Adam-God Doctrine

ME: President Young, you’re right. I do have some questions. I wonder if you wouldn’t clarify for me the Adam-God doctrine that you allegedly taught at one point during your administration. Many in the church today either deny that you taught it or maintain that you were misunderstood. What was it that you actually said about the issue? 

BY: Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner!  When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him.  He helped to make and organize this world.  He is Michael, the Archangel, the ancient of days! about whom holy men have written and spoken – He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.  Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later!^[18]  

ME: So if I understand you correctly, you are saying that Adam is the father of all. I think it’s safe to say that the modern church believes this too, in the physical sense. Adam is the father of all living, and will no doubt be exalted to the status of a God. Don’t you mean that we will answer to him as we answer to our earthly parents, and through him, symbolically, to Christ and to the Father? You don’t actually mean that Adam is the father of our spirits, do you? 

BY: I tell you, when you see your Father in the Heavens, you will see Adam; when you see your Mother that bear your spirit, you will see Mother Eve.^[19] 

ME: Let me make sure I’m clear on this. So Adam is literally the father of our spirits, or in other words, Elohim? Is that what you’re saying? 

BY: “Our Father begot all the spirits that were before any tabernacle was made…and Adam is Michael God and all the God that we have anything to do with.”^[20]  

ME: You mentioned before that Eve was “one” of Adam’s wives. Are you suggesting that Adam, the father of our spirits, or Elohim, had many wives - that he, along with one of his plural wives, Eve, also produced the first physical bodies on earth? In other words, is Adam the father of both our spirits and bodies? 

BY: When our Father came into the Garden He came with his Celestial body and brought one of his wives with him and ate of the fruit of the Garden until He could beget a Tabernacle… They ate of this fruit and formed the first Tabernacle that was formed.^[21] 

ME: This begs the question then: If Adam is God the Father, then it follows that he is the father of Jesus Christ. Is that right? 

BY: …when the Virgin Mary was begotten with Child it was by the Father and in no other way only as we were begotten.  I will tell you the truth as it is in God.  The world don’t know that Jesus Christ our Elder Brother was begotten by our Father in Heaven.  Handle it as you please, it will either seal the damnation or salvation of man.  He was begotten by the Father and not by the Holy Ghost.^[22] 

ME: I’m sorry, just for clarification… this is difficult for modern members of the church to grasp… again, when you speak of the literal, physical Father of Jesus, you mean…? 

BY: Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven.  Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation.^[23] 

ME: Excuse me for saying this, President Young, but you seem to be somewhat defensive about this. If I may ask, have you encountered opposition to this idea? 

BY: Some may think what I have said concerning Adam strange, but the period will come when the people will be willing to adopt Joseph Smith as their Prophet, Seer, and Revelator and God! but not the Father of their spirits, for that was our Father Adam.^[24]

ME: So there have been stirrings among the Saints about this teaching?

BY: Some have grumbled because I believe our God to be so near to us as Father Adam.  There are many who know that doctrine to be true.^[25]   

ME: Elder Kimball, are you one of those that believes this doctrine is true? 

HCK: I have learned by experience that there is but one God that pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this earth – the first man.  That first man sent his own Son to redeem the world…^[26] 

ME: You say you know this “by experience.” What exactly do you mean by that? 

HCK: The Lord told me that Jesus Christ was the son of Adam.^[27] 

ME: President Woodruff, do you remember President Young preaching this doctrine? If so, what did he say? 

WW: He said that our God was Father Adam. He was the Father of the Savior Jesus Christ--Our God was no more or less than Adam . . . Michael the Archangel.^[28] 

ME: Elder Pratt, did you also hear President Young teach that Adam is God the Father?

OP: I have heard brother Brigham say that Adam is the Father of our spirits, and he came here with his resurrected body, to fall for his own children.^[29] 

ME: What was your response when you heard President Young say this? 

OP: I said to him, it leads to an endless number of falls, which leads to sorrow and death: that is revolting to my feelings, even if it were not sustained by revelation.^[30] 

ME: President Woodruff, what were your thoughts about Elder Pratt’s position? Clearly he was against the Adam-God doctrine. 

WW: Elder Orson Pratt pursued a course of stubbornness and unbelief in what President Young said that will destroy him if he does not repent and turn from his evil ways.^[31] 

ME: Elder McConkie. I’d like to get a more modern perspective now on this issue. Do you acknowledge that Brigham Young taught this doctrine? 

BRM: Yes, President Young did teach that Adam was the Father of our spirits, and all the related things that the cultists ascribe to him.  This however, is not true.  He expressed views that are out of harmony with the gospel.... Wise gospel students do not build their philosophies of life on the quotations of individuals, even though those quotations come from presidents of the Church.^[32] 

ME: President Young, Elder McConkie’s statement appears to be a bold refutation of the doctrine that you have taught. If I may say, it even seems as though it’s a direct challenge to your authority. Do you have a reply? 

BY: I am here to answer.  I shall be on hand to answer when I am called upon, for all the counsel and for all the instruction that I have given to this people.  If there is an Elder here, or any member of this Church, called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who can bring up the first idea, the first sentence that I have delivered to the people as counsel that is wrong, I really wish they would do it; but they cannot do it, for the simple reason that I have never given counsel that is wrong...^[33] 

ME: So you’re standing by your statements? 

BY: I have never preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call scripture^[34]… I say now, when they are copied and approved by me they are as good Scripture as is couched in this Bible.^[35] 

ME: President Woodruff, do you concur with President Young on this? 

WW: The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God.^[36] 

ME: Elder Packer, if I may ask your opinion about the matter. I’m assuming that you, like Elder McConkie, disagree with the Adam-God doctrine taught by President Young. That said, do you agree with President Woodruff’s statement? 

BKP: Follow your leaders who have been duly ordained and have been publicly sustained, and you will not be led astray.^[37] 

ME: President Hinckley, do you have anything to add? 

GBH: I want to give you my testimony that the Lord will not permit any man to lead His Church astray.^[38] 

ME: I must say I find this puzzling. You are all in agreement that the Lord will not permit a president of the church to lead the Saints astray, yet you are not all in agreement about the validity of the Adam-God doctrine. Elder McConkie, who is the Father? 

BRM: His name is Elohim, and he is our Father in heaven, the literal Father of the spirits of all men.^[39] 

ME: And who is Adam, then? 

BRM: This we know: Christ, under the Father, is the Creator; Michael, his companion and associate, presided over much of the creative work^[40]… by his diligence and obedience there, as one of the spirit sons of God, he attained a stature and power second only to that of Christ, the Firstborn.^[41]