Teachings Concerning Adam as God Our Father

Questions about the identity of God the Father deal with the very heart of our worship. They should be approached with both reverence and candor.

Fred C. Collier’s “Nutshell” Explanation

In Adam-God in a Nutshell, Fred C. Collier presents a collection of Brigham Young’s statements as teaching that Father Adam is God our Eternal Father. The sections therein on the Father’s identity and His parentage of humanity lay out the basis for this understanding. Fred’s introduction regards President Young as a prophetic and theological authority, not merely a successful pioneer leader.1

This is more specific than simply the identification of Adam with Michael, which is already familiar to modern Latter-day Saints, yet who view this in a different light than their forebears. Many early Latter-day Saints accepted and proclaimed President Young’s teachings as authoritative and true, although this conviction gradually waned across the generations.

President Young credited this teaching to Joseph Smith rather than presenting it as his own innovation. Fred documents President Young’s statements of April 4, 1860, December 16, 1867, and May 14, 1876, together also with many recollections by others who knew Joseph. These are identifiable testimonies about Joseph’s own teachings; such testimonies can and should be compared with Joseph’s own surviving discourses rather than making assumptions about what he could or could not have taught. No utterance by Joseph Smith has ever been discovered which states that Adam is not God the Father. On the contrary, many statements exist which indicate that he had this revealed to him early in his ministry, and subsequently taught it to those close to him.2

The Later LDS Rejection

Although Joseph F. Smith originally embraced the Adam-God doctrine, as seen in his testimony given in the 1873 minutes of the Salt Lake City School of the Prophets,3 his later correspondence with one A. Saxey dated January 9, 1897 instead treated President Young’s teachings as personal opinion rather than a revelation binding upon the Church. He had evidently changed his mind at some point between these dates, which Fred has argued was due to the influence of Orson Pratt upon him.

Joseph F. Smith’s opinion stands against Fred’s documentary collection of favorable statements by other Church Presidents who taught the doctrine during these same decades, including John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow (Snow having taught it in private also in 1897, the same year Joseph F. Smith wrote his letter to Saxey). The early historical record thus contains explicit testimony for this teaching; later efforts to deny its authority rest on other bases.4

In his October 1976 general conference address Our Own Liahona, Spencer W. Kimball expressly rejected the Adam-God teaching and warned Church teachers against disseminating it. Fred’s own account of why President Kimball made this statement is available in Adam-God in the Bible.5

Although Joseph F. Smith initiated the downward trend for this doctrine as a tenet of faith, subsequent Church Presidents for more than the next half-century remained silent on it during their presidential tenures. President Kimball’s address constitutes the first concrete institutional rejection thereof, not merely an inference from silence. Nevertheless, the doctrine was taught and affirmed, either in private or public settings, by the first five presidents of the Church, who understood it as a revelation from heaven.6

The Point of Divergence

Brother Fred Collier accepts President Young’s teachings as prophetic and revelatory; President Kimball’s 1976 statement rejects that understanding. This doctrinal discrepancy is real. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ declared, “this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”7

Therefore, a correct understanding of the identity of God remains an essential part of our quest for eternal life. It requires more than simply reciting history; readers must examine prophetic teachings and revelations in full context, the meaning assigned to them by those who were in a position to know, and the authority claimed for accepting or rejecting those revelations. Above all, it requires sincere prayer and a witness from heaven.8

For those who desire a single, focused volume containing President Young’s holistic teachings on this subject, President Brigham Young’s Doctrine on Deity is highly recommended.

This website’s affirmation of Father Adam’s status as our Heavenly Father is not presented as a position shared by the current LDS Church’s leadership or members. Likewise, the modern rejection of this teaching should not be used to erase the documentary question about what President Young and his associates actually taught. A fair inquiry allows each source to speak for itself, and leaves room for respectful disagreement over authority and continuity of revelation.

Sources

  1. Fred C. Collier, Adam-God in a Nutshell, Doctrine of the Priesthood, Vol. 2 No. 2 (April 1975; third edition May 2006), introduction and pp. 11–16. ↩
  2. Fred C. Collier, President Brigham Young’s Doctrine on Deity, p. 229, note 12; pp. 376–377. The cited witnesses include the April 4, 1860 meeting minutes, Wilford Woodruff’s journal for December 16, 1867, and President Young’s discourse of May 14, 1876. ↩
  3. Fred C. Collier, President Brigham Young’s Doctrine on Deity, p. 370, Salt Lake City School of the Prophets minutes, June 9, 1873. ↩
  4. Joseph F. Smith to A. Saxey, January 9, 1897, pp. 235–238, Joseph F. Smith papers, MS 1325, box 33, folder 1, Church History Library, images 370–373. Compare Collier, President Brigham Young’s Doctrine on Deity, pp. XXX–XXXIII and 446 (Brigham Young Jr.’s journal, October 12, 1897). ↩
  5. Spencer W. Kimball, Our Own Liahona, general conference, October 1976; Ensign, November 1976, passage rejecting Adam-God teaching. Fred’s affirmative exposition: Adam-God in a Nutshell, introduction. Fred C. Collier, Adam-God in the Bible, autobiographical introduction, pp. LXXIV–LXXV, recounting his experience of the 1976 rejection and his association with Elis Craig. ↩
  6. Spencer W. Kimball, Our Own Liahona, general conference, October 1976; Collier, President Brigham Young’s Doctrine on Deity, pp. XXX–XXXIII and 446, for the collected favorable presidential statements. ↩
  7. John 17:3, King James Version. ↩
  8. James 1:5–6; Moroni 10:4–5; Doctrine and Covenants 9:8–9; 46:7–8; 50:17–24. These passages call for asking God, spiritual discernment, and rejection of deception. ↩

Read the related studies in Faithfulness to the Restored Gospel: Continuity, Change, and Apostasy.