| MORMON CHURCH (LDS) | ADAM IS GOD AND THE FATHER OF JESUS CHRIST - an aberrant teaching from a Mormon "prophet" |
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The pivotal doctrines taught in the Bible are those regarding the origin and work of Jesus Christ.
It is the purpose of every religion in the world to deny the origin of Christ and the work that He
claimed to do, as recorded in the Bible. The following are four different teachings (revelations) regarding the person of God and Jesus Christ, that have been accepted and taught by the Mormon church. These views were presented by the founder, presidents and prophets, and were taught from 1820 until 1976. FIRST TEACHING - JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ARE THE SAME INDIVIDUAL - 1830 [ See: First Vision Accounts ] The Book of Mormon which was translated by Joseph Smith and published in 1830, presents a view of God and Jesus Christ that is very much in keeping with Joseph Smith's indication of what he saw in his "First Vision" as he wrote in 1832. "And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and the son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end." The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31:21 "Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arranged before the bar of Christ, the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is on Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil." The Book of Mormon, Alma 11:44 "And he hath brought to pass the redemption of the world, whereby he that is found guiltless before him at the judgment day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of god in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one god, in a state of happiness which hath no end." The Book of Mormon, Mormon 7:7 At first glance, the reader might assume that the Book of Mormon teaches a trinitarian view of god. However, this is not true. It is the hallmark or Mormon doctrine that it rejects trinitarian theology as heresy. The Book of Mormon presents a view of God as one, singular being, not as a trinity as is taught in the Biblical record. In the Book of Mormon, God, the Lord, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit) are all one singular individual. The various names only represent the various functions of the ONE god. "And Amulek said: Yea, there is a true and living God. Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one god? And he answered, No." The Book of Mormon, Alma 11:27 - 29 This revelation in the Book of Mormon continues, especially in 3 Nephi, Chapter 5, when god is identified with Jesus Christ who both made the covenants with Jacob. There is no real distinction made between god and Jesus Christ, the same actions being attributed to both. This is not trinitarian doctrine, but a teaching about a singular god who has different functions identified by different names. This is essentially a modalistic view. The greatest question, in relation to the Book of Mormon, is why does the Mormon church teach a different doctrine about god, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit than is taught in their own scripture, presumably the foundational doctrinal document of their belief? Mormons actually believe and teach that there are an infinite number of gods. SECOND TEACHING - JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ARE THE SAME INDIVIDUAL - (1820) 1832 [ See: First Vision Accounts ] SECOND POSITION ARTICULATED BY Joseph Smith - written in 1838. "So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods... I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me... When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all descriptions, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other -- This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him! I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong) -- and which I should join." LDS Prophet Joseph Smith, "First Vision", 1820, The Pearl of Great Price". 1838 Version of the "First Vision" From this official account, it can be determined that Joseph Smith believed that god the"Father" and his son "Jesus Christ" were two distinct individuals that were separate from each other. God could point to his son who was separate from himself and refer to that personage as "My Son", indicating that the two were not one in the same. This account of the "First Vision", written around 1838 and published in 1842, is significant in that it presents a view and teaching about god and his son that Joseph Smith inserted, or changed, in relation to his first account of the "First Vision" which he had written in his own hand in 1832. From a "monotheistic", but not trinitarian, position in the Book of Mormon, in 1830, Joseph Smith moved to a "bitheistic" position by 1838, noting he had seen the "Father" and the "Son" as two separate beings in his "First Vision". FIRST POSITION ARTICULATED BY Joseph Smith, written in 1832. "...the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord in the 16th year of my age a piller of light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me and I was filled with the spirit of god and the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord and he spake unto me saying Joseph my son they sins are forgiven thee. go thy way walk in my statutes and keep my commandments behold I am the Lord of glory I was crucifyed for the world that all those who believe on my name may have Eternal life behold the world lieth in sin at this time and none doeth good no not one they have turned asside from the gospel and deep not my commandments they deaw near to me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and mine anger is kindling against the inhabitants of the earth to visit according to this ungodliness and to bring to pass that which hath been spoken by the mouth of the prophets and apostles behold and lo I come quickly as it was w{r}itten of me in the cloud clothed in the glory of my Father..."(sic) LDS Prophet Joseph Smith, An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journal of Joseph Smith, 1989, pp. 3 - 8. 1832 Version of the "First Vision" It is apparent from reading the two accounts, both of which were produced by Joseph Smith himself, that the character and personage of god differ greatly from one account to the other. Both accounts cannot be reconciled to each other regarding the aspects of God. The following differences in regards to god and his son in both accounts: Version 1 - 1832
FOURTH TEACHING - ADAM THE FATHER OF JESUS CHRIST DOCTRINE First Position articulated by BRIGHAM YOUNG April 9, 1852 "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... Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost." LDS Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 51, April 9, 1852. The question is, who was the "character" in the Garden of Eden who Brigham Young claims to be the father of Jesus Christ? There are three possibilities: 1. Adam, after he died and became a god, left his planet to come to earth and father Jesus Christ. 2. Adam's father, his "Father in Heaven", left his planet to come to earth and father Jesus Christ. 3. Satan is the father of Jesus Christ. FIFTH TEACHING - ADAM? THE FATHER OF JESUS CHRIST DOCTRINE Second Position articulated by BRIGHAM YOUNG February 8,1857 "But when we arrive at that point, a vail (sic) is dropt (sic), and our knowledge is cut off. Were it not so, you could trace back your history to the Father of our spirits in the external world. he is a being of the same species as ourselves; He lives as we do, except the difference that we are earthly, and He is heavenly. He has been earthly, and is of precisely the same species of being that we are. Whether Adam is the personage that we should consider our heavenly Father, or not, is considerable of a mystery to a good many. I do not care for one moment how that is; it is no matter whether we are to consider Him our God, or whether His Father, or His Grandfather, for in either case we are of one species - of one family - and Jesus Christ is also of our species. ...Now to the facts in the case; all the difference between Jesus Christ and any other man that ever lived on the earth, from the days of Adam until now, is simply this, the Father after He had once been in the flesh, and lived as we live, obtained His exaltation, attained to thrones, gained the ascendancy over principalities and powers, and had the knowledge and power to create - to bring forth and organize the elements upon natural principles. This He did after His ascension, or His glory, or His eternity, and was actually classed with the gods, with the beings who create, with those who have kept the celestial law while in the flesh, and again obtained their bodies. Then he was prepared to commence the work of creation, as the Scriptures teach. It is all here in the Bible; I am not telling you a word but what is contained in that book. {NOTE: Brigham Young lied without conscience. NONE of the things he had just said are taught in the Bible} 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 tabernacles, precisely as He had been created in this flesh himself, by partaking of the course material that was organized and composed this earth, until His system was charged with it, consequently the tabernacles of His children were organized from the coarse materials of this earth. When the time came that His first-born, the Saviour, should come into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father came Himself and favoured that spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting any other man do it. The Saviour was begotten by the Father of His spirit, by the same Being who is the Father of our spirits, and that is all the organic difference between Jesus Christ and you and me. and a difference there is between our Father and us consists in that He has gained His exaltation, and has obtained eternal lives. The principle of eternal lives is an eternal existence, eternal duration, eternal exaltation. Endless are His kingdoms, endless His thrones and His dominions, and endless are his posterity; they never will cease to multiply from this time henceforth and forever. LDS President and Prophet, Brigham Young, February 8, 1857, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, pp. 215 - 221. There was a great deal of controversy surrounding Brigham Young's pronouncement, in 1852, that Adam was the "Father in Heaven" that all Mormons must worship. As a result of that, his statement in 1857 hedged on who he actually claimed to be the "Heavenly Father". He stated that it did not really matter, but his statements referring to Adam had the pronoun "His" capitalized in the written record, indicating that he still believed that Adam was the "Heavenly Father". THE FIRST POSSIBILITY The answer to the three possibilities, as to who was in the garden and the father of Jesus Christ, is made very difficult by the Mormons themselves. Brigham Young taught that Adam was god and should be worshipped and that Adam was the father of Jesus Christ. He taught that Adam, after his death as a human being, became a God himself, as all good Mormons do. By taking Brigham Young's two doctrines together, the following is being taught:
Probably one of the biggest problems is in relation to Jesus Christ, who is claimed to be the first- born, but was certainly not the first to be sent to earth to inhabit an "earthly tabernacle". In fact, it was not until thousands of years after the death of Adam, the "Heavenly Father", that Jesus Christ was born. Why was the first-born not the first sent? {In reality, the problem occurs because Brigham Young was trying to fit the concept of the Biblical "first-born" into the Mormon system which did not define the term or accept the Biblical teaching in the same way. Because of this, the concept did not fit and the sequence of time was distorted completely.} By definition, "earthly tabernacles" could only be produced by earthly individuals who had been sufficiently infused with the coarse material of this earth in order to commence that earthly, human part of the process. How then could the "Heavenly Father" return from his celestial planet to father an "earthly tabernacle" when he was a glorified and celestial being and not infused with earthly material? What was the purpose in the birth of Jesus Christ and more importantly, what was the reason for His death? Because of the obvious contradiction to previous Mormon doctrine and the bizarre process by which Adam was considered a god, Brigham Young's doctrine, that Adam was the god that should be worshipped by the inhabitants of this earth, was subsequently rejected by later Mormon officials. Therefore, the Mormon church rejects his teaching that Adam was the father of Jesus Christ. However, Brigham Young was the second prophet of the Mormon church and was affiliated with the organization very early in its history. To reject his doctrine and teaching is the same as claiming that Brigham Young was a false prophet; a very serious blow to Mormon credibility. On the other hand, to reject his doctrine and teaching without declaring him to be a false prophet accomplishes the same thing. On what basis does the church reject Brigham Young's doctrine and teaching if it is not true, yet he is not claimed to be a heretic or a false prophet? THE SECOND POSSIBILITY The second possibility is that Adam's father, his "Father in Heaven", made the journey from his planet to the earth in order to father Jesus Christ. Since "God the Father" is a glorified man, he has a body of flesh like humans, and therefore had sexual relations with Mary, producing Jesus Christ "God's son". However, as stated above, this body of the "Heavenly Father" was a glorified or celestial body and not infused with the earthly material and experience that would cause the production of the "earthly tabernacles", human children. In what context the father of the "Heavenly Father" would leave his own planet to become the father of Jesus Christ (his grandson) cannot be imagined. THE THIRD POSSIBILITY The third possibility is that Satan is the father of Jesus Christ. It does not seem probable that Mormons could actually believe that to be the case, however, option one is rejected by Mormons because of the Adam-God teaching and option two is considered to be heresy by them as well. This fumbling around for an explanation as to the birth of Jesus Christ presents Mormons with a serious breach of confidence. Rejecting the revelation from one of their own prophets, they are faced with either a heretical doctrine or belief that Satan was somehow involved. What the Mormon church has done is simply side-step the issue and used another doctrine that replaced that which was taught by Brigham Young. They did not deal with the issue at the core, preferring not to admit the fatal flaw in Mormon theology, that their Presidents and Prophets do not speak scripture through the revelation and words of their "Heavenly Father". To have dealt with the issue, would have meant admitting to the fallacy of Mormon doctrine at the root, calling into dispute thirty years of Mormon history under the presidency of Brigham Young including the founding of the "place" and temple in Salt Lake, the possible disintegration of the church and the loss of position and prestige that the leaders enjoy. It fell to Mormon leaders to resolve their own dilemma, and they did just that, by putting a doctrinal spin on their reasoning that rejected Brigham Young's Adam-God doctrine and at the same time did not impugn the veracity of Brigham Young as a prophet. In 1976, then "living prophet" and president of the Mormon church, Spencer W. Kimball, revealed the process by which the doctrine was changed in the following statement: "We warn against the dissemination of doctrines which are not according to the scriptures and which are alleged to have been taught by some of the General Authorities of past generations. Such, for instance in the Adam-God theory. We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine." LDS President Spencer W. Kimball, Deseret News, Church Section, October 9, 1976. Even in denouncing the heresy of the Adam-God doctrine as it relates to Mormon doctrine, which was a good thing, Mr. Kimball belied his duplicity. Fearing and knowing that contradiction of previous doctrines was still a great problem, he did not denounce Brigham Young for teaching false doctrine, he did not denounce a President of the church or a Prophet for teaching false doctrine, but he denounced the "General Authorities" of the past for ALLEGEDLY teaching false doctrine. He denounced a doctrine that he implied wasn't really taught by the hierarchy of the church, but was alleged to have been taught. He sidestepped the issue, implied that the teaching never happened and said that non-specific individuals were alleged to have been involved. He denounced the doctrine, and at the same time did not admit that it was taught by Brigham Young, thus preserving the authority and veracity of the presidency and prophetic office under Brigham Young. Dealing with truth in a truthful manner comes very hard for the hierarchy of the Mormon church, but when trying to cover an entire system of untruth, it becomes impossible. The Biblical record rejects all four theories. Brigham Young's revelation and rhetoric notwithstanding, the Biblical record is clear and a denial of its veracity by a "prophet", who was unable to stay within the doctrinal parameters of his own church, will not change what is the truth. THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST - ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: after His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph , before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Bible, Matthew 1:18 (NKJV) "But while he thought about these things, behold, and angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for he will save His people from their sins." The Holy Bible, Matthew 1:20 - 21 (NKJV) "Then Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I do not know a man?" And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." The Holy Bible, Luke 1:34 - 35 (NKJV) "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. they will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them - bringing swift destruction on themselves." The Holy Bible, 1 Peter 2:1 (NIV) "Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist - he denies the Father and the Son." The Holy Bible, 1 John 2:22 (NIV) |
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