Adam God Theory (Doctrine)

For a time in the 1800s, a theory was taught regarding Adam and God. The gist of the theory was this, that Adam is God. It has been disavowed by later LDS leaders:

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. ¹

Here’s a sample of the teaching where Brigham Young claims God revealed it to him:

How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which God revealed to me – namely that Adam is our father and God – I do not know, I do not inquire, I care nothing about it. Our Father Adam helped to make this earth, it was created expressly for him, and after it was made he and his companions came here. He brought one of his wives with him, and she was called Eve, because she was the first woman upon the earth.²

There are of course several other quotes on the matter. Both for and against. I find it interesting that there has been no official statement that has been canonized in scripture stating the contrary. Of course there isn’t official scripture stating the fact either. It is simply there. Who’s to say if it’s the truth or not?

President Spencer W. Kimball renounced the Adam-God Theory in the October 1976 General Conference:

We warn you against the dissemination of doctrines which are not according to the scriptures and which are alleged to have been taught by some of the General Authorities of past generations. Such, for instance, is the Adam-God theory. We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine.³

Kimball calls it a false doctrine. But if Brigham Young said he had a revelation regarding the Adam-God theory, was it actually revelation? Did it come from God? If it didn’t come from God then where did it come from? The Devil disguised as an angel of light perhaps? I cannot say for certain as I was not there.

It begs the question. Was Brigham Young a fallen prophet? We are told that a prophet of God will never lead his people astray. If that’s the case, why was Young even teaching these thoughts as if they were revelation? There are records where he taught the theory on several occasions. It wasn’t just a one and done kind of thing. They even taught it at the veil in the temple. Here is that text:

In the creation, the Gods entered into an agreement about forming this earth and putting Michael, or Adam, upon it. These things of which I have been speaking are what are termed the mysteries of godliness, but they will enable you to understand the expression of Jesus, made while in Jerusalem: ’This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.’ We were once acquainted with the Gods and lived with them, but we had the privilege of taking upon us flesh, that the spirit might have a house to dwell in. We did so, and forgot all, and came into the world not recollecting anything which we had previously learned. We have heard a great deal about Adam and Eve: how they were formed, etc. Some think he was made like an adobe, and the Lord breathed into him the breath of life; for we read, ‘From dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’ Well, he was made of the dust of the earth, but not of this earth. He was made just the same way you and I are made, but on another earth. Adam was an immortal being when he came on this earth. He had lived on an earth similar to ours; he had received the priesthood and the keys thereof, and had been faithful in all things, and gained his resurrection and his exaltation, and was crowned with glory, immortality, and eternal lives, and was numbered with the Gods (for such he became through his faithfulness), and had begotten all the spirits that were to come to this earth. And Eve our common mother, who is the mother of all living, bore those spirits in the celestial world. And when this earth was organized by Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael (who is Adam, our common father), Adam and Eve had the privilege to continue the work of progression. Consequently they came to this earth and commenced the great work of forming tabernacles for those spirits to dwell in. And when Adam and those that assisted him had completed this kingdom, our earth, he came to it and slept, and forgot all, and became like an infant child. It is said by Moses the historian that the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam, and took from his side a rib, and formed the woman that Adam called Eve. This should be interpreted that the man Adam, like all other men, had the seed within him to propagate his species; but not the woman. She conceives the seed, but she does not produce it; consequently she was taken from the side, or bowels, of her father. This explains the mystery of Moses’s dark sayings in regard to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, when they were placed on this earth, were immortal beings with flesh, bones, and sinews. But upon partaking of the fruits of the earth, while in the garden and cultivating the ground, their bodies became changed from immortal to mortal beings, with the blood coursing through their veins as the action of life. Adam was not under transgression until after he partook of the forbidden fruit; that was necessary that they might be together, that man might be. The woman was found in transgression, not the man. Now in the law of sacrifice we have the promise of a Savior; and man had the privilege and showed forth his obedience by offering of the first fruits of the earth and the firstlings of the flocks–this as a showing that Jesus would come and shed his blood. Father Adam’s oldest son (Jesus the Saviour) who is the heir of the family, is father Adam’s first begotten in the spirit world, who according to the flesh is the only begotten as it is written. (In his divinity he having gone back into the spirit world, and came in the spirit to Mary and she conceived, for when Adam and Eve got through with their work in this earth, they did not lay their bodies down in the dust, but returned to the spirit world from whence they came.)⁴

I suppose I could quote walls of text blocks until I am blue in the face. There is plenty of information regarding the Adam-God theory and who said what. Many quotes regarding Adam and Eve and where they came from, a different Earth. I think I should do that and let you come to your own conclusion on what it is all about. That would probably be the wisest choice. I cannot tell you what to believe in or what not to believe in. I’m not trying to persuade you in any way, just giving facts as best I can.

April 9, 1852

Our God and Father in heaven, is a being of tabernacle, or, in other words, He has a body, with parts the same as you and I have; and is capable of showing forth His works to organized beings, as, for instance, in the world in which we live, it is the result of the knowledge and infinite wisdom that dwell in His organized body. His son Jesus Christ has become a personage of tabernacle, and has a body like his father. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Lord, and issues forth from Himself, and may properly be called God’s minister to execute His will in immensity; being called to govern by His influence and power; but He is not a person of tabernacle as we are, and as our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ are…

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. They came here, organized the raw material, and arranged in their order the herbs of the field, the trees, the apple, the peach, the plum, the pear, and every other fruit that is desirable and good for man; the seed was brought from another sphere, and planted in this earth. The thistle, the thorn, the brier, and the obnoxious weed did not appear until after the earth was cursed. When Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, their bodies became mortal from its effects, and therefore their offspring were mortal. When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family; and when he took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his Father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel, and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve; from the fruits of the earth, the first earthly tabernacles were originated by the Father, and so on in succession. I could tell you much more about this; but were I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be nothing to it, in the estimation of the superstitious and overrighteous of mankind. However, I have told you the truth as far as I have gone. I have heard men preach upon the divinity of Christ, and exhaust all the wisdom they possessed. All Scripturalists, and approved theologians who were considered exemplary for piety and education, have undertaken to expound on this subject, in every age of the Christian era; and after they have done all, they are obliged to conclude by exclaiming “great is the mystery of godliness,” and tell nothing.

It is true that the earth was organized by three distinct characters, namely, Eloheim, Yahovah, and Michael, these three forming a quorum, as in all heavenly bodies, and in organizing element, perfectly represented in the Deity, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Again, they will try to tell how the divinity of Jesus is joined to his humanity, and exhaust all their mental faculties, and wind up with this profound language, as describing the soul of man, “it is an immaterial substance!” What a learned idea! 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 damnation⁵

October 1853

How can they do it? Have they to go to that earth? Yes, an Adam will have to go there, and he cannot do without Eve; he must have Eve to commence the work of generation, and they will go into the garden, and continue to eat and drink of the fruits of the corporal world, until this grosser matter is diffused sufficiently through their celestial bodies to enable them, according to the established laws, to produce mortal tabernacles for their spirit children.”

Listen, ye Latter-day Saints! Supposing that Adam was formed actually out of clay, out of the same kind of material from which bricks are formed; that with this matter God made the pattern of a man, and breathed into it the breath of life, and left it there, in that state of supposed perfection, he would have been an adobie to this day. He would not have known anything.

Some of you may doubt the truth of what I now say, and argue that the Lord could teach him. This is a mistake. The Lord could not have taught him in any other way than in the way in which He did teach him. You believe Adam was made of the dust of this earth. This I do not believe, though it is supposed that it is so written in the Bible; but it is not, to my understanding. You can write that information to the States, if you please—that I have publicly declared that I do not believe that portion of the Bible as the Christian world do. I never did, and I never want to. What is the reason I do not? Because I have come to understanding, and banished from my mind all the baby stories my mother taught me when I was a child.⁶

October 8, 1854

I believe in the eternities of worlds, saints, angels, kingdoms, and Gods in eternity without beginning. I believe the Gods never had a beginning, neither the formation of matter, and it is without end; it will endure in one eternal round, swimming in space, basking, living, and moving in the midst of eternity. All the creations are in the midst of eternity, and that is one eternity, so they move in one eternal round. Consequently, when you hear philosophers argue the point how the first God came, how intelligence came, how worlds came, and how angels came, they are talking about that which is beyond their conception, about that which never was, and never will be, worlds without end. It manifests their folly. It shows they know nothing of such matters, and if they do know some things they have a right to know, there are things they have no right to know. This pplies to all classes of mankind.

These are my views with regard to the Gods and eternities. Do you wish I should particularize? Then can you, by any process of reasoning or argument, tell whether it was an apple that bore the first seed of an apple, or an apple seed that made the first apple? Or, whether it was the seed of a squash that made the first squash, or a squash that bore the first squash seed? Such abtruse questions belong to the philosophy of the world. In reality there never was and never will be a time when there was not both the apple and the apple seed.⁷

March 25, 1855

Adam and Eve were made of the dust of the Earth from which they came,—they brought their bodies with them. They had lived died and been resurrected before they came here and they came with immortal bodies, and had to partake of the fruit of this Earth in order to bring forth mortal bodies, or nautral bodies, that their seed might be of the dust of this Earth, as they were of the dust of the earth from which they came.⁸

October 8, 1854

Every world has had an Adam, and an Eve: named so, simply because the first man is always called Adam, and the first woman Eve; and the oldest son has always had the privilege of being ordained, appointed, and called to be the heir of the family, if he does not rebel against the Father; and he is the savior of that family. Every world that has been created, has been created upon the same principle. They may vary in their varieties, yet the eternity is one; it is one eternal round…

Moses said Adam was made of the dust of the ground, but he did not say of what ground. I say he was not made of the dust of the ground of this earth, but he was made of the dust of the earth were he lived, where he honored his calling, believing in his Savior, or Elder Brother, and by his faithfulness, was redeemed, and got a glorious resurrection. All creatures that dwell upon this earth are made of the elements that compose it; which are organized to see if they will abide their creation, and be counted worthy to receive a resurrection.⁹

October 8, 1861

Some years ago, I advanced a doctrine with regard to Adam being our father and God, that will be a curse to many of the Elders of Israel because of their folly. With regard to it they yet grovel in darkness and will. It is one of the most glorious revealments of the economy of heaven, yet the world hold derision. Had I revealed the doctrine of baptism from [sic] the dead instead [of] Joseph Smith there are men around me who would have ridiculed the idea until dooms day [sic?]. But they are ignorant and stupid like the dumb ass.¹⁰

There are many more sources I am sure. But those are good for now. Read them for what they are and make your own decisions on what they are. I can only provide information, I cannot provide an opinion on the matter. I mean I guess I could make an assumption here and there about it all, but well I’m not sure exactly where to start. If we are to take it at face value, the words are plain and clear. Adam is God. The end. But people have said that is not the case. That teaching is considered false doctrine. If that is the case, what was Brigham Young even talking about way back then? What was it he was going on about?

It makes no sense to me.

I know the church doesn’t like to talk about such topics. That they are considered in the past. But these topics have been talked about for over one hundred years. Are we simply to ignore what has been presented before us? Do we simply let it go by the wayside and forget about it? I think not. I mean take the following quote from the previously quoted sections:

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.¹¹

What exactly are we supposed to take from that? Take a look at it at face value. What is that saying? Adam is our God, the only God with whom we have to deal with. Hoe else are you supposed to interpret it? Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Yet we are told by a prophet of God not to fall into believing that it is true. Even though a previous prophet taught it as being received as revelation from God.

If that’s not confusing, I don’t know what is.

I suppose it is one of those things that we just put on a shelf as it were. (Be careful, that’s how shelves break, too much weight!) Then we can continue on with our lives hoping we will have an answer in the end of times. If it turns out to be true, however, I will have some hard questions for those in charge. It will probably be dismissed as a man speaking as a man, or he was speaking in his time. Something like that. People aren’t perfect, but the church is. Those are the kinds of things we’ve been told all our lives. Why not end the cherade now?

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1. Apostle Bruce R. McConkie (1915 - 1985)↩︎

2. Brigham Young, Deseret News, v. 22, no. 308, June 8, 1873↩︎

3. Our Own Liahona, President Spencer W. Kimball, October 1976 General Conference↩︎

4. L. John Nuttall’s Journal entry for 7 February 1877↩︎

5. Self-Government—Mysteries—Recreation and Amusements, Not in Themselves Sinful—Tithing—Adam, Our Father and Our God, sermon delivered by Brigham Young on April 9th, 1852↩︎

6. Testimony of Mormonism, delivered on 23rd October 1953 by Brigham Young↩︎

7. For this is Life Eternal, sermon delivered by Brigham Young on October 8th, 1854↩︎

8. Brigham Young, quoted by Samuel. W Richards on March 25th, 1855↩︎

9. Sermon derived by Brigham Young on October 8, 1854↩︎

10. Pratt/Young debate for Quorom of the Twelve, transcribed by Watt on October 8th, 1861↩︎

11. Self-Government—Mysteries—Recreation and Amusements, Not in Themselves Sinful—Tithing—Adam, Our Father and Our God, sermon delivered by Brigham Young on April 9th, 1852↩︎