ADAM-GOD
THEORY overview
Simply
stated, the Adam-God theory is that God the Father, the Father of our spirits
and the Father of Jesus (of both his body and his spirit), came to this earth,
took upon himself mortality, and was known as Adam, the progenitor of the human
family. That is, God the Father became Adam. The best evidence is that this
idea in Mormonism originated with Brigham Young. While several have recalled
that Joseph Smith taught that Adam is our God, the idea that God became Adam
has not been found among his teachings, in fact, it seems contrary to his known
teachings. Brigham Young’s first public statement of the idea, April 9, 1852,
has been the center of most discussion of the subject since.
There
have always been two interpretations of Young’s statement that “Adam is our
Father and our God.” At the time of his first sermon on the subject was
published in England in the Millennial Star, several articles also appeared
which interpreted the sermon as teaching that Adam, as our great progenitor,
will preside over the human family as Father and God. That this was Young’s
intent has been, and is still, frequently advocated. However, a substantial number
of other statements, published and unpublished, support, as Young’s belief,
that God the Father came to this earth where he was known as Adam.
Most
Church authorities contemporary with Young had little or nothing to say on the
subject. The two exceptions were Young’s counselor, Heber C. Kimball, who also
believed and discoursed on the subject several times, and Apostle Orson Pratt,
who voiced his rejection of the concept. Since Young’s death, with the
exception of several obscure statements, no Church authority has advocated the
theory.
During
the last decade of the 19th century interest in the subject elicited response
from such authorities as Wilford Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph F. Smith.
Their response placed the theory among the mysteries which should be of no
concern to the saints until God gives further light on the subject. In the first
quarter of the 20th century such authorities as B. H. Roberts, Charles W. Penrose,
and Joseph F. Smith argued that Young’s discourse was either inaccurately reported,
or misinterpreted. This has been the primary response by Church authorities to
inquiries from that time to the present. In recent years the additional
emphasis on such authorities as Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. (1972), Spencer W. Kimball
(1976), Mark E. Peterson (1976 & 1981), and Bruce R. McConkie (1980 &
1981), has been that the concept is false. One recent letter of McConkie’s acknowledges
that Young taught the idea but that he was in error.
Because
of the small number of statements by Brigham Young and the obscurity of most of
them, the theory would be all but forgotten except for the interest in the
subject generated by anti-Mormon evangelists and fundamentalist Mormons who,
for different reasons, find the Adam-God theory a major point of difference
with current Mormonism. (Van Hale, Mormon Miscellaneous Note Cards, 3
vols. [Sandy, Utah: Mormon Miscellaneous, 1985], 1:92)
