Mormonism’s lie of “eternal progression” and the Adam – God doctrine

An age-old lie is stil being repeated
Introduction

 

This essay discusses the false Mormon doctrine in “eternal progression” and the related but now unpopular “Adam-God” doctrine of second president Brigham Young.
PART I: Eternal Progression

Mormon President Lorenzo Snow (president from 1898-1901) is remembered for a well worn phrase:

“As man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become.”

The theology behind this couplet is the Mormon idea of “eternal progression,” i.e. that God was once a mortal man on earth who “progressed” to becoming a God. In the same way, man on earth can become God through “eternal progression” from a pre-existent spirit through incarnation on earth, then on to “godhood.”

This is the same lie that the serpent told Adam and Eve, that they would become as God.

 

The false teaching of eternal progression was first publicly proclaimed by Joseph Smith at the funeral of an early Mormon convert, King Follett. Known as the King Follett Discourse this speech is an address delivered by Joseph Smith on April 7, 1844 two months before Smith’s death (and published in “Journal of Discourses” (6:1-11)):

 

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret. If the vail was rent to-day, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible,–I say, if you were to see him to-day, you would see him like a man in form–like yourselves, in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image, and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked, and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another.”

Further in this King Follett discourse Smith gets into the subject of eternal progression from self-existent “intelligences”:

 

” Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self-existent principle. It is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it. All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement.The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits. …

This is good doctrine. It tastes good. I can taste the principles of eternal life, and so can you.”

What did other Mormon leaders teach on this subject?

• Brigham Young: 
  

  “He is our Father- the Father of our spirits, and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are, and is now an exalted Being…It appears ridiculous to the world, under their darkened and erroneous traditions, that God has once been a finite being;..” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, pp. 333-4)

• Orson Pratt: 
  

  “The Gods who dwell in the Heaven from which our spirits came, are beings who have been redeemed from the grave in a world which existed before the foundations of this earth were laid. They and the Heavenly body which they now inhabit were once in a fallen state.” (Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer(1853-4), p. 20)

 

From these citations we can see that Mormon doctrine by teaching that: i) the soul of man is derived from self-existent “intelligences” which become spirits, then incarnate man, then on to “godhood”; ii) there are are many such “Gods” in the heavens”; iii) God the Father even went through this “progression;- is far removed from authentic Christianity, which, in contrast to the falsehoods of Mormonism, teaches that i) the goal of man is to spend eternity in heaven with God, not to himself “become god”; ii) that God is changing. We read in Isaiah and elsewhere that the True God is unchanging; iii) that there is only one God, not many “Gods.” This denial of the oneness of God is a sure indicator of the unchristian nature of Mormonism.

 

PART II: The “Adam-God” doctrine of Brigham Young

Here is what second Mormon President Brigham Young had to say about the Adam-God doctrine. This was part of a speech delivered in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle on April 9, 1852:

 

“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. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later.”(cited in Journal of Discourses,Vol 1, p.50)

In the same sermon Young continues:

“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. Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation.”(Ibid, page 51)

 

“If we can pass Joseph and have him say, `Here; you have been faithful, good boys; I hold the keys of this dispensation; I will let you pass;’ then we shall be very glad to see the white locks of Father Adam”. Young also, in speaking to his critics, said, “Some have grumbled because I believe our God to be so near to us as Father Adam” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 5, pp. 331-22)

So what did Heber C. Kimball (first counsellor to Brigham Young) have to say about this? Well on June 29, 1856, he stated

“I have learned by experience that there is but one God that pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this earth–the first man.”(cited in Journal of Discourses 4:1)

Evangelical researcher Bill McKeever writes on his “Mormonism Research Ministries” website:

“In a letter dated February 19, 1981, McConkie again expounded this thought when he wrote, “…people who teach false doctrine in the fundamental and basic things will lose their souls. The nature and kind of being that God is, is one of these fundamentals” (pg. 7). Again, if the Adam-God doctrine is false, as leaders such as Kimball and McConkie agree, then we must conclude that Brigham’s soul is lost.”

But what did Young himself think? Did he view it as merely a personal opinion, or as doctrine to be held as binding?

Well, the answer here is quite obvious. In spite of the attempts of some LDS apologists to say that Young was merely expressing a private opinion, the words of YOung himself refute them. In 1870 Young writes in “Journal of Discourses”(vol 13, page 95):

“I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture”

(To those LDS apologists who object and say Brigham Young didn’t “send out” the Journal of Discourses” and so we can regard his aberrnat views here as dismissable evidence, we reply as follows. The appearance (or not) of Brigham Young’s sermon in JoD is not really relevant. What is relevant is whether Young actually said those words quoted above.
If he did say them , then we have to assume he viewed his sermon as “Scripture”. He didn’t “send out” the JoD but that is not what he said in his speech, where he is referring to his sermons.)

Mormon leaders of recent decades have backed away from Brigham Young’s wild doctrine that God the Father was once Adam. Yet the fact remains that it was once taught as doctrine, and even more importantly, it underlines the false doctrine of “eternal progression” which the Mormon religion continues to teach to this day.

In October 1976, twelfth Mormon president Spencer W. Kimball branded Brigham’s teaching “false doctrine.” He writes:

“We denounce [the Adam-God] theory and hope that everyone will be cautioned against this and other kinds of false doctrine.” Conference Report, p. 115 (October 1-3, 1976).

If Brigham Young was a false prophet, where does that leave Mormonism as the supposed “restored gospel”?

Conclusion

The false Adam – God doctrine is today a great source of embarrassment ot the LDS Church, but one which will not go away. In a CNN interview a few years ago on “Larry King Live” , Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley was not able to defend this false and anti-Christian teaching.

The underlying false doctrine of “eternal progression,” i.e. that man starts out as a pre-existent intelligence and eventually progresses to “godhood” through a process involving incarnation on earth, continues, however, to be taught as Mormon doctrine.