section_path: LDS Church president/Teachings/Adam-God doctrine and blood atonement
section_name: Adam-God doctrine and blood atonement
paragraph_text: Adam-God doctrine and blood atonement
  
  One of the more controversial teachings of Young during the Mormon Reformation was the Adam–God doctrine. According to Young, he was taught by Smith that Adam is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and exalted. From another planet, Adam brought Eve, one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After bearing mortal children and establishing the human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam acts as the god of this world. Later, as Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus. The LDS Church has since repudiated the Adam–God doctrine.
  
  Young also taught the doctrine of blood atonement, in which the atonement of Jesus cannot redeem an eternal sin, which included apostasy, theft, fornication (but not sodomy), or adultery. Instead, those who committed such sins could partially atone for their sin by sacrificing their life in a way that sheds blood. The LDS Church has formally repudiated the doctrine as early as 1889 and multiple times since the days of Young.
  
  One of the more controversial teachings of Young during the Mormon Reformation was the Adam–God doctrine. According to Young, he was taught by Smith that Adam is "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do". According to the doctrine, Adam was once a mortal man who became resurrected and exalted. From another planet, Adam brought Eve, one of his wives, with him to the earth, where they became mortal by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After bearing mortal children and establishing the human race, Adam and Eve returned to their heavenly thrones where Adam acts as the god of this world. Later, as Young is generally understood to have taught, Adam returned to the earth to become the biological father of Jesus. The LDS Church has since repudiated the Adam–God doctrine.
  
  Young also taught the doctrine of blood atonement, in which the atonement of Jesus cannot redeem an eternal sin, which included apostasy, theft, fornication (but not sodomy), or adultery. Instead, those who committed such sins could partially atone for their sin by sacrificing their life in a way that sheds blood. The LDS Church has formally repudiated the doctrine as early as 1889 and multiple times since the days of Young.