[John A. Widtsoe]
In the sermon referred to, (JD 1:50) President Young places Adam unequivocally as a separate character, "Michael," under the dominion of the Trinity. "The earth was organized by three distinct characters, Elohim, Yahovah, and Michael." There was no substituting of Adam for the God to whom we pray. Likewise, the term "father" was constantly applied by Brigham Young to Adam, because Adam was associated with Jesus Christ in the making of the earth; and also in a more literal sense, because, as the first man, he was the father of the race. Yet there are those who have nursed the irrational conclusion that President Young implied that Adam and God, the Father, are one and the same individual.
Brigham Young's much-discussed sermon says that "Jesus was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our Father in heaven." Enemies of the Church, or stupid people, reading also that Adam is "our father and our God," have heralded far and wide that the Mormons believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of Adam. Yet, the rational reading of the whole sermon reveals the falsity of such a doctrine. It is explained that God the Father was in the Garden of Eden before Adam, that he was the Father of Adam, and that this same personage, God the Father, who was in the Garden of Eden before Adam, was the Father of Jesus Christ, when the Son took upon himself a mortal body. That is, the same personage was the Father of Adam and of Jesus Christ. In the numerous published sermons of Brigham Young this is the doctrine that appears; none other. The assertion is repeatedly made that Jesus Christ was begotten by God, the Father, distinct by any stretch of imagination from Adam. This is a well-established Latter-day Saint doctrine. (56)
With this doctrine in mind, President Brigham Young preached the sermon which has been construed by enemies to teach that Adam is the God to whom we pray and whom we worship. (JD 1:50) President Young merely followed the sound doctrine taught by Joseph Smith that when the earth story is finished, the heads of all the dispensations will deliver their stewardships to Adam, who in turn will deliver them to Jesus Christ, under whose commission the earth work has been done. . . .
Moreover, in the sermon referred to, Brigham Young spoke of Adam as Michael, the archangel, the Ancient of Days, so that nowhere can an intelligent reader confuse Adam with either member of the Godhead. (66-67)
Those who peddle the well-worn Adam-God myth, usually charge the Latter- day Saints with believing that: (1) Our Father in heaven, the Supreme God, to whom we pray, is Adam, the first man; and (2) Adam was the father of Jesus Christ. A long series of absurd and false deductions are made from these propositions. . . . Nowhere is it suggested that Adam is God, the Father, whose child Adam himself was.
[John A. Widtsoe, Evidences & Reconciliations (68-69) as quoted in Quotations Dealing with the Relationship of Our First Earthly Parents to Our Heavenly Parents (1830-1978)]
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