Truth About Cain & Abel: First Family

In this series of articles 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 a little on the first parents themselves. This is part one of four. In this part, I will focus on the children Adam and Eve had before 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.

In those years they produced many children. Reason dictates that those two had more than two children, Cain and Abel, as most Christians believe.

It is more than reasonable that other children existed or they did not come from Adam and Eve. Since this article supports the belief that all humanity descends from Adam and Eve, there is no credence given to the possibility of another group of humans outside of them to produce the spouses of Cain And able.

Cain and Abel participated in the first recorded murder! That 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 is a mystery. It may have been included on other records that no longer exist or that are no longer available.

Modern revelation teaches that Adam and Eve did not have only two children up to the point of the murder of Abel, the birthright son. After the expulsion from Eden, it was 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 were born. 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. (What Mondern Revelation Teaches about Adam by Arthur A Bailey.

In the Pearl of Great Price, which is a compilation of records and declarations by prophets (one being a revelation about the writing of Moses), it is recorded:

And 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

It is important to note that Adam and Eve produced many children after they left the garden who in turn paired off and divided into the land and produced children. This information is based on the revelations given to Joseph Smith Jr. and other prophets in the latter-days.

The question as to whether Adam and Eve had other children before Cain and Abel is settled with the information in the Pearl of Great Price; however, the information must still be accepted against the tradition of current sects of all Abrahamic based faiths.

There are traditions that suggest that Cain mated with a baboon and produced the African races! These type of belief traditions are refuted by the simple truth that Adam and Eve had many children before Cain and Abel and those children married and produced other children and began to spread into the land and populate it BEFORE Cain was introduced to the world.

Adam and Eve can are the first Christians since Moses reveals that they knew of Him. Adam was commanded by God to offer sacrifice of the firstling or best of his flocks.

Adam, willing to be obedient to God without question, did so until he was visited by an angel inquiring of him the reason that he offered sacrifices of the firstlings of his flocks.

Adam did not know the reason for doing it save that God commanded him to do so.

It would appear that the angel gave Adam the opportunity to be humble and admit that he knew nothing about the reason for the sacrifice. The angel explained that

"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 had failed to keep God's commandment not to partake of the fruit by choice, but he did not fail in offering up the firstling of his flock.

In reward for his obedience, God sent an angel to reveal the reason for this commandment to offer up the best sheep or lamb--as similitude, or representation of the Son of God, even Jesus Christ.

The offering would be a witness that a savior would come and go like a lamb to the slaughter for the transgression of Adam and Eve and the sins of the world.

Teachings that through Christ is salvation has been around since the beginning according to modem scripture, but Messiah or God was used instead of Christ and Yesuah may have been used instead of Jesus. Those who fail to see the deeper truth that Christianity is eternal and not new miss the goal indeed. Go to the link below for perspective.

Significantly, Adam was converted to the gospel as was Eve!

In Moroni 10;3-5 there is a promise that the Holy Ghost will reveal truth to the willing believer as was Adam.

When Adam heard the words of the Angel, some time "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 was told that he could be redeemed from the fall from Eden! This prompted Adam to bless "God and [he was] filled [with the Spirit of God], and 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 did see 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?

In the next article, Truth About Cain & Abel: Cain, the Hope?, contains information about what happened to the children of Adam and Eve. This will also cover the coming of Cain, a blessed addition to the already large and growing human family.