I was recently sent (rather graciously) a free copy of The Second Book of Commandments by a follower of Robert Crossfield and his Fundamentalist group who also happens to like my blog. I will admit that I am not an expert on such groups[1], so interacting with their claims to authority will not become an area of focus of this blog (though I have defended Brigham Young being the true successor of Joseph Smith against a follower of James J. Strang before).
I did wish to interact with something I have never encountered before—the argument that Adam/Michael and the Holy Ghost are one and the same person. While I know some members of Fundamentalist groups identify Joseph Smith as the incarnation of the Holy Ghost (which is absurd), I have never encountered this particular form of pneumatology (theology of the Spirit) before. Such a view is derived from the explicit teachings one finds within the purported “revelations” of Robert Crossfield:
For in that day I called him Adam, for I changed his name from Michael to that of Adam, which being interpreted means, “The father of the children of all men.”[2] And thus he died, and his body separated from his spirit as in the death of any, but here is mysterious unfolded. Behold I say unto you, that his body is not corrupted, for it is Eternal, and it lies in a sacred place until he shall be finished with his work and take up his body again, and the Holy Ghost be taken from the earth. For is He not the Holy Ghost, and careth for and loveth His children, and is their Comforter? (23:54-57)
For it is preparatory to his being ordained to the office of the Holy Ghost which ell upon him at that time, which ordination he received from his Father who performed this responsibility upon the earth where he dwelt. (73:30)
So, in the two “revelations” received by Crossfield, Adam/Michael and the Holy Ghost are one and the same person. However, the revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith clearly distinguish the persons of Adam from the Holy Spirit. For instance:
Now this prophecy Adam spake, as he was moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and a genealogy was kept of the children of God. And this was the book of the generations of Adam, saying: In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; (Moses 6:8 | Pearl of Great Price)
And he called upon our father Adam by his own voice, saying: I am God; I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh. And he also said unto him: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be given you. (Moses 6:51-52 | Pearl of Great Price)
In the above two texts, Adam and the Holy Spirit are numerically distinct from one another; unless one wishes to violate the law of the Identity of Indiscernibles (one of the most basic rules of logic), as well as engage in eisegesis and mental gymnastics, Robert Crossfield’s identification of Adam/Michael with the Holy Ghost is simply false.
Notes for the Above
[1] I am not an expert in such groups. For those wishing to delve into this issue, some recent works would include Brian C. Hales’ books, Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2006) and Setting the Record Straight: Mormon Fundamentalism (Salt Lake City: Brigham Distributing, 2008); also, The Persistence of Polygamy, vol. 3: Fundamentalist Mormon Polygamy from 1890 to the Present, eds. Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster (Independence, Mo.: John Whitmer Books, 2015). See also Brian Hales’ Website http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/
[2] This only shows Crossfield’s ignorance of Hebrew. Hebrew אָדָם means "man" or "mankind,” not “the Father of all children of men.”
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