Adam was the first prophet, but later he became the seventh angel. When he was nine hundred and twenty-seven years old, he called together all his righteous posterity into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman. This conference was evidently called by God, because He appeared to them there. At this meeting, the Lord blessed Adam, and called him

Michael, the Prince, the Archangel. And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam, and said unto him, I have set thee to be at the head: a multitude of nations shall come of thee; and thou art a prince over them forever. (DC 104:28b-c)

Because of the nature of Adam’s keys, which are the keys of salvation, he was made the seventh angel and was to be the supervisor over the other six, who in turn would be responsible over the six dispensations of salvation—an angel for each dispensation. Michael is the archenemy of Satan. It was he who fought against him in Heaven and cast him and his angels out. It was Michael who disputed with Satan over the body of Moses (see Jude 9).

When Adam became the seventh angel, he also became the angel of the seventh dispensation or the Millennium. Let us now consider the ministry of Adam as a prophet, and of events which happened before the meeting at Adam-ondi-Ahman.

In the beginning the Gospel was preached to Adam and his posterity by angels, God’s own voice, and by the Holy Ghost (see Genesis 5:44-45). The Scriptures do not say how old Adam was when he received the priesthood, but Enoch gives an account when preaching to the wicked people of his day, telling them about the baptism of Adam by the Holy Ghost, both by water and the Spirit; thus becoming quickened in the inner man. He spoke of a voice coming out of heaven, saying to Adam,

And thou art after the order of him who was without beginning of days or end of years, form all eternity to all eternity. Behold, thou art one in me, a son of God; and thus may all become my sons. Amen. (Genesis 6:70-71)

We do not know when this event happened, but latter-day revelation states that Abel

received the priesthood by the commandments of God, by the hand of his father Adam, who was the first man. (DC 83:2f)

The first sons and daughters of Adam, and their descendants, followed Satan rather than God. It was not until after Enos that men began to call on God. These people lived in a place called Shulon, but they gathered to a promised land called Cainan, which was named after the son of Enos. This became the Zion’s land in Adam’s day. Although there is no mention of these people entering into God’s rest, they became a very righteous people (see Genesis 6:41-43) and later became Enoch’s Zion. We see by this that the ministry of Adam laid the foundation for Enoch’s Zion to come.