Okay, here are my answers to your two remaining questions...
Brigham taught that Adam was God but LDS also teach that Adam was Michael?
This is a great example of an anomaly. Here's what I mean... Basically, an anomaly is a glitch. There are scientific anomalies and historical anomalies; there are even anomalies in religion. One such anomaly in Christianity concerns what Paul says in 1Corinthians 15:29: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?" This is the only mention in the Bible of proxy baptism, but since it's so straightforward and to the point -- proxy baptisms were being performed in early Christian communities -- most Christians just throw up their hands in frustration when asked to explain this verse. They don't believe in baptism for the dead, but Paul seemed to. Consequently, they kind of brush it under the rug and admit that they simply don't know enough about what Paul meant to formulate a doctrine. In terms of anomalies in the LDS religion, an anomaly would be a statement made by an LDC Church leader that seems to be completely out of line with all other statements on the same doctrine. It may even contradict commonly accepted doctrine (as is the case with the Adam-God theory). Brigham Young did, in fact, make some rather bizarre statements concerning Adam being God that even our leaders are baffled by. They contradict not only established doctrine -- which is that Adam was known as Michael in the premortal life -- but they also contradict other statements which Brigham Young himself made. LDS scholars have been trying to figure out what Brigham Young said and what he meant by what he said for over a hundred and twenty-five years. Unfortunately, Brigham Young isn't around to ask. The thing is, this was never LDS doctrine. I'm 67 now, and I probably never even heard mention of the Adam-God theory until 15 or 20 years ago. That means that until I was at least 47 years old, I was completely clueless that this concept had ever even existed. That, in and of itself, ought to be evidence enough that this is not something we need to stress over. If it were LDS doctrine, it would be taught in General Conference and as a part of LDS curriculum. I'd venture a guess that few Latter-day Saints outside of those specifically interested in apologetics even know about this teaching.
The faithful becoming Gods and ruling over their own planets.
Easy one! Since our critics love to ridicule us, this is one doctrine that they have really outdone themselves in terms of parodying and caricaturing what our actual belief is. We are frequently accused of believing that they can, at some point in the future, become "Gods." Understandably, to many who do not fully understand our doctrine, the mere idea is out-and-out heresy.
Let's start by clearing up two big, big misconceptions:
(1) We do not believe that any of us will ever be equal to God, our Eternal Father in Heaven. He will always be our God and we will always worship Him.
(2) Nothing we could possibly do on our own could exalt us to the level of deity. It is only through the will and grace of God that man is given this potential. And "with God, nothing is impossible."
We believe, as you know, that ours is a restoration of the very Church Jesus Christ established during His ministry here on earth. It would follow, then, that we believe we are teaching the same doctrines as were taught then and accepted by Jesus’ followers. Throughout the New Testament, there are indications that this doctrine (known as deification or exaltation) is not one the Latter-day Saints invented, but that the earliest Christians understood and believed it, as well.
Romans 8:16-17, 2 Peter 1:4, Revelation 2:26-27 and
Revelation 3:21 are the four I like best. Through these verses, we learn that, as children of God, we may also be His heirs, joint-heirs with Christ, even glorified with Him. We might partake of the nature of divinity and be allowed to sit with our Savior on His throne, to rule over the nations.
Now, if these promises are true (as I believe they are), what do they all boil down to? To the Latter-day Saints, they mean that we have the potential to someday, be “godlike.” One of our prophets explained that "we are gods in embryo." If our Father is divine and we are literally his "offspring", as the Bible teaches we are, is it really such a stretch of the imagination to believe that he has endowed each of us with a spark of divinity?
Finally, there is considerable evidence that the doctrine of deification was taught for quite some time after the Savior’s death, and accepted as orthodox. Some of the most well-known and respected of the early Christian Fathers made statements that were remarkably close to the statements LDS leaders have made. For example:
In the second century,
Saint Irenaeus said, “If the Word became a man, it was so men may become gods.” He also posed this question: “Do we cast blame on Him (God) because we were not made gods from the beginning, but were at first created merely as men, and then later as Gods?” At about the same period of time,
Saint Clement made this statement: “The Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god.” And
Saint Justin Martyr agreed, saying that men are “deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the highest.” Some two centuries later,
Athanasius explained that “the Word was made flesh in order that we might be enabled to be made gods. He became man that we might be made divine.” And, finally,
Augustine, said, “But He that justifies also deifies, for by justifying he makes sons of God. For he has given them power to become the sons of God. If then we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods.”
Even the noted Christian theologian,
C.S. Lewis, said much the same thing in his book "Mere Christianity."
“The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were “gods” and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him – for we can prevent Him, if we choose – He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said."
Finally, according to The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, “Deification (Greek theosis) is for Orthodoxy the goal of every Christian. Man, according to the Bible, is made in the image and likeness of God…. It is possible for man to become like God, to become deified, to become god by grace.”
So, the "Mormons" really didn't come up with this doctrine. We only restored that which had been lost for many, many years.
In a way, I'm kind of surprised that you didn't know about the doctrine of Eternal Progression when you joined the Church. Of course, you jumped in entirely too quickly and then left too quickly. That's okay. I'm sure you're not the first person who has done exactly the same thing. But, if you ever do decide to come back, I'm sure this won't happen a second time. Did you know that Brigham Young actually studied Mormonism for two full years before being baptized? Missionaries love converts, and let me tell you, they probably looked at you as some kind of a miracle. I don't know how hard they may have pushed you or even if they pushed you at all, but becoming a Latter-day Saint is something which should take a great deal of study, faith and prayer. Good luck with your decision, whatever it may end up being.
Meanwhile... keep those questions coming.
) At any rate, I think we all know that you just want answers to your questions. Asking them in this forum may just result in a more "lively" discussion, that's all.
