The Adam-God Doctrine: Documentary Evidence that it was Taught

Part TWO

1. The following statement was recorded by Anson Call in Nauvoo, Illinois, and copied by Patriarch John M. Whitaker, also of Nauvoo. Brigham H. Roberts, Church Historian, years later made a copy from Patriarch Whitaker's copy which is reproduced here. Joseph Smith, Jr. is speaking. Although second hand, it does go along with other quotations which indicate the same thing.
   Now regarding Adam, He came here from another planet, an immortalized Being, and brought his wife Eve with him, and by eating of the fruit of this earth, became subject to death and decay. . .was made mortal and subject to death.
2. This statement was made by President Brigham Young on August 8, 1852 and was delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. The source reference is J.D. 3:90. Note that Adam & Eve came to this planet.
   There is only one gospel sermon, recollect, brethren and sisters, and the time that is required to preach it is from the day of the fall, or from the day when Adam and his wife Eve came here upon this planet, and from that time until Jesus Christ has subdued the last enemy, which is death, and put all things under his feet, and wound up all things pertaining to this earth. Then the gospel will have been preached, and brought up and presented, and the effects thereof, to the Father.
3. On November 14, 1852, President Heber C. Kimball gave an address in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. The reference is J.D. 1:356. Note the way in which he indicates that Adam had come from another planet.
   When we escape from this earth, (do) we suppose we are going to heaven? Do you suppose you are going to the earth that Adam came from? that Eloheim came from? where Jehovah the Lord came from? No. When you have learned to become obedient to the Father that dwells upon this earth, to the Father and God of this earth, and obedient to the messengers He sends---when you have done all that, remember you are not going to leave this earth. You will never leave it until you become qualified, and capable, and cap-acitated to become a father of an earth yourselves.
4. This quotation comes from the Journal of Wilford Woodruff under the date of September 17, 1854. Apostle Woodruff became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve on April 26, 1839. On September 17th he says that he attended a Prayer Circle "& had an interesting conversation" with President Brigham Young, Orson Pratt and others. Some of his (Orson Pratt's) doctrines as contained in the Seer were being discussed.
   Brother Pratt also thought that Adam was made of the dust of the earth. Could not believe that Adam was our God or the Father of Jesus Christ. President Young said that He came from another world & made this. Brought Eve with him, partook of the fruits of the earth, begat children & they were earthly & had mortal bodies & if we were faithful, we should become Gods as He was.
5. The following quote comes from the journal of Samual W. Richards, Vol. 2,215, under the date of March 25, 1855. He served for sev-eral years as the British Mission President and was honorably released from that position in June of 1854 when Apostle Franklin D. Richards took over. Apparently he attended a meeting wherein President Young made these comments.
   B. Young spoke to the meeting in a very interesting manner. *** Adam and Eve were made of the dust of the Earth from which they came, they brought their bodies with them. They had lived, died and been resurrected before they came here and they came with immortal bodies, and had to partake of the fruits of this Earth in order to bring forth mortal bodies, or natural bodies, that their seed might be of the dust of this Earth as they were of the dust of the earth from which they came.
6. Another quotation from the Journal of Wilford Woodruff under the date of May 6, 1855. Again, Elder Woodruff was attending a prayer circle with several of the brethren and President Young made the following comments.
   Adam & Eve had lived upon another Earth, were immortal when they came here. Adam assisted in forming this earth & agreed to fall when he came here, & he fell that man might be & the opposite principle to good, the devil, the serpent, the evil, was placed upon the earth that man might know the good from the evil, for without an experience in these things man could not know the one from the other. As soon as the devil was on earth he sowed the seeds of death in everything so as soon as they began to eat of the fruit of the earth they received into their system the seeds of mortality & of death so their children were mortal & subject to death, sorrow, pain & wo. Then when they partook of life, joy, ease & happiness, they would know how to prize it. Father Adam would never cease his labors to redeem his posterity & exalt them to all the glory they were capable of receiving.
7. This is a quote from a discourse given by President Young in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on April 20, 1856. The source is J.D. 3:319.
   He was the person who brought the animals and the seeds from other planets to this world, and brought a wife with him and stayed here. You may read and believe what you please as to what is found written in the Bible. Adam was made from the dust of an earth, but not from the dust of this earth. He was made as you and I are made, and no person was ever made upon any other principle.
8. The following comments were part of a discourse given by Pres-ident Young in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on October 9, 1859. The source reference is J.D. 7:285.
   Here let me state to all philosophers of every class upon the earth, when you tell me that father Adam was made as we make adobes from the earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale. When you tell me that the beasts of the field were produced in that manner, you are speaking idle words devoid of meaning. There is no such thing in all the eternities where the Gods dwell. Man-kind are here because they are the offspring of parents who were first brought here from another planet, and power was given them to propagate their species, and they were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth.
9. On January 27, 1860, Elder Wilford Woodruff recorded the minutes of a meeting which was held by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve in which they met to discuss some of the doctrines which were being taught by Orson Pratt. This journal entry of Elder Woodruff quotes President Young as saying that Adam came to this earth as a resurrected being.
   Michael was a resurrected Being and he left Eloheim and came to this earth & with an immortal body, & continued so till he par-took of earthly food and begot children who were mortal.
10. The following is an interesting statement made by President Heber C. Kimball on June 12, 1860, delivered at Willow Creek. The J.D. reference for this is 8:243-244.
    We often sing, "This earth was once a garden place," where God our Father dwelt, and took possession and a stand that mankind will take who attain to that honour....When he (Adam) planted the garden, he planted it with seeds he brought with him: and he also brought the animals from the earth he lived upon, where his Father dwelt.
11. The quote which now follows was given by President Young at a special meeting held in the St. George temple. It is recorded in the journal of L. John Nuttall, pp 19-21. At this time brother Nuttall was the private secretary to President Young. The date is Wednesday, February 7, 1877 just a few months before the temple was dedicated on April 6th.
    We have heard a great deal about Adam and Eve --- how they were formed and some think he was made like an adobe and the Lord breathed into him the breath of life. For we read, "From dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Well, he was made of the dust of the earth, but not of this earth. He was made just the same way you and I are made but on another earth. Adam was an immortal being, when he came on this earth. He had lived on an earth similar to ours.
12. Under the date of June 23, 1889, Apostle Abraham H. Cannon records a discussion he had with his father George Q. Cannon. The whole conversation was on how the Father (Adam) begat Jesus.
    Adam, though made of dust, was made, as President Young said, of the dust of another planet than this.
13. Elder B. H. Roberts, in an article printed in The Contributor Vol. 10:265 (1889) made some very interesting remarks concerning Adam coming from another planet.
    We are informed that the Lord God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb before it grew on our planet. As vegetation was created or made to grow upon some older earth, and made to grow, so likewise man and his helpmate were brought from some other world to our own, to people it with their children. *** . . . instead of being molded as a brick we are brought forth by the natural laws of procreation: so also was Adam and his wife in some other world.
14. President Joseph Fielding Smith, in his book: Man, His Origin and Destiny, pp 276-277 commented that life was transplanted here from another earth.
    . . . does it not appear to you that it is a foolish and ridiculous notion that when God created this earth he had to be-gin with a speck of protoplasm, and take millions of years, if not billions, to bring conditions to pass by which his sons and daughters might obtain bodies made in his image? Why not the shorter route and transplant them from another earth as we are taught in the scriptures?
15. In Doctrines of Salvation, Vol 1:139-140, President Smith again comments about how life was transplanted from another earth.
    I tell you, life did not commence upon this earth spontan-eously. Its origin was not here. Life existed long before our solar system was called into being. The fact is, there never was a time when man---made in the image of God, male and female---did not exist...
    The Lord has given us the information regarding his creations, and now he has made many earths, for there never was a beginning, never was a time when man did not exist somewhere in the universe, and when the time came for this earth to be peopled, the Lord, our God, transplanted upon it from some other earth, the life which is found here.

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