Commenting on Brigham Young’s speech from August 28, 1852, Paul Nolan Hyde wrote that:
The usual interpretation of this passage is that Adam and
Eve are "the exalted beings" that "have to go to that
earth." These sustaining the Adam-God Theory would have us accept that God
the Father, having once obtained his exaltation, stepped down from Godhood to
pass through mortality again.
The problem of understanding President Young's concepts
contained in this passage become extremely difficult the moment we try to
interpret them without some very important facts in mind beforehand.
We read that in the Creation it was not until the sixth
creative period that Adam became "a living soul" (Moses 3:4) or a
personage consisting of a spirit and a physical body. (Doctrine and Covenants
88:15) Before that time Adam was as all of us were a pre-existent spirit
waiting for an earthly tabernacle. Adam, then, at that time was not one who had
obtained his "exaltation" or "crown" nor had he power to
"propagate his species in spirit." (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon
Doctrine [Salt Lake City, 1966], p. 748) But President Young said that
exalted beings had to come to this earth before the generation of tabernacles
could begin. I believe they did. There is at least one mentioned by name, God
the Eternal Father.
I believe that God the Father with perhaps others who had
obtained their exaltation came to this earth in the beginning with Adam of
necessity. This being the pattern, an exalted being would have to go to every
new earth with an Adam preparatory to its habitation by that God's spirit
children who would be also the spiritual brethren of that Adam. (Paul Nolan
Hyde, "Brigham
Young and the Adam-God Theory" [1969], 7-8, M231
H995b 1969, Church History Library)
Brigham Young also mentioned that Adam and Eve would
partake of the fruits of the world until their celestial bodies were
capable of producing mortal tabernacles for their spirit children.
The phrase "their spirit children" is one that
gives some individuals the understanding that Adan must be Eloheim because only
an Exalted Being can procreate spirit children. (McConkie, p. 751) The key to
this concept might be in having brought to mind the manner in which God views
all time.
The Lord has told us that all things past, present, and
future are constantly before Him. All things are to Him as they are in the
eternities. (Doctrine and Covenants 130:17) For this reason is that Christ
called the Only Begotten Son even before that conception and birth actually
took place. (II Nephi 25:12; Alma 13:5-8) May this also be the case with the
relationship between Father Adam and us? Because we have taken upon ourselves
tabernacles begotten through Father Adam, we are his children physically. But
in the eternities, the physical and spiritual, once joined by the resurrection,
are inseparable, never more to taste corruption. (I Corinthians 15:53-54) Thus
we now are Adam's posterity both spiritually and physically in the eyes of God.
Because all of us in the pre-existence agreed to come to this earth (James E.
Talmage, Jesus the Christ [Salt Lake City, 1960], p. 15) under these
conditions, we were indeed considered the "spirit children" of Adam
there. (Ibid., 8-9)
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