Excerpt from a letter to a friend, 6.19.23
- Joseph Smith said marriage of Adam happened in Eden (not before):
“I then remarked that marriage was an institution of heaven, instituted in the garden of Eden;” (Joseph Smith H.C. 2:320.)
- Bible says Moses died and that was wrong, but we can’t claim Adam didn’t die, as the D&C says he did several times, and the D&C is our most up to date revelation, not passed down through scribes to corrupt it. D&C 107:42; D&C 107:53; D&C 138:11-17 & 38-9. We also read of permanent resurrection in the Book of Mormon, that must have come to us for a reason.
You mentioned somewhere Joseph Smith said Adam didn’t die?
- Adam was a sinner saved by Christ D&C 29:40-42
- Joseph Smith called God as Adam, and differentiated between Adam God and Michael Adam:
“I saw father Adam, and Abraham and Michael and my father and mother, my brother Alvin that has long since slept, …” (Joseph Smith Diary cited in The Revelations of Joseph Smith by Lyndon W. Cook p. 303)
Some have speculated that it was a scribal error in writing “Michael” instead of “my father”, but the account has both, and it’s hard to get “Michael” from “my father”. This original version could make sense if we see it as calling God the Father Adam, who is the father of Michael-Adam.
Alternatively, today’s version of this revelation is D&C 137:3-5 which reads, “3 Also the blazing throne of God, whereon was seated the Father and the Son. 4 I saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold. 5 I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept;”
Notice how the Father and Son are separate from and mentioned before Father Adam.
- Adam is under Christ in authority.
Jude 1:9 “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”
D&C 78 shows that Christ appointed Michael, established Michael, sets Michael on high, and gives Michael keys of salvation under himself (Christ).
Adam was taught to pray to the father in the name of the son. (ref POGP)
- Brigham said Adam was father of Eve. Makes sense if Adam is God’s name, and Adam is named after his Dad.
Wilford Woodruff said he heard Brigham Young teach that, “Mother Eve was the daughter of Adam.” [WWJ 7:152, Aug 31, 1873]
- Joseph taught that Adam got authority from Christ, and spoke of the Father as separate from Adam:
“This then being the nature of the priesthood, every man holding the presidency of his dispensation and one man holding the presidency of them all even Adam and Adam receiving his presidency and authority from Christ, but cannot receive a fulness, until Christ shall present the kingdom to the Father which shall be at the end of the last dispensation.”[The Words of Joseph Smith. 40. See also Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith,169.]
- Brigham taught that the father of Adam and father of Christ were the same person:
“I believe the Father came down from heaven, as the Apostles said he did and begat the savior of the world; for he is the ONLY-begotten [sic] of the Father, which could not be if the Father did not actually beget him in person… [T]he Bible declares He has a corporeal body; that in His likeness, precisely, He created Adam.” [Brigham Young JD 1:238.]
- Resurrected beings can never die again, as our most modern revelation shows us: D&C 93: 33; D&C 138:17
- Cannonized scripture & other teachings show that Christ created and saves not just this but multiple worlds. Hebrews 1; Moses 1; D&C 88 alludes to this; D&C 76; D&C 76 poetic version is blatant about it. All of these contradict Brigham’s teaching that there is 1 tempter and 1 savior per world. Christ saving multiple worlds is at odds with typical Adam God teachings. Adam may be the God/presiding officer of this world, but Christ is above him, being over the whole Kolob system of worlds.
- Brigham himself said that the issue of who Adam is people shouldn’t be too concerned about. Yet today we see it is a divisive subject causing many to leave the church. Even if Adam God is true, it should apparently be something kept on the down-low in today’s climate. We have a worldwide fast-growing church, the members need the milk, not the meat. Granted I think Adam God is false, but I’m just saying even if it were true, it shouldn’t be something we try to tell the church how to handle. It’s God’s church, we accept or reject it, we don’t tell him how to run it. The church can still be true and not teach all truths. The church is meant for the people, and if the people in general aren’t ready for something (like plural marriage), God can pull back on that thing, and wait until the people are ready for it. (PS- I do foresee a day of plural marriage returning in the church, though not as something all members would be expected to do.) My point in this paragraph is to say it’s not really up to us to say what God should and shouldn’t do with his church, both in doctrine, and practice.
- Joseph Smith taught that doctrine must square with canonized scripture, aka the standard works. I can get expounding on things in the cannon (and even adding to the cannon when voted upon by the church), but as I’ve suggested here, there seem many places where Adam God teachings directly contradict canonized scripture, even scripture which Joseph Smith himself canonized in the D&C. Expansion, ok. Direct contradiction, not ok.
- The original copy we have of the Lecture at the Veil has 4 missing lines. Furthermore, JDT McCallister sent a memo to Wilford Woodruff and Joseph F Smith saying this was given by Brigham to be included in the temple at future times; but W Woodruff was temple president when St. G temple was dedicated; did Brigham dictate something W Woodruff didn’t know about?
- I mentioned Hyrum Andrus, a Joseph Smith scholar who taught at BYU who was known to shake the saints’ understanding. Here are a few lectures of his you may be interested in which are relevant to Adam God in some ways.
Christ’s appearances to the prophets https://youtu.be/2Gru2-ZF_Fc
Creation of worlds without number https://youtu.be/rZlEFtmWG3A
Man’s relation to God, intelligences, etc. https://youtu.be/bzUhBXKNlQ4
The mission of the Church (864) The Church of Jesus Christ and the Mission The Doctrine & Covenants Lecture 09 by Hyrum Andrus – YouTube
Andrus’ view is that Adam is the head of priesthood on this earth and the steward over this earth, and that Christ is the creator and savior of this galaxy, with Kolob near its center. God the Father would be creator of multiple galaxies, perhaps all the ones we can see.
- Are you familiar with this lecture by President Spencer W Kimball “That ye may not be deceived”? Here it is https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/spencer-w-kimball/may-deceived/
16. I have a general concern that fundamentalists are off track spiritually by having left the church and ordinances offered there, and are therefore prone to accept incorrect teachings. I mentioned J. Max Anderson’s book “The Polygamy Story: Fact & Fiction” which I sent you a link to (The Polygamy Story: Fiction and Fact, by J. Max Anderson – Introduction – SHIELDS (shields-research.org)) refuting authority claims of the fundamentalist groups. [My notes on this book in my polygamy book and posted earlier on the website]
