Brigham Young said God revealed that Adam is our Father and God. In 1976, Mormon president Spencer W. Kimball denounced the Adam-God theory as false doctrine. How do you know which prophet to trust?
In April 1852, Brigham Young told General Conference that Adam is "our Father and our God." Wilford Woodruff and Hosea Stout both recorded it in their diaries, and Heber C. Kimball and apostle Franklin D. Richards backed it up. Orson Pratt told the Twelve it contradicted scripture, and the pressure to defer followed. In 1873 Brigham said God had revealed the doctrine to him, and related teaching appeared in the St. George temple's Lecture at the Veil. Then Mormon theology changed, Mark E. Petersen said Adam was not our God, and Spencer W. Kimball denounced the idea in 1976. This episode traces the Adam-God theory from the Journal of Discourses to General Conference and asks what happens when a prophet is wrong about whether something came from God.
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