Joseph Fielding Smith affirms doctrine of plurality of Gods; while questioning accuracy of transcriptions of Brigham Young's sermons, teaches Adam-God has never been Church doctrine.

Date
1909
Type
Book
Source
Joseph Fielding Smith
LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Reference

Joseph Fielding Smith, Origin of the "Reorganized" Church and the Question of Succession (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News, 1909), 98-99

Scribe/Publisher
Deseret News
People
Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, Jr., Joseph Fielding Smith, Adam
Audience
Reading Public
Transcription

We are accused by the Reorganites, however, of departing from the doctrines of the Prophet Joseph Smith in that we believe in a plurality of Gods. That we believe in a plurality of Gods is true, and if they do not—and they confess almost unanimously that they do not—then they are not following the teachings and revelations of Joseph Smith. If the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are separate and distinct personages, then they are three Gods, then they are plural, this fact Joseph Smith taught to the world. But our Reorganite friends quote from a purported discourse of President Brigham Young to the effect that Adam is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do. But this discourse even if reported correctly—which we have reason to believe is not the case—is not the doctrine of the Church and has not been received by the Church. Joseph Smith the Prophet taught a plurality of Gods, and moreover, that man, by obeying the commandments of God and keeping the whole law will eventually reach the power and exaltation by which he also will become a God. And if Reorganites do not accept this truth, then they have departed from the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The doctrine of plurality of Gods, did not originate with Brigham Young, but was taught him by Joseph Smith.

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