Question
Dear Gramps,
Could you make any comments on the following: Brigham Young stated: Our father Adam came into the garden of Eden . . . and brought Eve, one of his wives. . . . He is our Father and our God. (Journal of Discourses, Volume I, page 50, 1854 Edition)Does it mean that the Mormons worship Adam as a God, who had several wives, Eve being one of them?
Tiko
Answer
Dear Tiko,
Perhaps the best thing to do in this case is to quote from Joseph Fielding Smith’s explanation of the same question that was asked to him, as found in Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, p.96‑99
SOURCE OF ADAM‑GOD THEORY. President Brigham Young is quoted‑in all probability the sermon was erroneously transcribed!‑as having said: “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.”
RELATIONSHIP OF ELOHIM, JEHOVAH, AND MICHAEL. If the enemies of the Church who quote this wished to be honest, they could not help seeing that President Brigham Young definitely declares that Adam is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days, which indicates definitely that Adam is not Elohim, or the God whom we worship, who is the Father of Jesus Christ.
Further, they could see that President Young declared that Adam helped to make the earth. If he helped then he was subordinate to someone who was superior. In another paragraph in that same discourse, President Young said: “It is true that the earth was organized by three distinct characters, namely, Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael.” Here he places Adam, or Michael, third in the list, and hence the least important of the three mentioned, and this President Young understood perfectly. We believe that Adam, known as Michael, had authority in the heavens before the world was framed. He dwelt in the presence of the Father and the Son and was subject to their direction as the scriptures plainly indicate….
ALL EXALTED MEN BECOME GODS. To believe that Adam is a god should not be strange to any person who accepts the Bible. When Jesus was accused of blasphemy because he claimed to be the Son of God, he answered the Jews: “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?”
Paul said, writing to the members of the Church in Rome: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” And to the Galatians he said: “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Joseph Smith taught a plurality of gods, and that man by obeying the commandments of God and keeping the whole law will eventually reach the power and exaltation by which he also will become a god.
Gramps
