as early as 1402 began to defend them. It was only a matter of time before this came to the attention of the Church authorities.
Sure enough, an order came to the Archbishop of Prague to seize all copies of Wycliffe’s writings and burn them. Two days later, Huss was excommunicated. When the edict prohibited any of Wycliffe’s teachings to be preached, Huss continued in spite of it. He was ordered to appear before the tribunal in Constance.
Huss wrote to Pope John XXIII citing he was in agreement with the Church and not a heretic. But in that same year the Pope proclaimed a crusade against Ladislaus of Naples and promised indulgences to all who made gifts or enlisted in the war. Huss fired off a denouncement against the right of the Pope to do this. The Pope’s bulls offering the indulgences were publicly dishonoured and burned. The King, aroused by the anger and contempt of the masses against the Pope, took three men who had been involved with publicly dishonoring the Pope and had them burned. Their bodies were taken to Huss’s Church of Bethlehem.
The King persuaded Huss to leave the city. While the Church turned against Huss, the populous supported him and prevented the Pope’s sentence from being carried out.
While exiled, Huss wrote “It is better to die well than to live badly. We dare not sin in order to avoid the punishment of death.”He denounced the Pope’s bulls as unchristian in spirit and not to be obeyed. He denounced the Pope’s right to declare war on a people and grant indulgences to another people to fight them. In fact, any Pope who did so was himself in mortal sin.
This was a dangerous proposition. If the Church was to admit to this, then they would have to admit that the authority of the Church had been in doubt many times.
Emperor Sigmund urged his brother King Wenceslaus of Bohemia to make certain Huss went to Constance. Promising Huss protection, safe passage there and back, and provision to be heard before the council, Huss complied with the Emperor. When Huss arrived, the council of course declared the Emperor had no such authority to give him protection.
The Chancellor, the presiding authority of the council, was in a difficult position. He, as well as many others, were in flavor of reformation. However, they could not allow Huss to assert his private authority over Church authority. This man, a heretic, living in sin and destined to damnation, surely could not have power over others of a Christian nature. Also, to admit that Huss was right in charging the Pope guilty and in mortal sin by his granting indulgences to members who donated or enlisted in an unjust war, was more perilous than he could handle. In other words, if you are saying it is inconceivable to have a man, a sinful man, even a priest, rule and have jurisdiction over others of the Christian faith, then how can any sinful man, even a Pope have rule and jurisdiction over other people of the Christian faith? To find Huss guilty would be to find the Pope guilty. To find the Pope guilty would find other Popes just as guilty.
There had been indeed many Popes much more guilty of living in sin than the current Pope. To find all these Popes guilty as well would be to admit the entire Church was apostate. While Huss made his point, he did not make any friends.
Other charges of heresy were brought against Huss. He was denied the right to defence, denied the right to reply and found guilty as charged. He was condemned to be burned at the stake.
Huss was chained by the neck to a stake and straw and wood piled up to his neck. As the flames arose, he sang. His voice was stilled by the fire and his ashes were thrown into the Rhine River. Pagans had disposed of the ashes of Polycarp, another Christian martyr, in the same fashion, in the 2nd century. Now it was the Christians who were behaving worse than the Pagans.
Bohemia was torn by civil war for 30 years because of the death of Huss. The hatred of Rome, and the disgust, dissatisfaction and disrespect for the Church by its members was building fuel throughout all of Europe. All that was needed now was something to ignite it.
Chapter 2: Martin Luther
Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles
The protestant reformation officially began with Martin Luther. He was not the first reformer, yet because of a multitude of converging events, his arrival on the scene at this time in history allowed him to achieve actual change and survive.
These included some of the most glaring abuses by the Pope and clergy. But there are other major discoveries and events to consider. With these quickly converging historical developments, his chances for survival were becoming both time sensitive and uniquely optimal.
Have you noticed how many times in the history of man, when the light of Christ seems to be threatened with total extinction, somehow, a person steps forward and proves to be the right man, in the right place, under the right conditions? Is it not self-evident that the hand of God had arranged in advance every detail necessary for accomplishment of a rescue at this very critical hour?
Consider the following for instance:
1/ The Renaissance age or the grand awakening of men’s minds had just begun.
2/ The printing press, capable of creating thousands of copies of books had just been perfected.
3/ The discovery of the Americas, which included about 50% of available habitable landmass, hitherto unknown, became available with all its natural resources and unlimited possibilities.
4/ The military and moral support of the German Princes became available to Luther’s cause.
5/ The capture of Constantinople by the Muslims weakened the power of the Pope.
6/ There was an influx of Greek scholars from the vanquished Eastern Christian cities. These keen intellectuals were eager to engage in a religious reformation.
7/ The Bible becoming available to the common people making the word of God available in the common language of the masses for the first time.
8/ The Pope’s refusal to correct himself added determination to those thirsting for change.
9/ The refusal of the Roman Church to purge itself of corruption left no option but that which was offered by Luther.
10/ An immoral and corrupt Pope, Rodrigo Borgia, and his son Caesar Borgia bought the Office of Pope. He appointed his private master-assassin Don Michelotto to assist him, which heightened public loathing of the Church leadership and priests to a fever pitch.
11/ Compulsory collection of tithes from the peasants turned yet another group away in bitterness from Roman Church support.
12/ Bishops support of relics, another publicly hated money generating scheme by the clergy.
13/ The selling of Priesthood Offices to the highest bidders crystallized condemnation of Church officers for gross corruption.
14/ The selling of indulgences was condemned as fraudulent and shameful.
Things had become so desperate for the people, believers and non-believers alike, that the protest by Luther was like a burning torch flung into the tinder-dry, rotting, heap of foul stinking stench the Church and its clergy had become. It was more than sufficient to light the fires of reform.
When Luther compiled his 95 complaints, he posted them on the University’s equivalent of a Bulletin Board, the Door of the Church at Wittenberg. That act was electrifying and much more far reaching than anyone could ever anticipated or imagined. They were immediately copied and spread throughout Germany.
Luther was a monk of the Augustinian order, a priest and a professor of philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. He was well known and very well respected. He totally believed the doctrine and never revised or altered any of Augustinian thought. His ambition was not to start a new church or to reform Church orthodoxy. That would be the challenge for later reformers. His calling was to reform the church of its deplorable corrupt practices.
Luther saw the Church through the eyes of the New Testament. When Jesus had said “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), Luther saw the contrast played out in what was taught and what had become of the Roman Church. It confirmed all that had been reported in his theses. There is little doubt that if the Roman Church, starting with the Pope, had reformed itself, there would have been no need for the protestant reformation. But the Councils of the Bishops had been not only dismissed, but were no longer being called. There was no avenue for reform from within. Luther maintained that not only was the Pope not “Infallible” but he was also major contributor to the Church’s problems.
Luther used the writings of Paul frequently to underscore his views, but when they opposed his own views, he was quick to denounce Paul. Eventually Luther was called before a court council in Worms by the Emperor (in 1521) and asked that his theses be retracted or he would be deemed to be a heretic. Luther’s famously replied, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me, Amen.”
Luther left Worms and on the road to Eisenach, his carriage was attacked by a group of armed horsemen. He was carried away captive. Rumours spread like wild fire. Was he alive or dead? Had he been put in prison by emissaries of the Pope? It was not until much later that it became known that the Elector of Saxony had ordered his counsellors to hide Luther until the threat to his life had passed. It was even later that the Elector himself was told that Luther was in disguise and hiding in the Elector’s very own castle.
Luther’s opposition to the Roman Church was at its peak at this time. The Church threatened Luther and his followers with extermination, but the German princes refused to carry out the order. There had been too much of an uproar from mere rumours that Luther had been killed. Fearing a war, they delayed instead. Meanwhile Luther’s books were circulating everywhere including England and Scotland. King Henry VIII ordered that all Luther’s Books be burned and earned himself and all English kings thereafter, the title of “Defender of the Faith”.
The Emperor was embroiled in a war with France. Upon his departure from Germany there was no will to enforce his edict. This gave Luther time to work upon his translation of the New Testament. Luther’s stand for the rights of individual conscience began to have an effect on the population of Germany. It had become divided into two camps, Lutheran and Catholic.
In 1524, what was called “The Peasants War”, broke out. This was more a war against high taxes than religion. The peasants had endured crippling taxes imposed by the nobles and princely Bishops. When the news reached Luther, he demanded the Bishops put the peasants down for rebelling against God and his constituted authority. Over 100,000 thousand people lost their lives and had their property confiscated under the guise that they had allegiance to Lutheran teachings.
At two subsequent meetings at Spires, with representation from the Emperor and the German Princes, the Emperor attempted to enforce the will of the Pope. It was their intent to secure unity against the protesters by execution, unless they agreed to the sole supremacy of the Catholic Church. Again, the Lutherans protested. They pointed out that in the meeting held at Worms, it had been determined that each Prince would be responsible for their own subjects. No state could impose their executions on another state. They also contended that what had been decided unanimously at one meeting, could not be revoked by a simple majority at another. As a result of this protest, the Lutherans were given the name of Protestants.
Just when it appeared that the protestant minority would have to submit to force, an independent religious revolt began in Switzerland. The leader was Ulrich Zwingli. Under the insistence of Phillip, Landgrave of Hesse, the most influential of Protestant Princes, a meeting was held between Zwingli and Luther. The purpose of the meeting was to consider unity. Luther could not come to a compromise on the understanding of the sacrament and dismissed the idea of unity. Luther was not about to become tolerant of any views other than his own in spite of his newly confessed belief that each individual has the right to his own interpretation of the scriptures. In the end neither Luther, Zwingli nor Calvin for that matter, could agree. That was the end of unity for protection.
In 1530, the Emperor called a meeting at Augsburg. He needed the help of the German Princes and wanted to resolve how best to deal with the differences of the Holy Church and the division of the Christian religion. Luther, being under a ban since the meeting in Worms could not attend but could only wait in the castle in Coburg, overlooking the town. Presented at the meeting to the Emperor were three “Confessions” or proposals. One was approved by Luther, one from the Lutherans of Southern Germany, and one written by Zwingli. The Emperor refused to read or hear the latter two. Attempts were made to show that Lutheran doctrines were in agreement with the traditional Roman doctrines and Luther was attempting to influence the church only so far as it should abolished certain abuses. The proposal referred to seven errors and abuses, and 21 defined differing beliefs of the Lutherans. They were refuted. The Roman Church demanded the protestants recant or be suppressed by force. The Lutherans, believing they did not constitute a new Church but rather a continuation of the early church, broke ranks with the Roman Church. The Protestant schism was official and final.
So, we might ask: What effect did Luther have upon the Lutheran Church and the Protestant reformation of the Roman Church?
Answer 1: The effect was major in both instances. So far as the Lutheran Church is concerned, Luther was able to succeed in establishing an alternative religious answer to the dominant rule of a corrupt, self-serving, political power that had thwarted the individual incentive of millions of people for over 1500 years. His contribution to the liberty of the individual from both spiritual and physical bondage was extremely beneficial to everyone. He encouraged the reading of the Bible by everyone and made it accessible to them in their own language.
Answer 2: He did not succeed in changing orthodoxy or the Government of the Church. His interpretation was not any different from that of the Roman Church. Still clinging to the teachings of Augustine, he adopted the Roman views of infant baptisms, and baptism without authority. He modified only the idea of transubstantiation, and claimed the merits of Christ was all that was needed for the salvation of man. The Roman Church believed that the “Treasury of the Church” consisted of Christ’s merits and the deeds of the Saints which could be used by the righteous living and dead for their salvation. Luther did not think the offices of the Church were needed at all. A person’s own faith in Christ was sufficient for his own salvation. In theory, Luther’s idea of Church government was democratic, but in practice he appointed himself as Bishop of Bishops. His source of revenue came from State support, which was levied against the people in the form of a compulsory tithing, just as the Catholics did before him.
In order to rationalize his split from the Roman church, Luther cited the corruption of the Papacy and maintained there was an invisible Church and a visible Church. Rome was the visible Church, but the invisible Church was one that would last forever. This was what Christ had referred to in Matthew 28:20 when he exclaimed “…Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world“. This Church was formed by the believers of the Church, for wherever the Church is formed by believers in Christ who preach and administer the sacrament correctly, there is also Christ.
He later realized that this idea was insufficient and that there had to be a visible Church too. Equally important as well was that Pastors with congregations had to exist.
Baptism, he believed, conferred the priesthood authority, so accordingly, he and all the German princes who had been baptized had as much authority as the Priests or Pope.
While his contribution to new thinking about Church doctrine was limited, the political and religious freedoms were immense. Without these freedoms, any attempt to reform or restore truths later would have failed. In 1583, Luther died having bequeathed this great blessing and freedom to us all.
Chapter 3: Zwingli
Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles
Although he was the first of the reformers, Zwingli decided not to merge his movement with Luther. The success and acceptance of Luther’s reforms gave great encouragement, motivation and inspiration to Zwingli. His focus on going back to the original teachings of the Bible, coincided with the invention of the printing press. By 1520, there were 18 German, 2 Dutch, 11 Italian and 4 Bohemian translations of the scriptures circulating.
As the common people gained access to the original teachings of Christ, the discrepancy between them and what was currently being taught by the Roman Church became very evident.
Zwingli came under the influence of Erasmus, a learned Greek Humanist while at the University of Vienna and Basle. Erasmus believed the best course of reform was to publish the Greek New Testament at Basle and present the Church Fathers with copies. Both Erasmus and Zwingli believed that all good heathens could be saved as well as Catholics. They also believed they were personally influenced by the Holy Spirit in their endeavours.
By 1516 Zwingli had been appointed as Vicar at Einiedelin, which was a place that drew large numbers of people to see the “Black Madonna.” As many as 100,000 came annually, thus Zwingli was able to preach to many pilgrims. Many miracles were attributed to this image of the virgin Mary. At the entry way, an inscription had been posted: “Here the full forgiveness of all sins may be obtained”. Zwingli thought such notions were all “superstitious absurdities”, and preached accordingly.
In 1518 Zwingli was elected as the of the principle of the Church in Grossmunster in Zurich, a prosperous town of about seven thousand people. Here he began to teach from all the books of the New Testament, except Revelation, which he did not accept as written by John.
It is interesting to note that while both Luther and Zwingli could not accept the abuses of the Roman Church nor agree with many of their teachings, they nonetheless accepted the dogmas and creeds of the Roman Church. The false assumptions of Augustine proved to be a stumbling block to the Reformers, just as they had been to the early Church Fathers. They too, could not arrive at the true principles. As a result, they likewise became intolerant of others and cruel in their behavior. Zwingli’s teachings were basically moral doctrines and he stuck to that which he could prove from the New Testament. He therefore rejected everything that was not specifically authorized by those scriptures. His conclusion was in complete contrast to Luther who allowed anything that was not expressly forbidden by the New Testament.
The Roman Church did not oppose Zwingli at first, even when he ranted against the sale of Indulgences. The Officials of Zurich and even the Arch Bishop of Constance supported him against any action from Rome. Gradually though, Zwingli’s criticisms included the doctrine of Purgatory, the intercession of saints, monasticism and fasts. He convinced the City Council in Zurich to issue an order that preachers should teach only that which is found in the New Testament. As in Germany, civil authority was given the right to exercise religious control, which previously had been exclusively the right of the Bishop.
This was the first instance of civil authority eroding the authority of the Bishop in episcopal matters. It was to become common practice in Switzerland. This crack in the concrete, that went on to cause a complete fracture of the foundation of the Roman Church, started here with this subordination of the Church to the State. Zwingli was able to convince the willing ministers of the Cantons (townships) to abolish Roman worship including images, relics, frescoes and ornaments. Thus, the silver and gold crosses, the robes and tapestry were removed – and Zwingli justified the vandalism.
The reaction was predictable. The Catholic Townships would not tolerate the behaviour of the reformist protestants and they clashed in the town of Kappel. Zwingli was among the protestants who were defeated in the battle and he was killed. His body was quartered and burned for treason and heresy, and his ashes scattered. While this stopped the protest movement in German speaking Switzerland, the rest of the country continued its protest under the leadership of John Calvin.
Chapter 4: John Calvin
Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles
John Calvin was educated like other nobility at the best Universities available. He studied humanities, theology and law in France at Noyon, Paris, Orleans and Bourges. He was not a priest although he did work to pay his tuition by doing some of the functions of a Chaplain. Somewhere along this course, he came in contact with Lutheranism and converted to Protestantism. He preached in Paris along with Nicholas Cop regarding the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He was denounced by French Parliament and fled the city and went to Noyon. Later he returned to Paris, where the Catholic Church had just executed 24 followers of Luther.
So brutal and inhuman was their torture and desecration that Calvin, Marot, Olivetan and other future reformers, left France altogether and went to Basle in Switzerland. Here Calvin translated his book, “Institutes of the Christian Religion”, into French. In it he defended the beliefs of the Evangelicals and attacked the practices of the Roman Church.
In 1536, Geneva was finally freed from control by the Duke of Savoy. The Bishop of Geneva declared a resolution to live by the teachings of the Bible. He invited Calvin to be teacher and pastor of the Church in Geneva.
What followed was a step-by-step reform of the religion, customs, and manners of the people through the cooperation of the Protestant Church and civil authorities, under the influence of Calvin. All holidays except Sunday were abolished. Sacrament was to be administered monthly, and to be certain it was observed, agents were appointed to report the unworthy for discipline and excommunication. A catechism and confession were approved by council. Cards, dancing, and theatre were forbidden. Too much display at a marriage ceremony could result in imprisonment. Citizens had to attend sermons, listen with respect and be home before nine o’clock. Council began to object, suggesting Calvin should force only less-stringent regulations, as were enforced in Bern. He refused. The council forbade Calvin to preach and forced him to leave the city.
Calvin moved on to Strasbourg where he continued preaching and writing. He married and became pastor of a congregation of French refugees. In 1541, the party that opposed him in Geneva fell into disfavor and he was recalled.
Over the next 20 years Calvin reorganized the administration of the Church. Disputes were settled by the ministers but if they failed to agree, the matters were turned over to the civil authorities thus replacing the Bishops entirely. The last source of authority in replacing officers and matters of discipline now became the State. Likewise, any offense or transgression of the moral laws of the Church, were offenses and acts of civil disobedience, punishable by law. Anyone accused of heresy now received the death penalty.
Because of his acceptance of the doctrines created by Augustine, Calvin became cruel, vindictive and oppressive – just as the other reformers had done and the Catholic Church before them. Though the Catholic Church had lost its tight grip on the spiritual necks of people, it had not changed in the least degree. Calvin was still convinced God was responsible for everything but sin. Man was predestined to be a sinner or saved, therefore he had not the slightest ability to change any of it. The reformers were also convinced that revelation had ceased, and that priesthood and authority were irrelevant. What they did not recognize was that the Church was cut off from its lifeblood and nothing that the reformers could do would change any of that.
Completely dead churches in an unsolvable impasse, unwilling to settle their differences, stood face-to-face. There they remained, different from each other and waiting for someone to blink. What was very apparent was this was not the right time, nor the right place, nor right conditions for the restoration. The restored gospel could never have survived or taken hold. God knew that and so his hand continued it’s slow but careful preparation of the right place, time and person by whom he could reveal the truth to a world that would be ready to hear.
CHAPTER 5: The Age of Reformation
Part 2: FROM APOSTATES TO APOSTLES
As the reformation flood gates of the early 1600’s began to swing wide, the great surge of change, once started, could not be stopped. Like the stone “cut without hands” foretold in Daniel 2: 34-35,44-45, it rolled down the mountain breaking all the kingdoms before it.
Yet from among all the clattering and eager voices of the protestant reformers, why do we not hear uttered those familiar and reassuring words which always accompanied the pronouncements of ancient Prophets and Apostles: “Thus sayeth the Lord”?
Or how about “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you,” as recorded by Moses? (Exodus 3: 14)
These men, these great, courageous reformers who stood up against the power of the Catholic Church, did so at the peril of their lives. Many paid the ultimate price. They were dedicated, faithful and sincere. Any one of them could have claimed to have received revelation by the direct voice or personal appearance of God, even if it had come through his Son Jesus Christ. But none did because none of them had actually witnessed such thing. Their mandate was, as far as they understood, to reform the Catholic Church, not to replace it.
The early Church philosophers of course did not accept such a thing as literal “revelation” either. Without such revelation, they had stumbled and strayed from the teaching of Christ. They thought they could discover the mysteries and knowledge of God entirely on the strength of their own intellect and sought for consensus through debate. The speculation that followed, the disharmony, the savage and brutality of the wars, the sub-sequence errors and terrors that were imposed upon the children of God that ensued in the name of the Church, proved they had been terribly wrong.
Now the reformers faced the challenging task of sorting errors and truths from The Bible. But no one could be sure which interpretation and which writings were 100% the pure word of God. Without that knowledge how would they know the will of God, and the very purpose of man?
Neither nations nor civilizations can survive without purpose. History has shown that their citizens must have a clear understanding of that purpose or they will begin to behave in a competitive and destructive manner. That invariably brings about their destruction and down fall. We are witnessing this very occurrence in our highly scientific world today. To understand our purpose, we must have the answers to the three basic questions.
1/ Where do
I come from?
2/ Why am I here?
3/ Where do I go after death?
John, an Apostle of Jesus Christ declared, “And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hath sent.” (John 17: 3)
This is not a cliché. It is the key stone of all our education. We rise to our glorious potentials or fall to our utter ruin based on our understanding of John’s challenging statement.
Without the sure knowledge there is a God, we assume we have only to be answerable to ourselves. We can readily see the destructive evidence of such belief – this lack of accountability to God – throughout all history. Even today it is being acted out in the streets and governments of our own society.
The greater part of the world stands confused and confounded by the thousands of Churches that professes to have all the answers. Only a pitiful few have the courage to confess they have mostly none of them. Our collective behaviour is a litmus test that appears to be indicative of gross failure.
1/ Am I made from nothing and return to nothing? (Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.)
2/ Am I free to choose my own future or has God predetermined whether I am either inherently good or incurably evil?
3/ If God created me good, why do I have temptations to do evil?
4/ If God created me evil why does he punish me when I behave accordingly?
5/ How evil can I behave and still inherit a place in heaven?
6/ Will God forgive me in my sins or from my sins?
7/ Do little children who die before baptism not merit Heaven?
8/ Why do so many evil people end up rich while good and honest people always seem to be poor?
Because the reformers had only a few scriptures and their own intellect to work with, they left these may such questions unanswered.
Since God had ceased to reveal himself or his will to man after Christ had been crucified and all the Apostles killed off, the Church of Jesus Christ, for all intents and purposes, had ceased to exist. With the destruction of the temple and the corruption of early Church teachings, all knowledge about the following topics were lost as well:
1/ Revelation from God.
2/ The role, structure and administration of his priesthood.
3/ The knowledge of the nature of God and the individual roles of the members of the Godhead.
4/ God’s relationship to us as our Father in Heaven (as Christ taught when instructing us to pray in Matthew 6: 9-13).
5/ The purpose of Earth life.
6/ The atonement of Jesus Christ.
7/ The role of the Holy Ghost.
8/ The purpose and plan of salvation for mankind.
9/ Continuation of revelation and scriptures.
10/ The critical role of temple worship.
11/ Salvation for those who died without the knowledge of Christ.
12/ Ordinances for salvation.
13/ The knowledge of kingdoms in God’s glory.
14/ God’s and man’s co-eternal nature.
15/ God’s cosmic creations and their relationship to us.
16/ Man’s per-mortal existence.
Why do we not have answers to these questions?
God cannot reveal himself to man until such time as man is willing to soften his heart to accept Him.
So, it was not God who needed to change and grant this knowledge. Rather it was mankind who needed to change his thinking about God and prepare to receive this information.
Our thinking determines our behaviour. Without revelation, men have no motivation or means by which they may understand the will of God or to know what changes God has in mind for him.
Even as the age of reformation dawned, mankind still had much to do and a long way to go before he would be ready to hear from God again.
Chapter 6: The Final Restoration – Preparation for The Second Coming
Part 2: From Apostates to Apostles
The door that Luther had opened was, as Winston Church observed:
Now, more than 500 years later, we are still watching the beginning of the end of the old order unfold. The mere utterance of the name of the Roman Catholic Church no longer strikes terror in the hearts of the beholders. The Great and Mighty “Harlot” had fallen and her power over Kings and Empires is rendered impotent. Rising from the ashes of the corpse, phoenix like, are the children to who she gave birth – millions of faithful Catholics and protestants who now turn their love of Christ into deeds of compassion and service to humanity. Responding to the biblical teaching and voice of the Master from Galilee, they are motivated by a desire of obedience, faithfulness and love. This is the option they have chosen to prove themselves as followers of Christ.
Each generation gets their opportunity to prove themselves and decide which they want: evil or good, liberty or bondage. Our generation today has no less of an opportunity. And I believe each and every generation of children will be afford their opportunities as well.
When Christ came to Earth for his mortal experience, there were many different Churches and voices calling from the shoals and rocks. His voice was one among many. Those who responded to him came and followed him with nothing but their faith. The call has been sounded again in our day, but now with more urgency.
Never have the two sides (good and evil) been more divided, more driven, more subtle, and more persuasive. It is the same on-going drama. The scene changes, the players changed but the challenge is the same. And we will play our role accordingly. Here we stand, for good or bad, in trembling and fear, just as all others have done before us. It is now our turn.
The question from the mid-fifteenth century has evolved from “What is God like?” to “What is God?” The secular mind believes there is no God. It regards all regulations, laws and standards as having been man-made. And what man made for his convenience then, they reason, other men can un-make for their convenience today.
Many of today’s generation sees families as financial death pits and marriage as the ultimate prevention of their freedom of expression. Morals are optional. Sex is okay between whomever and with whatever gender. They ignore the experience of those civilizations that have plowed this field before – those that discarded the social, moral and wisdom of centuries – and ultimately threw away the safeguards of civic security carefully crafted for human happiness and survival. They abandoned themselves to depravity and self-fulfillment. In the end, every society that embraced this lifestyle, self-imploded. We are on track to repeat the process. There are no exceptions. As Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed out, “The dice of God are always loaded.”
This time the Church is beyond reformation from the top as Martin Luther attempted to achieve. These days, such Churches have become redundant. They lie prostrate, empty and ignored.
When Christ came for the first time and was born in Bethlehem, there were people who had been waiting 4000 years – since the time of Adam and Eve – for his coming. Yet when he finally came, for the vast majority of the world he came and left unnoticed. It was a non-event. They were not expecting his birth to be in an animal stable, in a remote town, to unknown parents.
His death, on the other hand, was much more newsworthy because of the controversy he caused while alive. Everybody had heard of the itinerant teacher Jesus. Perhaps they knew him by his other names, Joshua, Christ, or the Messiah. No matter which they called him, they knew him for good and for evil.
Rome had heard of him through their local Military Procurator, Pontius Pilot. Pilot was eager to appease the local Jewish authorities by signing the order for his execution. Herod, the Roman appointed Jewish King had heard of him, and attempted to execute him when the opportunity arose.
The great number of his followers, both converts and the curious alike, had followed him night and day to hear him speak. Jesus had prophesied that he would rise from the dead (Luke 9: 22) and when he did, his name became even further renown.
Forty days after his resurrection, Christ was with his apostles on the Mount of Olives. When he ascended into Heaven, his stunned apostles watched in disbelief as he disappeared from their view. Meanwhile, two men in white apparel stood among them and asked:
“Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” All this was carefully recorded in Acts 1: 11.
The world has been hanging onto this promise since that event. The second coming of Christ has been the theme of two millennium of intense anticipation. All Christians prayed as Christ had instructed them in Luke 11: 2:
“Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come…”
John foresaw this restoration as recorded in Revelation 14: 6-7:
“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every enation, and kindred, and tongue, and people…”
A modern Apostle, Mark E. Peterson, expressed these words regarding the period of preparation for receiving the Savior at his coming in his September 29, 1974 speech, The Great Prologue:
The restoration of the gospel should be seen “in the true perspective…a perspective of some two thousand years.”
1/ It involved the discovery of a new continent and its colonization of a select people.
2/ It encompassed wars between world powers of two centuries, even the renaissance of medieval Europe.
3/ It followed an awakening of mankind stimulated in the Dark Ages.
4/ It required struggle for the fundamental element of personal freedom.
5/ A fight for both religious and political liberty was fought over hundreds of years.
6/ The first establishment of Human rights began with the Magna Carta, 1215 A.D. and is continuing even to today.
Do you understand the steps that were taken? There was a great apostasy in the Eastern Hemisphere, then the preservation of the western Hemisphere. Next Columbus and the colonization movement. The revolutionary war to set the colonist free. Then a constitutional form of Government which guaranteed religious freedom, free speech and free press. All these events were acts of God leading up to one thing: The restoration of the Gospel.
The scene was now set to begin the fulfillment of the promise: “(He) shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1: 11.
In the spring of 1820, a young boy in his fifteenth year, named Joseph Smith, went into a grove of trees near his Father’s farm in his search for answers to his prayers regarding which church he should join. He records:
“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other – This is my beloved son. Hear Him.” (Joseph Smith History 1: 16)
The Heavens had finally reopened. Jesus Christ had returned in a like manner as he had departed. He spoke to Joseph. The promised day of Salvation had dawned on the earth. The restoration of all things had begun.
Chapter 7: The Word of the Lord
Part 2: Apostates to Apostles
There are so many voices in our day expressing total disbelief in any God. When asked for evidence there is no God, they collectively say, “The evidence for there being no God is the lack of evidence to prove he exists.” Their total case is based upon no one being able to find scientific evidence that God exists. In all arguments such as this, it has been established in law that: “Evidence that something does not exist simply because we have not found evidence it does, is not tenable simply because we lack the knowledge and ability at the moment to search the entire universe or any other possible place to say with absolute certainty”.
This is especially evident when we are finding new information almost daily by new means which we simply did not have before. In many cases this new information or evidence refutes that which we held to be certain beforehand and we have had to change our conclusions accordingly. There was a time when scientific researchers believed for many centuries that the earth was flat, that we were the centre of the universe, that the stars we can see in the heavens were no more than 20 or so miles away. When I went to school some 70 years ago, we were taught by people who believed they knew for a certainty that the Atom was the smallest particle in existence. This certainty is not accepted today because information and evidence has since been discovered to the contrary.
So far as the case for the non-existence of God because of the absence of evidence to prove otherwise goes, it would be completely embarrassing and unacceptable in any of field, without evidence.
On the other hand, there are firsthand witnesses who have seen God. (Their testimony is recorded in scriptures like the Bible.) There is evidence of his existence because we see around us the existence of his creations. As well, the natural laws and order that surround us would be only random chaos without a creator. There are laws, order and consequences to everything. There are more evidences of the existence of God than there are to the contrary. Many people unable to accept the being of a God are willing to recognize his works and manifestations by attributing them to a mythical substitute figure, “Mother Nature,” confessing something or someone must be in charge in light of all the evidence.
The same holds true about the astounding and inexplicable communication process we call reading and writing. All things in our humanistic society are rationalized and attributed to man’s searching desires to experience more and know more. He claims personal responsibility for developing these attributes and skills over long periods of evolution. He points proudly to his primitive scribbles and quaint letters as proof of his wobbling march towards today’s complex lines and circles, despite evidence to the contrary.
Two of the oldest records we have today of our ancient ancestors are referenced in the Book of Abraham and the Book of Moses. These two books are currently found in the Pearl of Great Price.
The first, Book of Abraham was found in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, in the 1800’s, brought to America by a Michael Chandler and purchased by The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints.
In Abraham 1: 31 it reads:
But the records of the Fathers, even the Patriarchs, concerning the rights of the Priesthood, the Lord my God preserved them in my own hands; therefore a knowledge of the beginning of creation and also of the planets and of the stars as they were made know unto the Fathers, have I kept even unto this day and I shall endeavour to write some of these things upon this record for the benefit of my posterity that shall come after me
The second, the Book of Moses, was revealed by God to the latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith on June, 1830.
Moses 6: 3-6 reads as follows:
And God revealed himself unto Seth and he rebelled not but offered an acceptable sacrifice unto God, like his brother Able. And to him was born a Son and he called his name Enos. And then began these men to call upon the name of the Lord and the Lord blessed them, And a book of remembrance was kept in the which it was recorded in the Language of Adam, for it was given unto many as called upon god to write by the spirit of inspiration. And by them, their children, were taught to read and write having a language which was pure and undefiled.
What these ancient records verify is that the Ancient Patriarchs and their children actually read and wrote. And they recorded what God spoke to them. Clearly at this early period in our history, they were not scribbling or bumbling about. They had a fully developed spoken and written language. The fact that we have little record of it does not negate that evidence.
In the meanwhile, it would be tragic for all if we trivialized what they were commanded to record.
1/ The Nature of God
2/ Our Relation to Him and His Relationship to Us
3/ The Purpose of Earth Life and the Plan of our Salvation
Such information would be a great enlightenment to the children of God in our world today, as we search for more than what we know about God and his son, Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER 8: Errors and Omissions
Part 2: FROM APOSTATES TO APOSTLES
While the European world was experiencing a Renaissance in all fronts – science, culture, art and explorations – the field of religious thought was not. The new ideas and inventions spawned by this rebirth were resisted and rejected by religious leaders.
The Church was under the control of powerful political rules and even more powerful families who would not tolerate this freedom of thought. Such thinking was anathema for anyone who attempted it. The result was stagnation and withdrawal because a religion that does not address alternative ways of thinking and acknowledge the current spiritual needs of the people as well as old traditional values, begins a long downwards death spiral. Consequently, scientific and mystic (religious) minds remained on opposite sides of just about every issue, including progress.
Slowly but surely the pressure from the reformers was achieving its intended goal: to break the Church’s iron fist grip on every aspect of every living soul within its long, long reach. Alternative and progressive thinking brought fresh hope to the common folk, whose affairs in this world and in the world to come, depended on people and circumstances they did not understand and over which they had no control.
In spite of all the forces arrayed to stop it, the recovery of lost and disappeared bodies of scriptures began to surface from the murky waters of the past.
Nephi, an ancient American prophet and a descendent of the old prophets of Israel, explained the problem and the need for undefiled records in his prophesies:
And the angel of the Lord said unto me: Thou hast beheld that the book
[The Bible] proceeded
forth from the mouth of a Jew; and when it proceeded forth from the mouth of a
Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord, of whom the twelve
apostles bear record; and they bear record according to the truth which is in
the Lamb of God.
Wherefore, these things go forth from the Jews in purity unto the Gentiles,
according to the truth which is in God.
And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from
the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and
abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for
behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain
and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.
And after these plain and precious things were taken away it goeth forth unto
all the nations of the Gentiles; and after it goeth forth unto all the nations
of the Gentiles… thou seest—because of the many plain and precious things which
have been taken out of the book, which were plain unto the understanding of the
children of men, according to the plainness which is in the Lamb of God—because
of these things which are taken away out of the gospel of the Lamb, an
exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power
over them.
It appears that the books of the Bible (those which the reformerswere left with in the late 1500’s) had been tampered with during the early centuries of the Church under Roman and Greek influences. Many of the original and precious truths had been deleted. Now, with the printing press available, thousands of copies of these altered accounts were being distributed worldwide.
An example of some of the changes that had been made to the ancient writings can be seen in the determination Greek and Roman philosophers had to demystify the mysteries of God. While originally an arm of religion, this philosophy metamorphosed into an irreligious study to find a believable alternative answer to mankind’s existence. The five main fields (Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics, and Aesthetics) soon eclipsed religious thought and influenced it to a point that one could barely tell metaphysics from theology, except for the historical element of the later.
Many of the Church fathers such as Augustine, Pelagious, Origen, Justin Martyr, etc. were heavily influenced by the thinking of the school at Alexandria, and used their arguments to achieve acceptance of the Christian thoughts. It is because of this philosophy, in a large degree, that we find Church Fathers agreeing that God was pure spirit matter and existed everywhere in everything. Therefore, the Church Fathers could not accept the idea that God went places – when he already was in all places.
Also, the church’s views on spirit and physical matters, along with their understanding of God, was badly skewed by Augustine who spent years studying under the Manicheans. Augustine believed that God was pure spirit and abhorred physical matter. His conclusion was that everything spiritual was good, while everything physical was evil.
This approach was problematic. For instance, the birth of Jesus (who was of God status yet born of the woman Mary), became not only impossible but repugnant. Likewise, the resurrection of Jesus was incomprehensible. After struggling all one’s life and enduring the curses of a physical, imperfect and impure body, it was sort of a strange reward that when you finally discarded and rid yourself of it – it was decreed your body would be given back to you to live in for all eternity. Surely, this would be the greatest ironies of all of God’s mysterious ways!
We see the evidence of how deeply rooted this philosophically-sourced concept had become by the formation and acceptance of the Chalcedonian Creed in 451 A.D. This creed attempted a compromise between the scriptures of Christianity and the speculative thoughts of the Greek philosophers.
It is not to understand how the drift from the teachings of Jesus Christ occurred. If Holy Scriptures differed from currently popular and accepted views, it was not the well-educated, popular and prestigious philosophers who miraculously changed their minds. It was, of course, the less-convincing scriptures whose written words could easily be manipulated by less-obvious nip and tucks. Thus, the scribes made wholesale omissions, corrections and additions to help the two sides blend their views.
Fortunately for us, like in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32), as soon as we began to repent and show a desire to return to God, he reached out to prepare the way for us to do so…
As the reformers were scrutinizing the Bible for answers regarding contradictory doctrines and commandments, God was preparing for something much bigger. Lost manuscripts, inscriptions on clay and metal were being discovered in numerous, unlikely sites. All this was a forerunner for restoring his gospel and preparing a people to receive their Saviour upon his second arrival.
Chapter 9: Discovery of Lost Scriptures
Part 2 From Apostates to Apostles
1. Enoch
Enoch was the seventh of the Great Patriarchs who lived prior to the great Flood. While his name is mentioned several times in the Bible, we have all but noting regarding who he was and what he did. (See Genesis 5: 18-24, Luke 3: 37, Hebrews 11: 5 and Jude 1: 14-15) While it appeared the life and times of Enoch had been lost to the centuries, still rumors persisted that a Book of Enoch remained somewhere on earth.
In 1773, while attempting to discover the source of the Blue and White Nile Rivers in Egypt, James Bruce of Scotland found himself in Ethiopia rummaging about in their archives, a permission he had not anticipated but had been granted by the generous hospitality of the King of Ethiopia.
It was there Bruce discovered some Abyssinian Manuscripts which also happened to include three copies of the Book of Enoch. On the pretense of borrowing them for study, he was allowed to take them from the monastery in which they had been stored for centuries.
Instead, Bruce hastily made his way to a waiting ship with Monastery guards hot on his heels. He managed to slip away and set sail for Europe. Knowing he had made the discovery of the century, he headed straight for Paris where one copy of the book was deposited in the Royal Library. Next he presented a copy to the Bodleian Library at Oxford in England. He kept the third for himself.
Instead of receiving fame and glory, Bruce earned only contempt and silence from his peers. The books were held by the Libraries in silence and all went on as if nothing had happened. It wasn’t until later that they received some of the attention they surely deserved.
As for Bruce, the skeptical world accepted neither his claims of discovered the source of the Nile’s famous rivers or the discovery of the Book of Enoch. The world was no more interested in knowing anything about the mysteries or the contents of the Book of Enoch than they had been when they were sealed about 1700 years earlier.
The Book of Enoch: Richard Laurence Translation
In 1821, 48 years after the Bruce claims, Richard Laurence, a Bishop of Cashel, Ireland had heard about the Enoch copy at the Oxford Library. He was able to convince the authorities to allow him to read the Book. However, they were not interested to have him reveal anything about Enoch. They did allow him to read it but would not allow him to remove it from the room in which it was kept. Neither was a candle provided by which to read the old dusty manuscripts. In spite of all this opposition, Lawrence was able to laboriously copy the book by hand in the light of a drafty window. He worked years alone in the dampness. All his hard work and sacrificing finally bore fruit when his first edition proved so popular, it sold out quickly.
Translations of this version of the Book of Enoch are referred to as the Ethiopic Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch.
Enoch – as mentioned in The Book of Moses
About nine years later (between June 1830 and February 1831), Joseph Smith, living in the small rural town of Palmyra, New York, also recorded an account of the life of Enoch found in the Book of Moses, Chapter 6: 26 to Chapter 7: 69 — a total of 111 verses. It consists of the experiences of Enoch when he was caught up in the Heavens with God. The account is very detailed and riveting.
According to this record, the Lord promised Enoch that if he would have the faith to obey, then God would protect him, and if he opened his mouth God would give him utterance. Enoch records his experiences in Moses 7: 3-69 and gives a complete description of being able to see the creations of God throughout the heavens. God further shows Enoch the souls that will reside on this earth and their future. From that humble start, Enoch goes through a transformation of character and begins to preach. He is so successful that he converts all the people of his city and it becomes a Holy City or Zion. Eventually they are translated as a group, removed to another realm where they are to prepare for the coming of Christ.
While the account in the Book of Moses is similar to the Ethiopian version, it is not identical. It is much more detailed and contains more dialogue between Enoch and God.
This fact that the Ethiopian copy and the Joseph Smith extract differ, did little to convince the enemies of Joseph Smith that he had not written the Book of Moses and The Book of Mormon himself. The ministers, preachers and clergy of his day simply assumed Joseph Smith was lying or engaged in a game of one-upmanship.
Given the difficulties Richard Laurence had obtaining access to the original Book of Enoch and the distances from Ireland to New York, coupled with the fact that the two never met or corresponded and that copies of Laurence’s book didn’t reach the vicinity of Palmyra until 1838-39, long after Joseph’s Enoch had been completed, it should be evident to anyone who bothered to check that Joseph’s claim to revelation should at least be considered.
Other Copies of the Book of Enoch
Later, more copies of the Book of Enoch surfaced. In 1857, manuscripts were discovered in St Petersburg, but the fact that there was an account of Enoch among them was not immediately noticed. This copy is considered the oldest and best account and is called “The Slavonic Enoch”. (It is also sometimes referred to as the Second Book of Enoch or 2 Enoch.) Only one translation was made of this manuscript and that was in 1896. (Click here for more information about the Ethiopic and Slavonic Books of Enoch.)
In 1927 Hugo Odeburg published a copy of the Book of Enoch, now called Third Enoch, which was originally in Hebrew.
In 1949 a Book of Enoch was discovered in the caves near the Dead Sea. It was given to Father J. T. Milik, but he kept the book hidden for twenty-seven years not allowing anyone access to it. Dated as written in the third century A.D., it includes the names of Mahijah and Mahujah – names recounted only in one other place, in the book produced by Joseph Smith. (See Moses 6:40 and Moses 7:2)
Why Might the Book of Enoch Have Become “Lost”?
It is understandable why Enoch’s writings were removed from canonized scripture when we consider the teachings of the early Christian Church Fathers. Having come to the false conclusion that Earth was the centre of God’s creations, they simply could not endure the constant references by Enoch to a Physical God who came and went and dwelt somewhere in the Cosmos. Every attempt to reconcile the Heavens and everything that in them were, ended up in contention amid the council members. To end this conflict his detractors determined to exclude his records from the Bible and even expunged his name altogether. From about the time of Origen and Hilary, Enoch had disappeared from all Christian and Jewish scriptures except where necessary for the continuity of genealogy and the begats.
Along with Enoch went all references to the premortal life experience, the grand councils in Heaven, the war between Satan and God, the war in Heaven which resulted in Satan’s rejecting God’s plan for the salvation of his children. The knowledge that Christ accepted the plan and volunteered to become our saviour. That which was lost included the necessity for a saviour, the understanding of the atonement, the special mission of Christ and the Holy Ghost, the plurality of other worlds, the great plan laid down for the progress of the sons and daughters of God our Father, and reference of the life after mortal death. All gone. All made to disappear.
At this point in history the discovery has little to no effect on mainstream Christian Churches who are still struggling after 70 years, with the problem of how to approach the discrepancy of information contained in the materials recovered from the Dead Sea Caves and how to reconcile that with what is being taught as doctrine in their own Churches. Meanwhile millions of copies of the Book of Moses, which contains the story of Enoch, have been printed and distributed freely to the world since its first formal publication in 1851.
2. Noah
The only record actually claiming to be part of the “Book of Noah” is a fragment of a record written as a chapter in the Book of Enoch which contains details about Noah’s birth. A translation of this fragment reports that his father, Lamech, was afraid of Noah because of his appearance. He ran to his Father, Methuselah saying…
“I have begotten a strange son, diverse from and unlike men, resembling the sons of God in Heaven. The hair of his head and his long locks were as white as wool and his eyes beautiful. The colour of his body is whiter than snow and redder than the bloom of a rose, and his eyes like the rays of the sun and he opened his eyes and lighted up the whole house.”
Methuselah called upon his father, Enoch, “from the ends of the earth” to calm Lamech. Enoch convinced Lamech that the babe he had begotten was mortal. None the less he commanded Lamech to call the boy, “Noah, for he shall be left to you and he and his sons shall be saved from the destruction that shall come upon the earth in his days.”
This account is not in our scriptures. The physical description of Noah does lead one to believe he was Albino or in any other way physically extraordinary (Genesis 5: 29).
3/ Abraham
The first mention of Abraham (known at first as Abram) in the Bible is found in Genesis 11: 27. The genealogy that proceeds the narrative is very accurate but also very short of details. It is obvious that something is missing. Abraham is considered to be the father of the three great religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). But the information recorded in the Old Testament leaves many unanswered questions:
1/ How did Abraham’s brother die before his Father? (Genesis 11: 28)
2/ Where had Abraham spend the first 75 years of his life? (Genesis 12: 4)
3/ Did Abraham lie when he told the Pharaoh that Sarah was his Sister? (Genesis 12: 11-13)
4/ Why did God command Abram to “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy Father’s house, into a Land that I shall shew thee”. (Genesis 12: 1)
5/ Why was Abram’s name changed to Abraham? (Genesis 17: 5)
6/ How did Abraham come to be favored of the Lord? (Genesis 12: 2-3)
This story, as told by the Essenes and later passed to the Gnostics, is also found in various Midrashim (ancient commentaries) of the Jewish Talmud.
Abraham was born about 50 years before the death of Noah, in the days of the world’s worst and bloodiest tyrant, Nimrod. The society over whom he ruled had become a cesspool of immorality. Paranoid that the appearance of a new start in the sky indicated foreboding disastrous news, all Nimrod’s court soothsayers informed the King that this rare phenomenon was a sign that a new king had been born that would overthrow him. Hence the narcissistic Nimrod decreed that all children under the age of 2 were to be slaughtered. Abram/Abraham’s parents, Terah and his wife, had been notified by God before the birth of their child that he was special. He, like Jesus, had a specific role to play in God’s large scheme of human affairs. It was known in the community that Terah’s wife had just given birth to a baby boy, and so he was on the King’s list of parents who were expected to deliver the child up to be executed as per the decree of Nimrod. Terah was well known in the courts of Nimrod because his craft as a builder of idols had brought him to the attention of the King. Now, in a desperate decision between serving Nimrod or saving his son, Terah conceived of a desperate plan. One of Terah’s household female servants had also recently given birth to a son. Terah substituted that child for Abram/Abraham. That child was therefore brought before Nimrod and it was brutally murdered before Terah’s very eyes. Meanwhile the real Abram/Abraham was secreted away by his mother, to be raised by Seth, one of the sons of Noah. (See: Abraham, Abraham’s Early Life and Nimrod and Abraham.) The story goes on to record the re-appearance of Abram/Abraham some 50 years later at the home of his Father in Ur – about the time when the Bible begins its telling of Abraham’s life story.
Other account have been discovered in more modern day, including The Apocalypse of Abraham and the Book of Abraham.
These accounts seem to provide plausible answers to questions and confirm parts of Abraham’s story, such as how he received the Priesthood of God. (It was passed from Adam until the flood, and via Noah and his son Shem to Abraham.)
Recently, scholars John A. Tvedtnes, Brian M. Hauglid and John Gee have compiled information gleaned from Christian, Jewish and Muslim sources and published their comparisons in a collection of books called “Studies in the Book of Abraham”.
The common stories they relate tell of the struggles and adventures of Abraham and his wife Sarah who emerge from the sins and carnage of their times to become the leaders of their tribes, and prophetically are appointed and anointed to become the rulers of all nations in the future because of their righteousness and obedience. It also contains the accounts of the Earth’s spiritual and physical creation, the dramatic and life-changing events in the Garden of Eden, and the necessity for the fall of Adam and Eve, all of which were lost to the world.
4/ Moses
The Biblical record of Moses does not stand alone. His life and writings are also recorded in the Torah and the Quran. Moses was a great political leader, a military commander, scholar, writer, historian, shepherd, emancipator, prophet of Gods, revelator, miracle worker, legislator, judge, and pioneer. In the Pearl of Great Price, the Book of Moses starts with a resounding confirmation of the willingness of God to speak to man. Moses finds himself on an exceedingly high mountain when God appears, not as a spirit of an incomprehensible nature. Instead, “…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.” (Moses 1: 2)
What We Gain From This Additional Information
We learn a lot about God and his prophets from the pages of these ancient writings. Yet this additional information is not unique in teaching us about the true nature of God.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Genesis 1: 26-27:
We have to wonder how the Christian churches failed so badly in their understanding of God when the very unaltered books they were referencing for the information, and that they recognized and canonized as scripture, had already spelled out in words impossible to misunderstand. We are created in God’s image. In no way does this demean or take away anything of the sacred nature and personality of God. What it does do is clarify our relationship to him and our potential as human offspring of noble, Godly parents.
We are Children of our God and have as our origin nothing short or less than we come from the courts where Gods dwell. We literally are children of our Heavenly Parents.
For as many as are led by the spirit of God, are the sons of God… Ye have not received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry” Abba, Father. The spirit itself beareth witness that we are the children of God: And if Children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ…
Romans 8: 14-17
Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of our spirits and live?
Hebrews 12: 9
The Lord instructed us to pray: Our Father, which art in Heaven…
Matthew 6: 9
Jesus saith unto her” Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.”
John 20: 17
How much confusion and bloodshed could have been avoided if the early church fathers had stayed true to the teachings of Christ? Would man have been so willing to compete with such volatile indignation against his brother? Would he have so been as willingly to despise and kill knowing each person’s blood he spilled was that of his spiritual brother or his spiritual sister? All this critical knowledge removed and lost. No wonder man stumbled and became as brutish as the savage animals in the wilds. As predicted, the Children of God, not knowing their origins or destinies, became natural men and women, enemies to God. (Mosiah 3: 19-20)