ADAM, Cain ben

Abt 3994/4148 BC - Bef 3000/3184 BC  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	ADAM, Cain ben
  Birth	Abt 3994/4148 BC	Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Eden
  Christening	Nod, Eden
  Gender	Male
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  _TAG	Temple
  Death	Bef 3000/3184 BC
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I69294	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	Father Adam ,   b. 4000 BC/3840 BC   d. 3070 BC/2816 BC
  Mother	Eve ,   b. 4000 BC/3840 BC   d. DECEASED
  Family ID	F32285	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family
  Family ID	F33104	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Notes

  Early Families of the Earth - Bible: Genesis 4:1; Moses 5:16. (Inspired Version by Joseph Smith - Genesis Chapter V/Verse 4 and 7) (King James Version Chapter 4 Verse 8) GOD GIFTED ME MY RACE The Church's history regarding blacks is long and complicated. And while some people - members and nonmembers alike - may struggle to come to terms with past events, I am not one of them. Here are some of my personal experiences as an African American Latter-day Saint, and why I believe the color of my skin is ultimately a gift from God. (Story by Keith N. Hamilton) "I was born in April 1958 at a secregated hospital for "coloreds" in Norfolk, Virginia, just another negro boy in the Jim Crow South. Yet I entered mortality given legacies of virtue, integrity, education, service, hard work, courage, and most of all, faith in God from both sides of my family tree. My paternal great-grandfather, a slave freed by the Emancipation Proclamation while living in what is now known as West Virginia, became a Christian minister, as did his son, my father's father, whom I knew as "Granddaddy." Granddaddy was a college graduate, as were my parents. He, my father, and I each received a post-graduate degree, and I am also a third-generation member of the U.S. Armed Forces, as both my grandfathers served in World War I, my father served in World War II, and I served on active duty as a Judge Advocate (JAG) with the U.S. Navy and will soon retire from the U.S. Air Force Reserve. I cannot remember a time when I did not believe in God. Some of my earliest memories involve going to Shiloh Baptist Church in Norfolk to see and hear Granddaddy preach his sermons. He died in February 1962, and his passing was the first time I experienced the death of a close loved one. His body lay in state at his home for several days for friends and members of his congregation to view. Not quite four years old, I found the custom quite eerie. To my dismay, I soon became much more familiar with death, viewings, and funerals than I would have liked, as over the next 10 years I attended the funerals, in chronological order, of my mother (January 1965), my maternal grandfather (January 1967), my paternal grandmother (December 1968), and my father (July 1972). My maternal grandmother and all my great grandparents had died before my birth; thus, shortly after my fourteenth birthday, I had no living forebears. I introduce myself to you, the reader, on what may seem a sad note because those deaths and that 10-year period of my youth formed the essence of who I have become. They were also the catalyst to my acceptance, years later, of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as taught to me by LDS missionaries. As I came to appreciate both my earthly and divine legacies, I also realized that who I came to earth to be, through the family bloodlines I acquired, was not by coincidence, nor of small consequence, for me, or to my Heavenly Father. BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL Growing up when I did, and where I did, was not coincidental either. Except for three aggregate years in Trenton, New Jersey (where my mother and father died), I lived all of my days prior to leaving on my LDS mission in either Virginia or North Carolina. As a product of the Civil Rights era, I remember experiencing segregation, prejudice, and overt acts of racism as a chld and teenager. Throughout my entire life I have witnessed the struggles of my people, in person or through the various forms of media. The "Black Is Beautiful" cultural movement was in full swing by the time I became a culturally conscious teenager. However, I became aware of it early on because my father, who was often at the forefront of change regarding race relations, completely embraced the movement years before his death in 1972 by choosing the nickname "Black Hamp" at a time most Negroes found being called "black" offensive. Integration had become public policy within most of the South by1976, America's 200" birthday and the year I graduated from high school in North Carolina's tobacco country. I did not pursue opportunities to attend a Historical Black College or University (HBCU), as had every prior college-attending relative, but chose instead to enroll at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. That choice turned out to be the seminal decision of my life. I was among a small number of blacks at State but continued to be fully immersed within the African American culture while there, hanging out exclusively with other blacks, joining a black fraternity, and eventually hosting my own Rhythm and Blues show on the college's radio station under the moniker "Special K." Being a frat guy and a DJ afforded me a modicum of popularity and fame, as well as the opportunity to associate with true campus icons, such a Thurl Bailey, who played basketball for the Wolkpack for several years while I attended State. Perhaps more importantlyh, going to State allowed me the opportunity to learn how to successfully navigate life as a black male in a white man's world-- a skill set I have found very useful since joining the LDS Church and now residing in Utah. For those who find offense or unease with the candor of my previous sentence, and especially for returned missionaries who served in foreign lands or among non-Christian cultures, may I remind the reader how important it is for a missionary to not only know the language but also understand and respect important cultural aspects of the people he or she serves. Before I arrived in Puerto Rico to teach the people there, I went through two months of Spanish language training at the Missionary Training Center and also attended a "culture" class each Sunday I was there. As augmentation to the spiritual enrichment received at the MTC, the language and cultural training given is purposefully designed to provide each missionary with the best prospect of success in carrying out his or her sacred duty, which is to bring unto or closer to Christ the individuals to whom he or she is sent to teach and serve. The multifaceted instruction also offers the missionary tools which will lead to a personally rewarding mission experience, or as I put it, to "successful navigation" of life as a missionary in a culture-shockingly difficult new environment. African Americans, and perhaps all other ethnic minorities in the U.S., must skillfully perform such a critical navigation if they are to successfully assimilate into mainstream American life. That truth is even more real with regard to genuine and meaningful integration within the LDS Church and culture found in the United States, and particularly Utah. One does not have to exchange one culture for another; however, in order to achieve the greated good, highly successful ethnic minorities within America and the Church deftly know when and how to speak and act with respect to each culturally oriented circumstance presented. It is not "failing to be real" for the ethnic minority to act according to the cultural standards of the majority when she or he finds herself or himself in such a situation, just as it is not "selling out" to God for a Latter-day Saint to act differently, i.e., more reverently, in the temple as opposed to in one of the Church's meetinghouses. . . . TODAY'S BLACKS, PARTICULARLY BLACK MEMBERS OF THE LDS CHURCH, MAY HAVE MORE CAPACITY TO RECOGNIZE, RECEIVE, AND CONTAIN THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL THAN SOME OTHERS BECAUSE OF THE DEEP SORROW CARVED INTO THEIR SOULS BY PAST EXPERIENCES AND RESTRICTIONS. TRIALS AND PROOFS In order to qualify to return to our Heavenly Father's presence after our mortal probation, every person must pass through the trials and tribulations of this life. So, too, it is, and was, for many nations or groups of peoples. The scriptures are replete with evidences that at times the Lord's people must pass through severe hardship, due to no fault of their own, in order to serve as instruments in demonstration to others of His love, mercy, compassion, power, and divinity. Should it have been, or be, any different for blacks of this dispensation? In Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet there is a writing entitled "On Joy and Sorrow" wherein he eloquently describes the relationship of opposition in all things, saying: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And How else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. In a speech before the Utah Territory Legislature, Brigham Young is quoted as saying: "Not one [particle] of power can that posterity of Cain have, until the time comes. . . . That time will come when they will have the privilege of all we have the privilege of and more." While most commentators and readers of President Young's statement get ensnared in his personal beliefs regarding blacks and Cain, the more important message contained in Young's words is that he believed at some future time blacks would receive the same privilege all the white brethren at this time had (including the right of the priesthood), and more. Gibran's writing speaks to the point President Young asserted. Black males ordained to the priesthood today receive no more authority and rights with that priesthood than Brigham Young's counterparts of the 1800s. Worthy, Temple-attending blacks receive no more of an endowment and opportunity for exaltatin than temple-goers who attended before 1978. Yet, as Gibran suggests, today's blacks, particularly black members of the LDS Church, may have more capacity to recognize, receive, and contain the joy of the gospel than some others because of the deep sorrow carved into their souls by past experiences and restrictions. I do not know when or why the restrictive practices against my people were adopted and carried out by the LDS Church, but I do know that the policy and practices were the Lord's doing and not the autonomous or unilateral act of any man or men. I know this by faith in God and through personal revelation from the Holy Ghost. According to God's wise and just purposes, He allowed the restrictions to be placed upon my people for the trial, growth, and benefit of all His children, especially my people and those of His church and kingdom on earth. Adversity, through its many forms and faces, has dug a deep well of sorrow--and thereby created the potential for greater joy--in the lives of many peoples, not just blacks of this dispensation. Early LDS Church members suffered great hardship in establishing the Church in the Eastern states, as did the pioneers who crossed the plains into the Rocky Mountains. Twentieth-century Jews experienced horrendous atrocities during the reign of Adolf Hitler. Trials and adversity have been the lot for all of God's peoples in all dispensations, including this dispensation, and my ancestors and I have not been excluded. IMPRESSIONS FROM GRANDDADDY In October 1992, while presiding over the Rota Spain Servicemen's Branch, I accompanied a few branch members to Frankfurt, Germany, via the military airlift system. There our group attended the Frankfurt Temple, where we performed the work for Granddaddy and my grandmother, "Nana." While serving as proxy for him during the endowment session, he and I suddenly, and literally, began to commune spiritually with one another in a manner, frankly, I have difficulty explaining. The communication process began as I was contemplating the irony of my being the one with the holy priesthood, and using it to do his exalting work, when he was the one who had dedicated his life to lifting a heavily burdened people much closer to God. As the thought lingered in my mind, I distinctly felt the impression, which I instinctlively knew had come from Granddaddy, that our lives--his and mine--for the most part were intended to be the way they had proceeded, as we each had been given unique missions on earth to fulfill in accordance with God's plan for us as individuals and for the generations of our family. I was brought to realize that in living when and as he did, Granddaddy had fulfilled the primary missions which he had come to earth to accomplish and that it was now time for me to complete my tasks upon the earth on behalf of both the living and the dead. I felt impressed that many of the spirits who came to earth as blacks and served as slaves in the Americas, including my forebearers, chose to accept the circumstances of their birth in accordance with God's plan for them individually and for all His children generally. Considering more specifically my ancestors and posterity, I felt that a multitude of spirits had rejoiced when I was baptized into the LDS Church and when I later received my own temple endowment preparatory to doing work for the dead. Toward the end of the experience, I was reminded of the important gospel labors I came to earth to complete. I felt prompted to review my patriarchal blessing for more wisdom and understanding regarding the impressions I had received. The final impression was solemn and direct: As Granddaddy's sole descendant with the rights of the priesthood and temple privileges, I was the key link between my ancestors and their opportunity for eternal blessings. My faithfulness would not only significantly impact the spirits chosen to come to earth through my seed would be blessed with an understanding of the gospel in mortality. Following the endowment session, our group performed the sealing ordinances for Granddaddy, Nana, and their deceased children. When I next read my patriarchal blessing, its words confirmed that the impressions I had received with regard to my grandfather in the Frankfurt Temple were real and true. I have not had another such experience since that remarkable occurrence, which infinitely strengthened my testimony concerning who I am and regarding Heavenly Father's love for all His children. Most importantly, it confirmed for me in a very personal and unmistakable way that my spirit did not come to earth to dwell in black flesh, and into a family of black African lineage, because my ancestors and I were somehow cursed. Simply put, like unto the blind beggar healed by Jesus central to the story in John 9, I was not born black because I sinned as a premortal spirit or because my parents, real or imagined (i.e., Cain, Ham, or anyone else), sinned in mortality. Rather, I am black, and of the lineage once subjected to priesthood and temple restrictions by the LDS Church, because I chose to accept the mortal mission given me by my Heavenly Father. It is a mission that required me to come into mortality as a black American at a time when the gospel was restored upon the earth, and when the priesthood would be made available to all worthy males, so that in some small way the works of God might be made manifest in and through me. THE GIFT OF BEING BLACK For many years I had the good fortune to be associated with a play written by Margaret Blair Young about the life and times of black Mormon pioneer Jane Manning James, entitled I Am Jane, which Abel, a black convert ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood by the Prophet Joseph Smith. Jane asks Elijah to give her a straight answer about what she has heard preached by some Latter-day Saints concerning the curse of Cain and black skin. Elijah replies to give her a straight answer about what she has heard preached by some Latter-day Saints concerning the curse of Cain and black skin. Elijah replies that he once took the question to God, and then shares with Jane his perception of God's response. I close this article with my sincere prayer that Elijah's words will bring each reader the same comfort and counsel they do me: I feel, Sister Jane, that ours is: Not a curse but a gift t'us, The best path we could seek A place where God can lift us We kneel; our knees is weak And when one of us is kneelin', We understand his fears. We know what all us is feelin' We cry each other's tears. That's just what Jesus done For all us human folk. He agreed to come get born To feel ev'ry pain and poke. So's he could understand us, What it is to be a slave. So's he could get beneath us And push us outa the grave Would you rather be the massa Or the Roman with his whip? Would you rather nail the Savior- Put vinegar to his lip? Or learn the lessons of sufferin'- How we nothin' without grace. Jesus, He give us a callin' He gifted us our race Attorney Keith N. Hamilton is an adjunct professor at BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School and is the former chair of the Utah Board of Parsons and Parole. He was the first black person to attend and graduate from the law school. He later served as a bishop in San Francisco. Keith is the author of Lost Laborer: Thoughts and Reflections of a Black Mormon, which is now available at Deseret Book stores and deseretbook.com "My spirit did not come to earth to dwell in black flesh, and into a family of black Africian lineage, because my ancestors and I were somehow cursed." Keith N. Hamilton BIRTH RITE: Also shown as Christening Nod, East of Eden.