{"id":49499,"date":"2025-04-04T04:44:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T10:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=49499"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:48:23","slug":"samuel-weber-on-adam-god-doctrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/samuel-weber-on-adam-god-doctrine\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Weber on Adam-God Doctrine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One observation about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/brigham-young\/\">Brigham Young<\/a>\u2014particularly when it comes to his most controversial ideas, like the Adam-God teachings\u2014is that he tended to take ideas from Joseph Smith and then amplify them. The priesthood and temple ban on individuals with black African ancestry, for example, can be seen as an expansion of things Joseph Smith accepted and taught as explanations for slavery, some of which was reflected in the Book of Abraham. Plural marriage originated with Joseph Smith and was stabilized and expanded under Young\u2019s leadership. The Adam God teachings were an amplification of the role Adam held in Joseph Smith\u2019s thought, brought into dialogue with his teachings about apotheosis (humans becoming like God). In a recent interview\u00a0 at the Latter-day Saint history blog <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the Desk<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Samuel Weber shared more details about the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/adam-god-theory\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adam-God theory<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and how fragments of it still exist in the Church today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"FgbF4sv3E7\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/adam-god-theory\/\">What Did Brigham Young Teach About Adam and God?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;What Did Brigham Young Teach About Adam and God?&#8221; &#8212; From the Desk\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/adam-god-theory\/embed\/#?secret=b9Pm5DRJkL#?secret=FgbF4sv3E7\" data-secret=\"FgbF4sv3E7\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Samuel Weber summarized the major components of the Adam-God doctrine:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For a significant portion of his presidency, Brigham Young taught the innovative but controversial doctrine that Adam and Eve had previously experienced mortality, achieved exalted god status, bore spirit children, and became the gods of planet Earth. \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To summarize, Brigham Young taught that:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Mortality<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Adam and Eve had previously experienced mortality and were exalted beings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Transportation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. To seed the earth with human life, Adam-God and Eve-God transported themselves from another world to planet earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Fruit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. To prepare their celestialized bodies to create mortal tabernacles for their children, Adam-God and Eve-God ate the fruit of this earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Procreation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The physical bodies of mankind were birthed through a natural procreative process.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Ancestry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As the progenitors of mankind, humans are literal, physical descendants of gods.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Godhood<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Humans that eventually attain godhood will likewise have the ability to create both physical and spirit children.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The relevance of the teaching today include the facts that \u201cAlthough the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has distanced itself from this teaching, some fundamentalist groups continue to adhere to it, and quotes identifying Adam as God have long been fodder for anti-Mormon publications.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To my point about Brigham Young taking ideas from Joseph Smith and then amplifying them, Weber pointed out the ideas in Joseph Smith\u2019s teachings that preceded Young\u2019s Adam-God theory:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although Joseph Smith never explicitly taught the Adam-God theory, he did make several statements that brought Latter-day Saint conceptions of God and man close to each other. Smith taught that human spirits have existed eternally, \u201cco-equal with God himself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smith described God the Father as having \u201ca body of flesh and bones as tangible as man\u2019s\u201d (D&amp;C 130:22), highlighting God\u2019s similarity with man. This closure of the gap between the human and the divine achieved its fullest expression in Joseph Smith\u2019s King Follett discourse. \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Early Latter-day Saints would have considered Adam the first man on earth and father to the human race. Additionally, Joseph Smith received a revelation that gave an expanded celestial role to Adam, dubbing him \u201cprince of all, the ancient of days\u201d and identifying him with the archangel Michael (D&amp;C 27:11).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The role Joseph Smith taught that Adam held, as patriarch and prince over the human race, combined with the idea that human beings were ontologically similar to God laid the seeds of the ideas that Brigham Young would teach about Adam as God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President Young\u2019s controversial Adam-God teachings did not go over well in some quarters, which would later lead to the idea being discounted by high-ranking leaders of the Church. Orson Pratt actively opposed Young on the point, while other apostles admitted after Young\u2019s death that they felt that \u201cin the promulgation of doctrine he took liberties beyond those to which he was legitimately entitled\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchhistorianspress.org\/george-q-cannon\/1870s\/1877\/08-1877?lang=eng\">George Q. Cannon Journal, August 29, 1877<\/a>). <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weber points out how Joseph F. Smith backed away from the doctrine, writing a 1897 letter that dismissed the doctrine:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The doctrine was never submitted to the councils of the Priesthood nor to the church for approval or ratification, and was never formally or otherwise accepted by the church. It is therefore in no sense binding upon the Church. Brigham Young\u2019s \u201cbare mention\u201d was \u201cwithout indubitable evidence and authority being given of its truth.\u201d Only the scripture, the \u201caccepted word of God,\u201d is the Church\u2019s standard.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few other times might have been cited as well. For example, the treatise by James E. Talmage entitled \u201cThe Father and the Son\u201d indirectly targeted the teachings, while Spencer W. Kimball would directly denounce the Adam-God doctrine in general conference in 1976:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We hope that you who teach in the various organizations, whether on the campuses or in our chapels, will always teach the orthodox truth. We warn you 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, is the Adam-God theory. We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are clear statements that despite Brigham Young teaching the idea, it is not accepted as a doctrine of the Church today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That being said, while the specific idea that Adam is our God is not accepted or acceptable in the Church, there are other parts of the Adam-God teachings that still remain. Weber pointed out several examples from teachers in the Church Education Department throughout the twentieth century, noting that<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the Adam-God theory has been rejected by the mainstream church, fragments of these teachings persist within the Church Educational System (CES). The persistent fragments include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Human life originated on another planet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Human bodies originated via a birthing process.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother are the original parents of humankind\u2019s physical form. \u2026<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Institute teachers shared these views with me when I was a student between 2004 and 2007. Handouts compiling statements of these Adam-God fragments were downloadable from the BYU-Idaho website in 2016 when I was researching this topic. Although I suspect most church educators would reject the Adam-God theory in its entirety, those who continue to share these statements ensure that shards of the discarded theory endure.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outside of the CES and the examples Weber shared, other examples of Adam-God doctrinal fragments exist in Church literature. Most blatant among these is Hymn 51, \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/manual\/hymns\/sons-of-michael-he-approaches?lang=eng\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sons of Michael, He Approaches<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d, which was only changed slightly from its original form as an Adam-God hymn in order to survive in the hymnal to the present day. The manual, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchofjesuschrist.org\/study\/manual\/teachings-brigham-young\/chapter-7?lang=eng\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> also contains some of Brigham Young\u2019s Adam-God teachings, though not as blatant due to the fact that they are shorn of the full context. For example, on page 50, we read the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Things were first created spiritually; the Father actually begat the spirits [see D&amp;C 76:24], 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 coarse material that was organized and composed this earth, \u2026 consequently the tabernacles of his children were organized from the coarse materials of this earth.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, parts of the Adam-God teachings are still alive and well in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even if the heart of the doctrine has been removed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How do we make sense of parts of the doctrine remaining in the Church&#8217;s teachings today? Samuel Weber offered his insights into the matter:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I view the Adam-God theory as an interesting example demonstrating that revelation is not always a \u201cstraight line,\u201d so to speak.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The revelatory process is apparently varied enough to include starts and stops (such as polygamy), the removal of deeply entrenched policy (such as the 1978 priesthood revelation), grassroots insights (such as Eliza R. Snow\u2019s pronouncement of a Heavenly Mother), and expansive epiphanies (such as the vision of the three degrees of glory).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brigham Young\u2019s radical idea that Adam is God was something of a revelatory detour or a \u201cdead-end,\u201d in the words of Teryl Givens. Ultimately, the teaching proved too theologically dissonant for church members and leadership.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fromthedesk.org\/adam-god-theory\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adam-God doctrine<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, head on over to the Latter-day Saint history blog <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the Desk<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to read the full interview with Samuel Weber.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One observation about Brigham Young\u2014particularly when it comes to his most controversial ideas, like the Adam-God teachings\u2014is that he tended to take ideas from Joseph Smith and then amplify them. The priesthood and temple ban on individuals with black African ancestry, for example, can be seen as an expansion of things Joseph Smith accepted and taught as explanations for slavery, some of which was reflected in the Book of Abraham. Plural marriage originated with Joseph Smith and was stabilized and expanded under Young\u2019s leadership. The Adam God teachings were an amplification of the role Adam held in Joseph Smith\u2019s thought, brought into dialogue with his teachings about apotheosis (humans becoming like God). In a recent interview\u00a0 at the Latter-day Saint history blog From the Desk, Samuel Weber shared more details about the Adam-God theory and how fragments of it still exist in the Church today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2911,2890],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brigham-young","category-from-the-desk"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53087,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49499\/revisions\/53087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}