Editing Adam–God doctrine (section)

===Adam–God in Young's later administration===
After the public debates between Young and Pratt subsided in 1860, Young continued to maintain his belief in the doctrine, but may have been disappointed that the people did not give the doctrine universal acceptance. In 1861, he stated:
<blockquote>Some years ago, I advanced a doctrine with regard to Adam being our father and God, that will be a curse to many of the Elders of Israel because of their folly. With regard to it they yet grovel in darkness and will. It is one of the most glorious revealments of the economy of heaven, yet the world hold derision. Had I revealed the doctrine of baptism from [''sic''] the dead instead [of] Joseph Smith there are men around me who would have ridiculed the idea until dooms day [''sic''?]. But they are ignorant and stupid like the dumb ass.<ref>Quoted from [http://www.xmission.com/~country/by/100861.htm Manuscript Addresses of Brigham Young]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051226111634/http://www.xmission.com/~country/by/100861.htm |date=December 26, 2005 }}.  Watt, G.D., transcriber, October 8, 1861, with minor misspellings corrected.</ref></blockquote>

Nevertheless, Young and the [[Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church)|Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]] continued to discuss the doctrine.<ref name="Twelve 1860">{{harvtxt|Collier|1999|p=229 fn. 12}} (citing minutes of meeting of the Quorum of Twelve, 4 April 1860, in which it was recorded: "It was Joseph's doctrine that Adam was God ... God comes to earth and eats and partakes of fruit. Joseph could not reveal what was revealed to him, and if Joseph had it revealed, he was not told to reveal it."). {{harvtxt|Collier|1999|p=360}} (citing Wilford Woodruff Journal of 4 September 1860, in which George Q. Cannon said "that Adam is our Father [and] is a true doctrine revealed from God to Joseph & Brigham. For this same doctrine is taught in some of the old Jewish records which have never been in print"). {{harvtxt|Collier|1999|p=367}} (citing Wilford Woodruff Journal of 16 December 1867, stating that "President Young said Adam was Michael the Archangel, & he was the Father of Jesus Christ & was our God & that Joseph taught this principle.")</ref> In 1873, Young again taught the doctrine publicly, and indicated that when Adam came to the Earth, he left behind many wives other than [[Eve]] at the place from which Adam came; however, he said he was "not disposed to give any farther knowledge concerning ... the great and glorious doctrine that pertains to this."<ref>Brigham Young (August 31, 1873), ''[[Journal of Discourses]]'' '''16''':160.</ref> "How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which is revealed to them, and which God revealed to me—namely that Adam is our father and God .... Our Father Adam is the man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life and salvation to all his children who have or ever will come upon the earth."<ref>Sermon delivered on June 8, 1873. Printed in the ''Deseret Weekly News'', June 18, 1873.</ref>

Just before his death, Young took steps to ensure that the Adam–God doctrine was taught in [[Temple (LDS Church)|the church's temples]] as part of the [[Endowment (Mormonism)|endowment ceremony]]. In 1877, while he was standardizing the endowment for use in the [[St. George Utah Temple|St. George Temple]], Young introduced as part of the endowment the "lecture at the veil." The final draft of the lecture is today kept private in the St. George Temple.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} [[L. John Nuttall]], Young's secretary, recorded in his journal a transcription of Young's temple lecture regarding the Adam-God doctrine. A portion of that journal entry reads as follows:

<blockquote>Adam was an immortal being when he came on this earth he had lived on an earth similar to ours … and had begotten all the spirit that was to come to this earth and Eve our common Mother who is the mother of all living bore those spirits in the celestial world .... Father Adam's oldest son (Jesus the Saviour) who is the heir of the family is Father Adams first begotten in the spirit World. who according to the flesh is the only begotten as it is written. In his divinity he having gone back into the spirit World and come in the spirit [glory] to Mary and she conceived for when Adam and Eve got through with their Work in this earth. They did not lay their bodies down in the dust, but returned to the spirit World from whence they came.<ref>''Journal of [[L. John Nuttall]]'', personal secretary of Brigham Young, February 7, 1877, in BYU Special Collections. Prefacing the paragraph quoted, L. John Nuttall records in his private journal for 7 February 1877 that after serving that day in the St. George Temple and after taking his evening meal, he attended a meeting with Young, [[Wilford Woodruff]], [[Erastus Snow]], [[Brigham Young, Jr.]], and others. This meeting was held in Young's private winter home in St. George, Utah. During the course of the meeting, Young gave some teachings which Nuttall later recorded in his personal journal. It appears that Nuttall recorded Young's instructions on the 8 February, not on the 7th when they were delivered. The claim that Nuttall did not record Young's instructions on the same night they were delivered is made by Fred Collier. Collier notes that, after Nuttall had written the first sentence of paragraph 1B, "[a]t this point Nuttal stopped writing for the ink beginning the next sentence is much lighter and the same as that used for his diary entry of February 8." Collier notes that Nuttall resumed his entry for February 7 with the word "Works" and continues with the rest of his journal entry as set forth in this section. It would appear that Nuttall wrote the majority of that entry on the following day, the 8th.</ref></blockquote>