Chapter 19

What Are the Facts Concerning the Adam-God Myth, So Frequently Mentioned by Enemies of the Church?

Those who peddle the well-worn Adam-God myth, usually charge the Latter-day Saints with believing that: 1. Our Father in Heaven, the Supreme God, to whom we pray, is Adam, the first man; and 2. Adam was the father of Jesus Christ. A long series of absurd and false deductions are made from these propositions.

Those who spread this untruth about the Latter-day Saints go back for authority to a sermon delivered by President Brigham Young “in the tabernacle. Great Salt Lake City, April 9th, 1852” (Journal of Discourses , Volume 1, page 50.) Certain statements there made are confusing if read superficially, but very clear if read with their context. Enemies of President Brigham Young and of the Church have taken advantage of the opportunity and have used these statements repeatedly and widely to do injury to the reputation of President Young and the Mormon people. An honest reading of this sermon and of other reported discourses of President Brigham Young proves that the great second President of the Church held no such views as have been put into his mouth in the form of the Adam-God myth.

In the discourse, upon which hangs the Adam-God myth. President Brigham Young discussed the earthly origin of Jesus Christ. He denied that the Holy Ghost was the father of Jesus Christ; and affirmed that the Savior was begotten by God the Father. He explained that “Our Father in Heaven begat all the spirits that ever were or ever will be upon this earth; and they were born spirits in the eternal world. Then the Lord by His power and wisdom organized the mortal tabernacle of man.” That is, every human being is in direct descent from God, the Father. In the course of his remarks President Young was led to discuss the high place of Adam among the generations of men, for Adam “helped to make and organize this world,” and as first man, the father of us all, Adam stands at the head of the human race, and will ever be the representative of his children, before our Father in Heaven, the Father of our spirits. It was in connection with this thought that the oft-quoted statement was made about Adam, that “he is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.”

He spoke of Adam as the great Patriarch of the human race, a personage who had been privileged and able to assist in the creation of the earth, who would continue his efforts in behalf of the human family, and through whom many of our needs would be met. All this was in contradiction to the common doctrine the world over that Adam was a great sinner, and not to be held in affectionate remembrance. Nowhere is it suggested that Adam is God, the Father, whose child Adam himself was. On the contrary, in the sermon of April 9th, 1852, itself, there is a clear distinction made between Adam and God the Father, in the following words: “The earth was organized by three distinct characters, namely Eloheim, Yahovah, and Michael”—the last previously defined as Adam. There can be no confusion in this passage of the separate personalities of these three great beings. A discourse delivered August 8, 1852, within four months of the discourse in controversy (Journal o[ Discourses, Vol. 3, page 94 ) contains the following: “The Lord sent forth His Gospel to the people; He said, I will give it to my son Adam, from whom Methuselah received it; and Noah received it from Methuselah; and Melchizedek administered to Abraham.” Clearly, President Young here distinguishes between God, the Father, and Adam, the first man.

The sermon of April 9, 1 852, also makes the statement that, “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.” The dishonest inference has been drawn and advertised widely that President Young meant that Adam was the earthly father of Jesus Christ. This deduction cannot be made fairly, in view of the context or of his other published utterances on the subject. Adam and Eve were not the only persons in the Garden of Eden, for “They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 8). President Young undoubtedly had this personage in mind, for he did not say Adam, but “our Father in Heaven.”

In many discourses. President Young refers to Jesus as the Only Begotten of the Father, which would not have been true, had Adam been the earthly father of Jesus. At one time he declared (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, page 238) “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 of the Father, which could not be if the Father did not actually beget him in person.” On another occasion (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, page 42) he said, “And what shall we say of our Heavenly Father? He is also a man in perfection, and the father of the man Jesus Christ, and the father of our spirits.” It seems unnecessary to offer more evidence that Brigham Young held the accepted doctrine of the Church, that God, the Father, and not Adam, is the earthly father of Jesus.

In all this, President Young merely followed the established doctrine of the Church. Joseph Smith the Prophet, in discussing the Priesthood, touched upon the position of Adam:

“[The Priesthood] commencing with Adam, who was the first man, who is spoken of in Daniel as being the “Ancient of Days,” or in other words, the first and oldest of all, the great, grand progenitor of whom it is said in another place he is Michael, because he was the first and father of all, not only by progeny, but the first to hold the spiritual blessings, to whom was made known the plan of ordinances for the salvation of his posterity unto the end, and to whom Christ was first revealed, and through whom Christ has been revealed from heaven, and will continue to be revealed from henceforth. Adam holds the keys of the dispensation of the fulness of times, i.e., the dispensation of all the times that have been and will be revealed through him from the beginning to Christ, and from Christ to the end of all the dispensations that are to be revealed. … This then is the nature of the Priesthood; every man holding the Presidency of his dispensation, and one man holding the Presidency of them all, even Adam.” [History of the Church, Vol. 4, p. 207.]

On another occasion the Prophet Joseph Smith stated further:

“The Priesthood was first given to Adam; he obtained the First Presidency, and held the keys of it from generation to generation. He obtained it in the Creation, before the world was formed, as in Genesis 1:26, 27, 28. He had dominion given him over every living creature.

“… Our Father Adam, Michael, will call his children together and prepare them for the coming of the Son of man. He (Adam) is the father of the human family, and presides over the spirits of all men. and all that have had the keys must stand before him in this grand council. … The Son of man stands before him, and there is given him glory and dominion. Adam delivers up his stewardship to Christ.” (History of the Church, Vol. 3, p. 385.)

The perspective of years brings out the remarkable fact, that, though the enemies of the Latter-day Saints have had access, in printed form, to the hundreds of discourses of Brigham Young, only half a dozen statements have been useful to the calumniators of the founder of Utah. Of these, the sermon of April 9, 1852, which has been quoted most frequently, presents no errors of act or doctrine, if read understandingly and honestly.

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

1. What is the meaning of Patriarch?

2. Why will the perfected Kingdom of God be organized on a patriarchal pattern?

3. What reason have we for believing that Adam had been on earth before he entered the Garden of Eden?

4. What motive do you properly suspect when a person will argue a case from one sermon without reference to 399 others by the same speaker? (There are nearly 400 published sermons by Brigham Young.)

5. What estimate of character would you place upon men who do not fear to have their extemporaneous addresses published for all to read.

6. What did Job mean when he exclaimed, “Oh that mine adversary had written a book.”