Tim, I don’t want to be rude, but your post is a classic example of many of the traditional mistakes LDS apologists used to make in trying to explain away the historicity of the Adam-God Theory (AGT).

First rule of AGT discussions: DO NOT CONFLATE THE HISTORICAL QUESTION WITH THE DOCTRINAL QUESTION.

Mormons confuse these two questions all the time, and you sir, are guilty of just this error here. The question of whether the AGT is currently doctrinal (and I agree with you that it isn’t) has NOTHING to do with the question of whether Brigham Young historically taught the AGT as if it was doctrinal. You cannot use the answer to the doctrinal question as evidence in arguing the historical question.

It’s been years since I’ve read Buerger carefully, but I have never seen anything that persuasively combats his basic conclusions. And I don’t expect to.

AB

I don’t think we have a clear understanding of everything each member of the Godhead does, but it’s clear that Jesus Christ is Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God of Israel, our only Redeemer. He’s the one who matters. We’re not supposed to get distracted by a lot of speculation on how others support the Lord in his role as Savior.

References to the LORD in the Bible refer to Jesus Christ. “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” (Exod. 15:2) Jesus is our God and our fathers’ God, and he alone is our salvation.

I don’t think there is the least bit of justification in saying another member of the Godhead is superior to the Lord. The Lord is head of all. He’s our strength. He’s the Mighty One of Jacob, the God of our salvation. “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” (Psalm 18:2)

Therefore, I really can’t agree with the chart showing the cast of characters in the Garden of Eden. It seems unscriptural to me. Rather than embellish the scripture that we have with bits and piece of hearsay, albeit supposedly from Brigham Young, I prefer to stick with scripture itself.

The scriptures say that the Lord God (Jehovah) created all things, including Adam’s body. How that process is done is not specifically spelled out in detail, but I really don’t think we should say the Lord isn’t responsible for Adam’s creation. Jesus Christ specifically said: “Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created.” (D&C 29:34)

It may be irrelevant to try to dissect how much Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit participated in creation, but one thing’s for certain: Jesus Christ, the Creator of all, redeemed the workmanship of his own hands. There is no other Savior beside him.

It is important to recognize that Jesus Christ is our God, the God of our Salvation. Whether you want to go into detail on how Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit are part of the Godhead, and how Adam, “one of the chief princes” (Daniel. 10:13), is at the Lord’s right hand helping him out, is just icing the cake. But the cake is that Jesus Christ is Almighty God. Period. Nobody else gets that title … not Heavenly Father, not the Holy Spirit, and not Adam.

I hate to be a wet blanket here on rampant theories, but scripture spells it out: Jesus is the Father of Israel. He’s the God of the Bible. Just how much Heavenly Father has been involved in daily operations here on earth is not given specifically, but we do know that the LORD’s hand was in everything. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace who shall rule and reign forever. He is the Lord of Hosts.

Jesus told the brother of Jared: “Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters.” (Ether 3:14)

Jesus told Adam: “I am God; I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh.” (Moses 6:51)

Jesus told Joseph Smith: “I am the Lord thy God.” (D&C 132:12)

The Lord of Hosts himself is our Redeemer. He is the Stone of Israel — a sanctuary to those who know him and a stumbling stone to those who don’t.

At the risk of sounding like a repeating record, I must say that we should be wary of jumping to conclusions based on what someone wrote down who thought he had heard a prophet say something at one time or another. It’s Jesus who is our God. And that’s the only thing that really matters.

Adam had a celestialized, but spirit, body. Remember that when he came into physical being in the Garden of Eden he still had not fallen and therefore was in the presence of God the Father.

He clearly was not reffering to Adam as God the Father, according to J.F.Smith, because of the fact that ‘father adam’ “helped” to organize the world.

Adam is in a sense, a god, due to the fact that he is now an exalted being. He holds the “keys of [our] salvation under the direction of the Holy One(Jesus Christ).” It is through his authority that angels, and even the Lord appear to the earth(see teachings of Joseph Smith, compiled by Joe Fielding Smith). In this sense, it is him with whom we have to do.

Those who would like to read more of what Joseph Fielding Smith said on this subject should look it up.

It is the explanation that has best suited me.

Anyone who wants to see more on what he write

This is an article in which Brigham Young stated that “Adam is our father and God”

Is this article is true, and if so, what other way is there to interpret when he says “our father and GOD”

So, while you are technically correct that the Adam-God theory has no place in LDS theology, what does it matter that it was not canonized? It comes up again and again and therefore, it is a good idea of any serious student of LDS history and theology to know for themselves what all the controversy was about. No, of course we don’t believe that Adam was our God.

But then, I think we’ll just have to wait until we meet Brigham to be able to ask him what he was really trying to teach. No intentional cop-out Kalvin. Let me know what didn’t work for you and if you are interested in additional dialog.

“Whether Adam is the personage that we should consider Our Heavenly Father, or not, is considerable of a mystery to a good many. I do not care for one moment how that is; it is no matter whether we are to consider Him our God, or whether His Father, or his Grandfather, for in either case we are of one species of one family and Jesus Christ is also of our species.”
Brigham Young;JD 4:217.

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