5,000 Years from Enoch to Joseph Smith's First Vision

• Nearly every prophecy has an element of time.  Time is meaningful and measurable as we look in the skies.  God set the movements of the earth, sun and moon not just to give light but to give us an exactness of time.  The heavenly bodies tell us of God's glory and His awareness of time and space.

• Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. Amos 3:7

• And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.  Acts 2:17

• The date of the First Vision was revealed by the Angel Uriel to the Prophet Enoch 5,000 years ago.  The calendar and the prophecy are preserved in the Book of Enoch.  The date of the First Vision is a matter of ancient prophecy and historical facts from the first years of the American Republic.

• There are four sets of witnesses for the date of the First Vision: (1) the Angel Uriel and the Prophet Enoch; (2) the set movements of the week, the earth, the sun and the moon, as observed in the Calendar of Enoch; (3) the military weather records of early spring 1820; and (4) the weather-dependent production of 1,000 pounds of maple sugar by a poor farm family in New England.  With these witnesses, the actual date in our calendar only becomes a matter of astronomical calculation and research.

• The documentary has no new revelation.  It is the result of careful observation of historic events that support the fact that God is involved in the lives of His children today and has shown our day to His servants in the past.

• It is possible to keep track of time with Enoch's calendar if you recognize that each year has either the normal 52 weeks or the intercalated 53 weeks.  The first day of each year is always on the Sunday after the first new moon after the spring equinox.  The intercalation of one week is added to keep the alignment of the equinox before the new moon in the spring.  Keep track of the week, the sun and the moon, and you will have the important cycles for the Enoch Calendar.  There are two possible lengths for each year either 52 weeks [364 days], or 53 weeks [371 days].  Once this is understood it is possible to fix the Calendar of Enoch by direct observation of the sun with respect to its equinox and the 29.4-day cycles of the moon.  This method of calculation allows anyone with a desktop computer to go back in time 5,000 or more years and fix each day within its unique position in the Calendar of Enoch.  With this calculation, it is possible to identify the date of the First Vision from the prophecy that the Angel Uriel gave to Enoch concerning the history of the man.  Once again a scripture comes to mind - Amos 3:7 - "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."

The above illustration shows the synchronization of Sunday, March 26th, 1820, to the Calendar of Enoch. Obviously, by putting a date in front of millions to consider as the day for the First Vision there will be a variety of comments. At a minimum, anyone who wishes to make a critique of the identification of the date for the First Vision will have to deal with the mathematical and astronomical structures underlying the Calendar of Enoch. They will have to accept that the Calendar of Enoch is found on thousands of fragments from the Dead Sea scrolls. This is not an off-the-cuff presentation. The Calendar has an unusually well developed mathematical structure that ties it into the orbits of the earth, the moon, and the sun. It cannot easily be dismissed. Once one recognizes that structure, then he will have to deal with the hard facts found in 19th century archives and newspapers as they relate to weather conditions for the early spring of 1820. Once one knows the weather, he will have to deal with the hardscrabble life of the Smith Family, the weather-dependent production for maple sugar, and the precise details given by Joseph Smith when he clearly remembered that it was a beautiful morning when he went into the woods to pray.

The purpose of prophecy is not to satisfy men's curiosity, but to be a testimony afterward of God's foreknowledge of the end from the beginning.  And,  so,  it is with Enoch's prophecy for the Last Dispensation.  The prophecy will stand the test of time. 

Here is the sacred text for the 9th Epoch (Week) as revealed to the Prophet Enoch 5,000 years ago.

After this, in the ninth week, shall the judgment of righteousness be revealed to the whole world. Every work of the ungodly shall disappear from the whole earth; the world shall be marked for destruction; and all men shall be on the watch for the path of integrity. -- Enoch 92:14-15

Every historic account has a time line and every time line fixes the interrelation of events.  Once a historical account is fixed in time it has a context which is the subject of rigorous numerical analysis.  The approach is to concentrate on the counting of the days that are connected to the prophecy found in the Book of Enoch and to the date of the First Vision.  That is a period of time that is about 5,000 years.

Here is another approach for an understanding of the functioning of the Calendar of Enoch. Take it as a math problem. Start with the familiar 7-day week. The week is fixed. Take 52 weeks and hold them together as a 364-day year. The year is fixed. We know that 364 days is short of the 365.24 days in a solar year. Intercalate a week in order to make the necessary alignment to the sun. The genius of the calendar is that the alignment of the 364-day year to the solar year is made according to the "station of the moon and the station of the sun". Make sure in your solution to the math problem that the new moon is aligned before the spring equinox and that the first day of the 364-day year always starts on the next Sunday after this alignment. Then with this calendar measure from Sunday, March 26th, 1820, back 5,000 to the life and times of Enoch when the Archangel Uriel gave us the calendar. Be careful in your calculations and you will find that the Calendar of Enoch is more accurate in its alignment with the solar year than our Gregorian Calendar. This may seem difficult. It really is not too much more difficult than determining the date for Easter Sunday. We celebrate Easter on the basis of the week, the moon, and the year. The wonderful thing about the Calendar of Enoch is that it is tied to the movements of the earth, the sun, and the moon.  Hold fast to the 7-day week and you will discover that the calendar is literally written in the heavens.

From the beginning of time the Book of Enoch was destined to have an impact on the end of time. Enoch declared that his book was written for the generations that would live during the last days. The book is like a time-capsule set aside by the world's first generations for the last generations to discover. Enoch's prophecies have come to light and are now available for everyone to discover.

To understand how this happened, one needs to take a close look at the amazing history of the Book of Enoch.  For more than fifty centuries the book has gone through periods of acceptance, rejection and seclusion.  Now, in these latter-days, it comes forth out of the dust marking the very day for the beginning of the Last Dispensation as Sunday, March 26th, 1820.

On New Year Day 2020 good people in Africa gathered together to watch the movie "How Lovely Was The Morning" to commemorate the 200th year of the First Vision.  Believers kept the Book of Enoch in Ethiopia for thousands of years until James Bruce in 1773 found a copy and brought it back to London where Richard Laurence made the English translation and published it in 1821. In so many important ways the ancient Book of Enoch is Africa's gift for our time.  It seems appropriate that people in that continent would be among the first to celebrate the connection of Enoch's prophecy to the timing of the First Vision.

The calculation of Easter is an important matter for Christians because Easter Sunday celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The medieval University of Paris grew out of the cathedral schools of Notre-Dame and, like most other medieval universities, it was a place where professors and students would spend a large amount of time figuring out the time when the full moon would appear after the spring equinox. From that point, the following Sunday would be Easter.

New Year Day in the Calendar of Enoch has similarities to the calculation of Easter. When making such a calculation, one needs to keep in mind the 7-day week, the fixed 364-day year, and the intercalation of a week based on the new moon with respect to the spring equinox. Once these essential intercalations are in place it is possible to make the day-to-day counting of the Calendar of Enoch as it moves across thousands of years. It is this careful calculation that allows one to go day by day from the early chronology of the Bible to the date of the First Vision, Sunday, March 26th, 1820. 

There is an ancient scripture called the Book of Enoch that was in the collection of books under consideration to be included in the Bible. After much debate, the Council of Nicea in AD 325 rejected it because it contained some difficult teachings, not because it was fraudulent.  The Bible scholar R. H. Charles said that Jesus Christ had quoted from it over one hundred times in the New Testament. That endorsement by the Savior far outweighs rejection by others. In fact, in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord prophesied concerning that book: “These things were all written in the Book of Enoch, and are to be testified of in due time.” (D&C 107:57, capitalization as in original).

The Book of Enoch had been lost to Europeans for centuries, but was discovered in Ethiopia by James Bruce, who returned with three copies to England in 1773. It had been in the Ethiopian version of the Bible after the Book of Job. Early Christians had taken it with them when they fled persecution. It was translated into English by Richard Laurence in 1821.  In 1840 there was a very favorable book review recommending it by the LDS Apostle Parley P. Pratt.  Laurence's translation is readily available today and is still recommended.

The Book of Enoch contains several chapters devoted to describing a sacred calendar in detail. Before Christ, the Dead Sea community used the Book of Enoch to create their famous Qumran Calendar. The Enoch Calendar year is divided into four seasons of exactly 13 weeks each, with a total of exactly 52 weeks in the year of 364 days. When an extra week is needed to be added to average the true value of 365.24 days, an entire extra week is added at the end of the year. That method meant that the year always began on the same day of the week. Even though the Qumran society chose Wednesday as the first day of their year, Dr. John P. Pratt saw that no such instruction was in the scriptural description. In his research it became clear that Enoch expected the reader to know that the week begins on Sunday. Thus, every Enoch year begins on Sunday, usually on the first Sunday after the spring equinox (first day of spring). Sometimes that rule was even adjusted by a week to match the phases of the moon better, as instructed in the scripture.

As Dr. Pratt researched the Enoch Calendar, it was discovered that not is it truly a sacred calendar, fitting to have been revealed by the Angel Uriel to the Prophet Enoch as stated in the scripture, but God is apparently still using it today to schedule key religious events. It was found that many important dates during the restoration of the Lord's church through the Prophet Joseph Smith were holy days on the Enoch Calendar. The most important and rare Enoch Calendar date was the date of First Vision of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to the Prophet.

There is a clearly indicated day for the First Vision on the Enoch Calendar for three reasons.

First, the Prophet Joseph had stated that the First Vision occurred on an early spring day in 1820. The first day of the Enoch year, “New Year”, was on the first Sunday after the first day of spring (20 or 21 March annually). That was Sunday, March 26th,  1820.  Being a major holy day, that day would certainly be a candidate for the First Vision.

Second, on many sacred calendars, the Lord counts years the same as days (Num. 14:34). He told Ezekiel, “I have appointed thee each day for a year” (Ezek. 4:6). The Enoch Calendar uses this “day-year” pattern: it names each year in exactly the same pattern as it names the days. This creates groups of 364 years called “Great Years”. 

When do these Great Years begin? It turns out that Jesus Christ really was born on the night preceding April 6th,  1 BC.  Many faithful latter-day saints believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded on Tuesday, April 6th, 1830 to celebrate Christ's birthday (D&C 20:1). After studying many religious events of history, it turns out that the spring of 1 BC began a Great Year on the Enoch Calendar, highlighting the importance of the Savior's birth.

That means that the year 1820 also began a Great Year, because five Great Years of 364 years each is 1,820 years (5 x 364 = 1,820).  Thus, the second very compelling reason to believe that the First Vision occurred on that day is that it was not only the Enoch Calendar holy day named New Year, but also the holy year named NEW YEAR. Such a calendar alignment occurs only on one day every 364 years.

The third reason to accept that date is that there is a prophecy of entire history of the world in the Book of Enoch called the Ten Week Prophecy, where history is divided into ten periods of 728 years each. It turns out Sunday, March 26th, 1820 was also the very first day of the ninth period (“week”) of history! The first prediction of the prophecy for that period was that “righteousness” would “be revealed” (Enoch 92:14), which is a perfect match for the First Vision! Thus, it appears the First Vision occurred on the very first day of a prophesied 728-year era!

Thus, it was concluded by Dr. Pratt that Sunday, March 26th, 1820 was indeed the date of the First Vision, which was published in August 2002. It was that article which alerted Dr. John Lefgren to realize that he could check the weather records for that day to verify that the proposed date was indeed a “beautiful, clear day” (JSH 1:14).

The Calendar of Enoch is central to the analysis found on this website.  At least half of the major points relating to March 26th, 1820, are associated with the Calendar of Enoch.  Here is a summary of the critical  points for the thesis.  Those points relating to Enoch are in bold letters.

• (1) The personal account of Joseph Smith where he tells that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to him in the early spring of 1820 in a grove of trees near his father's farm.

• (2) The ancient prophecy from the Book of Enoch concerning the whole history of man and the first day of the 9th Epoch or the first day of the Last Dispensation.

• (3) The repeating cycles of time that are witnessed in the heavens by the orbits of the earth, the moon, and the sun.

• (4) The fixed 364-day year, the familiar 7-day week cycle and the intercalations that are required for aligning the Enoch Year with the solar year.  The 7-day intercalation is made according to "the station of the moon and the station of the sun".

• (5) The weather-dependent cycles for the production of 1,000 pounds of maple sugar that the Smith Family made in the early spring of 1820.

• (6) The world's first systematic national weather reports that the Surgeon General of the United States Army organized for 1820.

The Calendar of Enoch has 364 days or 52 weeks for each year.  This calendar year is short of the 365.24 days it takes the earth to make a revolution around the sun.  The intercalation of one week in the Calendar of Enoch is comparable to the dating of Easter in the Gregorian Calendar.

The calculation for Easter in the calendar of Western Christianity falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon that is after the spring equinox.

The full moon after the spring equinox in 1820 was on Wednesday, March 29, 1820. and Sunday, April 2, 1820, was Easter Day.

The Book of Enoch states that "the year then becomes truly complete according to the station of the moon, and the station of the sun".  The first day of the Enoch Year is then the first Sunday after the spring equinox that is after the new moon.  This rule makes it possible to determine the first day for any Enoch Year in the last 5,000 years by first calculating the positions of the moon and the sun with respect to the earth at the time of the spring equinox.  Once that is determined, the first day of the Enoch Year will start on the next Sunday.

Some people talk about the possibility that the Calendar of Enoch could be wrong. Let us ask it in this way. Did the sun come up this morning? Yes. Was it wrong? No. How about the seasons of the earth? Are they fixed? Yes. How about the movement of the moon around the earth? Is it is fixed? Yes. The Calendar of Enoch is tied to the movements of the earth, the moon, and the sun.  Its basic unit for counting days is the 7-day week. These movements are fixed for everyone to see. Because the Calendar of Enoch is tied to these fixed movements in the sky it is a calendar that cannot go wrong. We can measure time with this calendar today as well as 5,000 years ago. Actually, the best timekeeping instruments of our time are adjusted according to the movements of the sun and moon. These movements give the same exactness to time as measured by the Calendar of Enoch.

The 7-day week is a very important part of how God measures time.  The number 7 is a prime number and that fact gives the number 7 inherently certain properties that are significant.  Like all other prime numbers, 7 has no other natural number greater than 1 that could be formed by multiplying two smaller natural numbers.  Just as the story of creation is divided into 7 days so the week used for measuring time is divided into 7 days.  I believe that the 7-day cycle of time has been in used since the time of Adam.

The Calendar of Enoch has a fixed year of 364 days or 52 weeks.  There are four seasons each with 13 weeks.  Dr. John P. Pratt has determined that the first day of the Enoch Year is always on a Sunday.  In the Book of Enoch, there is a very interesting verse that explains that the 7-day intercalated leap week is used to align the 364-day Enoch Year with the 365.24-day solar year.  The essential intercalation of a week is determined by "the station" of the moon and "the station" of the sun.  Dr. Pratt has shown how this works.

"The moon brings on all the years exactly, that their stations may come neither too forwards nor too backwards a single day; but that the years may be changed with correct precision in 364 days. In three years the days are 1,092; . . . To the moon alone belong in three years 1,062 days . . . So that the moon has thirty days less than the sun and stars. . . . The year then becomes truly complete according to the station of the moons and the station of the sun . . ." (Enoch 74:11-17 {73:13-14, 12, 16})

In other words, it is the moon that "brings on all the years exactly," meaning that intercalation is to be done such that the new year (at the spring equinox) approximately aligns with the new moon. That will only be possible in certain years, but it provides a guideline for when to insert the extra one-week intervals. The Angel Uriel seems to be pointing out that, in addition to its primary goal of aligning with the seasons of the sun, a secondary purpose of the Enoch Calendar is to keep aligned with the moon also. That makes it surprisingly similar to the Hebrew calendar, which has the primary goal of aligning with the moon, and a secondary goal of aligning with the sun.

Using the lunar cycle in the spring to determine that Sunday for a 7-day intercalation is necessay to align to the solar year creates a system of counting the days over a period of 5,000 revoluions of the earth around the sun that is slightly more accurate than our Gregorian Calendar.