Joseph Smith Taught Adam Is God

He (Joseph Smith) taught us that God was the great head of the human procreation--was really and truly the father of both our spirits and our bodies. (Letter from Benjamin F. Johnson to George S. Gibbs) September 4, 1860 Brother Cannon said there was a learned doctor that wanted to be baptized. * * * He is satisfied that the doctrine of the plurality of God and that Adam is our Father is a true doctrine revealed from God to Joseph & Brigham. For this same doctrine is taught in some of the old Jewish records which have never been in print, and I know Joseph Smith nor Brigham Young have never had access to, and the Lord has revealed this doctrine unto them or they could not have taught it. (W. Woodruff's Journal)December 16, 1867 Adam is Michael the Archangel and he is the Father of Jesus Christ and is our God and Joseph taught this principle. (Brigham Young, W. Woodruff Jrnl.) Brother Horne and I chatted again tonight about the Gospel and the Adam-God Doctrine, as we have done many times before. Brother Horne, who grew up in Salt Lake City and was the son of Richard Horne and grandson of Joseph Horne, said--in reference to the Adam-God Doctrine--that when he first went through the Temple (Salt Lake) for his endowment in 1902 before going on his mission he was surprised to hear the teachings during the temple ceremony that "Adam was our God" and that "He came here with Eve, one of His wives." Also, it was taught that "Eve bore our spirits" (i.e., the spirits of all men). He asked his father about it but he declined to give any opinion about it. After Brother Horne returned from his mission a few years later, in 1905, he noted these teachings had been removed from the temple ceremony. He feels that they were left over from Brigham Young's influence, but that he himself (Brother Horne) couldn't believe such doctrine. He thinks perhaps Brigham just got off in his speculation. (From C. Jess Groesbeck's Elders Journal, Vol. 1, p. 291)