Note: this is the third of a three-part series on
Elder McConkie and the Adam-God theory, and is part of a larger six-part series
reviewing explanations about the theory by Elders Lee, Petersen, and McConkie.
The six-part series is in turn part of a larger blog series on Determining
Doctrinal Authority in Mormonism. The final and sixth post on the theory is
next (#25). Extra attention has been given to this false theory because it
provides opportunity to examine in-depth and in detail the true position of
Adam in the plan of salvation and also some of the exceptions, subtleties and
nuances within the fallible yet inspired nature of prophets of God.
Below is
further frank and clear explanation from Elder Bruce R. McConkie on the
Adam-God theory, some of which is and some of which is not found in Determining Doctrine. Also given is
a spiritual experience from the ministry of Elder McConkie about the theory.
Further commentary about President Brigham Young follows, concluding with true
teachings from him about Adam:
Bruce R. McConkie:
[Summary of facets of the Adam-God
theory:]
(1) The false claim that Adam is our Father and our God;
(2) That Adam lived on a prior earth as a mortal and had
been resurrected;
(3) That Adam and Eve are the parents of our spirits;
(4) That Adam created this earth as a home for his spirit
children;
(5) That he and Eve came here to provide mortal bodies for
their spirit children;
(6) That they came here as resurrected beings and were not
made from the dust of this earth, but of the prior earth on which they had
their mortal probation;
(7) That they did not die but returned to the celestial
realm from whence they came where they now preside in glory and dominion;
(8) That Adam is the Father of the mortal body of Christ;
(9) That all persons who gain exaltation will, after their
resurrection, create an earth, have spirit children, and then go down on the
earth they have created, there to be an Adam and an Eve in providing mortal
bodies for their spirit children.
This
doctrine was diametrically opposed, not only to the scriptures, but to the
philosophizing’s of Orson Pratt [that particles of intelligence should be
worshipped], which also were unscriptural.
Many have
supposed that President Young taught only portions of the above recitation and
that he was misquoted in what he did say. This simply is not true. He preached
enough sermons on the subject to fill a volume; they cover at least the 25-year
period from 1852 to his death in 1877; and they are correctly transcribed and
accurately represent his views.[1]
It is true
that for many years our enemies used quotations from the famous 1852 sermon
only. These quotations are capable of dual interpretation, and our apologists
[defenders] have spent their time trying to show how the statements in this
1852 sermon conform to the over-all patriarchal system. Now, however, literally
hundreds of quotations from Brigham Young and those around him have been
dredged up, which we can no longer brush aside as in the past.
In the 1852
sermon he said that Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. “Jesus, our
elder brother,” he said, “was begotten in the flesh by the same character that
ws in the garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven.” In the past our
brethren hve always maintained that this had reference, not to Adam but to Elohim.
The fact is, as subsequent sermons attest, Brigham Young meant that Adam was
the Father of Christ.
It was in
this 1852 sermon that President Young made the famous declaration: “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.”
The best
illustration of which I know that explains what President Young should have
meant was given by President Charles W. Penrose.
President
Penrose said: “As to Adam, he taught that he was God in the sense of being at
the head of the human family. That he was Michael, the Ancient of Days, and in
the resurrection would be at the head. In that way the whole human family will
be related to him as his children, and in the Patriarchal order he will be the
personage with whom they will have to do, and the only one in that capacity.
President Young taught faith in that Eternal Being to whom Adam and all of his
race should bow in humble reverence, who is our Eternal Father and the Father
of our elder brother, Jesus Christ, and is the Great Elohim.”
“Ant it
should be understood that the views entertained by that great leader and
inspired servant of the Lord, were not expressed as principles to be accepted
by mankind as essential to salvation. . . . That which President Young put
forth in the discourse referred to, is not preached either to the Latter-day
Saints or to the world as a part of the creed of the Church.”
“The views
then expressed were uttered in a single
sermon, which created so much comment that the speaker did not afterwards
enter into further details or explanations.
President Penrose explained the
sermon this way:
The substance of President Young’s
declaration was, that the person who was placed in the Garden of Eden and
became the great progenitor of the human race, is “our Father and our God.” He
said further, “and is the only God with whom we have to do.” Careful reading of
the entire address will show that President Young comprehended much more on
this subject than he then made known, and that he regarded our Father Adam as
the being who will stand, in eternity, at the head of the human family as the
great Patriarch and ruler over all his posterity, and the Parent with whom they
will have personal association and intercourse, as the representation and
embodiment to them of all that constitutes the individuality of the Godhead.
President
Joseph Fielding Smith and Elder John A. Widtsoe and a number of the other
Brethren have taken a similar approach. Even the First Presidency of the Church
(Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund) in a widely circulated
letter to Samuel O. Bennion, which sets forth in a marvelous way what we do
believe about Adam, fell into the trap of trying to explain away the statements
of President Young and make them seem to be in harmony with the true doctrine.
The trouble
with all this is that we are not dealing with “a single sermon,” and Brigham
Young did not mean what all of us wish he had meant. . . .
There are
also [Adam-God] quotations from Heber C. Kimball, Orson F. Whitney, L. John
Nuttall, W. W. Phelps, John Jaques, Eliza R. Snow and many others.
Our enemies
publish the minutes (including Photostats in the handwriting of Thomas Bullock)
of a seven and one-half hour meeting of the Council of the Twelve on April 5,
1860. The meeting considered at length the views of Brigham Young and Orson
Pratt about Deity. Nine of the Twelve were present. Six spoke against Brother
Pratt. He alone opposed the Adam-God views of President Young. The views of the
other two (Ezra Taft Benson and Franklin D. Richards) are not recorded.
There is,
of course, no question as to the true doctrine relative to Elohim, Jehovah, and
Michael. The scriptures themselves are clear. The First Presidency in the days
of President Joseph F. Smith made several express and pointed explanations,
including the Doctrinal Exposition on the Father and the Son published in 1916.
Our problem
is that over the years we have attempted to cover up and explain away things
that have now become common knowledge. Our credibility is completely destroyed
when we claim that Brigham Young was misquoted or meant something other than
what his words clearly mean. (Bruce R. McConkie Correspondence, 1983.)
As a member of the First Council of
the Seventy, Elder McConkie enjoyed a marvelous spiritual experience in which
it was made known to him that the theory was false and that the interpretations
that anti-Mormons and fundamentalist cultists placed on Brigham Young’s
teachings were false doctrine. While Elder McConkie’s personal spiritual
experience does not of itself constitute and define the position of the Church,
it is certainly in full and complete harmony with it. Such rare disclosures are
uplifting, edifying, enlightening, and helpful.
Bruce R. McConkie:
In the
second mission-wide conference, I was talking with some power and fluency about
this doctrine, explaining that these interpretations were false and defining
how and where the Church stood on Adam and on the members of the Godhead. In
the midst of this discussion, under circumstances where I was far more fluent and
expressive than my normal capacity allows, it suddenly seemed to me as though a
pillar of light extended up from me endlessly and the clear, unmistakable
impression came from the Spirit of the Lord that what I was teaching was true,
that the interpretations made by various people of Brigham Young’s quotations
was totally false [doctrine], and that if I felt so inclined I was perfectly at
liberty to speak in the Lord’s name as to the truths I was then declaring. I
did not so speak, reasoning that under the circumstances there had been so much
sensational and unusual matter presented to these particular missionaries that
I did not want to say something outside the usual bounds. As I look back, it
seems to me that this experience was given primarily for my benefit and
enlightenment. (Cited in Joseph Fielding McConkie, The Bruce R. McConkie Story: Reflections of a Son [Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book, 2003], 366-67.)
If it so happened, unlikely that it may
seem, that President Brigham Young went out of this mortal life and passed
through the veil into the spirit world, still believing or theorizing that Adam
or Michael was God our Father in Heaven or Elohim, then we can rest assured
that he was soon thereafter disabused of that false notion.
When Jesus died on the cross after
suffering for the sins of all of Adam’s children (see Alma 40:18), he himself
then passed through the veil and “the Son of God appeared” in the midst of an
“innumerable company of the spirits of the just” that included “Adam” and all
other ancient prophets and faithful/righteous men and women. There, “our
Redeemer spent his time during his sojourn in the world of spirits, instructing and preparing the faithful
spirits of the prophets.” There and then in the spirit world, in a great conference,
Jesus instructed and prepared and taught the prophets, including Adam, the
first mortal man, who was not His father.
So,
teaching and instruction continues in the spirit world, even for prophets and
apostles. By President Joseph F. Smith’s day the ancient prophets, including
Adam, had long since been resurrected (soon after Jesus) and gone on to their
exaltation, and the great and noble prophets of our dispensation who had died
were then there: “The Prophet Joseph Smith, and my father, Hyrum Smith, Brigham
Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and other choice spirits who were
reserved to come forth in the fulness of times to take part in laying the
foundations of the great latter-day work.” (D&C 138) Would not these
prophets also be taught and instructed, including Brother Brigham? As Elder
McConkie stated—“in due course all the faithful brethren, whether in this life
or in the spirit world, will have a perfect understanding and be united wholly
and totally where the concepts are concerned” (Bruce R. McConkie
Correspondence, 1972). If we don’t get it right in this life, they correct us
in the next.
Confirming these
truths is a personal experience in the life of J. Arthur Horne, who served for
many years as a patriarch in the Seattle, Washington, area until he passed away
in the late 1960s. Being a righteous and spiritual man of great faith, and
having questions about the early death of a son, he prayed fervently and then in
a special spiritual experience was given the opportunity to interview President
Brigham Young, who had long since passed away. After asking various questions
and receiving answers: “Now I asked the question that had been praying on my
mind: ‘What do you do over there [in the spirit world], Brother Young? He sat
back in his chair and threw one leg over the other. ‘Oh, mostly studying and
preaching,’ he said.”
Studying—learning,
being taught—and preaching. Again, if Brother Brigham still entertained any
notions that Adam/Michael was God the father when he crossed the veil into the
spirit world, such would have been quickly dispelled by his studies. He would
have been corrected in his views, by Joseph Smith himself if necessary, for
Brother Joseph presides in the spirit world as dispensation head. As President
Joseph Fielding Smith said, Brother Brigham “will have to make his own
explanations on the points there involved”—he will have to or has accounted for
any errant teachings the same as anyone else. We will all be judged for what we
believe and teach. Best to get it right—from the scriptures.
Selected doctrinally
correct teachings about Adam from President Brigham Young:
“We believe in
God the Father and in Jesus Christ our elder brother. We believe that God is a
person of tabernacle, possing in an infinitely higher degree all the
perfections and qualifications of his mortal children. We believe that he made
Adam after his own image and likeness…” (Journal
of Discourses, 10:230-31.)
“Adam was as
conversant with his Father who placed him upon this earth as we are conversant
with our earthly parents. The Father frequently came to visit his son Adam, and
talked and walked with him…” (Journal of
Discourses, 9:148.)
“The Bible
declares God [the Father] has a corporeal body; that in his likeness,
precisely, He created Adam.” (Journal of
Discourses, 1:238.)
“We are the
children of Adam and Even. So we also and they [Adam and Eve] are the children
of our heavenly Father,…” (Journal of
Discourses, 13:311.)
“His mother Mary
bore him… According to the flesh he [Jesus Christ] was of the seed of Adam and
Eve.” (Journal of Discourses,
6:95-96.)
“I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you
are well acquainted with God our heavenly Father, or the great Elohim. You are
all well acquainted with Him, for there is not a soul of you but what has lived
in His house and dwelt with Him year after year; and yet you are seeking to
become acquainted with Him, when the fact is, you have merely forgotten what
you did know. I told you a little last Sabbath about forgetting things.
“There is not a person here to-day but what is a son or a
daughter of that Being. In the spirit world their spirits were first begotten
and brought forth, and they lived there with their parents for ages before they
came here. This, perhaps, is hard for many to believe, but it is the greatest
nonsense in the world not to believe it. If you do not believe it, cease to
call Him Father; and when you pray, pray to some other character.” (Journal
of Discourses 4:216.)
Some excellent counsel about truth
and error from President Young:
“I want to
say to my friends that we believe in all good. If you can find a truth in
heaven, earth or hell, it belongs to our doctrine. We believe it; it is ours;
we claim it. Is that right? If you find an error here, I ask you to leave it, pass
it by, let it alone, do not embrace it in your faith, do not practice it in
your lives. I say to all, to my brethren and sisters and to strangers, if we
teach anything that is good, receive it, I beseech you. If we have any good in
our doctrine, believe it and embrace it, it will do you good. If we have errors, do not embrace them.
I have been trying, for almost forty years, to tell the people how to be saved.
I have always made this proposition to every man I have conversed with on the
subject of truth and error, ‘If I have errors, I will give ten errors for a
truth. Do you want to trade?’” (Journal of Discourses 13:335.)
It should
go without saying that the principles taught by Elder McConkie and others that
have been quoted relating to the Adam-God theory, are applicable to anything
else incorrect that President Young or others of his day may have taught.
For
instance, Brigham Young is sometimes referenced as teaching that those who
become Sons of Perdition and are cast out into outer darkness, either do not
receive a body in the resurrection, or die after being resurrected, and they go
through a process of dissolution/annihilation or dissolving back into spirit
element; thus they are no longer a living spirit or any other kind of being
having agency, but become eligible, as the eons and ages pass, to be born again
as a spirit child of God.
Presidents Brigham
Young, George A. Smith, Heber C. Kimball, and others are also quoted as
teaching a convoluted concept of blood atonement. The true doctrine of blood
atonement is that by the shedding of His blood in the Garden of Gethsemane and
on the cross, Jesus Christ suffered for the sins of all mankind so that they
can be saved if they will repent and follow Him. The false doctrine of blood
atonement is that there are certain sins so serious, so grievous and heinous,
that the sinners own blood must be shed to atone for their sins if they are to receive
forgiveness.
These
notions are found in the Journal of
Discourses and other outlets from earlier times. Again, wherein they are
out of harmony or contradict the scriptures, the principles taught by prophets
and apostles in the quotations found in these blogs apply. Such incorrect ideas
are not doctrines of the Church. The scriptures prevail over such old
quotations in matters of doctrine (see blog 19).
As to the
fate of sons of Perdition, President Joseph Fielding Smith taught:
Speaking of the Sons of Perdition,
the Lord says this: “And the end thereof, either the place thereof, nor the
torment, no man knows; neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be
revealed unto man except to them who are made partakers thereof.” I don’t think
that Pres. Young is going to be a partaker thereof.” . . . I give you one passage
of scripture which declares definitely that they remain as though there had
been no redemption [see D&C 76:45-48]; . . . The Prophet [Joseph Smith]
says that they will endure. President Joseph F. Smith has said that. President
John Taylor has said it. . . . They will endure. Their bodies and spirits will
be united. . . . The fact is anyway, that they remain—their spirits and bodies.
Now if the Lord revealed something to President Young about their final destiny
and that they’re going to be annihilated or the spirit and body dissolved, go
back into the elements to be created over again someway, President Young didn’t
say that the Lord had revealed anything to him, and these scriptures say, “no
man knows” and no man will know but those who partake of it. So I don’t know. I
don’t know their destiny. I don’t know what’s going to become of them finally,
only that they have their spirits and bodies, and the scriptures say they can’t
die again. Now we do have that and in the words of the Prophet also—that they cannot
die.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, “The Fundamentals of the Gospel,” unpublished
lecture given at BYU, August 25, 1954, 11-12.)
In regards
to blood atonement, Elder McConkie wrote:
You note that I
and President Joseph Fielding Smith and some of our early church leaders have
said [things] and written about this doctrine and you asked if the doctrine of
blood atonement is an official doctrine of the Church today.
If
by blood atonement is meant the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the answer is Yes.
If by blood atonement is meant the shedding of the blood of men to atone in
some way for their own sins, the answer is No.
We
believe that the blood of Christ, shed in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the
cross of Calvary, cleanses all men from sin on condition of repentance. As
expressed by a Book of Mormon scripture: “Salvation was, and is, and is to
come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.” (Mosiah
3:18.)
We
do not believe that it is necessary for men in this day to shed their own blood
to receive a remission of sins. This is said with a full awareness of what I
and others have written and said on this subject in times past.
In
order to understand what Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Charles W. Penrose
and others have said, we must mention that there are some sins for which the
blood of Christ alone does not cleanse a person. These include blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost (as defined by the Church) and that murder which is the
unlawful killing of a human being with malice. However, and this cannot be
stressed too strongly, this law has not been given to the Church at any time in
this dispensation. It has no application whatever to anyone now living whether
he is a member or a nonmember of the Church.
There
simply is no such thing among us as a doctrine of blood atonement that grants a
remission of sins or confers any other benefit upon a person because his own
blood is shed for sins. Let me say categorically and unequivocally that this
doctrine can only operate in a day when there is no separation of Church and
State and when the power to take life is vested in the ruling theocracy as was
the case in the day of Moses. From the day of Joseph Smith to the present there
has been no single instance of so-called blood atonement under any pretext.
Anything
I have written or anything said by anyone else must be understood in the light
of the foregoing limitation. Brigham Young and the others were speaking of a
theoretical principle that operated in ages past and not in either their or our
day. As I recall, Brigham Young’s illustrations were taken from the day of
Moses and the history of ancient Israel and could not be applied today.
This
is no such a doctrine as blood atonement in the Church today nor has there been
at any time. Any statements to the contrary are either idle speculation or pure
fantasy. It is certainly not the current teaching of the Church and I have
never in over 61 years of regular church attendance heard a single sermon on
the subject or even a discussion in any church class.
You
asked if the statements of our leaders of the past, including those found in
the Journal of Discourses, represent
the official stand of the Church. The answer, as indicated in the comments
above set forth, is that they do not. The statements pertain to a theoretical
principle that has been neither revealed to nor practiced by us. (Bruce R.
McConkie Correspondence, 1978.)
Now, when
it comes to anti-Mormon critics and fundamentalist cultists, none of these
quotations and statements thoroughly explaining the true doctrines of the
gospel will mean anything or help to correct their views and purposes. They
cling to old false and incorrect notions with all their strength and resolve;
they find them simply too useful as a means of destroying the faith of the
uneducated, unwary, new converts, doubters, and curious nonmembers. For them the
fact that they are not believed or taught by the Church is an inconvenience
easily ignored or disputed. In their minds, any tool that might weaken or destroy
another’s soul is too good to pass up.
Thankfully,
the Adam-God theory and other errant doctrines that occasionally percolate up
from the past or blow with the latest wind of false doctrine are gradually
losing their effectiveness and presence today—they are gradually losing their
steam. Whatever the issue raised by the devil, the safe course is to stay in
the mainstream of the Church, hold to the iron rod, and follow the living prophets.
I think of
Orson F. Whitney, a supremely gifted and talented church leader of the past,
with few equals and no superiors in certain ways. Yet, even as a bishop, he
became caught up in the mysteries, was beguiled by a self-proclaimed prophet,
and believed in reincarnation and exalted parents giving birth to resurrected
babies, for the better part of 25 years. It took him two years of humble
heartfelt and sincere repentance to overcome those false notions and then more
years on a sort of unofficial probation before he could become “doctrinally” worthy
to be called as an Apostle of the Lord. Yet he succeeded admirably. May others
so ensnared in any errant or false doctrines do likewise.
[1] As was
shown in blog 19, this statement is now known to be inaccurate and in doubt.
No comments:
Post a Comment