The Law of Adoption

"A man, as a man, could arrive at all the dignity that a man was capable of obtaining or receiving; but it needed a God to raise to the dignity of a God. For this cause it is written, "Now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear we shall be like him." And how and why like Him? Because, through the instrumentality of the atonement and the adoption, it is made possible for us to become of the family of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ; and that as He, the potential instrument, through the oneness that existed between Him and His Father, by reason of obedience to divine law, overcome death, hell and the grave, and sat down upon His Father's throne, so shall we be abel to sit down with Him, even upon His throne." --John Taylor

One of the most misunderstood doctrines surrounds that of adoption into the family of God. It becomes a source of anti-Mormon attacks and seems to be really misunderstood both outside and inside the Church.

In Moses 6:64-68 we read,

"And it came to pass, when the Lord had spoken with Adam, our father, that Adam cried unto the Lord, and he was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and was brought forth out of the water.

"And thus he was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man.

"And he heard a voice out of heaven, saying: Thou art baptized with fire, and with the Holy Ghost. This is the record of the Father, and the Son, from henceforth and forever,

"And thou art after the order of Him who was without beginning of days or end of years, from all Eternity to all Eternity.


"Behold, thou art one in me, a son of God; and thus may all become my sons."

I underlined 2 important segments. Concerning what it means to be "after the order of Him..." President Ezra Taft Benson taught:

"Three years before Adam's death, a great event occurred. He took his son Seth, his grandson Enos, and other high priests who were his direct-line descendants, with others of his righteous posterity, into a valley called Adam-ondi-Ahman. There Adam gave to these righteous descendants his last blessing.

"When our Heavenly Father placed Adam and Eve on this earth, He did so with the purpose in mind of teaching them how to regain His presence. Our Father promised a Savior to redeem them from their fallen condition. He gave to them the plan of salvation and told them to teach their children faith in Jesus Christ, and repentance. Further, Adam and his posterity were commanded by God to be baptized, to receive the Holy Ghost, and to enter into the order of the Son of God. To enter into the order of the Son of God is the equivalent today of entering into the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is only received in the house of the Lord. 


"The Lord then appeared to them. The vast congregation rose up and blessed Adam and called him Michael, the prince and archangel. The Lord himself declared Adam to be a prince forever over his own posterity. Then Adam in his aged condition rose up and, being filled with the spirit of prophecy, predicted 'whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation.' All this is recorded in section 107 of the Doctrine and Covenants (verses 53-56) [D&C 107:53-56]."

"The Prophet Joseph Smith said that Adam blessed his posterity because "he wanted to bring them into the presence of God." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938, p. 159.)

"Here is an illuminating passage from Section 107 of the Doctrine and Covenants which tells us how Adam was able to bring himself and his righteous posterity into God's presence:   

"'The order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and tightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made.

"'This order was instituted in the days of Adam, and came down by lineage in [order] … that his posterity should be the chosen of the Lord, and that they should be preserved unto the end of the earth.' (D&C 107:40-42; italics added.)

"How did Adam bring his descendants into the presence of the Lord? The answer: Adam and his descendants entered into the priesthood order of God. Today we would say they went to the House of the Lord and received their blessings.

"The order of priesthood spoken of in the scriptures is sometimes referred to as the patriarchal order because it came down from father to son.

"But this order is otherwise described in modern revelation as an order of family government where a man and woman enter into a covenant with God--just as did Adam and Eve--to be sealed for eternity, to have posterity, and to do the will and work of God throughout their mortality.

"If a couple are true to their covenants, they are entitled to the blessing of the highest degree of the celestial kingdom. These covenants today can only be entered into by going to the House of the Lord.

"Adam followed this order and brought his posterity into the presence of God. He is the great example for us to follow." (From "What I Hope You Will Teach Your Children About the Temple," Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pp. 42-43; also, Ensign, Aug. 1985, p. 8; emphasis added.)* 

The second word to highlight from the Moses scriptures and from what President Benson emphasizes: become. Often in LDS Theology we forget that although spirit children of Heavenly Parents, we are physical children of mortal, fallen parents. We have to seek to "become" the sons and daughters of Christ. It is only those who have become His sons and daughter that will inherit the Celestial Kingdom. in D&C 76, concerning those of the Celestial Kingdom it reads:

"Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God" (v. 58) meaning that they are special. Concerning this doctrine Bruce R. McConkie wrote:

"We are well aware that all men are the children of God, the offspring of the Father, his sons and his daughters. . . What is not so well known is that nearly all the passages of scripture, both ancient and modern, which speak of God as our Father and of men on earth being the sons of God, have no reference to our birth in preexistence as the children of Elohim, but teach rather that Jehovah is our Father and we are his children.   

"In setting forth that all men must be born again to gain salvation, we have seen that this means they must be "born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters." (Mosiah 27:25.) Whose sons and whose daughters do we become when we are born again? Who is our new Father? The answer is, Christ is our Father; we become his children by adoption; he makes us members of his family.... 

"But there is more than this to the doctrine of becoming sons of God. Those who so obtain are adopted also into the family of Elohim. They become his adopted sons so that they can receive, inherit, and possess along with his natural Son. 

"To envision what is meant by being sons of God, meaning the Father, let us follow Paul's reasoning in two passages of superlative insight and inspiration. To the Romans our apostolic friend of old wrote: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Standing alone, this could be taken to mean that by faith the saints become the sons of the Lord Jesus. But the perspective begins to change when our apostolic colleague says: 


"Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." That is, we call upon our Eternal Father in a familiar and friendly way, as children here call to their fathers with whom they maintain a familiar intimacy. Having attained this state of friendship with the Eternal One, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit," Paul continues, "that we are the children of God." He has now laid the groundwork. A pronouncement of deep and wondrous import is immediately forthcoming. "And if children"–note it well–"then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." (Rom. 8:14-17.) ...

"The reasoning is perfect. The Father had a Son, a natural Son, his own literal Seed, the Offspring of his body. This Son is his heir. As an heir he inherits all things from his Father–all power, all might, all dominion, the world, the universe, kingship, eternal exaltation, all things. But our revelations speak of men being exalted also and of their ascending the throne of eternal power. How is it done? Paul has explained it perfectly. They are adopted into the family of the Father. They become joint-heirs with his natural Son ... 

They constitute the sole and only way the eternal increase of an Eternal Father can become like their great Progenitor. As pertaining to this earth, they were revealed first to father Adam. He was baptized, born again, received the priesthood, and kept the commandments. As a result thereof, "a voice out of heaven" proclaimed: "Thou art one in me, a son of God; and thus may all become my sons." (Moses 6:65-68.) "Our father Adam taught these things," the scripture says, "and many have believed and become the sons of God, and many have believed not, and have perished in their sins." (Moses 7:1.)  (The Promised Messiah [1981], pp. 351-357; emphasis added)

For many years in the Church people were sealed up, or vertically, (not across, or horizontally, as in the Marriage sealing) to the Prophets and Apostles (rather than to their parents), but never did it sit quite right. Brigham Young wondered about this and it caused him concern. John Taylor had the same concern and finally, Wilford Woodruff was able to ponder on the matter. It should be remembered that President Woodruff had a very sound understanding of Temple Doctrine. He was the first President of the St. George Temple and thus the first designated President of any of the Latter-day Temples. 

Wilford Woodruff shared his concern publicly after receiving the revelation on how to appropriately seal the entire family of God together for the Eternal blessings:

"We have not fully carried out those principles in fulfillment of the revelations of God to us, in sealing the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. I have not felt satisfied, neither did President [John] Taylor, neither has any man since the Prophet Joseph who has attended to the ordinance of adoption in the temples of our God. We have felt that there was more to be revealed upon this subject than we had received."

"When I went before the Lord to know who I should be adopted to (we were then being adopted to prophets and apostles), the Spirit of God said to me, “Have you not a father, who begot you?”  “Yes, I have.”  “Then why not honor him?  Why not be adopted to him?”  “Yes,” says I, “that is right.”  I was adopted to my father, and should have had my father sealed to his father, and so on back; and the duty that I want every man who presides over a temple to see performed from this day henceforth and forever, unless the Lord Almighty commands otherwise, is, let every man be adopted to his father.  When a man receives the endowments, adopt him to his father; not to Wilford Woodruff, nor to any other man outside the lineage of his fathers.  That is the will of God to this people.  I want all men who preside over these temples in these mountains of Israel to bear this in mind. What business have I to take away the rights of the lineage of any man? What right has any man to do this?. No; I say let every man be adopted to his father; and then you will do exactly what God said when he declared he would send Elijah the prophet in the last days. Elijah the prophet appeared unto Joseph Smith and told him that the day had come when this principle must be carried out. Joseph Smith did not live long enough to enter any further upon these things. His soul was wound up with this work before he was martyred for the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ. He told us that there must be a welding link of all dispensations and of the work of God from one generation to another. This was upon his mind more than most any other subject that was given to him.(The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff [1946], p.155; Teaching of Presidents of the Church: Wilford Woodruff [2004]).

Wilford Woodruff had revelation on the matter that would completely change how we approach our Temple worship. It was the final fulfillment of the prophet Elijah's visit to the Kirtland Temple (recorded in D&C 110). I also personally feel that it caused a shout for joy on the other side of the veil. This made the salvation of our kindred dead an urgent matter--for now we truly could not be saved without our dead; not just our dead could not be saved without us.

To the faithful Church member who has children in the Covenant, no adoption is needed. On this matter Elder James E. Talmage taught,

"Although this is incomplete, it may give someone some ideas appertaining to the Sealing Ordinance of a child to Parent. Furthermore, if one is to completely understand this they first will need to understand, in more full sense, the Abrahamic (or Marriage) Covenant.

"Children born to parents thus married under the celestial law are heirs to the Priesthood; 'children of the covenant' they are called; no ordinance of adoption or sealing is required to give them place in the blessed posterity of promise. (The House of the Lord [1976], p.88.)

Other Scripture References: John 1:12; 3 Nephi 9:17; Moroni 7:26, 48; D&C 11:30; D&C 34:3; D&C 35:2; D&C 45:8; Moses 7:1

*should be noted that this was given at the centennial devotional of the Logan Utah Temple. I strongly suggest that people read as it is a great doctrinal commentary on the Temples.