Priesthood and the Keys of the Priesthood
Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 48; “The priesthood was first given to Adam; he obtained the First Presidency, and held the keys of it from generation to generation. He obtained it in the Creation, before the world was formed, as in Gen. 1:26-28. He had dominion given him over every living creature. He is Michael the Archangel, spoken of in the scriptures. Then to Noah, who is Gabriel; he stands next in authority to Adam in the priesthood; he was called of God to this office, and was the father of all living in his day, and to him was given the dominion. These men held keys first on earth, and then in heaven. (HC 3:385-86.)”.
Hebrews 13:8-9; “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. 9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein”.
How can we focus upon and worship God Almighty properly when there is so much extra-peripheral stuff going on around us? Noah is Gabriel, Adam is Michael and Ancient of Days…yikes!
The Church used to also teach the Adam-God doctrine, but that was thrown out years after Brigham Young died.
My question for today is this: if the doctrine continues to evolve in such a radical fashion then how is the average Mormon supposed to worship God and how is he/she supposed to know all there is to know about this god and other important people if the stories keep changing?
I grew up a sixth generation Mormon in the 60’s & 70’s in Ogden, Utah. I learned about the Adam-God doctrine after I left the Church, but my great-grandmother learned about it in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
My point to this is a few generations ago they grew up under one philosophy (obviously not an orthodox biblical one) and there I was learning something totally different which was also unbiblical.
So which generation gets into the Mormon heaven when it changes all the time? My great-grandparents also grew up believing and practicing polygamy and not allowing blacks into the priesthood. This is diametrically opposed to the way I was raised (the polygamy part). The race issue took another dramatic swing when I was 14. So now my nieces and nephews are being raised in a Mormon Church that looks nothing like it did when Joseph Smith was around!
The way the Church is today, neither Joseph Smith nor Brigham Young would qualify for a temple recommend!
How can God be everlasting as it says in Moroni 8:18 if he’s always changing?
Moroni 8:18; “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.”
And where did Adam get this priesthood? Who gave it to him and to whom did he give it to? How did he know he needed to atone for sin? Where are the teachings of this in the Bible? How was he convicted of sin in his heart?
What did he do as Michael the Archangel and how does that fit in with the story of Adam?
What purpose did it serve mankind for God to have one person morphing himself into three characters?
What does this say about God?
What purpose did it serve to have Adam play the part of God and Jesus? Remember they’ve claimed that Adam is the Ancient of Days. According to the Bible Jesus is the Ancient of Days that Daniel was referring to, not Adam!
And what purpose did it serve man or Noah for him to also be Gabriel? Where in the Bible is the proof of this and what does God tell us about this dual nature? Why did God do this? What are we to learn from it?
Yikes! Nothing connects.