The scriptures tell us that man was made from the dust. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). And again, “And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his spirit (that is, the man’s spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Abraham 5:7). But what does this mean, exactly? What does it really mean to become of dust a living soul? Does this mean that man was created as if from a pile of dirt? Or does it mean something a little more coded, and if so, how would we be able to know?
The Scriptures Give Us the Key
It is not by any means insignificant that the scriptures themselves give us a key to understanding the phrase, “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7). In the Pearl of Great Price, the inspired Mosaic account gives this interesting insight in a sermon given by Enoch. Enoch relates Adam’s conversation with God, wherein God essentially told Adam that he had been “born into the world.” God commanded Adam to teach the following to his children:
That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory.
(Moses 6:59, emphasis added).
This bit of information from Enoch about Adam’s conversation with Deity gives us the key to the whole problem. This passage seems to be explicitly saying that to become “of dust a living soul” is to be “born” with the three elements of natural birth present: blood, water, and spirit (Moses 6:59). The water is the amniotic fluid of the womb, which is essentially water. The blood is the issuance of blood that is a consequence of giving birth, and the spirit is the spirit complement that is housed in the body, by which the body has been “quickened at a certain stage” (First Presidency, “Origin of Man,” 1909). It should be noted that baptism is in this passage in Moses defined as a complement to the natural birth. The words “as ye were born…even so ye must be born again,” indicate that baptism is necessary as an imitation of the first birth. If there was no first birth, there is no valid imitation of it in baptism. Likewise, Abraham also chronicled that Adam was the "firstborn" in the world (Abr. 1:3). And so it appears from this that Adam was born, the same as all men. Now that we have the key, let us unlock the door.
Statements from the Brethren
Readers will find it very interesting that Brigham Young had a lot to say on this very subject, .JPG?timestamp=1519489429111)
and was not the only one to expound on it, but was probably the most explicit about it and gave the most in ideas surrounding it. Of Adam’s creation, he said,
Here let me state to all philosophers of every class upon the earth, When you tell me that father Adam was made as we make adobies from the earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale. When you tell me that the beasts of the field were produced in that manner, you are speaking idle worlds devoid of meaning. There is no such thing in all the eternities where the Gods dwell.
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 7:285, October 9, 1859).
And so here we have a definite denial of the notion that Adam was fashioned from the dirt “as we make adobies” (ibid). Parley P. Pratt shared these same sentiments. He considered the idea of Adam being formed from dirt of the earth a notion that was purposefully “veiled in mystery.” He likened this idea to telling a tender child that babies come from “the hollow trunk of some old tree, or springing with spontaneous growth, like mushrooms.” 
He said of this level of understanding of the issue, “Man, moulded from the earth, as a brick! A Woman, manufactured from a rib! ...O man! When wilt thou cease to be a child in knowledge” (Parley P. Pratt as quoted in Hyrum L. Andrus, God, Man, and the Universe, 353). And of course, it is important to note that Joseph Smith, the great Prophet of this dispensation, also taught this doctrine when he said, 
“Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 373).
Adam, a Son of God Almighty
We now know having studied thus far, that Adam was not molded from the dirt as a statue. We know also, that he was born of a woman, as is every man. The question then remains: who is his father? The scriptures answer this question as well, for Enoch again gives us the answer when he says, “And this is the genealogy of the sons of Adam, who was the son of God, with whom God, himself, conversed” (Moses 6:22). The Gospel of Luke also declares that Adam “was the son of God” in the genealogy of Christ to the beginning (Luke 3:38). However, the Joseph Smith Translation changes the passage to say, “Adam, who was formed of God, and the first man upon the earth” (JST Luke 3:45), which makes the meaning somewhat ambiguous for this discussion. In reference to this word formed, Elder Erastus Snow taught, “And when it is written that God formed man in his own image and likeness, it does not describe the time or manner, but simply the fact of having made or created man in his own image” (Journal of Discourses 19:324). Therefore, even though Luke 3:38 seems rather neutral to the discussion, since we have the testimony of Enoch in Moses 6:22, we can proceed with this idea with perfect scriptural safety.
We also have the certain statement of the Prophet Joseph Smith declaring the lineage of man. According to Benjamin F. Johnson, a close friend of the Prophet, the Prophet taught, "that God was the great head of human procreation, was really and truly the father of both our spirits and our bodies" (Dahl & Cannon, ed., Encyclopedia of Joseph Smith’s Teachings, p. 297).
In this connection, after quoting Genesis 1:26-27, which says “so God created man in his own image,” Brigham Young stated, “I believe that the declaration made in these two scriptures is literally true…[God] created man, as we create our children; for there is no other process of creation in heaven, on the earth, in the earth, or under the earth, or in all the eternities, that is, that were, or that ever will be” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 11:122, June 18, 1865, emphasis added). Brigham Young furthered commented on this when he said:
The world may in vain ask the question, “Who are we?” But the Gospel tells us that we are the sons and daughters of that God whom we serve. Some say, “We are the children of Adam and Eve.” So we are, and they are the children of our Heavenly Father. We are all the children of Adam and Eve, and they and we are the offspring of Him who dwells in the heavens, the highest Intelligence that dwells anywhere that we have any knowledge of.
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 13:311, April 17, 1870, emphasis added).
John Taylor concurred with President Young and taught clearly that mankind is the offspring of God, both physically and spiritually. In regards to physical relation to God, President Taylor taught, “The Bible tells us something in relation to these matters in tracing out genealogies. Who was Seth? He was the son of Adam. Who was Adam? The son of God. In another place we are told that ‘all we are His offspring’—that is, according to that, we are all the offspring of God” (John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 26:33, December 14, 1884).
Joseph F. Smith likewise confirmed the doctrine of Adam being a literal son of God in the flesh when he testified,
I know that my Redeemer liveth; . . . I know that God is a being with body, parts, and passions and that His Son is in His own likeness, and that man is created in the image of God. The Son, Jesus Christ, grew and developed into manhood the same as you or I, as likewise did God, His Father grow and develop to the Supreme Being that He now is. Man was born of woman; Christ the Savior, was born of woman and God, the Father, was born of woman. Adam, our earthly parent, was also born of woman into this world, the same as Jesus and you and I.
(Joseph F. Smith as quoted in Hyrum L. Andrus, Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price, p. 179).
There can be no doubt that the Father that President Smith had in mind for Adam was none other than Almighty God, since an official Church manual used in his lifetime for “Course Study For Priests” stated:
Man has descended from God: In fact, he is of the same race as the Gods. His descent has not been from a lower form of life, but from the Highest Form of Life; in other words, man is, in the most literal sense, a child of God. This is not only true of the spirit of man, but of his body also. There never was a time, probably, in all the eternities of the past, when there was not men or children of God. This world is only one of many worlds which have been created by the Father through His Only Begotten.
(As quoted in Hyrum L. Andrus, Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price, p. 179).
Furthermore, while Joseph F. Smith was President of the Church, the First Presidency released a statement which declared, “But President Young went on to show that our father Adam, - that is, our earthly father, - the progenitor of the race of man...was not fashioned from earth like an adobe, but ‘begotten by his Father in Heaven.’” (Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, Charles W. Penrose, Messages of the First Presidency, 4:266). And so we are given to understand that God has personally fathered the human race, with the aid of a Heavenly Mother. This is the origin of man. Certainly there are many questions that we do not know the answer to, like what did God do with Adam while he was growing to maturity, for he was certainly a mature adult when he was placed upon the earth. We cannot know for sure, but in some way Adam and Eve were born of Divine parents through the natural method yet they were placed on this earth as adults.
The Mechanism for Creating Tabernacles from the Dust
How is it that God and his Wife could have an embodied child, seeing that they are immortal Beings? We would expect that for resurrected beings, their regular offspring are spirit children, which is the “continuation of the seeds” promised to all the faithful (D&C 132:19). This seems substantiated by the teachings of Joseph F. Smith, who taught, “So far as the stages of eternal progression and attainment have been made known through divine revelation, we are to understand that only resurrected and glorified beings can become the parents of spirit offspring” (Joseph F. Smith as quoted in Daniel H. Ludlow, Latter-day Prophets Speak, p. 76). It seems that spirit children are the regular course of family for exalted beings.
So how could Heavenly Father and Mother bring forth children of flesh? Brigham Young proposed a mechanism for this. As he explains in the following quote, Pres. Young is referring to God as “Adam” and Our Heavenly Mother as “Eve,” which is appropriate if “Adam” is a term for an ultimate progenitor of mankind. That President Young frequently considered God to have the title of “Adam” is no doubt a major reason for much of the confusion surrounding the so-called Adam/God Theory. He said:
After men have got their exaltations and their crowns—have become Gods, even the sons of God—are made Kings of kings and Lords of lords, they have the power then of propagating their species in spirit; and that is the first of their operations with regard to organizing a world. Power is then given to them to organize the elements, and then commence the organization of tabernacles. How can they do it? Have they to go to that earth? Yes, an Adam will have to go there, and he cannot do without Eve; he must have Eve to commence the work of generation, and they will go into the garden, and continue to eat and drink of the fruits of the corporeal world, until this grosser matter is diffused sufficiently through their celestial bodies to enable them, according to the established laws, to produce mortal tabernacles for their spiritual children.
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 6:275, August 28, 1852, emphasis added).
Continuing in this vein of thinking, we shall examine another statement made at another time in which President Young proposed this mechanism; this time the explanation was given without the ambiguity of the name-title “Adam” for God. He gave it in this way:
Things were first created spiritually; the Father actually begat the spirits, and they were brought forth and lived with Him. Then He commenced the work of creating earthly tabernacles, precisely as He had been created in this flesh himself, by partaking of the course material that was organized and composed this earth, until His system was charged with it, consequently the tabernacles of His children were organized from the coarse materials of this earth.
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 4:218, February 8, 1857, emphasis added).
From the foregoing passages, it is clear that President Young was teaching that the way in which Gods could bring forth children of tabernacle was to partake of the “coarse materials” of a terrestrial creation, or the world on which their children are to dwell, by “eat[ing] and drink[ing] of the fruits of the corporeal world,” or ingesting food and drink found in the created planet, “until the grosser matter is diffused sufficiently” and their systems are “charged with [the coarse materials of the planet]” and then they are able “to produce mortal [or bodily] tabernacles for their spirit children.” It should also be noted well that Brigham Young seemed to be here saying that this was the secret to the phrase “dust of the earth” by which we were created. Brigham Young seems to indicate that the coarse fruits of the earth constitutes the dust, or materials by which the earth was made; and God and his Wife partaking of them, and then as a result, conceiving what will become the physical body of the first man, is what is meant by God making “of dust a living soul” (Moses 6:59). That is made clear by President Young as he said, “consequently [or ‘this is how’] the tabernacles of His children were organized from the coarse materials of this earth [i.e. the dust].”
Further to this, President Young also remarked, “You may read and believe what you please as to what is found written in the Bible. Adam was made from the dust of an earth, but not from the dust of this earth. He was made as you and I are made, and no person was ever made upon any other principle” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 3:319, April 20, 1856, emphasis added).
The Only Begotten Son Problem
There is one glaring problem with this whole scenario that demands to be reconciled: how can we say that Adam was a son of God when Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten? Good question. “Only” is a very exclusive word, and certainly there is only One who was Begotten of God as Jesus Christ was – and that is Christ himself. So we must ask ourselves, what essentially are the differences between the begetting of Adam and the begetting of Christ?
1) Unlike the case with Adam, the conception of Christ was a virgin birth and was accomplished without sexual contact (Matt. 1:18-23; Luke 1:30-35; 1 Nephi 11:16-20; Alma 7:10).
2) Adam was born of two immortal Parents who underwent a transformation by partaking of the coarse materials of this earth (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 4:218, 6:275). Christ, in the flesh, was the literal Son of an immortal Father and a mortal mother.
3) Adam was born into a different state of being, a paradisiacal earth in which there was no death. It was not “the world” as we know it. Christ was born into our worldly world the same as every other man in the world (besides Adam).
4) Adam did not have the Godly ability inborn in him from the Father that Jesus had, namely to lay down his life and take it up again. Once Adam’s death was made certain by eating the forbidden fruit, there was nothing he could do for himself.
Bruce R. McConkie recognized this peculiar scenario, with two sons of God yet one is the Only Begotten. He said, “Father Adam, the first man, is also a son of God (Luke 3:38; Moses 6:22, 59), a fact that does not change the great truth that Christ is the Only Begotten in the flesh, for Adam's entrance into this world was in immortality. He came here before death had its beginning, with its consequent mortal or flesh-status of existence” (Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed. p 742). This concept of “flesh” meaning mortality is bolstered by Joseph Fielding Smith, who taught, “Here it is said that he [Adam] was the ‘first flesh’ on the earth, this evidently having reference to his Fall. For in the sense in which this word ‘flesh’ is used, it has reference to the changed condition of his nature after his transgression.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, “The Origin of Man,” BYU Speech, April 22, 1953).
The Problem of Blood
There is another problem which is a little less apparent than the Only Begotten one. That is the matter of blood. Joseph Smith taught that resurrected beings do not have blood. He said, “As concerning the resurrection, I will merely say that all men will come from the grave as they lie down…all will be raised by the power of God, having spirit in their bodies, and not blood”(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 199). The Prophet also taught:
Concerning resurrection, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, or the kingdom that God inherits or inhabits, but the flesh without the blood and the Spirit of God flowing in the veins instead of the blood, for blood is the part of the body that causes corruption. Therefore we must be changed in the twinkle of an eye or have to lay down these tabernacles and leave the blood vanish away. . . . Blood is the corruptible part of the tabernacles.
(Joseph Smith, Encyclopedia of Joseph Smith’s Teachings, edited by Larry E. Dahl and Donald Q.Cannon, p. 81).
This being true, it follows that if Adam was literally born of a Heavenly Mother to this world, he could not have been “born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit” (Moses 6:59) since there would have been no blood in the body of the Heavenly Mother to issue forth at the birth, and Adam’s body itself would also have been devoid of blood, which is “the corruptible part of the tabernacles.” Joseph Fielding Smith wrote, “Adam was without blood before the fall. The blood came into his body afterwards” (Answers to Gospel Questions 3: 207). It follows, therefore, that the fulfillment of Adam being born “by…blood” (Moses 6:59) came later when he partook of the forbidden fruit and blood entered his body. Prior to that time, at his physical birth, he was born only of water and the spirit.
Another Nail in the Coffin of Evolution
If Adam was a literal son of God, then this absolutely precludes the possibility of human evolution. If man is the direct offspring of God, and God is not an ape or any sort of lower animal, then man did not come from such base lineage as the animal kingdom. The true understanding of man’s origin is exactly opposite to the demeaning implications of Darwinism. The real heritage of mankind is exalted and from above, not formed from the scum of a primordial pond. The First Presidency reaffirmed that God, and not animals, is in man's lineage when, in an official statement concerning evolution, they said, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modern, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Deity” (Heber J. Grant, Anthony W. Ivins, Charles W. Nibley, “Mormon” View of Evolution, 1925, emphasis added). Notable apostle and contemporary of this particular First Presidency, Elder James E. Talmage, concurred with this and testified, “Man is the child of God....He is born in the lineage of Deity, not in the posterity of the brute creation” (James E. Talmage, The Earth and Man, 1931, emphasis added). Another notable apostle from an earlier day, Elder Orson Pratt, likewise drew the stark contrast between the falsehood of evolution theory, which he called “the creation of man's folly and foolishness,” with the truth of man’s origin when he said, “But when we learn through the revelations of God that instead of man’s coming up from the poor worm of the dirt, he descended from the being who controls the universe by his power; that he descended from that being who is the fullness of all knowledge....We are his offspring, we are his sons and his daughters, we are his children, he has begotten us” (Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 20:75, August 25, 1878).
Surely there will be some spiritually aberrant individuals who will see the non-literal interpretation of the “dust of the earth” phrases and try to take license from that to suppose that we can discount the entire Creation story altogether. This is a dangerous and very speculative approach, however. The only reason we were able to determine that being made from dust meant that man is the literal offspring of God was because we were given a key to interpreting that phrase within the scriptures themselves. If there is no key to interpretation, in the scriptures or the teachings of the prophets, then we can suppose that the text is meant to be taken plainly. This was the method for understanding the scriptures given to us by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said in relation to interpreting the scriptures, “Everything that we have not a key-word to, we will take it as it reads” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 293). There is no key anywhere in the scriptures that gives a person license to interpret them through the lens of evolutionary theory.
It makes a compelling statement to realize that man is literally related to God. It elevates us from the status of mere creation to that of family, of kin. It is an ennobling idea, as George Albert Smith expressed in this General Conference Address just the month after the First Presidency had given the “Mormon” View of Evolution:
I am grateful that in the midst of the confusion of our Father’s children there has been given to the members of this great organization a sure knowledge of the origin of man, that we came from the spirit world where our spirits were begotten by our Father in heaven, that he formed our first parents from the dust of the earth, and that their spirits were placed in their bodies, and that man came, not as some have believed, not as some have preferred to believe, from some of the lower walks of life, but our ancestors were those beings who lived in the courts of heaven. We came not from some menial order of life, but our ancestor is God our heavenly Father. I am grateful that we are not laboring under a handicap such as I feel that some men are who feel that they have grown up and evolved from some unknown condition; but, on the contrary, standing as we do, facing the problems of life, believing as we do that we were first created in the image of God, that he is the Father of our spirits, and that he created this earth for us that we might dwell hereon, under his wise counsel and direction, we may be happy, to rejoice in life and to prepare ourselves to go back into his presence, to live forever, when our life here upon this earth has been terminated.
(Elder George Albert Smith, Conference Report, October 1925, p. 33).
Earlier on, George Q. Cannon made a statement that carried the same sentiment, both regarding evolution, and the true origin of mankind as descendants of God:
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“It cannot be a question with any person of faith in our church, as to the origin of man. We did not have monkeys for ancestors, nor any inferior order of beings. We have not grown up to our present position as human beings through various stages of development from a very low order of creation. We descended from God. Man was created in his image. He is our Father. We have not descended to reach our present position; but many of the human family have fallen from their high estate into dreadful degradation.”
(George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truths, Vol. 1, p. 1).
Conclusion: Mankind, the Offspring of God
What can be concluded from all of this? It is that Adam, and consequently all mankind, are in the most literal sense the offspring of God. This is not just a figurative expression; our bodies are actually descended directly from God – our Progenitor, our Ancestor – and Adam was literally the physical son of God. We are spawned from the most Divine Source there could possibly be, and therefore every person who walks this earth has a noble birthright, a God in their lineage. If every man comprehended and remembered his beginnings, that he was a descendent of God Almighty himself, we can bet that there would be more “godly walk and conversation” (D&C 20:69) occurring among the children of men.
APPENDIX:
Quotes from the Brethren Regarding the Manner of Adam’s Creation
“Things were first created spiritually; the Father actually begat the spirits, and they were brought forth and lived with Him. Then He commenced the work of creating earthly tabernacles, precisely as He had been created in this flesh himself, by partaking of the course material that was organized and composed this earth, until His system was charged with it, consequently the tabernacles of His children were organized from the coarse materials of this earth.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 4: 218, February 8, 1857).
“After men have got their exaltations and their crowns—have become Gods, even the sons of God—are made Kings of kings and Lords of lords, they have the power then of propagating their species in spirit; and that is the first of their operations with regard to organizing a world. Power is then given to them to organize the elements, and then commence the organization of tabernacles. How can they do it? Have they to go to that earth? Yes, an Adam will have to go there, and he cannot do without Eve; he must have Eve to commence the work of generation, and they will go into the garden, and continue to eat and drink of the fruits of the corporeal world, until this grosser matter is diffused sufficiently through their celestial bodies to enable them, according to the established laws, to produce mortal tabernacles for their spiritual children.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 6: 275, August 28, 1852).
“Numerous are the scriptures which I might bring to bear upon the subject of the personality of God. I shall not take time to quote them on this occasion, but will content myself by quoting two passages in the 1st chapter of Genesis, 26th and 27th verses. “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God crated he him; male and female created he them.”
“I believe that the declaration made in these two scriptures is literally true. God has made His children like Himself to stand erect, and has endowed them with intelligence and power and dominion over all His works, and given them the same attributes which He himself possesses. He created man, as we create our children; for there is no other process of creation in heaven, on the earth, in the earth, or under the earth, or in all the eternities, that is, that were, or that ever will be.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 11: 122, June 18, 1865).
“Man is the offspring of God. Who can fully realize this? Our Heavenly Father orders all things that pertain to this earth and to multitudes of worlds of which we are ignorant. We are as much the children of this great Being as we are the children of our mortal progenitors. We are flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, and the same fluid that circulates in our bodies, called blood, once circulated in his veins as it does in ours. As the seeds of grains, vegetables and fruits produce their kind, so man is in the image of God.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 9: 283, February 23, 1862).
“Here let me state to all philosophers of every class upon the earth, When you tell me that father Adam was made as we make adobies from the earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale. When you tell me that the beasts of the field were produced in that manner, you are speaking idle worlds devoid of meaning. There is no such thing in all the eternities where the Gods dwell. Mankind are here because they are the offspring of parents who were first brought here from another planet, and power was given them to propagate their species, and they were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. The offspring of Adam and Eve are commanded to take the rude elements, and, by the knowledge God has given, to convert them into everything required for their life, health, adornment, wealth, comfort, and consolation.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 7: 285, October 9, 1859).
“In after years, when Paradise was lost by sin; when man was driven from the face of his heavenly Father, to toil, and droop, and die; when heaven was veiled from view; and, with few exceptions, man was no longer counted worthy to retain the knowledge of his heavenly origin; then, darkness veiled the past and future from the heathen mind; man neither knew himself, from whence he came, nor whither he was bound. At length a Moses came, who knew his God, and would fain have led mankind to know Him too, and see Him face to face. But they could not receive His heavenly laws, or bide His presence.
“Thus the holy man [i.e., Moses] was forced again to veil the past in mystery, and, in the beginning of his history, assign to man an earthy origin.
“Man, moulded from the earth, as a brick!
“A Woman, manufactured from a rib!
“Thus, parents still would fain conceal from budding manhood the mysteries of procreation, or the source of life's ever-flowing river, by relating some childish tale of new-born life, engendered in the hollow trunk of some old tree, or springing with spontaneous growth, like mushrooms, from out the heaps of rubbish. O man! When wilt thou cease to be a child in knowledge.”
(Parley P. Pratt as quoted in Hyrum L. Andrus, God, Man, and the Universe, p. 353).
“When the Lord had organized the world, and filled the earth with animal and vegetable life, then he created man…. Moses made the Bible to say his wife was taken out of his side – was made of one of his ribs. As far as I know my ribs are equal on each side. The Lord knows if I had lost a rib for each wife I have, I should have none left long ago…. As for the Lord taking a rib out of Adam’s side to make a woman of, it would be just as true to say he took one out of my side.
“‘But, Brother Brigham, would you make it appear that Moses did not tell the truth?’
“‘No, not a particle more than I would that your mother did not tell the truth when she told you that little Billy came from a hollow toadstool. I would not accuse your mother of lying any more than I would Moses. The people in the days of Moses wanted to know things that was not for them, the same as your children do when they want to know where their little brother came from, and he answered them according to the level of their understandings, the same as mothers do their children.”
(Brigham Young as quoted in Leonard J. Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses, 1986, p. 197-198).
“The world may in vain ask the question, 'Who are we?' But the Gospel tells us that we are the sons and daughters of that God whom we serve. Some say, 'We are the children of Adam and Eve.' So we are, and they are the children of our Heavenly Father. We are all the children of Adam and Eve, and they and we are the offspring of Him who dwells in the heavens, the highest Intelligence that dwells anywhere that we have any knowledge of.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 13: 311, April 17, 1870).
“Then will they become gods, even the sons of God; then will they become eternal fathers, eternal mothers, eternal sons and eternal daughters; being eternal in their organization, they go from glory to glory, from power to power; they will never cease to increase and to multiply worlds without end. When they receive their crowns, their dominions, they then will be prepared to frame earth’s like unto ours and to people them in the same manner as we have been brought forth by our parents, by our Father and God.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 18: 259, October 8, 1876).
“If we believe there is any truth in the writings of Moses, the Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles, and the teachings of Jesus, if we would indeed be consistent Christians and receive the writings of the fathers, and believe what was said unto them, we must believe that man is made in the image of God, and consequently that we are of the same species as the gods. However childlike and feeble we are in this condition of mortality, we are nevertheless descended from the gods, made in their image and after their likeness.”
(Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses, 19:323, January 20, 1878).
“Man has descended from God: In fact, he is of the same race as the Gods. His descent has not been from a lower form of life, but from the Highest Form of Life; in other words, man is, in the most literal sense, a child of God. This is not only true of the spirit of man, but of his body also. There never was a time, probably, in all the eternities of the past, when there was not men or children of God. This world is only one of many worlds which have been created by the Father through His Only Begotten.”
(An official “Course Study For Priests” quoted in Hyrum L. Andrus, Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price, p. 179.)
“I know that my Redeemer liveth; . . . I know that God is a being with body, parts, and passions and that His Son is in His own likeness, and that man is created in the image of God. The Son, Jesus Christ, grew and developed into manhood the same as you or I, as likewise did God, His Father grow and develop to the Supreme Being that He now is. Man was born of woman; Christ the Savior, was born of woman and God, the Father, was born of woman. Adam, our earthly parent, was also born of woman into this world, the same as Jesus and you and I.” (Joseph F. Smith as quoted in Hyrum L. Andrus, Doctrinal Commentary on the Pearl of Great Price, p. 179.)
“If Abraham reasoned thus--If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that he had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way.”
(Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 1976, p. 373)
“In regard to the earth, is it the Lord’s? Yes. We are told that he made it, that he created all things, visible and invisible, whether pertaining to the earth or the heavens. And where did man originate? As we read it, he originated also from God. Who formed man according to the Bible record? The Lord. Whence came our spirits? We are told that God is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh. Then He of course is interested in the welfare of all flesh and all people of all languages, of all tongues, of every color, and of every clime. That is the way that I understand these things. Our spirits are eternal and emanate from God. So we, as a people, have always understood and do understand to-day. We possess our bodies also, and they also emanated from God. The Bible tells us something in relation to these matters in tracing out genealogies. Who was Seth? He was the son of Adam. Who was Adam? The son of God. In another place we are told that "all we are His offspring"—that is, according to that, we are all the offspring of God.”
(John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 26:33, December 14, 1884, emphasis added).
“They would make man look for his origin down to the very reptile and the worm that crawls upon the earth, and to the fish of the sea - as the first father, the first origin, the first oyster. Such is the reason of the learned of the last few centuries - the evolution theory; in other words, that which you learn from books, the creation of man’s folly and foolishness. But when we learn through the revelations of God that instead of man’s coming up from the poor worm of the dirt, he descended from the being who controls the universe by his power; that he descended from that being who is the fullness of all knowledge, and who sways his sceptre over more planetary systems than there are sands upon the sea shore. We are his offspring, we are his sons and his daughters, we are his children, he has begotten us, and we existed before the foundation of the world.”
(Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 20:75, August 25, 1878).
“It cannot be a question with any person of faith in our church, as to the origin of man. We did not have monkeys for ancestors, nor any inferior order of beings. We have not grown up to our present position as human beings through various stages of development from a very low order of creation. We descended from God. Man was created in his image. He is our Father. We have not descended to reach our present position; but many of the human family have fallen from their high estate into dreadful degradation.”
(George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truths, Vol. 1, p. 1).
“If we believe there is any truth in the writings of Moses, the Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles, and the teachings of Jesus, if we would indeed be consistent Christians and receive the writings of the fathers, and believe what was said unto them, we must believe that man is made in the image of God, and consequently that we are of the same species as the gods. However childlike and feeble we are in this condition of mortality, we are nevertheless descended from the gods, made in their image and after their likeness.”
(Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses, 19:323, January 20, 1878).
“Herein lies the great evidence of our lineage, of our having descended from the Gods, reasoning, intelligent beings possessing the capabilities of the Gods—that is, the power to rise to their capabilities, being of that nature and of that kind of which are the Gods.”
(Daniel H. Wells, Journal of Discourses, 24:314, October 28, 1883).
“We acknowledge God as supreme, the fountain of all knowledge, the fountain of all power, the fountain of all intelligence, the fountain of everything that is good. Who are men? The creatures of his workmanship, if you please, his descendants, his own children begotten by him, descended by lineal descent from the God we worship. The same being whom we worship is our God, is our Creator, is our Father. When I worship him I worship him as my Father. That which I possess, if there be anything godlike in it, I attribute it to him, as having come from him by lineal descent.”
(George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 21:76, October 5, 1879).
“My brethren and sisters, it is a glorious truth that has been taught to us, that we are literally the children of God, that we are his literal descendants, as Jesus was literally descended from Him, and that He is our Father as much as our earthly parent is our father, and we can go to Him with a feeling of nearness, knowing this, understanding it by the revelations which God has given to us.”
(George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 25:155, May 4, 1884).
“Adam was as conversant with his Father who placed him upon this earth as we are conversant with our earthly parents. The Father frequently came to visit his son Adam, and talked and walked with him; and the children of Adam were more or less acquainted with their Grandfather, and their children were more or less acquainted with their Great-Grandfather; and the things that pertain to God and to heaven were as familiar among mankind, in the first ages of their existence on the earth, as these mountains are to our mountain boys….”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 9:148, January 12, 1862).
“God notices this world. He organized it, and brought forth the inhabitants upon it. We are his children, literally, spiritually, naturally, and in every respect.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 14:136, May 21, 1871).
“The whole Scriptures plainly teach us that we are the children of that God who framed the world. Let us look round and see whether we can find a father and son in this congregation. Do we see one an elephant, and the other a hen? No. Does a father that looks like a human being have a son like an ape, going on all fours? No; the son looks like his father. There is an endless variety of distinction in the few features that compose the human face, yet children have in their countenances and general expression of figure and temperament a greater or less likeness of their parents. You do not see brutes spring from human beings. Every species is true to its kind. The children of men are featured alike and walk erect.
“The Bible clearly teaches us that we are the children of the very Being who framed this earth and peopled it.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 8:29-30, March 25, 1860).
“I do not regard Adam as related to — certainly not as descended from — the Neanderthal, the Cro-Magnon, the Peking, or the Piltdown man. Adam came as divinely directed, created, and empowered and stands as the patriarchal head of his posterity — a posterity, who, if true to the laws of God, are heirs to the Priesthood and to the glories of eternal lives.
“Were it true that man is a product of evolution from lower forms, it is but reasonable to believe that he will yet develop into something higher. While it is a fact that eternal progression is a characteristic of man’s Divine birthright, as yet we have learned nothing to indicate that man shall develop physically into any other form than that in which he now appears. …
“Man is the child of God; he is born heir to boundless possibilities, the inheritor of the eternities to come. Among mortal beings, the law holds true that the posterity of each shall be after his kind. The child therefore may become like unto the parent, and man may yet attain the rank of godship. He is born in the lineage of Deity, not in the posterity of the brute creation.”
(James E. Talmage, “The Earth and Man,” Deseret News, November 21, 1931).