Michael Ness: One eternal round...

Adam and Eve statues at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

By Bro. Michael Ness

"For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round." (1 Nephi 10:19) "For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today , and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?" (Mormon 9:9).

Where does the Plan of Salvation start? Where does it end? Have you pondered how the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation applies to other worlds? And what about the future destiny of the world we live in?

For these answers, the Prophet Joseph Smith told us to look to the morning of creation:

"In the first place, I wish to go back to the beginning–to the morn of creation. There is the starting-point for us to look to, in order to understand and be fully acquainted with the mind, purposes, and decrees of the great Elohim, who sits in yonder heavens as he did at the creation of this world. It is necessary for us to have an understanding of God himself in the beginning."

In the course of time most Latter-Day Saints are given to understand that this "beginning" is relative, as God has told His children that "worlds without number have I created" (Moses 1:33) and "as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words" (Moses 1:38) yet we are reminded that we are limited to our current sphere to some extent when God tells Moses "But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand" So we start with the morning of creation as Joseph Smith says, because it follows with what God says we are allowed to know as far as the details of the cosmic drama; but yet there is more. God tells us that it His "work " and "glory — to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life" or lives — in plurality, as it is rendered in some places, "of man" (Moses 1:39), and we are given to understand that even as old worlds pass away and new ones take their place, the laws governing their progression are the same; the course of the Lord, and His work, is one eternal round, revolution after revolution, cycle into cycle. The spark of divinity in God's children that is cultivated here is what starts the fire of the next creation. Joseph Smith alludes to this when he says "you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you"  (TPJS 346) and that "God himself the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did."(TPJS 346)

As a reaction to Joseph Smiths teachings on eternal progression and priesthood in Nauvoo, William Law and his confederates who were aligned against the Prophet published the lone edition of the Nauvoo Expositor on June 7, 1844, which listed the grievances Law and others had with the prophet, announced their reorganization of the Church with William Law as the new President. The publication of the one and only issue of the Expositor caused Joseph Smith to order the printing press destroyed, which in turn caused the political upheaval that led to the Martyrdom. 

There are interesting components in Law's Expositor in light of historical revisionism among certain elements of progressive church members, and resurgent RLDS anti-polygamy and anti-Brigham Young propaganda. Old arguments have resurfaced, accusing Brigham Young and Doctor Willard Richards of killing Samuel Smith to take control of the church; new arguments to show that Willard Richards and John Taylor killed Hyrum and Joseph from within Carthage Jail; all in an attempt to virtue signal for Babylon by "morally" clearing Joseph against what they consider false accusations of polygamy. If polygamy was an abomination the Angel of the Lord would not have told Hagar to return with Ishmael and submit herself to Sarah, and God would not have allowed Hagar to live with Abraham after He made his Covenant with him and told him to be perfect.

However, these are natural conclusions to reach in the upside-down world we live in, since these men were racists and polygamy is misogynistic, so of course we should conclude the legacy they laid wasn't inspired, and the secret Temple rituals these men perpetuated must show that they were involved in Gadianton Robber type activity and conspired to take over the church — Of course I say this ironically. 

I don't think most of this concerns most members of the Church because Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass — or the telling of tales regarding Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, don't concern those who are conditioned to follow the Living Prophet no matter what. However, complaints brought out in the Expositor  are helpful to the truth, because they attribute to Joseph and Hyrum the doctrines later perpetuated by Brigham Young and his contemporaries. The Expositor  not only discredits much of the above "Restoration"-Lite content, but also vindicates our Pioneer-Utah Mormon heritage and Brigham Young's teachings down the road, and independently to boot, as Law had no intention of supporting Brigham Young's "conspiracy."

The Expositor reads thusly:

Resolved 2nd, Inasmuch as we have for years borne with the individual follies and iniquities of Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, and many other official characters in the Church of Jesus Christ, (conceiving it a duty incumbent upon us so to bear,) and having labored with them repeatedly with all Christian love, meekness and humbility, yet to no effect, feel as if forbearance has ceased to be a virtue, and hope of reformation vain; and inasmuch as they have introduced false and damnable doctrines into the Church, (1) such as a plurality of gods above the God of this universe and (2) his ability to fall with all his creations; (3) the plurality of wives, for time and eternity; (4) the doctrine of unconditional sealing up to eternal life, against all crimes except that of shedding innocent blood, by a perversion of their priestly authority and thereby forfeiting the holy priesthood, according to the word of Jesus; "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." St. John, xv.6. "Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, hath both the Father and the Son; if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed, for he that abideth him God speed is a partaker of his evil deeds;" we therefore are constrained to denounce them as apostates from the pure and holy doctrines of Jesus Christ.

Allusions to many interesting and once core doctrines of Mormonism were exposed by William Law in a single paragraph here, which are attributed by Law to have their origins with Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, and not with Brigham Young — for Law is describing an eternal generation and genealogy of divine beings (1), the practice of Celestial Plural Marriage (3), and (4) a description of the Holy Spirit of Promise, which is conferred in the Second Anointing Ordinances; and in-between these items we find a curiously bold proclamation that God has an "ability to fall with all his creations" (2) which is an interesting component of what would later be called the Adam-God Doctrine, which came from the public discourses of Brigham Young and other leaders of the church in subsequent decades. 

This issue of the Expositor, published in June of 1844, does come on the heels of a meeting held in April of 1844 where William Law was likely present, in the Council of Fifty, where Joseph Smith taught "the meaning of the word ‘Ahman’ which signifies the first man, or first God ; and ‘Ahman Christ’ signifies the first man’s son.” What does it mean to be the First Man? What does it mean to be the First God? "First God" likely means the First God in the Godhead, as a President for this creation, not so much the First God of all eternity. Joseph Smith also specifically taught "Everlasting Covenant was made between three personages before the organization of this earth, and relates to their dispensation of things to men on the earth; these personages, according to Abraham's record, are called God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God the third, the witness or Testator." He also taught, "If Abraham reasoned thus, if Jesus Christ was the Son of God and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a father, you may suppose that He had a father also. Where was there ever a son without a Father? — Wherever did [a] tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor?" So while there is no true "first God" what does Joseph mean by first man, and first man's son?

On April 9, 1852, Brigham Young publicly and boldly announced for the first time the core of the "Adam-God" teachings, which he elaborated on subsequently over a period of 30 years. He said "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...When Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, their bodies became mortal from its effects, and therefore their offspring were mortal" (Journal of Discourses 1:50)  

On May 6, 1855 Wilford Woodruff writes this entry in his journal:

I attended the Prayer-Circle where I had some interesting teaching from President Young in social conversation which was not reported. The following is a key to some of the principles he advanced. ... 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.

This certainly echoes the Expositor's declaration that Joseph taught that God had an "ability to fall with all his creations" but there is one more correlation as well. In a contemporary poetic slam on the prophet written in Buckeye's Lamentation for the want of more wives — an Anti-polygamy piece, which has another core tenet of the Adam-God doctrine. They were not so kind in the way they framed it, but it gets to the point:

The narrow gate did well enough  When Peter, James, and John,

Did lead the saints on Zion-ward,  In single file along:

When bachelors, like good old Paul,  Could win the glorious prize,

And maids, without a marriage rite,  Reach “mansions in the skies.”

But we have other teaching now,  Of greater glories far;

How a single glory's nothing more  Than some lone twinkling star.

A two-fold glory's like the moon,  That shines so sweet at night,

Reflecting from her gracious lord  Whatever he thinks right.

A tenfold glory-that's the prize!  Without it you're undone!

But with it you will shine as bright  As the bright shining sun.

There you may reign like mighty Gods,  Creating worlds so fair;

-At least a world for every wife That you take with you there.

This of course echoes when Brigham said on June 8, 1873...

"How pleased we should be to place these things before the people if they would receive them! 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—I do not know, I do not inquire, I care nothing about it. Our Father Adam helped to make this earth, it was created expressly for him, and after it was made he and his companions came here. He brought one of his wives with him, and she was called Eve, because she was the first woman upon the earth. Our Father Adam is the man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life and salvation to all his children who have or who ever will come upon the earth. I have been found fault with by the ministers of religion because I have said that they were ignorant. But I could not find any man on the earth who could tell me this, although it is one of the simplest things in the world, until I met and talked with Joseph Smith. Is it a great mystery that the earth exists? Is it a great mystery, that the world cannot solve, that man is on the earth? Yes, it is; but to whom? To the ignorant—those who know nothing about it. It is no mystery to those who understand. Is it a mystery to the Christian world that Jesus is the Son of God, and still the son of man? Yes it is, it is hidden from them, and this fulfills the Scripture—“If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost...”

Of course new information regarding the doctrine of eternal progression, such that God has the ability to fall with His creations, leads to even more questions: Does God fall because of sin, or some other way? If God sins against or transgresses a law, can He remain God? Does it lead to an endless cycle of falls and redemptions? It brings other questions into the equation regarding the mechanics of exaltation, which many people, including the brethren, have tried to reason out and receive revelation on. Being a core component of the Adam-God teachings, it would be important to note that as a result of this doctrine being taught, many individual Saints have developed misunderstandings  with what has truly been taught and revealed; especially confusion regarding the personalities and ranks in the Godhead, and/or the Gods of the creation narrative as well — notably the identity of the deity Jehovah. The formulation of theories, and by association, Adam-God teachings of Brigham Young have since been mistakenly and pejoratively branded as a "theory" and subsequently repudiated by leaders and members of the church. So much for the legacy of Joseph Smiths teachings, for we have Brigham's testimony that it was Joseph's Doctrine.

It has been reasoned by some, in light of these more complex celestial mechanics, that if God the Father had once held the office of Christ in a past world where he gained His exaltation, others must do the same before they could be the Father of a world, especially in light of statements from Joseph Smith where he said “The Holy Ghost is now in a state of probation which if he should perform in righteousness he may pass through the same or a similar course of things that the Son has.” If the Holy Ghost is going to go through the Office of Christ, there is a reasonable conclusion that could be made that other children of God, in their journey to be like their Father in Heaven, would have to ascend up these steps by living through multiple mortalities before we can win our Celestial prize. Of course there are other statements like this, and they are just ambiguous enough that they are frustrating. They should not be ignored, but they should be reasoned out and squared with what we know about other doctrines. For instance, the quote recorded by Wilford Woodruff in early 1842 says...

"The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ was once the same as the Son or Holy Ghost but having redeemed a world became the Eternal God of that world. He had a son Jesus Christ who redeemed this earth the same as his Father had a world which made them equal and the Holy Ghost would do the same in his turn, and so would all the Saints who inherited a Celestial glory so there would be Gods many and Lords many."

Now under close scrutiny this statement is relatively flexible; God was once in the office of the "Son" or "Holy Ghost", but it is not said that God was the same as the Son and the Holy Ghost — furthermore, the saints would also redeem a world according to this statement. How are the Saints to redeem a world and be made equal with God and Christ? I would say we are not only joint-heirs, but that we are also joint-participants with Christ in redeeming this earth as Saviors on Mount Zion through the exercise of the Keys of Elijah and providing the seals necessary for our dead to receive their salvific covenants and ordinances, for "we cannot be perfect without the fathers"(TPJS 338),according to Joseph Smith, who also said "The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead... they without us cannot be made perfect;"(TPJS 356) Multiple probations seem to be irreconcilable with, and a distraction from Joseph Smith's magnum opus — the Temple and the ordinance work for the living and the dead, and the promises made whereby we "may  come forth in the first resurrection¹³ and be exalted to thrones of glory with them (our ancestors); and herein is the chain that binds the hears of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, which fulfills the mission of Elijah." (TPJS 330)

Joseph Smith said that vicarious work on behalf of our kindred dead and friends was the entire "burden of the scriptures." This leads me to conclude that regarding some of these statements concerning the redemption of worlds by being a Savior or Holy Ghost, even if made by Joseph, were pre-emptive, as Benjamin F. Johnson wrote of the Prophet, "that the Gospel had not only been given to us by fragments" but that even Joseph made initial mistakes when bringing forth new doctrines, which were perfected later:

"While the Holy Ghost may not always remain upon a man...even a prophet to whom it was not yet all revealed, [may] make mistakes, as in [the proper requirements for] the baptism for the dead, and also in the prophet['s] sermon at the funerals of a child of Winzor Lyon and King Follett, when he preached that children, "even infants, would sit upon thrones with dominion," which was published in the "Times and Seasons" at the time, but which, like President Woodruff, I am positive he afterwards reconsidered."

While it is possible that if the Prophet at one time thought it was possible that the model of exaltation included multiple mortalities, I seriously wonder if he and others realized it to be redundant considering the scope of salvific works done in the Temple, which realization may have led Brigham Young to remark in conference in Nauvoo, April 9, 1844 "I am asked all sorts of questions about making gods and devils, and organizing the eternal worlds; but we could not get it precisely into our understandings so as to make them." which shows an admission that certain ideas in circulation were found to be incompatible.

To answer the questions, "where does the Plan of Salvation start? Where does it end?" We are told by the Prophet to look to the morning of creation, but we should also look forward to the redemption of this earth, and make ourselves Kings and Priests, Queens and Priestesses as all other Gods have done before us, for at the end of this age there is another morning of creation, and then another. It truly begins and ends and begins again with us and our posterity, for the works of God continue and abound, and His work and His glory are one eternal round. So it may be with us. We have been told, "This is eternal lives— to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent." To know who Christ is, and His true place at the center of the plan of salvation, allows us to carry out the work and the glory of God and give eternal lives to the inhabitants of worlds without end, more numerous than the grains of sand on the seashore or the stars visible in the heavens. 

We play our part in the cosmic drama and while seemingly insignificant to the infinity that Moses was told of, we are assured the results of our labor here will be magnified to an eternity of increase, and what has been done here will be done on other worlds, and will affect the future destiny of the posterity of all our Exalted Fathers and Mothers. God bless you readers.

You can reach Bro. Ness by contacting him through his blog. His email is theKingdom.or.Nothing@gmail.com.

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