Cain and Abel: Hope, Rebellion, and the Search for an Heir (Episode One)

Following is the truth about the brothers Cain and Abel.
Of course, no treatment of the family of Adam and Eve is complete without touching on the first parents themselves.
This episode focuses on the children Adam and Eve had before either Cain or Abel.

Adam and Eve lived many years in a land called Adam-ondi-Ahman after they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. During those years, they produced many children. Reason dictates that they had more than just two children—more than Cain and Abel, as many Christians believe. It is far more reasonable to believe that other children existed than to suggest they did not come from Adam and Eve.

Since this article supports the belief that all humanity descends from Adam and Eve, no credence is given to the idea that another group of humans outside of them produced spouses for Cain or Abel.

Cain and Abel participated in the first recorded murder, which makes them mention-worthy. The firstborn child of Adam and Eve would also be newsworthy. Why that first birth is not mentioned in modern scripture remains a mystery. Perhaps it was included in other records that no longer exist or are no longer available.

Modern revelation teaches that Adam and Eve had considerably more than two children by the time of Abel’s murder, the birthright son. After their expulsion from Eden, it was part of the plan for Adam and Eve to have children—which they did.

The sequence of events in Moses 5 indicates that sons and daughters were born to them even before Cain and Abel. Their children “began to divide two and two in the land, and to till the land, and to tend flocks; and they also begat sons and daughters” (Moses 5:3). We know the names of only three sons: Cain, Abel, and Seth. [1]

In the Pearl of Great Price, a compilation of records and declarations by prophets—including a revelation about the writings of Moses—it is recorded:

Adam knew his wife, and she bare unto him sons and daughters, and they began to multiply and to replenish the earth. And from that time forth, the sons and daughters of Adam began to divide two and two in the land, and to till the land, and to tend flocks, and they also begat sons and daughters. (Moses 5:2–3)

Adam and Eve produced many children after they left the Garden who, in turn, paired off and divided in the land to produce more children. This information comes by revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. and others in these latter days.

The question of whether Adam and Eve had children before Cain and Abel is settled by the information in the Pearl of Great Price. However, this truth must still contend with the long-held traditions of many sects in the Abrahamic faiths.

Some traditions falsely suggest that Cain mated with a baboon and produced the African races. Such racist fables are soundly refuted by the plain truth that Adam and Eve had many children before Cain and Abel. Those children married among themselves, bore children, and spread across the land long before Cain’s tragic introduction to the world.

Adam and Eve can rightly be called the first Christians, since Moses reveals that they knew of Christ. Adam was commanded by God to offer a sacrifice of the firstling (or best) of his flocks. Obedient without question, Adam did so until he was visited by an angel who asked why he offered such sacrifices.

Adam did not know the reason, other than that God had commanded him. The angel gave Adam the opportunity to be humble and admit that he did not know. Then came the explanation:

This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth. Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore. (Moses 5:7–9)

Adam failed to keep God’s commandment to avoid partaking of the fruit—by choice. But he did not fail in offering up the firstling of his flock, also by choice.

In reward for his obedience, God sent an angel to reveal the reason for the commandment to offer the best sheep or lamb as a similitude, or representation, of the Son of God, even Jesus Christ. The offering was a witness that a Savior would come in time and go like a lamb to the slaughter for the transgression of Adam and Eve—and for the sins of the world.

Teachings and doctrines that salvation comes through Christ have existed since the beginning, according to modern scripture. “Messiah” or “God” in the original Edenic language may have been used instead of the Anglicanized “Christ,” and Yesuah may have been spoken instead of Jesus. Christianity is eternal—not because of the name given to believing Saints by the Greeks in derision, but because of the principle of love for God and fellow beings that Christianity has come to represent. Christianity is simply the fulfillment of Judaism, never its replacement. It is not a different religion in truth, though culturally, Christianity has evolved into its own faith.

Teachings or doctrines that salvation comes via Christ have been around since the beginning according to modem scripture. "Messiah" or "God" in the original Edenic language was used instead of the Anglican "Christ," and Yesuah may have been used instead of Jesus. Christianity is eternal, not because of the name given to believing Saints by Greeks in derision, but based on the principle of love of God and fellow beings Christianity has come to represent. Christianity is simply a fulfillment of Judaism, never a replacement. It's not a different religion in truth, but culturally, Christianity has evolved into its own faith.

In Moroni 10:3–5, there is a promise that the Holy Ghost will reveal the truth to the willing believer, as He did to Adam. When Adam heard the words of the angel, at some point “in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.” (Moses 5:9)

Adam learned that he could be redeemed from the Fall from Eden. This prompted him to bless God and be filled with the Spirit of God. He began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth. (Moses 5:10) Adam testified that he would see God in the flesh—or in his body—again, as he had seen Him in the Garden of Eden.

“Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.” (Moses 5:11)

The poll about whether Adam and Eve had other children before Cain or Abel taken in the past suggests that 58% of readers do NOT believe other children were born prior to the two sons. What do you say?