By Richard C. Shipp, January 1972

Student paper - Graduate Religion 540 at BYU, taught by Dr. Richard O. Coxan.

The Psalmist has written, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.” This passage is but one of many which refer to the ORGANIZATION OF MAN as though it were a great mystery – or something that could not be fully comprehended by the greatest winds while dwelling in earthly tabernacles. It is a matter of vital interest to each of us, and yet it is often farthest from the thoughts of the greater portion of mankind. Instead of reflecting upon and searching for hidden things of greatest value to them, they rather wish to learn how to secure their way through this world as easily and as comfortably as possible. THE REFLECTIONS WHAT THEY ARE HERE FOR, WHO PRODUCED THEM, AND WHERE THEY ARE FROM, FAR TOO SELDOM ENTER THEIR MINDS. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourse VII, p. 282.)

ADAM: THE SON OF GOD

The physical origin of man has long been a topic of speculation and discussion among the philosophers, scientists, and sociologists of the world. It is the author’s belief that a correct understanding of man’s true physical origin will be gained ONLY from the Word of God through his servants, the Prophets, ancient and modern. It, therefore, is the aim of this work to bring together the statements of the Prophets to help clarify man’s relationship to God, to his fellow men, and to throw light upon his own physical origin. It is also hoped that a correct understanding of one’s physical heritage may also result in a significant change for righteousness in one’s life.

ADAM’S PHYSICAL BODY

Adam, as all of God’s children, was first created spiritually as a begotten son unto God, and afterward, physically. When Adam was in the Garden of Eden he was a spirit son of God tabernacled in a physical body. He was indeed a living soul: “And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man’s spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL” (Abr. 5:7). The union of spirit and body constitute the soul.1

The scriptures also state that Adam was created in the express image of God,2 which undoubtedly accounted for the fact Adam was physically perfect in shape, form, and features, and was a very handsome man. The Prophet Joseph Smith referred to this fact when he said, “…my brother Alvin. He was a very handsome man, surpassed by none but Adam and Seth, and of great strength.”3 The Doctrine and Covenants speaks of the physical attributes of Adam and his birthright son Seth: “…he (Seth) was a perfect man, and his likeness was the express likeness of his father, insomuch that he seemed to be like unto his father in all things, and could be distinguished from him only by his age.”4

Adam in the Garden of Eden was immortal physically, and not subject to physical deterioration. Lehi expressed this teaching when he said, ‘And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.”5 Elder Orson Pratt adds this statement concerning Adam’s immortal condition prior to the fall:

Man, when he was first placed upon this earth, was an immortal being capable of eternal endurance; his flesh and bones, as well as his spirit, were immortal and eternal in their nature, and it was so with all the inferior creation – all were immortal and eternal in their nature…6

Another attribute of Adam’s physical body in Eden was that his body was not filled with blood, but spiritual liquid filled his veins to provide the life force: “Eating of the forbidden fruit subdued the power of the spirit and created blood in their bodies.” “The blood contained the seeds of death.”7 Not only was Adam’s body filled with this life-giving fluid before the fall, but his body was glorified to a degree, and he lived in a glorified environment. Brigham Young has stated that “When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body…”8 Of course President Young did not mean a resurrected celestial body, but a body of celestial nature. Joseph Smith wrote that “…the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory,”9 which it lost when Adam fell. To dwell in such a state of glory, Adam had some degree of glory physically.

Father Adam was filled with intelligence as an immortal person in Eden, as demonstrated by this occurrence in the Garden:

God conversed with him (Adam) face to face. In his presence he was permitted to stand, and from his own mouth he was permitted to receive instruction. He heard his voice, walked before him and gazed upon his glory. While intelligence burst upon his understanding, and enabled him to give names to the vast assemblage of his Maker’s works.10

Notwithstanding the intellectual capacity of Adam’s mind in Eden there was another major factor present: Adam had the brilliant mind of a child.” Adam was in a state of child-like innocence, and had he not partaken of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, “…he would have remained forever in his innocence, without power of increase.”11 This doctrine was also taught by Lehi: “And they (Adam and Eve) would have had no children: wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery, doing no good, for they knew no sin.”12 Adam had not a “knowledge of good and evil” and, as a little child, knew not his nakedness.13 His eyes were not opened to this knowledge until he ate the forbidden fruit.14 Also, by tabernacling in the flesh, Adam’s pre-earth memory was voided.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHER

“And I, GOD, CREATED MAN in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them.” “And I, the Lord God, planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there I put the man WHOM I HAD FORMED.”15

The Almighty himself takes all credit for the creation of Adam and says that he was Adam’s Creator. The importance of this fact will be shown later. The Lord explains where the material came from for the formation of Adam’s physical body: “I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground…”16 He further states that Adam was fashioned in his own image and likeness.17 Before leaving the Father’s testimony of Adam’s creation it is important to note that no statement thus far considered has given us a positive declaration of HOW Adam was created, only that man was formed from the dust of the ground to be in God’s own “image” and “likeness.”

TESTIMONY OF THE ANCIENT PATRIARCHS

In the Book of the Generations of Adam was recorded the testimony of the Ancients with regard to Adam’s creation:

In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; In the image of his own BODY, male and female, created he them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created and became living souls in the land upon the footstool of God.18

The terms “likeness” and “image” are again employed to describe Adam’s creation. The following verse of scripture sheds interesting light upon the context in which the Ancients used those particular terms:

And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and called his name Seth.19

It appears that a more personal and closer relationship is implied when these terms are used, than generally supposed.

One of the great scriptures explaining the process of Adam’s creation is found in Moses 6:58-59. The Lord gives Adam a commandment to teach his children that “inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, AND SO BECAME OF DUST A LIVING SOUL, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven…” This is the exact language the Father uses in explaining Adam’s creation, and this language is applied to Adam’s children who were created by NATURAL CHILDBIRTH, thus the terminology “from the dust of the ground”19 is scripturally defined as natural birth. It is this same passage of scripture that explains that the ordinance of water baptism is symbolic of man’s birth physically:

Therefore I (God) give unto you (Adam) a commandment to teach these things freely unto your children, saying: that by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were BORN INTO THE WORLD by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, EVEN SO YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;20

Having just learned that water baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, coupled with the sanctifying blood of Christ, was symbolic of MAN’S BIRTH INTO THE PHYSICAL WORLD, “Adam cried unto the Lord, and he was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water. And thus he was baptized…”21 which is being BORN AGAIN. The account of Adam’s baptism, or rebirth, being placed immediately after the Lord’s explanation of the symbolism of baptism cannot fail to draw strong applications that Adam’s baptism was no exception to the symbolism.

The classic statement of Adam’s creation (in scripture) is found in Moses chapter 6. The birthright line of Adam’s posterity is traced from Adam through Seth, Enos, Cainan, and so on, to the Patriarch Enoch. Having thus traced the physical genealogy, this authoritative statement is made:

And this is the genealogy of the sons of Adam, WHO WAS THE SON OF GOD, with whom God, himself, conversed.22

It is inconsistent with the text and the physical genealogy being dealt with to interpret this statement any other way than that of Adam’s physical descent. Had this statement been pertaining to Adam’s creation as a spirit son of God, a better rendition of this verse would have been:

And this is the genealogy of the sons of Adam, who was a son of God, with whom God, himself, conversed.

Or, since all the Patriarchs referred to in this verse were spirit sons of God, perhaps this would have been the best rendition:

And this is the genealogy of the sons of Adam, who were the sons of God, with whom God, himself, conversed.

As the text stands in the Holy Word, it is the author’s contention that this final position has no foundation. Adam, the scripture declares, was the son of God, physically.

These great Patriarchs were “preachers of righteousness, and spake and prophecied, and called upon all men, everywhere, to repent…”23 and as they went, they carried with them the true knowledge of the origin of Man, which they had received from their Father, Adam. Enoch came preaching in the land and appealed to his listeners upon this point, that they were of common physical origin, and God was their common Creator through the first man, Adam. (Apparently they had lost this knowledge through apostasy.) Said Enoch:

The Lord which spake with me, the same is the God of heaven, and he is my god, and your god, and ye are my brethren, and why counsel ye yourselves, and deny the God of heaven? The heavens he made; the earth is his footstool, and the foundation thereof is his. Behold, he laid it (and) AN HOST OF MEN NATH HE BROUGHT IN UPON THE FACE THEREOF. And death hath come upon our fathers; nevertheless, we know them, and cannot deny, and even the first of all we know, even Adam.24

Father Abraham was, as Enoch, in the Line of the Firstborn and sought for his appointment by ordination to the blessings that pertained to this lineage; … to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace (over his posterity), and … (to become) a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers.”25 Abraham explained that this right or blessing by birth was conferred upon him from the fathers:

…it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, yea, even from the beginning, or before the foundations of the earth to the present time, even the RIGHT OF THE FIRSTBORN, or the FIRST MAN, who is ADAM, our first father, through the fathers unto me.26

Not only did Adam experience a rebirth, but Abraham gave testimony that Adam was the ran upon whom the first birthright was conferred.

THE TESTIMONY OF MOSES

By the dawning of the Mosaic Dispensation the true knowledge of man’s origin had again been lost through apostasy, but was to be revealed through the great prophet Moses.

In after years, when Paradise was lost by sin; when man was driven from the face of his heavenly Father, to toil, and droop, and die; when heaven was veiled from view; and, with few exceptions, MAN WAS NO LONGER COUNTED WORTHY TO RETAIN THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS HEAVENLY ORIGIN; then, darkness veiled the past and future from the heathen mind; man neither knew himself, from whence he came, nor whither he was bound. At length a Moses came, who knew his God, and would fain have led mankind to know him too, and see him face to face. But they could not receive his heavenly laws, Or bide his presence.

THUS THE HOLY MAN WAS FORCED AGAIN TO VEIL THE PAST IN MYSTERY AND, IN THE BEGINNING OF HIS HISTORY, ASSIGN TO MAN AN EARTHLY ORIGIN.27

Some traces of the true doctrine of man’s origin, however, are still found in Moses’ account of creation.

THE MERIDIAN OF TIME

Because the Church teaches that we are all God’s offspring as spirits, some Saints have assumed that God can only produce spirit offspring. This belief is erroneous. A counter-example that rejects this doctrine is a fundamental part of the LDS theology. God can and did produce a physical son: Jesus Christ. As a result he became the Savior. The question may be raised, “what was the difference, then, between the physical body of Adam and the physical body of Christ if God was the physical Father of them both?" The difference in their physical bodies was due to a difference in their respective mothers. Adam’s Mother was immortal, therefore Adam inherited physical immortality from both of his Parents, and could only die by partaking of the forbidden fruit. When Adam fell, he became TOTALLY subject to death. Christ’s physical body, however, was mothered by a mortal mother, and Jesus inherited from her the seeds of physical death. Jesus was then physically qualified for the role of SAVIOR and could choose to live forever, or voluntarily die,28 which choice Adam did not have simultaneously.

A further question might be asked about Adam’s position as the son of God: “What, then, is meant by the Savior’s title, The Only Begotten Son of God in the Flesh?” The explanation lies in the definition of the Lord’s terms. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith states that “…there was no blood in Adam’s body before the fall. He was not then ‘flesh’ as we know it, that is, in the sense of mortality. BY FLESH IS MEANT MORTALITY.”29 Elder Bruce McConkie also makes this clarification in explaining this title of the Savior:

Father Adam, the first man, is also a son of God (Luke 3:38; Moses 6:22, 59), a fact that does not change the great truth that Christ is the Only Begotten in the flesh, for Adam’s entrance into this world was in immortality: He came here before death had its beginning, with its consequent mortal or flesh-status of existence.30

In the author’s opinion, this title applies to Jesus’ position as Messiah and Redeemer. When Adam fell, he plunged himself and all his posterity into the valley of death, and it was necessary for the Father to sire another son, even Jesus Christ, who thereby would have power to redeem fallen man, including Father Adam. Jesus’ earthly role, then, is paramount, and HE ALONE, as the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, REIGNS SUPREME. The Savior taught fallen physical men that they were the children of God:

…Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, Ye are gods?’ If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the lather hath sanctified, and sent into the world, ‘Thou blasphemest;’ because I said, I am the Son of God?31

Upon His resurrection Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene, saying, “I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and YOUR Father and to my god, and your God” (John 20:17). Of all the Prophets, the Savior knew of the divinity involved in the physical heritage of man. A parallel scripture to that found in Moses 6:22 is recorded by Luke:

Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was THE SON OF GOD.32

The Prophet Joseph Smith gave a slightly different rendition to harmonize with the phrasing in Moses:

“And of Enos, and of Seth, and Adam, WHO WAS FORMED OF GOD, and the first man upon the earth.”33 In other rendition, God is the Creator of Adam, and it has been shown that Adam’s creation was accomplished through birth.

Paul, the Apostle, explained in one of his letters that there was a difference in the flesh of man and of beasts, for “…God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.”34 In making this statement, it is obvious that Paul believed that man did not originate from the same source as the animal kingdoms, for they were of a different kind of flesh. Apparently speaking of Paul’s statement in Ephesians 5:30-31, President Brigham Young said:

The Apostles and Prophets, when speaking of our relationship to God, say that WE ARE FLESH OF HIS FLESH AND BONE OF HIS BONE. GOD IS OUR FATHER, and Jesus Christ is our Elder Brother, and both are our everlasting friends. This is Bible doctrine.35

Paul’s statement is not very clear, in the author’s opinion, however, President Young apparently had deep insight into what was really in Paul’s mind and took a literal interpretation of the text. Paul’s Mars hill address, when read in the context that Paul believed that man was the physical offspring of God, becomes a powerful sermon on this doctrine:

For in him (God) we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his OFFSPRING.’ Forasmuch then as WE ARE THE OFFSPRING OF GOD, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.36

THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULNESS OF TIMES

THE FIRST PRESIDENCY

The most authoritative statement explaining the origin of man in this Dispensation was issued as an official declaration by the first Presidency of the Church, November, 1909:

It is held by some that Adam was not the first man upon this earth, and that the original human being was a development from lower orders of the animal creation. These, however, are the theories of men. The word of the Lord declares that ADAM was the first man of all men (Moses 1:34), and we are therefore in duty bound to regard him as the primal parent of the race. It was shown to the brother of Jared that all men were created in the beginning after the image of God; and whether we take this to mean the spirit or the body, or both, it commits us to the same conclusion: MAN BEGAN LIFE AS A HUMAN BEING. IN THE LIKENESS OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER.

True it is that the body of man enters upon its career as a tiny germ or embryo, which becomes an infant, quickened at a certain stage by the spirit whose tabernacle it is, and the child, after being born, develops into a man. THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS, HOWEVER, TO INDICATE THAT THE ORIGINAL MAN, THE FIRST OF OUR RACE BEGAN LIFE AS ANYTHING LESS THAN A MAN, OR LESS THAN THE HUMAN GERM OR EMBRYO THAT BECOMES A MAN.

Man, by searching, cannot find out God. Never, unaided, will he discover the truth about the beginning of Human Life. The Lord must reveal himself, or remain unrevealed; and the same is true of the facts relating to the ORIGIN OF ADAM’S RACE. – God alone can reveal them. Some of these facts, however, are already known, and what has been made known it is our duty to receive and retain.

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, BASING ITS BELIEF ON DIVINE REVELATION, ANCIENT AND MODERN, PROCLAIMS MAN TO BE THE DIRECT AND LINEAL OFFSPRING OF DEITY. God himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned, and supreme. By His almighty power He organized the earth, and all that it contains, from spirit and element, which exist co-eternally with Himself. He formed every plant that grows, and every animal that breathes, each after its own kind, spiritually and temporally – ‘that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal, and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual.’ He made the tadpole and the ape, the lion and the elephant; but He did not make them in his own image, nor endow them with Godlike reason and intelligence. Nevertheless, the whole animal creation will be perfected and perpetuated in the hereafter, each class in its ‘distinct order or sphere,’ and will enjoy eternal felicity. That fact has been made plain in this dispensation, (D&C 77:2-3).

MAN IS THE CHILD OF GOD, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God.

Joseph F. Smith

John R. Winder

Anthon H. Land

First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints37

A plainer statement by the First Presidency can hardly be imagined, but the things of God are only discerned and comprehended through the power of the Spirit. It is then stated that “the original man,” who is Adam, began life as a human germ or embryo that becomes a man. Further, Adam is “the direct and lineal offspring of Deity,” “the child of God.” “Lineal” is defined: “1. in the direct line of descent: A grandson is a Lineal descendant of his grandfather. 2. having to do with such descent; hereditary: lineal right.”38 Every man is the spiritual offspring of Deity, and physically he has descended from the Fountain of Human Life, The Father, Elohim.

PRESIDENT JOSEPH SMITH

Adam was certainly the father of the human race, and in this context it is revealing to analyze this statement by the Prophet Joseph:

If Abraham reasoned thus – If Jesus Christ was the son of God, and John (Revelator) discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. WHERE WAS THERE EVER A SON WITHOUT A FATHER? AND WHERE WAS THERE EVER A FATHER WITHOUT FIRST BEING A SON? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? AND EVERYTHING COMES IN THIS WAY.39

Adam was a father, and if a father, HE WAS A SON, and since God was the Being Who created Adam, Adam was one of the Race of the Gods and created as His Son upon the principle by which all Sons of God are created.

PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG

No latter-day Prophet has written as much as President Young upon the subject of man’s origin, or as specifically. “There never was a first world or MAN: there will never be a last," said President Young.40 This being the case, there never was a beginning to the race we call human. In reality, the “human race” is the Race of the Gods, which is endless. There are Gods above us, and there will be Gods below us. There is only one way, according to the Prophet Joseph’s reasoning, to bridge the “gap” between the Generations of the Gods, and that is by man perpetuating his own race through pro-creation, spiritually and physically. As Brigham Young has stated:

HE (GOD) CREATED MAN, AS WE CREATE OUR CHILDREN; FOR THERE IS NO OTHER PROCESS OF CREATION IN HEAVEN, ON THE EARTH, IN THE EARTH, OR UNDER THE EARTH, OR IN ALL THE ETERNITIES THAT IS, THAT WERE, OR THAT EVER WILL BE.41

President Young did not accept the “traditional” concept of man’s creation: “Here let me state to all philosophers of every class upon the earth, WHEN YOU TELL ME THAT FATHER ADAM WAS MADE AS WE MALE ADOBIES FROM THE EARTH, YOU TELL ME WHAT I DEEM AN IDLE TALE. THERE IS NO SUCH THING IN ALL THE ETERNITIES WHERE THE GODS DWELL.42 Speaking further of Adam, he said, “He was made as you and I are made, and no person was ever made upon any other principle.”43 There seems to be no question in President Young’s mind that Adam experienced a natural birth physically. How else would a Man and His Eternal Companion create another human being? What is more natural than that?

Brighan Young makes a positive statement to the effect that the Gods indeed can produce physical as well as spiritual offspring:

Another item: We have not the power in the flesh to create and bring forth or produce a spirit; but we have the power to produce a temporal body. And when our spirits receive our bodies (in the resurrection), and through our faithfulness we are worthy to be crowned, WE WILL THEN RECEIVE AUTHORITY TO PRODUCE BOTH SPIRIT AND BODY.44

It seems logical that through the resurrection man will receive additional powers to those he already possesses, as the resurrection is a process of being “added upon.”

One of the most misinterpreted sermons in Mormon literature is the “Adam-God” sermon or President Brigham Young. Many have claimed that in this sermon Brigham Young preached that Adam was Elohim. The author does not find this interpretation anywhere in the text, but rather one of the greatest sermons on the creation of man and the divinity of the Savior.45 Because of its significance, much of the text will be quoted:

I WILL TELL YOU HOW IT IS. 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. We were made first spiritual, and afterwards temporal.

Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father ADAM came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. HE IS MICHAEL, THE ARCHANGEL, THE ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken – HE IS OUR FATHER AND OUR GOD, AND THE ONLY GOD WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. Every man upon the earth professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later.

In the Patriarchal Order of the Gods, Adam, or Michael, stands next in authority to Jesus, the Beloved Son. As the scriptures state.46 Michael led the valiant Hosts in the war in Heaven, and he was one of the chief participants in the creation of this pianet.47 To Adam was given the dominion over all his posterity, therefore, all Priesthood keys come to man through Adam’s administration, and when angels minister, they act “under the direction of Michael or Adam, who acts under the direction of the Lord”48 Jesus Christ. Adam, therefore, stands in relation to his posterity as a God.

When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the FATHER had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the FATHER? HE IS THE FIRST OF THE HUMAN FAMILY; AND WHEN HE TOOK A TABERNACLE, IT WAS BEGOTTEN BY HIS FATHER IN HEAVEN, AFTER THE SAME MANNER AS THE TABERNACLES OF CAIN, ABEL, AND THE REST OF THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ADAM AND EVE: FROM THE FRUITS OF THE EARTH, THE FIRST EARTHLY TABERNACLE WERE ORIGINATED BY THE FATHER AND SO ON IN SUCCESSION. I could tell you much more about this, but were I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be nothing to it, in the estimation of the superstitious and over-righteous mankind. However, I HAVE TOLD YOU THE TRUTH AS FAR AS I HAVE GONE.

President Young begins this section of his sermon by stating that the physical Father of Jesus was in reality the Father, Elohim. It is the writer’s opinion that when he asks, “And who is the Father,” the answer is Elohim, who President Young then identifies as the first of the human family.” President Young continues by explaining that when He, Elohim, took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his father in Heaven, (Jesus’ Grandfather).49 This doctrine harmonizes with, and, in fact, sounds reminiscent of Joseph Smith’s statement that if John the Revelator “discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ (Elohim) had a Father (Jesus’ Grandfather),49 you may suppose that He (Jesus’ Grandfather) had a father also (Jesus’ Great-Grandfather).50

The three presiding figures in the pre-earth Councils were the Father, Elohim, and His two most valiant Sons, Jesus the Firstborn, and Michael, or Adam. President Young states that these three formed a QUORUM, and the implication is made that the Trinity is patterned after that pre-earth Quorum:

It is true that the earth was organized by three distinct characters, namely, ELOHEIM, YAHOVAH, AND MICHAEL, these three forming a QUORUM, as in all heavenly bodies, and in organizing element, perfectly represented in the Deity, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

This doctrine is also taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith in The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 167-169, 190, 312.

Since Adam was God’s son physically, and there was no Mediator between God the Father and man (Adam) PRIOR TO THE FALL, it was Elohim who was in the garden giving instruction to Adam.51 With this preface, President Young’s sermon concludes:

Again, they will try to tell how the divinity of Jesus is joined to his humanity, and exhaust all their mental faculties, and wind up with this profound language, as describing the soul of man, ‘it is an immaterial substance’. What a learned idea! JESUS, OUR ELDER BROTHER WAS BEGOTTEN IN THIS FLESH BY THE SAME CHARACTER THAT WAS IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, AND WHO IS OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation.

I have given you a few leading items upon this subject, but a great deal remains to be told. Now, remember from this time forth, and forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost.

Treasure up these things in your hearts. In the Bible, you have read the things I have told you tonight; but you have not known what you did read. I have told you no more than what you are conversant with, but do the people in Christendom, with the Bible in their hands, know about this Subject? Comparatively nothing.52

A powerful statement is made by President Young that God was Adam’s physical Father and therefore the Grandfather of Adam’s children:

How has it transpired that theological truth is thus so widely disseminated? It is because God was once known on the earth among his children of mankind, as we know one another. ADAM was as conversant with HIS FATHER as we are conversant with OUR earthly parents. The FATHER frequently came to visit his SON ADAM, and talked and walked with him; and the CHILDREN OF ADAM WERE MORE OR LESS ACQUAINTED WITH THEIR GRANDFATHER AND THEIR CHILDREN WERE MORE OR LESS ACQUAINTED WITH THEIR GREAT-GRANDFATHER; and the things that pertain to God and to heaven were as familiar among mankind, in the first ages of their existence on the earth, as these mountains are to our mountain boys…”53

The Prophet, Brigham Young, states that the Father lived in the flesh at one time, as man lives now, and eventually obtained HIS exaltation, and ascended to thrones, principalities and powers, and received the knowledge and power to create – to bring forth and organize the elements upon natural principles.54 He then explains that after finishing the spiritual creation, to provide physical tabernacles for his first spirit children upon earth, God “charged” his body with coarse element (which He obtained from the FRUITS of the earth):

Things were first created spiritually; the Father actually begat the spirits, and they were brought forth and lived with Him. Then He commenced the work of creating earthly tabernacle, PRECISELY AS HE HAD BEEN CREATED IN THE FLESH HIMSELF, BY PARTAKING OF THE COARSE MATERIAL THAT WAS ORGANIZED AND COMPOSED THIS EARTH, UNTIL HIS SYSTEM WAS CHARGED WITH IT. CONSEQUENTLY THE TABERNACLES OF HIS CHILDREN [ADAM AND EVE] WERE ORGANIZED FROM THE COARSE MATERIAIS OF THIS EARTH.55

A great debt is owed to President Brighan Young for providing mankind with such a vast wealth of information relative to man’s physical origin.

PRESIDENT JOHN TAYLOR

One of the most simple yet precise statements on the physical origin of man is contained in President Taylor’s book, The Mediation and Atonement:

…if we take MAN, he is said to have been made in the IMAGE OF GOD, FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT HE IS A SON OF GOD: AND BEING HIS SON, HE IS, OF COURSE, HIS OFFSPRING, AN EMANATION FROM GOD, IN WHOSE LIKENESS, WE ARE TOLD, HE IS MADE. He did not originate from a chaotic mass of matter, moving or inert, out came forth possessing, in an EMBRYONIC STATE. ALL THE FACULTIES AND POWERS OF A GOD. And when he shall be perfected, and have progressed to maturity, he will be like HIS FATHER – A GOD: BEING INDEED HIS OFFSPRING. AS THE HORSE, THE OX, THE SHEEP, AND EVERY LIVING CREATURE, INCLUDING MAN, PROPAGATES ITS OWN SPECIES AND PERPETUATES ITS OWN KIND, SO DOES GOD PERPETUATE HIS.56

A study of the beginning of the text will show that Adam’s physical creation is being considered, and later also the physical creation of the Animal Kingdom. It is the author’s opinion that President Taylor’s remarks apply to the perpetuation of the Races both physically and spiritually.

As an Apostle, Elder Taylor had taught that “Man was created in the image of God, AND HE WAS THE OFFSPRING OF DEITY HIMSELF, and consequently made in his likeness; AND BEING MADE IN THAT LIKENESS, HE WAS A SON OF GOD, and the very object of his being planted upon the earth was that he might multiply”57 and in so doing perpetuate his father’s race.

PRESIDENT JOSEPH F. SMITH

President Smith in an address delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Christmas day of 1910, stated that man’s physical origin was from his Father and Mother in Heaven:

We do not fully realize, it seems to me, the simplicity and naturalness of those great doctrines that are involved in the probation of man, in his mortal state. Many have sought for the ORIGIN OF MAN in his development from the lower animals or creatures, and it is very difficult, indeed, to persuade men who are supposed to be scientific, to believe that the works of God are one eternal round, and the MAN IS NOTHING MORE AND CANNOT BE ANYTHING LESS, WE BELIEVE, THAN THE OFFSPRING OF GOD. No man, however scientific, however learned, however deeply he may search into the secrets of nature, can ever find out more than is REVEALED already in the Scriptures of divine truth, with reference to MAN’S ORIGIN. Men may speculate, and guess, and suppose many things, and can argue themselves into queer notions and believe with reference to man’s origin, but after all it will only be their beliefs, or their imaginations or conclusions from human reasoning. It would be superfluous, no doubt, for me to cite my hearers to the GENESIS IN THE BIBLE, where an account is given of man being placed upon the earth, formed in the image and likeness of God, being made in His likeness NOT ONLY MALE BUT ALSO FEMALE, for the Bible plainly implies that in order that man should become like unto God, or be created in His image and likeness, he should be a dual being, that is, HE SHOULD BE NOT ONLY MAN BUT THAT HIS COMPLEMENT OF OTHER SELF SHOULD BE WOMAN, THUS HE WAS FORMED IN THE LIKENESS OF GOD. …the great commandment that was given to him was that he should multiply and replenish the earth, and have dominion over it, and over all living creatures upon the earth, for he was made lord of all and above all things that were created of God, or were placed here on the earth. MAN WAS PLACED HERE TO BE THE LORD AND MASTER OF ALL OF THEM. WHY? BECAUSE HE WAS GOD’S CHILD; BECAUSE HE WAS MADE OR FORMED AND CREATED IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF HIS FATHER AND SHALI, I ADD HERE, IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF HIS MOTHER? If I should say such a thing it would shock the Christian world, and they would ridicule the thought or the idea that the ORIGINAL MAN ADAM HAD ANYTHING BUT A FATHER, AND OWED NOTHING BUT TO HIS FATHER, FOR HIS PHYSICAL EXISTENCE.58

President Smith gave even a clearer statement that Adam was born into this world of a Mother in an article published in the Deseret Evening News, December 27, 1913:

…God is a being with body parts, and passions and… His Son [Jesus Christ] is in His own likeness, and… man is created in the image of God. The Son, Jesus Christ, grew and developed into manhood the same as you or I, as likewise did God, His Father grow and develop to the Supreme Being that He now is. MAN WAS BORN OF WOMAN; CHRIST THE SAVIOR, WAS BORN OF WOMAN, AND GOD, THE FATHER, WAS BORN OF WOMAN. ADAM, OUR EARTHLY PARENT WAS ALSO BORN OF WOMAN INTO THIS WORLD, THE SAME AS JESUS AND YOU AND I.

CONCLUSION

The First Presidency in 1909 stated that “some of these facts” pertaining to man’s origin “are already known, and what has been made known it is our duty to receive and retain.” The author has studied the writings of the Prophets of the Lord on the ORIGIN OF MAN and believes that it is a revealed fact beyond question or doubt that Adam was physically THE SON OF GOD.

Whether you receive these things or not, I tell you them in simplicity. I lay than before you like a child, because THEY ARE PERFECTLY SIMPLE. IF YOU SEE AND UNDERSTAND THESE THINGS, IT WILL BE BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD; YOU WILL RECEIVE THEM BY NO OTHER SPIRIT. NO MATTER WHETHER THEY ARE TOLD TO YOU LIKE THE THUNDERINGS OF THE ALMIGHTY, OR BY SIMPLE CONVERSATION; IF YOU ENJOY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD, IT WILL TELL YOU WHETHER THEY ARE RIGHT OR NOT.” – PRESIDENT YOUNG (Journal of Discourse IV, p. 218)

FOOTNOTES

1. D&C 88:15.
2. Ether 1:2-3 and Hebrews 1:2-3.
3. The History of the Church, by Joseph Smith, Vol. V., p. 247 (hereafter cited as DHC).
4. D&C 107:43.
5. 2 Nephi 2:22.
6. The Journal of Discourses, by Brigham Young and others, Vol. I, p. 281 (hereafter cited as J of D).
7. Joseph Fielding Smith, Conference Report, April, 1967.
8. J of D, I, p. 50.
9. Article of Faith #10, Pearl of Great Price, p. 60.
10. Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith. p. 15.
11. Joseph F. Smith, Scrapbook of Mormon Literature, Vol. II, p. 555.
12. 2 Nephi 2:23.
13. Moses 3:25.
14. Moses 4:13.
15. Moses 2:27; 3:8.
16. Moses 3:7, also 4:25.
17. Moses 2:26.
18. Moses 6:9.
19. Moses 3:7.
20. Moses 6:58-59.
21. Moses 6:64-65.
22. Moses 6:22.
23. Moses 6:23.
24. Moses 6:43-45.
25. Abraham 1:2.
26. Abraham 1:3.
27. Parley Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, p. 55-56.
28. James Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p. 22,  663.
29. Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. I, p. 77-78.
30. Mormon Doctrine, Ed. I. p. 670, Ed. II. p. 72. (See also “First Flesh” in Mormon Doctrine.)
31. John 10:34-36.
32. Luke 3:38 KJ.
33. Luke 3:45 IV.
34. 1 Corinthians 15:38-39.
35. J of D., VI, p. 332.
36. Acts 17:28-29.
37. Man: His Origin and Destiny, p. 353-355.
38. World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary, p. 1133.
39. DHC, VI, p. 476.
40. J of D., XXVI, p. 27 (also IV p. 218).
41. Ibid., XI, p. 122.
42. Ibid., VII, p. 285.
43. Ibid., III, p. 319.
44. Ibid., XV, p. 137.
45. See Joseph Fielding Smith’s opinion of this sermon: Doctrines of Salvation, I, p. 96-106.
46. Revelation 12:7.
47. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 157.
48. Ibid., p. 168.
49. Revelation 1:6; also DHC, VI, p. 474.
50. DHC, VI, p. 476.
51. Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, p. 15.
52. J of D., I, p. 50-51.
53. Ibid., IX, p. 148.
54. Ibid., IV, p. 217.
55. Ibid., IV, p. 218.
56. Pages 164-165.
57. J of D., XVII, p. 370.
58. Joseph F. Smith, Scrapbook of Mormon Literature, Vol. II, p. 554-555.

NOTE – All capitals and underlinings in quotations added by the present author, unless designated otherwise.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• The Holy Bible, King James Version. Great Britain.
• The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1965.
• The Doctrine and Covenants. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1962.
• The Pearl of Great Price. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1962.
• Smith, Joseph. History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, bd. B.H. Roberts. 7 vols. 2nd Ed. rev., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1959-60.
• Young, Brigham, and others. Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. Photo Lithographic reprint of 1854 Ed., Salt Lake City: 1966.
• Lectures on Faith. N.B. Lundwall compiler, Salt Lake City.
• Scrapbook of Mormon Literature. Ed. Ben E. Rich, Chicago: Henry Etten and Co.
• Pratt, Parley. Key to the Science of Theology. IX Ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1965.
• Smith, Joseph. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Arr. Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1970.
• Smith, Joseph Fielding. Man: His Origin and Destiny. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1954.
• Smith, Joseph Fielding. Doctrines of Salvation. Comp. by Bruce McConkie, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954
• Talmage, James. Jesus The Christ. London: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1962.
• Taylor, John. The Mediation and Atonement of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1962.