[Dan]

This board is sort of nice to be able to come over and discuss religious topics.

Catblue ... here is the readers digest version of the Adam-God concept (in general, those who believe it call it the "Adam-God Doctrine" and those who do not call it the "Adam-God Theory"). Notice, I call it the "Adam-God concept".

Begin summary:

The man Adam, from the garden, is Michael. Michael is our "Heavenly Father" (yes, with exactly the same meaning we have when we use the term). Adam was an exalted man from another, prior earth, and progressed to the point of becoming a God. "Adam" is more than a name with many meanings. It is also a title for a God ready to create earths and send his children thereto.

Adam was once like us. He progressed through multiple mortal probations and eternities until he was ready to act as THE only begotten son, the annointed one, IOW, the Christ, for the benefit of his other spirit brethren and children of Adam's father, Jehovah. Adam fulfilled his mission as the Christ, thereby becoming the spiritual father to his spiritual brethren for whom he performed his sacrifice. (Notice how Jesus Christ becomes our spiritual father and we are spiritually begotten by him when we accept his atonement in our life, and Jesus therefore, in scripture is called our father. Jesus is the father - to us, among other meanings - as well as the son - to his father, among other meanings.)

After one completes a mission successfully as a Christ, he is then able to act as "Adam" , or a "God the father" and create worlds and send his children there (those who were spiritually begotten or born to him while fulfilling his mission as Christ to his brethren). Adam then holds a council before the creation of the world where he will send his children and a Christ is chosen from his children for that world. Adam creates world after world any time one of his children is ready to serve as a Christ on such a new world.

Focusing on Adam's temporal existence, Jehovah was his Christ when adam was an unexalted mortal. Jehovah became an "Adam" and Adam was ready to become a Christ. Adam then served in that capacity after which he was advanced to an "Adam".

As an exalted God, Adam had power over death. Adam, like Jesus, has the power to lay down his life and take it up again. That is how Adam, as an exalted God and father to his children spiritually begotten to him, was able to condescend (or "fall"), willingly, from his exalted position to a mortal position, to also become the literal father of mankind in the flesh as well. When his time was at an end on earth, he left. He still had the power to lay down his life and take it up again.

The idea is that any one of us can progress to the point that we can be worthy of the calling of a Christ and then advance to the function of an "Adam". It would take a great many eternities and mortal probations to get to that point though.

The main problems LDS have with this concept are:
1. Belief that man only experiences ONE mortality and then are FOREVER consigned to an eternal kingdom.
2. The scriptural concept that is it appointed to man to die once, with body separated from spirit.

The conter arguments to these problems are that man only does die once in each eternal existence (with an eternal existence defined as one eternal round from a pre-existence to earth life to death and resurrection. The kingdom of glory becomes the pre-existence for one more eternal round). We then choose to "fall" in our next mortality and probation (it is always our choice to undertake a mortality to attempt to progress further).

In a nut shell, it is pure FACT that just about all of the brethren from Brigham (and quite possibly Joseph, too, IMO) through the Joseph F. Smith presidency believed in all or most of what I have explained above. Many still probably believed thereafter and do to this day, but you cannot voice belief in it if you are an influential member or leader or you will be excommunicated as the concept has been disavowed.

But that is a decent summary.