Near the end of Adam’s life, he held a grand reunion with many of his posterity in a valley called Adam-ondi-Ahman. The meeting was joyful and sacred.
The Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel.
And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam, and said unto him: I have set thee to be at the head; a multitude of nations shall come of thee, and thou art a prince over them forever.
And Adam stood up in the midst of the congregation; and, notwithstanding he was bowed down with age, being full of the Holy Ghost, predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation.
Doctrine and Covenants 107:54-56
This meeting represented not only a family reunion but also a reunion of that family with God. Enoch was there; his city of Zion had not yet been “taken up into heaven” (Moses 7:21). They heard God bless Adam, and they heard Adam prophesy by the power of the Holy Ghost. The man whose transgression had brought physical and spiritual death into the world had been reconciled to God.
The name Adam (אָדָם) means “human being” in Hebrew, so Adam’s story is representative of all of our stories. As the Book of Mormon prophet Samuel taught, one of the effects of Adam’s transgression was the same thing we all experience when we sin: our connection with God is severed.
For all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual.
But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord.
Helaman 14:16-17
On May 19, 1838, as Joseph Smith was exploring Daviess County, Missouri, looking for a suitable location for church members to settle, he came upon a hill which his traveling companions called “Spring Hill.” But as he recorded in his journal, he was inspired to call it by a different name:
In the afternoon I went up the river about half a mile to Wight’s Ferry, accompanied by President Rigdon, and my clerk, George W. Robinson, for the purpose of selecting and laying claim to a city plat near said ferry in Daviess County, … which the brethren called Spring Hill, but by the mouth of the Lord it was named Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said He, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the Prophet.
JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. B-1, created 1 Oct. 1843–24 Feb. 1845, page 797; compare Doctrine and Covenants 116:1
Daniel saw in a vision “one like the Son of Man [coming] with the clouds of heaven,” and then approaching “the Ancient of days.” Daniel reported the outcome of this meeting: “There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom…which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14). Joseph Smith saw this as a prophecy of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, apparently anticipating a meeting between the Savior and Adam, reminiscent of the glorious reunion near the end of Adam’s life. So Adam-ondi-Ahman is associated with two events, one in the distant past and the other in the not-so-distant future.
W. W. Phelps had anticipated this dual interpretation in the lyrics to the hymn “Adam-ondi-Ahman,” which was sung at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. In the hymn, he associates this place-name with the garden of Eden, Enoch’s city of Zion, and “the Savior’s second coming, when all the earth in glorious bloom affords the Saints a holy home, like Adam-ondi-Ahman.”
Like Zion, even though Adam-ondi-Ahman may refer to a specific place (or places), it also describes a state: reconciliation with God. The image of Adam in the presence of God is an image of hope; it’s an image of restoration; it’s an image of redemption. Adam’s fall is our fall, and Adam’s restoration is our restoration. Adam-ondi-Ahman is a reminder that the Savior overcame spiritual death, bringing us back into God’s presence. No wonder He spoke so exultantly of it as He urged church members to let go of their possessions in Kirtland and relocate to Missouri:
Is there not room enough on the mountains of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and on the plains of Olaha Shinehah, or the land where Adam dwelt, that you should covet that which is but the drop, and neglect the more weighty matters?
Therefore, come up hither unto the land of my people, even Zion.
Doctrine and Covenants 117:8-9
Today, I will remember the promise of Adam-ondi-Ahman. I will be grateful for the assurance that our oldest ancestor was redeemed and reconciled to God by the grace of Jesus Christ and that we may all be restored to His presence by that same power.
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