I am glad that this doctrine has been very ably explained through the sermons of our predecessors, our leaders throughout the generations that have just preceeded us from the Prophet Joseph until now. The Prophet Joseph Smith was the man that advocated the doctrine in this day that Adam was once a man like we are, and that He lived on an earth like this and earned the right, or went through this college of learning how to become like God is. When he learned that part—or that profession, he was permitted to go down with his brethren and build an earth. They went down with him, so the scriptures tell us, and shows him how to draw the elements together and build an earth. What for? To do like the man that presided over him had done. He said, “I do nothing save what I saw my Father do,” That is what Christ said. That is what Adam said at one time. This is what you will say sometime. If you will listen to the teachings of the Priesthood, you will learn how to do just like Father did. The scriptures tell us that one God said to another, “Let us take this man down and show him how to build an earth, that he might have a place to put these spirits that he has learned how to create.” So they went down.

Now whose right was it to preside over the spirits that were going to come to this earth? Was it the God that was over Adam, or was it Adam? He had learned to become a God. It is as plain as the nose on your face, if you will just look at it right. We are only going through the motions here in this life. As man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become.

We come here, and we are taught the first principles of the Gospel: faith, repentance, and baptism. We obey those first principles, then we are taught that there is a system of marriage that is essential to the exaltation and eternal life of man. So, we apply that to our lives. Through doing that, we are taught how to produce our kind here in this earth. What is the purpose of marriage for time and eternity? The Latter-day Saints believe that it gives man a right to go on after this life and continue to produce. To produce what? I have been taught that after we do from here, we learn how to produce spirit children. This is a correct principle, because the Lord says that this law is for the exaltation and eternal life of man, and herein are My works continued. So it is just one continual round after another.

Adam went through this experience. He learned how to live the Celestial Law here. He learned how to bring children into the world, He learned how to apply to his life the Celestial Law and gather around him many wives and children here. After he left here, he was taught how to produce spirits for a kingdom of his own, or produce enough to go on from one world to another. We are told that He told the old Prophet Moses that He had many kingdoms, many worlds like this one, but He said, “of this world only will I tell thee, Moses.”