20/01/2021
I am recasting "Our Origins as Living Souls on Planet Earth" to show the sources used for my observations and conclusions presented in this booklet at its outset, rather than at its end and to emphasize this fifteen booklet series " Our Origins" being the first, represents, more than sixty five years of searching the scriptures and related writings, while pondering and praying to know and understand Where we came from, Why we are here and Where we are going after our earthly experience is over. More will be posted soon. Thanks for your patience with me, an old guy in his nineties.
THE ADAMIC DISPENSATION
OUR BEGINNINGS AS LIVING SOULS
ON PLANET EARTH
By
Norman L. Heap
First Edition
All rights to the reproduction in whole are in part in any form of the observations, paraphrases, and conclusions drawn from the quoted scriptures and the related writings cited, are reserved to Dr. Norman L Heap, and he alone assumes full responsibility for them.
Published by Family History Publications
5205 High Point Road
Greensboro, North Carolina 27407
September 1, 2016
Manufactured in the United States of America
ISBN 0-945905-14-9
DEDICATION
To my sweetheart and eternal companion, Virginia Lois Thayer Heap, and our children: David, Elisabeth, Paul, Glenn, and Janet, all descended through the Lord’s covenant people, with confidence each will remember and keep the covenants they have made with the Lord.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Translations of the Holy Scriptures are generally in the public domain. Nonetheless, the Writer acknowledges the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the Jewish Publication Society of America for quotations used from their respective scriptures.
Grateful acknowledgement is also given to the J H Parry Company for the use of the Book of Jasher- sometimes referred to as the Book pf the Rabbis which was translated from the original Hebrew into English, published in 18887 and reprinted in 1973.
Other copyrighted material is used by permission and courtesy of several publishers. Their works are listed in a bibliography. Special gratitude is given to the Jewish Publication Society, Doubleday, and Company, and Kregal Publications for the use of selected quotations from the works listed.
Much help has been received from dear friends, the Taylor Brothers, Richard, and Dennis. They have read through the manuscripts, suggested rephrasing of some thoughts to improve clarity, recast others for my review and use, and provided valuable service in combing the text for grammatical errors. To them I am most grateful.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and ABBREVIATIONS
1. The Holy Bible, Authorized King James Version. Old and New Testaments. The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City 1979 {KJV}*
2. The Holy Scriptures, According to the Masoretic Text. The Jewish Publication Society of America Philadelphia 1955 {MT}*
3. The Holy Scriptures Containing the Old and New Testaments: Board of Publications of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Independence 1964 {RLDS}*
4. Charlesworth, James H. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volumes I and II {POT}* The Apocalypse of Adam, The Testament of Adam, The Apocalypse of Abraham, the Hellinstic Prayers, I Enoch, II Enoch, Jubilees, Philo, The Sybiline Oracles, The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, Doubleday and Company, Garden City 1983 & 1985.
5. Ginsberg, Louis The Legends of the Jews. 7 volumes The Jewish Publication Society of America Philadelphia 1910 {Legends}*
6. Smith, Joseph Jr. Translator The Book of Mormon; The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints Salt Lake City 1977 {BoM}*
7. Smith, Joseph Jr. Prophet The Pearl of Great Price. Selections from the Revelations, Translations and Narrations of Joseph Smith Jr. The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City 1977 {PGP}*
8. Smith. Joseph Jr The Doctrine and Covenants, The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints 1979 {D&C}*
9. Flavious Josephus The Antiquities of the Jews, Complete Works: Whitten, William Translator Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids 1979 {ANT}*
10. The Book of Jasher [aka Yashar, the Book of the Rabbis] from Legends J, H, Parry Company Salt Lake City 1887 and 1973 {Book of Jasher or Yashar} *
11. The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden, including the Life of Adam and Eve I and II The Secrets of Enoch, the Epistle of Barnabas, World Publishing Company Cleveland 1926 {LBB or FBE} *
12. Lawrence R. Translator: The Book of Enoch Kegan and Company London 1983 {BoE}*
13. Talmadge, James /e Jesus the Christ Salt Lake City 1916 {JTC}*
14. Heap, Norman L Adam, Enoch, and Noah Walnut Creek 1992 {AEN}*
15. Documentary History of the Church Salt Lake City {DHC}*
16. Nibley, Hugh Enoch the Prophet Salt Lake City 1990 {ETP}*
17. Heap, Norman L Abraham, Isaac & Jacob Concord 1986 {AIJ}*
18. Heap, Norman L. The Twelve Sons of Israel Concord 1988: {TSI}*
19. Heap Norman L. Moses, Aaron, and Joshua Concord 1990 {MAJ}*
One hundred twenty-four footnotes were used to present this work.
Table of Contents
1. Writer’s Notes and Observations 8
2. Prologue 19
3. Two Interwoven Documents Covering the Beginning of Living Souls on Earth to the Outset of Noah’s Dispensation 27
4. The Fall 39
5. Adam and Eve’s Life Outside the Garden of Eden 43
6. Enoch’s Role as 2nd Dispensation Prophet 53
7. Noah’s Role as 3rd Dispensation Prophet Begin s 68
8. Epilogue 71
9. Time Line for Seven Dispensations of + Millennium 96
10. About the Author/Writer 98
11. Other Works by Writer/Author 99
Writer’s Notes and Observations
The Standard Works of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-days Saints includes twenty-eight pages of Selections from the Book of Moses, another fifteen pages called the Book of Abraham, or a total of forty-three pages originally styled the Pearl of Great Price. This Pearl as of 1985, includes another nineteen pages covering the prophet Joseph Smith’s translation of Matthew 23:39 and chapter 24; Joseph Smith’s Brief History and the Articles of Faith
The Church’s Eighth Article of Faith reads:
“We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
An intended purpose of this booklet is to improve the reader’s comprehension of God’s interactions with our early forebears and ourselves, as they became, and we become living souls on Planet Earth. Hopefully, this interweaving of the ancient and modern scriptures and the study of them, will achieve this purpose.
As the eighth article of faith implies, says Rick Taylor, long time friend of the Writer, “time and technology have opened the door for changes in the original scriptures [changes dictated by the Lord God Himself] … by weaving the modern scriptures [with the ancient] … one can quickly sense the caring and personal relationship God wants to have with His spirit children experiencing mortality, especially with His and our relationship with His dispensation prophets”, of which Adam is the first.
“It only makes sense, that if God wants His children to progress to become like Him, He needs a process to give them guidance, feedback and encouragement … In this expanded version, using first person interaction, one can see a more loving, actively engaged God acting in His role as their [and our] Heavenly Father versus a distant impersonal and incomprehensible judge”
Within the twenty-eight pages of Selections from the Book of Moses and the fifteen pages called the Book of Abraham one learns that the Bible, especially the Genesis account, as presented by King James, is incomplete and therefore not translated correctly.
It contains errors of omission, distortion, and corruption which the Lord God immediately set out to correct when His restored true Church, The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints was barely two months old.
While making these corrections through His new prophet He, the Lord God, also connected, him, Joseph Smith, to the prophets of the first three dispensations of time, namely Adam, Enoch, and Noah and to some extent Abraham. All of this was reported in just twenty-eight pages and written down in the early 1830’s.
By definition, a living spirit on its own is not a soul, and neither is a physical or natural body on its own a soul. Only when an entity’s spiritual body is housed within its physical body and they are functioning together as one does it constitute a living soul.
The Book of Abraham was providentially found and translated into English by Joseph Smith in the mid 1830’s These scriptures, fifteen pages of them, add much more to Joseph’s connections to God’s fourth dispensation prophet Abraham, and thence to Isaac and to Jacob.
The King James Version of Genesis makes clear it was Moses’ account of the creation dictated to him by the Lord God that was being used, so Joseph was being connected, as well, to fifth dispensation prophet Moses in the process.
Joseph Smith’s encounters with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ during the 1820’s, connected him to them. Thus, by the time the organizational foundation of the Church was laid and the Quorum of Twelve was called, Joseph Smith, Prophet of the dispensation of the fullness of time had been connected to all six of the previous prophets of dispensations from the Fall of Adam and Eve to the Millennium.
The Writer believes that when read in the format reported herein, namely KJV language in standard type and JST language of addition and correction in BOLD, readers gain greater light and knowledge, and this greater light and knowledge enables readers to make observations and draw conclusions unlikely otherwise. Such is the case of this Writer. To illustrate this point:
Verses 11 and 12 of Chapter One of Genesis in the King James Version of the Old Testament tell the Reader the earth brought forth grasses, herbs and trees yielding fruit whose seed was in itself. Verses 20-25 inform the Reader the waters brought forth abundantly moving creatures, great whales, and winged fowl, all after their kind, as well as cattle and other living creatures. Verses 26-28 tells the Reader of man being formed in God’s image and likeness and of God’s delegation to man dominion over all other life that had been formed.
Yet Verse 5 of Chapter Two states that after creating all this life there “was not a man to till the ground.”
How could God have created all of these things including man and then declare that “there was not a man to till the ground? The Lord God did say He had not yet caused it to rain upon the earth.
The Joseph Smith Translation of these same passages clears up this seeming contradiction. Namely, there were two creations and not one, one spiritual and the other physical or natural.
The Joseph Smith translation of verses 5 -7 reads:
” And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God created all things of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air.
“But I, the Lord God, spake, and there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
“And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also; nevertheless, all things were before created, but spiritually were they created and made according to my word.”
This translation changes the way we view our beginnings. We did not begin our lives at conception in our mother’s wombs. We existed before our physical birth, spiritually, complete with brains and memory, eyes, noses, mouths, necks, shoulders, arms, hands, internal organs, legs, and feet.
This Eighth Article first appeared as one of the Church’s thirteen Articles of Faith published as part of the Wentworth Letter.
The Wentworth Letter published in 1842 was written by Joseph Smith in response to a request by Wentworth for a brief history of the Church.
The Wentworth letter does not expand on the phrase “as far as it is translated correctly” used in this article, but the Pearl of Great Price does.
Joseph Smith, at the command of the Lord, began corrections to the King James Version of the Bible just two months after the Church was organized. When Joseph Smith’s Translation is compared with the King James Version of the first six chapters of Genesis, it becomes clear that the Joseph Smith Translation left intact, verbatim, much of the King James language, including the great ages of the initial, principal characters. The JST account says Enoch was 430 years old and not 365 years when he was translated. The D & C says Adam blessed and ordained posterity ranging in age from 25 to 495 years, and that Seth ordained Noah when he Noah, was just ten years old.
Without having the two documents side by side, however, what was changed, what was left intact, or what was added is not readily apparent.
To better understand what was left intact, what was changed, what was corrected or added, the Writer has taken the liberty to highlight KJV’s, errors of omission, and errors of translation, corruption and/or distortion as reported by Joseph Smith in bold type; and to report identical language used in both the KJV and the JST translations in standard type.
More specifically the interwoven documents covering the beginning of humans as living souls on earth to the outset of Noah’s dispensation, uses, for informative purposes, the language of the first six chapters of Genesis/Moses in the King James Version, [KJV Gen], and the first eight chapters of the Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis contained in the above-mentioned Pearl of Great Price [JST/PGP Moses]
The Lord God let stand much of the language of the first six chapters of Genesis in the KJV Bible, but He changed the third person account to a first-person account and added words and phrases for clarification when needed. He also dictated a whole new chapter for the KJV Genesis account, a preface if you will, at its beginning, and added clarifying paragraphs and even new chapters of material about Enoch and Noah.
These changes, additions and corrections alter, significantly, the way we view the heavens, and ourselves, our understanding of who God is, how we look at our beginnings in heaven and on earth, and what the purposes of our earth lives are.
The Writer was given a copy of this little book, The Pearl of Great Price by his sister, Doris Heap Nelson, in 1950 as a college graduation present. He read it all the way through during that year, and was intrigued by it, mainly because, he, as a Mathematics Major, and a Physics Minor student, had just received a bachelor’s degree. Part of his program included studies in astronomy.
The Writer was surprised to learn that ancient prophets Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses knew a lot more about astronomy than he had supposed. He was even more surprised to learn that the worlds without number mentioned in these writings, and the physical and spiritual structure of the cosmos are critical to our understanding of the Lord God’s plans to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of all men and women that have ever walked planet earth.
Hopefully, by reporting the exact language of the first several chapters of Genesis in the King James Version of the Old Testament in standard type, and interweaving additions by direct revelation from the Lord God to Seventh Dispensation Prophet Joseph Smith during the 1830 to 1831 period in bold type, the reader will gain more insight into the Lord God’s plan of happiness for the whole human family. Hopefully, also, the reader will be motivated to embrace the plan and be assured eternal life and happiness in the presence of God our Father by adhering to it.
Seventh Dispensation Prophet Joseph Smith lived but 39 years before being cut down by assassin’s bullets June 27, 1844. During 1844, his final year, Joseph Smith concluded, wrote, and testified that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which he was called upon to form, was founded upon direct revelation as the true church of God has ever been, according to the scriptures. [See Amos 3:7 & Acts 1:2]
Joseph responded to Israel Daniel Rupp’s request that he, Joseph, write, a brief history of the Latter-day Saints, and he, Rupp, would print that history, without change, just like Joseph had written it. Joseph Smith did write it and I. Daniel Rupp did print it as he promised.
Twenty-two days before Smith’s death he received the galley proofs of the article from Rupp. Joseph was pleased with it. Unfortunately, he was killed before the printing and distribution of the article took place.
Nonetheless it did get printed and distributed in the 1840’s. A copy of it was placed in the Library of Congress and twenty-six copies are known to have been sent to various libraries within the United States.
It seems that the Lord God, Eloheim, who had personally appeared to young Joseph, answered his prayers, and instructed him, immediately set out to connect his new Prophet, Joseph, to previous dispensation prophets and their scriptures. Joseph undertook the Lord’s charge to him right after the Church was organized April 6, 1830.
We read in the King James Version of the Bible, that at God’s request, Fifth Dispensation Prophet Moses wrote down what the Lord God had told him to about the beginnings of human life on our earth, about the early history of His covenant people from First Dispensation Prophet Adam’s time through Second Dispensation Prophet Enoch’s time, through Third Dispensation Prophet Noah’s time, and through and including Fourth Dispensation Prophet Abraham’s time, all of which is reported in Genesis in that Bible.
Abraham had also foreshadowed a fourth time the Lord’s covenant people would fall into apostasy which would require another restoration. The Prophet Abraham prophesied that the Lord’s covenant people would again go to Egypt, fall into idolatry, worship false gods, and again return to Canaan, the land He had promised them, under the leadership of a new dispensation prophet, Moses.
Moses would gather Israel from the clutches of the idolatrous Egyptians, call them to repentance, restore the Lord’s covenant with, and settle them in the land of promise.
The rest of the Old Testament books of the King James Bible, [close to a thousand pages] are devoted to the Fifth Dispensation of time, a period when its Prophet Moses, at its’ beginning, stood at the helm, as the only person on earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys.
After Moses had gathered the children of Israel out of Egypt and led them forty years in the wilderness, and he, himself was translated, it was Joshua who led gathered Israel into the promised land of Canaan and settled them there.
Priesthood power that Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses had held was continued through the posterity of three of Abraham’s great grandsons: to Judah, [the right of temporal Kings by lineage] to Levi [the rights of the temporal priesthood by lineage,] and to Joseph, [the birthright blessings, or rights of the first born on condition of righteousness] They were sons of Jacob/Israel and Leah and Rachel; Jacob/Israel being the son of Isaac and Rebekah, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah.
Each of the first four dispensations of time [Adam’s, Enoch’s, Noah’s, and Abraham’s] ended in apostasy, at which time the Lord God found it necessary to call a new dispensation prophet to restore that which had been lost or corrupted. After or during Adam’s Dispensation, the Lord God called Enoch, followed by Noah, followed by Abraham, followed by Moses.
The KJV Bible says truly little about Enoch, son of Jared, and his dispensation. We learn, by direct revelation, a lot more about Enoch’s dispensation, from material revealed by the Lord God, Eloheim, and His first son born of the spirit, Jehovah, to Joseph Smith, His 7th, and final such prophet.
By Jesus Christ’s time the Mosaic Dispensation had also fallen into apostasy with its accompanying corruption and the Lord God found it necessary to call another dispensation prophet.
Forty centuries after the Fall the Lord God did call another dispensation prophet to restore that which had been lost and/or corrupted, namely, He called His first-born spiritual son, Jehovah, and sent him to earth in the flesh, to restore the Gospel in its purity. Jehovah came in the flesh as Jesus Christ, and He did again restore the Gospel in its purity to the world.
Angels revealed to Mary she would conceive through the Holy Ghost and would give birth to a Son who would save God’s and the world’s people from their sins. Angels also told Mary his name was to be called Jesus or Jesus Christ.
Thus Jehovah/Jesus Christ became, not only the Savior of the World, but the Lord God’s Sixth Dispensation Prophet as well. What He brought was not new but a Restoration of that which was lost and/or corrupted through apostasy in previous dispensations. More particularly, Jesus restored the higher law which had come into fruition during the Abrahamic Dispensation, or the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
During His ministry Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had chosen twelve apostles or special witnesses, with Peter as the head, Peter, being the only person on earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys and carry on His work, after Christ’s departure.
Initially, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, vacancies in the twelve were filled, but this pattern did not continue. Eventually, all twelve were dead or translated, and the Lord’s covenant people that were left on earth again fell into apostasy. This long night of apostasy lasted about fifteen hundred years before the truth would once again be restored in its purity. It ended with the calling of Joseph Smith as the Seventh and final dispensation Prophet prior to Jehovah/Christ’s coming to earth a second time, this time coming as Messiah, in all glory and majesty, to usher in the Millennium.
As with the previous six dispensation prophets, Joseph Smith was called and instructed directly by the Lord God, Eloheim, via His Son Jehovah/Christ/Messiah and through other heavenly manifestations.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized with six members on April 6, 1830.This final restoration had barely begun when the Lord God called upon his new prophet to add much to the Genesis account which had been lost, left out, corrupted, or distorted especially knowledge and information covering the first four dispensations of time, essential to our understanding of His great plans for the whole human family, from the days of Adam and Eve to the ushering in of the Millennium.
As part of this final process of restoration the Lord God requested Seventh Dispensation Prophet Joseph Smith to make some additions and corrections to the Moses’ KJV Biblical record. This the Prophet Joseph did during the 1830 through 1831 period. Many of the small additions and corrections Joseph Smith made to the King James Version are reported as footnotes to the original King James Version published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints editions in 1985 and thereafter.
However, the Lord also dictated to Seventh Dispensation Prophet Joseph Smith what amounts to a preface to the KJV Genesis account, none of which is included in the original King James Old Testament record. He also dictated whole and partial chapters of material concerning Second Dispensation Prophet Enoch. and He added significant material concerning Noah’s and Abraham’s dispensations, especially the role of Melchizedek and the priesthood power delegated to him, a power found operative worldwide today in this the Seventh and last dispensation prior to the Savior’s return to usher in the Millennium. The writer finds it important to share this background information with readers, as he discusses.
1] The Worlds Without Number God Had Created, Worlds That Are Essential to Implementing His Work and Glory, which is to Bring to Pass the Immortality and Eternal Life of Men and Women
2] A Spiritual Creation of All Organisms Preceded Their Physical Creation, Complete with Seeds of Life within themselves including within Adam and Eve.
3] Agency or the Right to Choose is God’s Greatest Gift to all Mortal Human Souls Male & Female.
Booklets II & III will discuss the dispensations of Enoch and Noah.
