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A FairMormon Response to Questions Asked in Swedish Fireside with Elder's Jensen and Turley

1: BoM translation—2: Polygamy and Polyandry—3: Polygamy forced?—4: Book of Abraham—5: "Lying for Lord"—6: Mark Hofmann—7: Blood atonement—8: First Vision—9: Sanitized history—10: "Not all truth is useful"—11: Angelic affidavits—12: Blacks and priesthood—13: Temple concerns—14: Evidence of Vikings—15: Adam-God—16: Kinderhook

Question:
Could I please ask you a short question?

• It’s about the Adam-God theory...I’ve heard answers to how Brigham might have thought about it, but my question is, how come it divided the church at the time?
• There was a lot of Apostles and leaders that didn’t agree to what Brigham had to say.
• What is church opinion on Adam-God out there in Utah?
• Why didn’t they clear it up...that Adam is not Heavenly Father?

• Question: What is the Church's opinion of Adam-God?
  Answer: Adam is not God our father. The Church formally rejected the teaching.

Adam-God. Again, complicated question...Bottom line, the Church position today is that while Michael was Adam, and as Adam was the father of the human race, and through the process of exaltation can become celestialized, Adam is not God our father.
—Elder Turley's response to this question at the Sweden fireside.

• Question: Why did the Adam-God theory divide the Church at the time it was preached?
  Answer:
• Question: Why would Apostles and leaders disagree with what Brigham was saying?
  Answer:
• Question: Why didn't they clear up the confusion that Adam is not Heavenly Father back in Brigham Young's time?
  Answer: The Church clarified its position in 1902.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never formulated or adopted any theory concerning the subject treated upon by President Young as to Adam.
—Charles W. Penrose, "Our Father Adam," Improvement Era (September 1902), 873. reprinted in Charles W. Penrose, "Our Father Adam," Millennial Star 64 no. 50 (11 December 1902), 785–790. (this paragraph from p. 789).

• Question: What did Brigham Young preach about Adam and God?
  Answer:

Based on Brigham's remarks, and others he made in public and in private, it is apparent that Brigham Young believed that:

• Adam was the father of the spirits of mankind, as well as being the first parent of our physical bodies.
• Adam and Eve came to this earth as resurrected, exalted personages.
• Adam and Eve fell and became mortal in order to create physical bodies for their spirit children.
• Adam was the spiritual and physical father of Jesus Christ.

Brigham claimed to have received these beliefs by revelation, and, on at least three occasions, claimed that he learned it from Joseph Smith. While this doctrine was never canonized, Brigham expected other contemporary Church leaders to accept it, or at least not preach against it. (Orson Pratt did not believe it, and he and Brigham had a number of heated conversations on the subject.

For a detailed answer, we recommend:

Matthew B. Brown., "Brigham Young’s Teachings on Adam," {{{extpublication}}} —On the 9th of April 1852 President Brigham Young stepped up to the pulpit in the old tabernacle on Temple Square and informed a group of Elders, who had gathered there for General Conference, that he was going to straighten them out on an issue which they had been debating about. The topic of disagreement centered upon who was the Father of Jesus Christ in the flesh—Elohim or the Holy Ghost. President Young surprised the people who were in attendance by announcing that it was neither one of them. (Click here for full article)