Adam-God. First taught openly in a conference message by second President Brigham Young on April 9, 1852, Young claimed that Adam was Michael the Archangel, the Ancient of Days, and that Eve was “one of his wives.” Young also said Adam “is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do” (Journal of Discourses 1:50). This teaching has been the source of much controversy and has since been denounced. In 1976, President Spencer Kimball referred to the Adam-God “theory” as false doctrine (Church News, October 9, 1976). Young claimed this to be a doctrine when he said, “How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them and which God revealed to me–namely that Adam is our father and God” (Deseret News, June 18, 1873, emphasis ours). Heber C. Kimball, first councilor to Brigham Young, concurred with Young’s assessment when he said, “The first man sent his own son to redeem the world” (Journal of Discourses 4:1).

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