Moses 8

Last chapter, and it seems to have stopped so suddenly in the story because we don't hear about the commandment to build an ark. That's alright though, I know the story well enough that I can wait until I read it in the bible (which is what I will be reading next!). The Lord did keep His covenant with Enoch and brought up a righteous line through Methuselah that were the Sons of God and not men. That's how righteousness and wickedness are separated and labeled in this chapter, Sons of God are righteous and the sons of men are the ones who do not listen to Noah's prophesying.
The Lord teaches an interesting concept to me through this chapter about who is acceptable to marry, believe it or not. When He describes the daughters that have married sons of men as having sold themselves, I am worried that they are cut off from the blessings because their husbands have been cut off from the blessing of the Lord. Then again, there were giants on the earth back then and everything could have been completely different than it is now, but I still know that it is better to find someone that shares me love of the gospel.
Noah and his righteous sons were the only one left on earth who walked with God among the violence that was on the whole earth. Through some calculations, I am quite certain that the earth is about 1,548 years old when Noah has his 3 righteous sons (since they left the Garden of Eden), but I am far from knowing how many people were alive at this point in time because it doesn't give us any clues. Obviously a few years pass before they start having children and those fair daughters are taken to wife by the sons of men, but there aren't a specific amount of years attached to those events and I can only speculate how long it took them to do that. The timeline of how long people back then waited to have children ranges from 65 years to 450 years. With how long they lived, it should surprise me, but it still does.

Moses 7

Enoch continues to teach the people then time passes as we are informed that he is a prophet that continues to teach to the people the words of the Lord. He establishes the City of Zion, and for 365 years the people there walked with God so perfectly that they were received up into the bosom of God. The people were so righteous because they constantly listened to the prophesying of Enoch about his revelations from the Lord which we get to read some of in the middle of the chapter when we are told the things he is shown.
The teachings of Enoch was actually not the first time the information was being taught to the people of the world because he is getting it from Adam's records. Repentance might have been a new concept but the people should have always been taught to follow the guidance from the Lord. Enoch preaches to all the people except the Canaan who are the descendants of Cain that were marked with blackness and despised among all people. His prophesying brought fear of the Lord upon all nations because he also performed many miracles, and the ones who believed on his words and followed the Lord came together to live in the City of Holiness, called Zion.
Enoch is even told that Zion is the only blessed place, and that the rest of the inhabitants of the earth are cursed and will suffer the flood that we know of in the time of Noah. All of the knowledge of the earth's history is shown to Enoch who is grieved over the wickedness and misery of the people. He covenants with the Lord to save his seed through the line of Noah when the earth is covered in floods. Now this flood seems to be described as the cleansing of the earth which is kind of like the earths baptism....at least that what I thought of when I read through v56 when the earth groans.
I know all things have a spirit, but do all of those things need a sort of baptism like we have? I know I've never heard of baptizing animals, although some crazy folks might want to. Maybe it's the innocence thing that goes on with infants that are too young to be accountable for their sins before the age of accountability. That's what I choose to believe! I'm not a crazy cat lady who wants to live with my cats for time and all eternity yet haha.
But let me end on a high note by speaking of the thousand years that the earth will be at rest when Christ comes again. I'm sure the earth has had a hard enough time housing humans, and I'm thinking that she is sick of the constant drilling and draining of resources. I hope that in this time of rest, she will also be restored to her full glory and we can learn to treat her right, if she does have a spirit like Pocahontas suggests. I also know that ever rock and tree and creature, has a life, has a spirit, has a name.

Moses 6

I don't know why we are only told of certain children of Adam and Eve, but it could be because they are the only records we found...seems legit to me! So we know of Cain and Able, but Seth was a while after, and through his line, there raises righteous generations that follow and are blessed of God. Enoch is part of that line and preaches to  the people that are influenced by satan by retelling some old inspiring stories. 

So a book of remembrance is kept and there is no doubt that we know all the information we know because of the preservation of the records. It was written in the language of Adam which is pure and undefiled, but obviously there have been translations and that pure language is no where to be found today. The righteous line of men will be given next along with how old they lived to be:

Adam -930

Seth -912

Enos -905

Cainan -910

Mahalaleel -895

Jared -962

Enoch -undetermined but in chapter 8 we learn he was only on earth for 430 years

Methuselah -969 (chapter 8:7)

Lamech -777 (8:11)

Noah -950 (Genesis 9:29)

I might have gone past this chapter, but it was fun to get in all down in one post instead of having to refer back. 

The rest of the chapter is Enoch's preaching to the people because he was commanded by the Lord to preach repentance. Ever since the day men was created they have gone astray, but the Lord wants to change things by having a prophet preach to them, even one that does not believe in himself because he is slow of speech. Enoch becomes a seer by anointing clay over his eyes and goes to hills and high places to testify against the evil works of the people. He does not make the people very happy with all this, but they go to listen to him as he tells them where he came from, what he has been commanded of by God, and stories of the creation. He uses the book of remembrance, like missionaries use the scriptures these days, to tell of the fall of Adam but the possibility of being saved.

He teaches that we are born as fallen beings and into sin, but that does not mean we are confined to that lifestyle. We know good from evil and can choose for ourselves how we will act so that we can become clean and pure again through the atonement of the Only Begotten. He also teaches of baptism, and reads the story of Adam's baptism when he receives the Spirit of God, a.k.a. the Holy Ghost. Being reborn of fire through baptism allows us to be one in Christ and the Father who is the ultimate example.

Moses 5

The scene is set with Adam and Eve beginning their lives outside of the Garden of Eden. Working hard each day to till the earth while following the commandment of multiplying and replenishing the earth, they spread across the land. A command is given to them to offer the firstlings of their flocks unto the Lord, and after it is completed, an angel visits to explain the reasoning and symbolism of the firstborn offering. This act of faith by Adam allowed him to receive the Holy Ghost's presence with him to bear record of the Father and the Only Begotten Son.
Being somewhat reborn with the presence of the Holy Ghost, Adam prophecies concerning all the families on earth and is supported by Eve in the understanding of the necessity of knowing good and evil to progress. Unfortunately, Satan comes among some of them and tempts them to be carnal, sensual, and devilish in the very first worldly (out of Eden) temptation. The people are taught about the need to repent after being tempted, and learn about the consequences for not repenting.
Cain, a son of Adam and Eve, listens to the voice of Satan and makes an offering to the Lord that is reject, but is angry because the Lord did not respect his offering while his brother Adam's offering was accepted. The Lord speaks to Cain about his fall in countenance ands warns him of the punishment if he does not repent, but he rejects the council and instead conspired with satan to create secret combinations. Given these secrets from satan, Cain thinks himself a mastermind and murders his brother for the purpose of gaining his freedom from jealousy and his brothers land. The Lord calls him out on it though and punishes him to be a fugitive and vagabond that can never till the ground and yield anything.
Thinking that his punishment is too hard to bear, he says that the Lord is unfair and he will surely be slain by someone for his iniquities. The Lord marks him so that all may know his shame and none will slay him, but he will be forced to live out his shameful days east of Eden in Nod. Through his lineage, there is born a man named Lamech who took two wives (I don't know if this is common or the first time this has happened), and entered into a covenant with satan just like Cain to kill a young man for oath's sake. Lamech told his two wives what he had done, and after they had seen that the house hold was cut off from the presence of God, they rebelled against Lamech and told everyone about the evil he had done.
Lamech was despised and cast out, but the works of darkness still prevailed. God cursed the earth and the sons of men because they would not hardent unto His voice telling the Gospel truths about the Only Begotten Son coming in the meridian of time. Christ was prepared from the foundation of the earth to save the souls of all mankind. The angels of the Lord were the ones that first delivered this message to Adam, and the Holy Ghost was the confirmation.

Moses 4

I know that Satan used to be all knowing of the complete truths of God and now has rebelled and desires to take away the agency of men. It only strengthens my testimony about the love of God and warnings that have been told to me through scriptures about falling away. A few times within the Book of Mormon, it is mentioned that it is better to die with no knowledge of the gospel than to have learned of it and rejected it. Those who learn of the truths and have a testimony of their reality who fall away will be judged more harshly at the final judgement than those who never had a chance to learn of the gospel truths.
Satan knew everything perfectly and still rebelled against God which is ridiculous because you can't win against the most powerful being that exists. Maybe satan was delusional or something and thinks he has a chance if he leads away enough souls, or maybe he just wants to see the world burn because he's a butthead. He made one bad choice and now wants everyone to be miserable like unto himself so he can control as many people as possible like his plan for the world would have been like. In the 'what if' world of satan, do you think we still would have been able to defy satan and choose to not return to heaven? Just speculating on the impossible.
More on the chapter, Eve was told the complete truth about the tree of life and was beguiled (definition: fill with wonder and delight) about the possibilities eating of it would bring to her and Adam. As I mentioned in a previous post, Adam needed Eve to progress, and she fulfills her purpose of progression by eating of the Tree of Knowledge. Being a necessary step in progress but also a broken commandment, they were ashamed before God and had to be removed from the Garden of Eden so they would not also eat of the Tree of Life before they were clean again. The wisdom in this was magnificent! God knew they if they were to eat of the Tree of Life before Christ could atone for their sins, they would be forced to live forever apart from Him because of their uncleanliness.
I am so grateful for the events in the Garden of Eden that lead us on our way to being able to come to earth and life lives that will teach us to be worthy of Heaven. I know that all that happened was planned and meant to happen so that man can become like God through experiences on earth. The punishments that were given because of the broken commandment is a small price to pay to allow us to be on earth living so that we can become purified through Christ.

Moses 3

Please someone tell me I'm crazy for even thinking this, but was God planning on putting woman on earth? It seems that everything was created when God created man and then decided he wasn't supposed to be alone so tried to get animals to be a help meet for him, right? Why didn't he just already know that men need women and create her at the same time? Let me try to spin this for a loop as well because I've heard many times that the reason we don't know much about a Heavenly Mother is because God doesn't want her to be disrespected. If that is the case, maybe He also wanted to protect all women from being tempted on earth but learned that man could not reach salvation without a woman! Oh my, I think I just blew my mind.
I know without a doubt that marriage between a man and a woman is a sacred thing and is the only way to reach the highest degree of glory in heaven, but now I think I have my rationalization that probably shouldn't be spread around because its the scriptures according to Lara. So if you read this and think I'm crazy, feel free to ignore everything and think I'm a lunatic. I don't want to ruin anything else today, so that is all.

Moses 2

There are several accounts of the creation of the earth that explains what was created on which day and the order of it all, and this is one of them. In my opinion, this was God telling Moses how everything became to be and told him to recount the story. There are slight differences in the three main accounts located here, in Genesis 1, and in Abraham including the voice in which it is told. I cannot wait to study the Bible more fully to understand the different perspectives that each book is from because I find it a good thing to know.
I think my favorite depiction of the creation is this because I can use my imagination to hear Father in Heaven telling the story. There are many times it says "And I, God" and the general saying of "I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good" which reminds me that He is the one telling the story. I never thought I was one of those children who required a bedtime story to fall asleep, but its just one of those movie type scenarios that the father tells a story to his children to entertain them and what not. I always did like listening to my own father during our family scripture study, and especially when he would bring out some old stories from his family history to tell us. Oh! and I even remember when I was a kid and he had to be away for military work things, we would have audio cassette tape recordings of some of this funny stories. Hmm, I love my dad :)
Anyway, back on track! God knows that what He has created is the best for His spirit children and gave us dominion over it all for food and to help us live. I also found it helpful to have Genesis 1 open while reading this because of several footnotes that led there (and I was also curious about the similarities). I highly suggest that strategy, because footnotes seem to be more literal in the Bible, where in the Book of Mormon, they just lead to the Bible, like the Isaiah in 2 Nephi.