INCONSISTENCIES–ADAM OUR FATHER AND GOD - Godbeite Transcription

 As found in the Mormon Tribune on June 18th, 1870

INCONSISTENCIES–ADAM OUR FATHER AND GOD

Do you read anywhere that we shall possess all things? Jesus is our elder brother and all the brethren shall come in for a share with him,–for an equal share according to their works and calling, and they shall be crowned with him.” 

(Jour. Dis. Vol. 3, page 93.)

But what are we here for to-day? To lay the foundation of a temple to the Most High God, so that when His son our elder brother shall again appear he may have a place to lay his head. Vol. 2, page 33, Jour. Dis., also Vol. 1, page 339.

These quotations are from sermons delivered by Brigham Young. They are not brought up here as being of themselves inconsistent, for there are many scriptures that may be brought to prove the doctrine, some of which are from the Savior’s own mouth. They are reasonable. But when coupled with the doctrine that Adam is our God and the only God with whom we have to do, irreconcilable inconsistencies seem to result. I therefore quote them to show that Prest. Young endorses the doctrine, that there may be no flying from the issue. According to the foregoing, Pres. Young believes that “Jesus is our brother–our older brother.” 

I now introduce other quotations from Pres. Young’s discourses:

Christ is the author of this gospel, of this earth, of men and women, of all the posterity of Adam and Eve, and of every living creature that lives upon the face of the earth.

Vol. 3, Jour. Dis. 80th page.

Webster says the word “Author,” signifies, 1st, “one who produces, creates, or brings into being.”

2nd, “beginner, former, or first mover of anything; hence, the efficient cause of a thing.”

Christ, then, is the “author, the creator, the originator of the gospel!” It must certainly then  be his gospel! He created the earth and all that pertains to it, together with all the posterity of Adam and Eve. Now it is a doctrine well understood, and taught by president young to the people, that no person or being whether God or man was ever brought into existence, or ever will be only by and in accordance with the laws of procreation. For the purpose of eternal increase, therefore, men and women are sealed as husbands and wives for time and for all eternity; and Brigham Young says, “They never can become Gods unless thus united.” This being the case, it necessarily follows that if Jesus Christ is the creator of all Adam and Eve’s posterity, he must also be the creator of Adam and Eve; and as they, also, were created by the laws of generation, Adam and Eve must stand to him in the relationship of son and daughter, and their children must be grandsons and granddaughters to him. That is, he must be the Grand Father of the human family. I will now introduce another quotation from Pres. Young, Jour. Dis., Vol. 3, page 94, which tends to favor this idea.

The Lord sent forth His gospel to the people. He said I will give it to my son Adam.

As I said above, if Christ originated the gospel it must be his. I cannot see, at least, why it should not be his. At any rate it was not Adam’s (God’s) gospel, for the person who owned it said, “I will give it to my son Adam.”

Again, Pres’t. Young in Jour. Dis. Vol. 1, page 50 and 51, says:

The question has often been asked who it was that begot the son of the Virgin Mary * * * I will tell you how it is: Our Father in heaven begot all the spirits that ever were or ever will be on this earth, and they were born spirits in the eternal world; then the Lord, by His power and wisdom, organized the mortal tabernacle of man * * * Now hear it, O, inhabitants of the earth–Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner! 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. 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.” (Adam.)

Also Jour. Dis. Vol. 1, page 238:

I believe the Father came down in his tabernacle and begot Jesus Christ.

From the foregoing quotations we glean the following items of President Young’s theology:

First, That Adam is our father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.

Second, That he was and is the author or father of all the spirits that ever were or ever will be on this earth–Jesus of course included.

Third, That when Adam came to this earth he came with a celestial (resurrected) body, bringing Eve, one of his wives, with him.

Fourth, That Adam also became the father of our fleshy bodies–he and his wife Eve, being our temporal parents.

Fifth, That he, Adam, being God, came down in his tabernacle and begot the temporal body of Jesus Christ.

Sixth, President Young also teaches that Christ is our “Elder Brother;” that he originated the gospel; that he is the author, creator, or father of the human race, and that he bestowed his gospel upon Adam and called him his son.

IRRECONCILABLE INCONSISTENCIES

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First, How can Christ be the father of the human family and at the same time be their “elder brother?” He must have been our brother in the spirit world, as President Young says we were all begotten there by the same being,–namely Adam. He certainly was not our elder brother in this world, for we had many brothers before him in this life.

Was Christ, then, our elder brother in the spirit world? We will see. President Young says he (Christ) was the author (creator) of all the posterity of Adam and Eve. Then if he is their creator, and created them by the laws of procreation–which President Young declares to be the only creative power in existence–he must have created them in the spirit world, for we know they were not created by him here. In either case they would be his posterity–not Adam’s. And if he was their creator then he was not their “elder brother.”

Again, if Christ was not the elder brother but the creator of mankind, then he must have been the creator (father) of Adam and Eve. Thus he becomes the Grand Father of all the human family. He not only created all the posterity of Adam and Eve says President Young, but He originated the gospel and gave it to “his son Adam.” This is a declaration that Christ is the father of Adam. But now follows a direct contradiction.

He, President Young, says that Adam is our father and God, and the only God with whom we have to do. That he first created all the human family–Jesus also, he being one of them–spiritually, and afterwards, temporally, thus becoming both temporal and spiritual father of all the race. And in reference to Jesus specially he says that Adam came down in person and begot the temporal body of Jesus Christ through the Virgin Mary.

I would here ask: If Adam is God, and the only God with whom we have to do, who was it that talked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day, after he had transgressed? Who was it that dared presume to speak to Joseph Smith at so many different times, and, in referring to Adam, “the only God with whom we have to do,” to call him a transgressor, just as he would other weakling mortals? Who was it called upon Adam by his own voice, saying “I am God, I made the world and men before they were?” Who was it called upon Adam “to be baptized and repent by water, in the name of mine only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men?” To whom did Adam speak when he said “Why is it that men must repent and be baptized by water?” I answer he spake to the true and living God–the God to whom we pray–“the only God with whom we have to do,”–the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or else he did not speak at all. God commanded Adam to call upon Him in the name of Jesus, and promised to give him whatever he might ask–Jesus who, President Young says, was Adam’s own temporal and spiritual son.

According to President Young, Christ is our brother, Adam’s father, our grandfather–and at the same time is Adam’s first begotten spiritual son and is his literal temporal son! Now it is stated in the Doctrines and Covenants that Adam–though a celestial, a resurrected being, according to President Young–died at the age of 930 years. We are also taught that Jesus Christ was the first who broke the bonds of death,–“the first fruits of those who slept.” Brother Brigham also says that a spirit cannot beget a tabernacle of flesh, and yet he says that Adam,–who begat all spirits that ever came to earth, the same Adam who was in the Garden of Eden, came down in this tabernacle and begat Jesus Christ, the Son of the Virgin Mary. Pretty well for a dead man!

How do these ideas accord with each other and with the quotations introduced from the Pearl of Great Price. It is probable some may try to escape from the dilemma by saying that these quotations are from a revelation given to Enoch, who lived several thousand years ago, and consequently may not have been transmitted to us pure. It must be remembered, however, that we had no written copy among us of this revelation, and we never should have heard of it had not God, as assumed by orthodox Mormonism, re–revealed it to the prophet Joseph Smith. I presume they would not want to wish to impeach the correctness of his revelations.

Who can unravel such mysteries, such conflicting statements, such nonsense! Excuse my want of reverence for error, however orthodox it may be, or whatever may be its claims upon my veneration by reason of its antiquity.

I feel like exclaiming with the sectarians, “Great is the mystery of Godliness! God manifested in the flesh!” I have only to add: it is a great pity that those who teach cannot satisfy themselves in preaching what they do know and what they thoroughly comprehend. They would thus avoid the mortification of making themselves ridiculous by their contradictions and prevent the loss of the confidence of their brethren by presenting mere imagination as the revelations of heaven. It is said that we shall all “see eye to eye” when the Lord brings again Zion. But ignorance, the father of error, bigotry, superstition, priestcraft, kingcraft and wickedness of every kind,–and the devil too perhaps!–ignorance, I say. can never make us “see eye to eye,” though it may make us so blind we cannot see at all. But how is it with truth? Truth never contradicts itself, never comes in contact with any other truth; and people never can become one only as they learn and comprehend the truth.

The whole world are one now so far as they comprehend truth. Who in the world, except Brother Hyde, would try to prove by science that one and one can make three? I should hope that even he may be convinced of his error by-and-bye, if he is not already. If by enlightenment all mankind have become one in some things, who will venture to say that by proper education they may not all become one in all things? It is said that the same cause will invariably produce the same result. If education, then, has united all mankind on some points, it naturally follows that education continued will unite them on other points, and still others, until possibly we shall all–as has been predicted–“see eye to eye in all things.”

“What! the wicked see eye to eye with the Saints and be saved?” Why not? When they learn their true interest–when they learn that the wages of sin is death, who knows but they may turn to righteousness and be saved and live. People are generally too selfish, too anxious permanently to benefit themselves to operate against what they know to be for their greatest good.