Starting in Abraham 3:24
“And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him”
Michael in Hebrew is translated literally to “one like unto God”. He had a bunch of spirits with him to use in this creation, Abraham was one of them. The one like unto God (Michael) declares, “We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell“ There were materials from other places which through procreation made an earth in its beauty
“25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them“ Michael here proclaims to be the one who will prove the Children of men herewith (meaning with the use of that world)
“26 And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; notice that the first estate here referenced is speaking of the trial he will put the children through on the earth. The first estate is the body, since the beings there were already in spirit bodies “and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.“ Gods.
“27 And the Lord said: Whom shall I send?“ Who is talking here? Who has been talking? One like unto God in English. in Hebrew you would say, Michael. “And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me.” Adam Means man. The Son of “Adam” before the creation was the firstborn of the Father in the Last Go. That would be Michael. The On Like unto Him would be the Son of Adam, Jesus the firstborn son. So Jesus Answers the call of Jehovah-Michael by saying, here I am send me. Notice here that the scriptural “Lord” is having a dialogue with Jesus. Jesus is not the Lord in this context.
“Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.
Lucifer Jumps in here. There is all kind of Eternal lives (MMP) implications in the above statement, but that’s not the point of the post.
Moving to chapter 4, the first verse;
“And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth.”
The Lord speaking, as we have shown, is not Jesus. It is the one like unto God. The god that the council set over us. He went and took the noble and great ones to create the earth.
In another interesting side note, Abraham started out his book to us by saying this in Abr 1:3:
The first time that Joseph brought up this doctrine in public was to say that Adam was the Ancient of Days. All of Christianity equate the ancient of Days as God. Daniel 7 describes him as such, and describes Christ being brought to him to receive his Kingdom. The Scriptures say as much too, we could discuss them at length. On at least ten separate pages of the TPJS (edited by Joseph Fielding) The Doctrine is discussed. Even after editing, it came through.
For instance, From TPJS we learn;
(pg 157)Michael is the Presiding President over the earth. All keys are revealed through his authority. He receieved them before the foundation of the world. Every living creature is in his dominion.
(pg 167) “Commencing with Adam, who was the first man, who is spoken of in
Daniel as being the “Ancient of Days,” or in other words, the first and
oldest of all, the great, grand progenitor of whom it is said in another
place he is Michael, because he was the first and father of all, not only
by progeny, but the first to hold the spiritual blessings, to whom was made known the plan of ordinances for the salvation of his posterity unto
the end, and to whom Christ was first revealed, and through whom Christ
has been revealed from henceforth“. As when Christ is shown to people, when Joseph saw him, or when he was baptized…”this is my beloved son…”
(pg 167) “Adam Holds the keys of the dispensation of all the times have been and will be revealed through Him.”
(pg 168) Joseph applies Eph 1:9-10 to Adam;
“Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according
to His good pleasure which He that purposed in Himself; that in the
dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even
in Him.” (Ephesians 1:9-10.)
(pg 168) All angels act under the direction of Adam-(pg 191) Jesus is an angel who was sent to earth to his disciples.
(pg 169) “one man holding presidency over them all, even Adam”
(pg 372) The heads of the Gods appointed one God over us”
(pg 190) “Everlasting covenant was made between three personages before the
organization of this earth, and relates to their dispensation of things to
men on the earth; these personages, according to Abraham‘s record, are
called God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God
the third, the witness of Testator.”
Combine the above and the Scriptures and we know that:
- Michael’s voice will announce the first resurrection (DC 29) The voice of the archangel is the Trump of God (1 thes 4).
- Michael was an exalted angel at the foundation of the world, when we were created
- Michael Holds the keys of the creation, and was given them at the foundation of the world
- He obtained those keys first on an earth than in heaven
- Michael holds the keys to our salvation
- Micahel and Satan did the fighting in heaven
- Michael won the battle in Heaven.
- Michael is the Leader of the Army of heaven
- Michael Cast Satan out of the ‘pre-mortal’ world.
- Michael commands the “hosts” of heaven. He is lord over them
- Michael fights our battles against Satan for us and overcomes (jude, dc 88)
- Michael vs Devil is called “the battle of the Great God” Michael wins
- Michael holds the most blessings pertaining to the highest covenant made, Abrahamic
- Michael is the President of the Priesthood on the earth
- He is the Lord over all the earth
- He named all the creatures
- Michael is the first in all the spiritual blessings
- Christ will be brought before Michael to receive his kingdom and Glory (as Michael did before His lord in the first dispensation, an eternal round)
- Adam-ondi-Ahman is the place where Adam-is proclaimed-God
- The Term Adam means Man. The Term Ahman means man. The term Son Ahman or Son of Man means…
Yes Joseph taught it, but not so bluntly as did Brigham, as shown below. Briefly, a couple other viewpoints;
He [Adam] had once been in the flesh, and lived as we
live, obtained His exaltation, attained to thrones, gained
the ascendancy over principalities and powers, and had the
knowledge and power to create–to bring forth and organize
the elements upon natural principles. This He did after His
ascension, or His glory, or His eternity, and was actually
classed with the Gods, with beings who create, with those
who have kept the celestial law while in the flesh, and
again obtained their bodies. Then He was prepared to
commence the work of creation, as the Scriptures teach. It
is all here in the bible; I am not telling you a word but
what is contained in that book (J.D. 4:217).
Who was it that spoke from the heavens and said “This is my beloved son hear ye him?” Was it God the Father? It was. … Who did beget [Jesus]? His Father, and his father is our God, and the Father of our spirits, and he is the framer of the body, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is he? He is Father Adam; Michael; the Ancient of Days. (BY, 2-19-1854)
[T]he Father of our Spirits is the Father of Jesus Christ: He is the Father of Jesus Christ, Spirit &
Body and he is the beginner of the bodies of all men. … There is no time when worlds
have not been created and exalted; there have always been an Adam and an Eve – the
first man and woman, and their oldest son is heir, and should be our Savior. … When
Jesus has done his work he will take this planet back to his Father. (Brigham, Journal of Southern Indian Mission 87)
Now regarding Adam: He came here from another planet an immortalized Being and
brought his wife, Eve, with him and by eating of the fruit of this earth became subject to
death and decay, and He became of the earth, earthy, was made mortal and subject to
death.
(Joseph, anson calls journal)
When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial
body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. (BY JD1:51)
Brigham Young Friday 4/9/1852
When our Father came into the garden He came with his celestial body & brought one of
his wives with him and ate of the fruit of the garden until He could beget a tabernacle.
And Adam is Michael or God and all the God that we have anything to do with. They
ate of this fruit & formed the first tabernacle that was formed. (Journal of Wilford Woodruff)
[Adam] was the person who brought the animals and the seeds from other planets to this world, and brought a wife with him and stayed here. (Brigham Young 4/20/1856 JD 3:319)
We had the best Conference that I ever attended during the time of the Conference
President Brigham Young said that our spirits ware begotten before that Adam came to
the Earth and that Adam helped to make the Earth, that he had a Celestial body when he
came to the Earth and that he brought his wife or one of his wives with him, and that
Eave was allso a Celestial being, that they eat of the fruit of the ground until they begat
children from the Earth.
(Brigham Young 4/16/1852 Journal of Samuel Holister Rogers 1:17)
Adam and Eve were made of the dust of the Earth from which they came, they brought
their bodies with them. They had lived, died and been resurrected before they came here and
they came with immortal bodies, and had to partake of the fruits of this Earth in order
to bring forth mortal bodies, or natural bodies, that their seed might be of the dust of
this Earth as they were of the dust of the earth from which they came.
(Brigham Young 3/25/1855 Journal of Samuel W. Richards 2:215)
another way to translate the passage:
“Now yahweh had shown to me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And elohim saw these souls that they were good, and he (he who? elohim or yahweh?) stood in the midst of them, and he (he who? elohim or yahweh?) said: These I will make my rulers; for he (he who? elohim or yahweh?) stood among those that were spirits, and he (he who? elohim or yahweh?) saw that they were good; and he (he who? elohim or yahweh?) said to me: Abraham, you are one of them; you were chosen before you were born. And there stood one among them that was similar to elohim (michael), and he (michael) said to those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever yahweh their elohim shall command them; And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever. And yahweh said: Whom shall I send? And one answered similar to the Son (christ) of man (ahman): Here am I, send me. And another (lucifer) answered and said: Here am I, send me. And yahweh said: I will send the first. And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.”
okay, so the text doesn’t make plain who exactly michael is. we are taught that adam was called michael, but in this text it could be referring to the pre-mortal adam, or to any member of the godhead, since each member is “one like unto elohim,” or to someone else who was similar to elohim. in other words, this michael could be a name, a title or just the description of a person. It may even be joseph smith, jr., for all we know.
the passage is dealing with several names/designations/titles/descriptions, indicating people, and can be interpreted in many ways, depending on who you think is who: there’s yahweh, elohim, one who is similar to elohim (we’ll call this one michael), the son (christ), of man (ahman or perhaps even of adam), abraham, and another (lucifer).
your take is that yahweh in the passage is the one similar to elohim and does most of the talking; also that “man” is adam. but you can also interpret yahweh, elohim and one similar to elohim as three distinct people, and “of man” could just as easily be synonymous with “ahman,” which indicates the father of jesus. in other words, this passage does not conclusively support adam-god. it’s still just a speculative theory. that is not to say that I disagree with every part of the adam-god theory. even speculative theories may contain many truths.
one part of this post, though, that i do not agree with is what you stated here:
“notice that the first estate here referenced is speaking of the trial he will put the children through on the earth. The first estate is the body, since the beings there were already in spirit bodies.” and then later, referring to the keeping of the second estate, you said, “gods.”
my understanding is that the first estate is the pre-mortal vote and war in heaven. the first estate is the spirit, not the body. the second estate is the body. those who keep their first estate shall be added upon (shall receive physical bodies), while those who do not keep their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom as those who keep their first estate (shall have no bodies and no salvation in the inner sphere of light). those who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever (shall receive an inheritance in one of the three glories). keeping the second estate does not refer exclusively to obtaining exaltation (godhood).
the Adam-god doctrine is a well developed doctrine, not mere momentary speculation. Daniel 7 is the first blatant description of it, with the ancient of days sitting on the throne, having Christ brought to Him, and Christ there receiving a crown and eternal inheritance. Joseph taught it, as described above, brigham and eliza snow testified that he did. Brigham discussed it tons of times, and referred to in nonchalantly on others. he declared it scripture, and declared that it’ll prove the salvation or damnation of Israel in reference to their belief in it. Men were were ex’d for fighting the teaching. The lecture at the veil in the temple described it plainly. Joseph stated that when Christ is introduced to men, it is through Adam. that Adam Reveals Christ to men. He sure did to Joseph, this is my beloved son.
The above scripture doesn’t need to be ambiguous. translating directly “one like unto God” means Michael. and the redeemer was one like unto the son of man. If we only use this as a type for all creation councils, than it shows Michael as the Lord of the creation, going with the son of man. here in this world he became God, not like unto or ahman-man. Christ became the son of man, not just like unto, or son ahman. Ahman means man, as does adam. son ahman is Christ, we are sons ahman. Joseph told us that.
This is a rather rudimentary understanding of eternal lives. as Joseph told us, eternity is an eternal round, using a ring as the demonstration. AS such, we are now in a place of mortality which we will be in again in another round. The NT shows the war in heaven with the dragon happening in the end times, the last days. to say it only applies to before creation is to take it out of context. We are now in that period prior to the final “pre-mortal” war, wherein the lines will be drawn, men cast their votes and the end comes. the garden period is next, those who lived up to translation (terrestital) or of resurrection to life (celestial) will continue there. The telestial folks will continue in 1000 years to live a telestial existence. Michael is now fighting our battles for us and will be the one to cast Satan out of our midst, as was done in the past. eventually though, a satan will creep back in and roam the earth for a “little season”.
in an eternal lives perspective, there is no way around the idea that this must be the first estate for most , as most will not qualify to attain to the resurrection from the dead after exaltation (King follett discourse). they will be thrown back on the clay heep, as was taught in the first 100 years, keeping not that estate. also, Jude used Sodom and Gomorrah as a type for those who did not keep their first estate. an estate is a body, will you keep the one you have or die in the resurrection to death? perhaps a long description of that is needed.
However, the noble and great ones are here, having chosen death rather than life after exaltation in order to be saviors of men (section 76).