One of the least understood yet monumental doctrines restored in this last dispensation is the identity of our Father and God as someone who was no stranger to this earth but instead intimately connected with it, and hence to us, his children. It was the doctrine that Adam, the first man, was in fact our God, the being who begat our spirits as a resurrected being and then begat our bodies as a mortal instrument. Yes, Adam was “formed of God” as the scriptures say (Luke 3:45 JST), but to the early saints that fact did not preclude him from simultaneously being our God.
As Joseph Smith said to the Nauvoo Council of 50—while referencing Ahman, the Adamic word for God—”‘Ahman‘…signifies the first man or first God, and ‘Ahman Christ’ signifies the first man’s son.”1 Such a saying was not an abrupt revelation but instead the capstone of years of hints. As Benjamin F. Johnson recalled about what he had heard the Prophet teach in his life:
“He taught us that God was the great head of human procreation—was really and truly the father of both our spirits and our bodies; that we were but parts of a great whole, mutually and equally dependent upon each other, according to our conditions. And in our love of God we show, as do the members of our bodies, naturally a greater love and protection for our head. But this reasoning could not be fully understood by all, and…, in the infancy of the church, our minds and views were more narrow.”2
The narrow ‘minds and views’ of the members of the church in its ‘infancy,’ as Johnson above cites, were not peculiar to his day, however, as even today very few understand or attempt to understand this restored knowledge. Without undertaking an exhaustive overview of all the arguments that have been made against the teaching, suffice it to say that one of the biggest hangups has been the scriptures themselves as several verses prove challenging if not contradictory to the concept—at least, if the teaching is not well understood.
The First Key
Joseph Smith, however, did not leave the saints wanting as to how to decode the scriptures correctly in this matter. During the King Follet discourse, for example, he provided the first key:
“The Bible shows there is a plurality of Gods…. The word Eloheim [sic] ought to be in the plural all the way through—Gods. The heads of the Gods appointed one God for us; and when you take [that] view of the subject, its sets one free to see all the beauty, holiness and perfection of the Gods.”3
This is an important key because it’s tied to the allegorical nature of the endowment presentation wherein a single actor may represent a plurality of beings. This understanding is crucial to undoing mental contradictions particularly when initiates of said ordinance attempt to reconcile their experiential knowledge with the Adam-God doctrine. Understanding the Adam-God position in the scriptures is thus predicated on accepting, as Joseph Smith did, that Elohim is not a name but a plural noun. (Applying this key to the scriptures should not be difficult to students of the Pearl of Great Price since the Book of Abraham already uses “gods” in place of “God” in the creation accounts!)
Translating Elohim as “gods” instead of “God” also gives greater poetic meaning to the compound Hebrew title יהוהאלהים (Jehovah Elohim), which is translated in the KJV as “LORD God.” This is not because it should be translated “LORD gods” but because the word for Jehovah, when translated correctly, combines with Elohim to produce a completely different name-title altogether. Jehovah really is a title that is, as the translators of The New American Standard Bible noted, “derived from the verb HAYAH, to be.”4 It thus means “the one who brings to pass,” or more simply, the “Organizer” or “Creator.” Therefore the combined title Jehovah Elohim means the “Creator of the gods,” a stunning reduction of the powerful mission statement God gave to Moses: “this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39), which is in the Mormon theological perspective the process of creating gods (for more on all of this, see my blog post, Jehovah and Inheritance).
The Second Key
From the above we obtain our second key: Jehovah is also not a name but a title, a title which could be applied to a plurality of beings (i.e., the Elohim are all “Jehovahs,” or “creators”). This key may seem patently false given the existence in modern revelation of multiple instances of God saying “My name is Jehovah” or a variation of the same (see Ex. 6:3, 34:14 JST; Abr. 1:16, 2:8). Even Joseph Smith during the Kirtland Temple dedication prayer said, “Thy servants shall go out from thy house, O Jehovah, to bear testimony of thy name” (D&C 109:56). How then can the second key be that Jehovah is not a name and only a title? Let us consider a sample of other times God endorsed a non-name title as a name, which shows that this is frequently done:
- “Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name; Man of Counsel is my name; and Endless and Eternal is my name also” (Gen. 7:42 JST).
- “My name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies” (Isa. 51:15, NLT).
- “And surely every man must repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless…. Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment. It is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name’s glory…. For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore—Eternal punishment is God’s punishment. Endless punishment is God’s punishment” (D&C 19:4, 6 – 7, 10 – 12).
- “Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless?” (Moses 1:3).
- “Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee…. Behold, I will lead thee by my hand, and I will take thee, to put upon thee my name, even the Priesthood of thy father, and my power shall be over thee” (Abr 1:16, 18).
Thus we see that Jehovah is but one among a number of titles used in the scriptures to ‘name’ deity. Furthermore, inasmuch as Jehovah etymologically means “Creator,” we can also conclude that the gods severally may each rightly consider their ‘name,’ which is a descriptor of their priesthood, as Jehovah or “Creator.” Therefore when it is used in the scriptures it may be referring to any one of a number of divine individuals, and the key to understanding which Jehovah is which would be the context of the situation. For example, when Jehovah spoke to Adam, this was the Creator of our Creator (Adam being our Creator); when Jehovah ate with Abraham (see Gen. 18:16 – 21), this was our Creator (meaning Adam restored to immortality); when Jehovah spoke to Moses on the mount (see Acts 7:29 – 33) this was also our Creator, but when the law was given it was given not by Jehovah himself but by the “messenger” of Jehovah with whom Jesus identified himself to the Nephites (see 3 Ne. 15:5); when Jesus referred to Jehovah during his ministry (see Matt. 22:41 – 46), he identified that title with his father, our Creator; and it appears that in scripture Jesus only positively associates himself with the title of Jehovah after his resurrection. Perhaps it is no coincidence that only then Jesus declared, “Be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Ne. 12:48, emphasis added).
The Third Key
The third key is obtained by taking the first two keys and extrapolating them across multiple worlds, each with its own Elohim or “Jehovahs,” and by extension its own Adams and Christs. As it was revealed to Moses, “Worlds without number have I created…. And the first man of all men have I called Adam” (Moses 1:33 – 35). Hyrum Smith made the idea plain in one of his final discourses, when he said:
“Now I say unto you that there are lords many and gods many…. and again they held council together that they might roll this world into form as all other worlds are made…. There was and is a first man Adam, and a Saviour in the meridian of time, the same computing time and all in all and all things in order. And many things are to be considered that will bring knowledge to our understanding but the foolish understand not these things. For this world was patterned after the former worlds or after former mansions.”5
This key too is crucial, for the Adam-God doctrine is irreconcilable with a view that the entire universe has but one Savior who is Jesus Christ. The role of an Only Begotten, the son of the Father of a world, is an eternal role not because it was enacted once for an infinite number of worlds, but because it is a role that is enacted once on each of an infinitude of worlds. Thus the true religion of each world is that of the redeeming son of God; the same archetype is worshipped but not the same being. Through fear and trembling candidates for becoming a Jehovah must work out their kingdoms. Hence Jesus said (paraphrased through Joseph Smith):
“I do the things I saw my Father do when worlds come rolling into existence. My Father worked out his kingdom with fear and trembling, and I must do the same; and when I get my kingdom, I shall present it to my Father, so that he may obtain kingdom upon kingdom, and it will exalt him in glory. He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take his place, and thereby become exalted myself.”6
Thus any of the gods or Elohim that do now exist have had their candidacy tested by passing through the scenes we have here seen Jesus Christ pass through, and thus the Only Begotten Son pattern is an archetypal motif repeated eternally in the worlds without number established by the Elohim. By this we can comprehend that all worlds have been made by “mine Only Begotten Son” because each world’s destiny hinges on he who enacts that eternal archetype. This is why the name of the church in the heavens is “the church of the Firstborn” because the archetype of a firstborn Redeemer spans all worlds: “They who dwell in [the Father’s] presence are the church of the Firstborn; and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fulness and of his grace” (D&C 76:94).
In sum, a knowledge of the eternal patterning of worlds and of gods constitutes this third key.
The Fourth Key
Once an Only Begotten on a given earth successfully ascends to “abide in the presence of the Eloheim [sic] in the eternal worlds”7 having atoned and redeemed it, his voice is enabled to mingle with that celestial council in decisions and revelations that pertain to those worlds that are in process of undergoing their probations (such as this world). Put more simply, the prophets who commune with their God in actuality commune with a host of gods who overwatch the actions of the gods, angels, and prophets who pertain to a mortal world. This principle has been articulated by former Mormon scholars, such as Bruce R. McConkie, as the doctrine of divine investiture of authority. The doctrine states that a divine personage may speak in the first person of his dispatcher—as if he were literally any one or multiple of those beings who dispatched him—in order to cite their authority. The most famous example comes from the book of Revelation in the Bible:
“The ancient Apostle John was visited by an angel who ministered and spoke in the name of Jesus Christ. As we read, ‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John’ (Rev. 1:1). John was about to worship the angelic being who spoke in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but was forbidden:
“‘And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God’ (Rev. 22:8–9).
“And then the angel continued to speak as though he were the Lord Himself:
“‘And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last’ (Rev. 22:12–13).
“The resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, who had been exalted to the right hand of God His Father, had placed His name upon the angel sent to John, and the angel spoke in the first person, saying, ‘I come quickly,’ ‘I am Alpha and Omega,’ though he meant that Jesus Christ would come and that Jesus Christ was Alpha and Omega.”8
Importantly, this same principle happens in the revelations received through Joseph Smith and recorded as scripture. For example, D&C section 29 begins by way of a self introduction by none other than Jesus Christ, saying, “Listen to the voice of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, the Great I AM, whose arm of mercy hath atoned for your sins”; (v. 1) but toward the end of the revelation, the voice changes with no apparent transition to that of the Father, saying, “Little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten” (v. 46). Unless Jesus Christ is referring to the vicarious sacrifice of some child he fathered, the only reasonable way to decode these verses is by applying this fourth and final key: a single divine revelation may contain the voices of many divine beings above and beyond our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we are ready to decode the scriptures.
Summary
In review, the four keys are as follows:
- Elohim (KJV: “God”) is not a personal name and should be understood as “gods”;
- Jehovah (KJV: “LORD”, “Jehovah”) is not a personal name and should be understood as “Creator”;
- Every world has the same archetypal pattern: a Father to people it and his Only Begotten Son to redeem and inherit it; and
- A plurality of gods may speak through a single revelation from “God.”
By applying these rules to virtually any scripture, the Adam-God doctrine can be clearly discerned and supported, previous contradictions being easily resolved. Let’s take a few verses and practice decoding them by these rules:
Examples
D&C 78:11 – 21
Without applying the four keys, the following verses would appear at first to all come from Jesus Christ inasmuch as it is signed, if you will, by “your Redeemer” in verse 20; that approach would ruin the Adam-God doctrine, however, since, according to the doctrine, Adam would be the Father of Jesus Christ, our ‘Redeemer,’ and it would not stand to reason that Jesus would have given commandments to his father while in the garden. Applying the keys clarifies the matter:
Original verses:
11 A commandment I give unto you, to prepare and organize yourselves by a bond or everlasting covenant that cannot be broken….
15 That you may come up unto the crown prepared for you, and be made rulers over many kingdoms, saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Zion, who hath established the foundations of Adam-ondi-Ahman;
16 Who hath appointed Michael your prince, and established his feet, and set him upon high, and given unto him the keys of salvation under the counsel and direction of the Holy One, who is without beginning of days or end of life.
17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along….
20 Wherefore, do the things which I have commanded you, saith your Redeemer, even the Son Ahman, who prepareth all things before he taketh you;
21 For ye are the church of the Firstborn, and he will take you up in a cloud, and appoint every man his portion.
Decoded verses:
11 A commandment I [Jesus Christ] give unto you, to prepare and organize yourselves by a bond or everlasting covenant that cannot be broken….
15 That you may come up unto the crown prepared for you, and be made rulers over many kingdoms, saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Zion, [the “Creator of the gods,” the Creator of our Creator9] who hath established the foundations of Adam-ondi-Ahman;
16 Who hath appointed Michael your prince, and established his feet, and set him upon high [making him our God], and given unto him the keys of salvation under the counsel and direction of the Holy One [the Redeemer of our Creator], who is without beginning of days or end of life [a member of the archetypal Redeemer gods].
17 Verily, verily, I [now our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, speaking again] say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father [our Creator, Adam] hath in his own hands and prepared for you;
18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along….
20 Wherefore, do the things which I have commanded you [through divine investiture of authority], saith your Redeemer, even the Son Ahman, who prepareth all things before he taketh you;
21 For ye are the church of the Firstborn, and he [meaning Jesus Christ as a member of the archetypal Redeemer gods] will take you up in a cloud, and appoint every man his portion.
Moses 2:26 – 28; 4:27 – 30
The next verses to consider deal with the general issue of Adam and Eve interacting with divine beings identified as יהוהאלהים (Jehovah Elohim) in the Bible. Understanding the Adam-God doctrine requires reconciling the fact that these beings are gods above our own God but who may rightly be titled “the Creator of the gods,” which is appropriate given the fact that they are described as creating Adam and Eve, our gods. What may be surprising in all of this is the identification of an Only Begotten of the “Creator of the gods,” but applying the four keys enables us to see that this is simply the Redeemer of the old world where Adam and Eve used to live.
Original verses:
26 And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so….
27 And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them.
28 And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it….
27 Unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, make coats of skins, and clothed them.
28 And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten: Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and partake also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever,
29 Therefore I, the Lord God, will send him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken;
30 For as I, the Lord God, liveth, even so my words cannot return void, for as they go forth out of my mouth they must be fulfilled.
Decoded verses:
26 And I, God, [the Creator of our Creator] said unto mine Only Begotten [the Redeemer of our Creator], which was with me from the beginning [a member of the archetypal Redeemer gods]: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so….
27 And I, God, [the Creator of our Creator] created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten [the Redeemer of our Creator] created I him; male and female created I them [fathered on an older world while in mortality].
28 And I, God, [the Creator of our Creator] blessed them, and said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it….
27 Unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, [the Creator of our Creator] make coats of skins, and clothed them.
28 And I, the Lord God, [the Creator of the gods] said unto mine Only Begotten [the Redeemer of our Creator]: Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and partake also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever,
29 Therefore I, the Lord God, [the Creator of the gods] will send him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken;
30 For as I, the Lord God, [the Creator of the gods] liveth, even so my words cannot return void, for as they go forth out of my mouth they must be fulfilled.
Moses 5:6 – 9
Another area that often seems to flatly contradict the Adam-God doctrine is the discourse from the angel to Adam on the purpose of animal sacrifice. Without the four keys, this passage seems to firmly place Adam in a place of dependency and subordination to Jesus Christ, but when it’s realized that the Redeemer role is an eternal archetype and that Adam had his own Redeemer on an older world, the instruction Adam receives makes sense as pertaining to a patten that extends to all people from world to world, without end.
Original verses:
6 And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.
7 And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth.
8 Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore.
9 And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.
Decoded verses:
6 And after many days an angel of the Lord [the Creator of our Creator] appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord [the Creator of our Creator]? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord [Adam’s Creator] commanded me.
7 And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father [the future descendant of Adam who comes to fulfill the Redeemer role for this world], which is full of grace and truth.
8 Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son [as a member of the church of the Firstborn, worshipping the archetypal Redeemer of your old world], and thou shalt repent and call upon God [the Creator of our Creator] in the name of the Son [the Redeemer of our Creator] forevermore.
9 And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son [as an archetype of all worlds], saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father [by divine investiture of authority] from the beginning, henceforth and forever, [following the established archetype] that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.
D&C 88:110 – 116
Confusion over the Adam-God doctrine has included not comprehending how that Adam could be both God and the archangel, or both our king and our prince. This seeming contradiction is easily resolved when the definition of these ancient terms is rightly understood. Archangel comes from the Greek arkhi– (“chief”) and angelos (“messenger, angel”), which together means “Chief Angel.” Certain passages in the Old Testament equate God’s physical presence with the term ‘angel’ inasmuch as His corporeal manifestation is always in the service of delivering some message, be it “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” or “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel” (JS—H 1:17; ); in fact, the time when Jacob wrestled physically with God to receive his new name, the scriptures say, “[Jacob] had power over the angel…even the LORD God of hosts” (Hosea 12:4 – 5). And the term ‘prince’ though having reference typically to the son of a monarch (not inaccurate in our God’s case either) also means “chief” inasmuch as it is descended from the Latin princeps (“first person, chief leader; ruler, sovereign”). Though tainted by modern pejoration, these titles appear fitting for the head of the family of man upon this world especially with the four keys in view, for Adam is the first man of all men and the mightiest of them.
Original verses:
110 […] Satan shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil, and shall not be loosed for the space of a thousand years.
111 And then he shall be loosed for a little season, that he may gather together his armies.
112 And Michael, the seventh angel, even the archangel, shall gather together his armies, even the hosts of heaven.
113 And the devil shall gather together his armies; even the hosts of hell, and shall come up to battle against Michael and his armies.
114 And then cometh the battle of the great God; and the devil and his armies shall be cast away into their own place, that they shall not have power over the saints any more at all.
115 For Michael shall fight their battles, and shall overcome him who seeketh the throne of him who sitteth upon the throne, even the Lamb.
116 This is the glory of God, and the sanctified; and they shall not any more see death.
Decoded verses:
110 […] Satan shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil, and shall not be loosed for the space of a thousand years.
111 And then he shall be loosed for a little season, that he may gather together his armies.
112 And Michael, the seventh angel, even the archangel, [our Creator and God] shall gather together his armies, even the hosts of heaven.
113 And the devil shall gather together his armies; even the hosts of hell, and shall come up to battle against Michael [our Creator and God] and his armies.
114 And then cometh the battle of the great God; and the devil and his armies shall be cast away into their own place, that they shall not have power over the saints any more at all.
115 For Michael [our Creator and God] shall fight their battles, and shall overcome him who seeketh the throne of him who sitteth upon the throne, even the Lamb [in fighting the battles of his children, he also contends for the throne he delivers to his Only Begotten child, Jesus Christ].
116 This is the glory of God [our Creator], and the sanctified; and they shall not any more see death.
Moses 6:55 – 68
Another passage outwardly difficult to reconcile with the Adam-God doctrine is the baptism of Adam in the untitled Book of Enoch (a part of the Book of Moses). From a modern Mormon perspective, the baptism of Adam upon this earth seems incongruent with the fact that Adam would have already received baptism during his mortality on his older world and, if he is indeed the God and Father of Jesus Christ, that ordinance would surely not need to be repeated for such a holy being. Yet from a classical Mormon view, this is not a problem at all: on the one hand, the ordinance of baptism was repeated by the early saints for many reasons10, so re-entering the waters of baptism from world to world would not be seen as a violation of the nature of the ordinance; and on the hand, the archetypal nature of the universal religion of the Firstborn necessitates that even the sinless be baptized no matter their role in the great unfolding (a la Jesus Christ’s own baptism). Thus by applying the keys discussed above the mystery of Adam’s baptism is made just as simple as the mystery of Christ’s: to fulfill all righteousness.
The following passage furthermore presents interesting evidence for direct scriptural support for the Adam-God doctrine. Partway through, Adam is told what to say to his children and, though the words given to Adam to speak are often read as though they were instructions for Adam to follow, they could also be read as a direct quote meant for Adam to repeat from his perspective. Though that latter view is a subtle change in how to read the verses, it produces a dramatic result in harmonizing the doctrine with the scriptures in alignment with the four keys presented above.
Original verses:
55 And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.
56 And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment.
57 Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.
58 Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying:
59 That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;
60 For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified;
61 Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment.
62 And now, behold, I say unto you: This is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian of time.
63 And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.
64 And it came to pass, when the Lord had spoken with Adam, our father, that Adam cried unto the Lord, and he was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water.
65 And thus he was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man.
66 And he heard a voice out of heaven, saying: Thou art baptized with fire, and with the Holy Ghost. This is the record of the Father, and the Son, from henceforth and forever;
67 And thou art after the order of him who was without beginning of days or end of years, from all eternity to all eternity.
68 Behold, thou art one in me, a son of God; and thus may all become my sons. Amen.
Decoded verses:
55 And the Lord [the Redeemer of our Creator] spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.
56 And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment.
57 Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God [the spiritual kingdom of our Creator], for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his [our Creator’s] presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his [our Creator’s] name, and the name of his [our Creator’s] Only Begotten is the Son of Man [Hebrew: Son of Adam], even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.
58 Therefore I [the Redeemer of our Creator] give unto you [our Creator] a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying: [the following words are the words Adam, our Creator, is to speak to us, his children]
59 That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye [us, the children of our Creator] were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made [with Eve through the instrumentality of returning to mortality], and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten [our Redeemer, Jesus Christ]; that ye [us, the children of our Creator] might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;
60 For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified;
61 Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment.
62 And now, behold, I [Adam, our Creator] say unto you [us, the children of our Creator]: This is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten [Jesus Christ], who shall come in the meridian of time.
63 And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me [our Creator], both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me [our Creator]. [End of Adam’s words.]
64 And it came to pass, when the Lord [the Redeemer of our Creator] had spoken with Adam, our father, that Adam cried unto the Lord [the Redeemer of our Creator], and he was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord [the Redeemer of our Creator], and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water.
65 And thus he was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man. [Adam was of the earth first, and of heaven second.]
66 And he heard a voice out of heaven [the voice of the Creator of our Creator], saying: Thou art baptized with fire, and with the Holy Ghost. This is the record of the Father, and the Son, from henceforth and forever; [following the archetype of each world with its Father and its Son]
67 And thou art after the order of him [or of an eternal role] who was without beginning of days or end of years, from all eternity to all eternity.
68 Behold, thou art [note: present tense] one in me [the Creator of our Creator], a son of God [one of the gods]; and thus may all become [note: future tense] my sons. Amen.
Footnotes:
1. “Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846; Volume 1, 10 March 1844–1 March 1845,” The Joseph Smith Papers, 5 April 1844, pp. 83-84. (See also Progression & Probations, footnote 26.)↩︎
2. Benjamin F. Johnson, My Life’s Review (Independence, Missouri: Zion’s Printing and Publishing Co., 1947).↩︎
3. STPJS, p. 372, emphasis added.↩︎
4. The New American Standard Bible (1971, updated 1995), another revision of the 1901 American Standard Version, followed the example of the Revised Standard Version. Its footnotes to Exodus 3:14 and 6:3 state: “Related to the name of God, YHWH, rendered LORD, which is derived from the verb HAYAH, to be”; “Heb YHWH, usually rendered LORD”. In its preface it says: “It is known that for many years YHWH has been transliterated as Yahweh, however no complete certainty attaches to this pronunciation.”↩︎
5. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE LAUB, Typescript, HBLL, pp. 16 – 17.↩︎
6. STPJS, pp. 347 – 348.↩︎
7. Ibid., p. 237.↩︎
8. “Gospel Classics: The Father and the Son,” Ensign, April 2002; this article was a reprint of an official doctrinal exposition by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles originally published in the Improvement Era, Aug. 1916, 934–42.↩︎
9. Joseph Smith read a verse in Revelation to mean that “John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father” (STPJS, p. 373). That verse reads, “[Jesus Christ] washed us from our sins in his own blood, and [Christ] hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 1:5 – 6).↩︎
10. For example, Brigham Young expounded on the time when rebaptism was first introduced by Joseph Smith and how the saints were allowed to do it ‘when they chose’:
“I know that in my traveling and preaching, many a time, I have stopped by beautiful streams of clear, pure water, and have said to myself, ‘How delightful it would be to me to go into this, to be baptized for the remission of my sins.’ When I got home Joseph told me it was my privilege. At this time came a revelation, that the Saints could be baptized and rebaptized when they chose, and then that we could be baptized for our dear friends” (JOD 18:241).↩︎
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