His [Abraham's] supernatural knowledge was probably supplemented by research and observation in the clear, starry nights in the plains of Mesopotamia, but he must have received the major part through the Urim and Thummim which could have been far more revealing than the most powerful telescope in the most modern observatory. In his 175 brilliant years of life he accumulated knowledge in many fields, but especially in astronomy, in which field he seems to have excelled, and was perhaps equal or superior to even the highly trained Egyptian astronomers. At the altar near Bethel, close to Jerusalem, came his greatest scientific knowledge.

As he sat in Egypt and wrote his treatise on papyrus, in longhand, likely to present to Pharaoh and his eminent court, he wrote. "And I, Abraham, had the Urim and Thummim, which the Lord my God had given unto me, in Ur of the Chaldees;

"And I saw the stars that they were very great, and one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it;

"And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God; I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest" (Abraham 3:1-3.)

The worlds were created, organized, and made to function by Jesus Christ our Lord, all this at the instance of and under the direction of his Father Elohim, our Heavenly Father. Abraham knew, as we know, that the works of God in all creations were infinite, purposeful, efficient, limitless.

The Lord continues in his revelation to the Prophet, "And there are many kingdoms, for there is no space in which there is no kingdom . . .

"Unto every kingdom is given a law" (see D&C 88:37-38 He knew the bounds set to heaven, earth, sun, stars, their times, revolutions, laws and glories—which orbs borrow their light from Kolob, the greatest of all the stars Abr. 3:3,16 He actually tells us about the throne of God and that he resides "on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, [which]—is a great Urim and Thummim" (D&C 130:7-8.)

He continues in his inspired treatise, "And the Lord said unto me, by the Urim and Thummim, that Kolob was after the manner of the Lord" (Abr. 3:4) and that one revolution of it was equal to one thousand years on earth.

We quote again, "Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God. First in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of time" (PofGP, Facsimile 2:1)

Other grand-governing creations near to the place where God resides are pictured. This advanced knowledge was "revealed from God to Abraham as he offered sacrifice upon an altar which he had built unto the Lord" (Ibid., 2:2.) He says, "Thus I, Abraham, talked with the Lord, face to face . . . and he told me of the works which his hands had made . . . which were many; and they multiplied before mine eyes, and I could not see the end thereof" (Abr. 3:11-12.)