"Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, the first born to our Heavenly Father in the spirit and the Only Begotten in the flesh," declared Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Quorum of the Twelve at the October 1980 general conference.

"Jesus is the Holy One of Israel, not Adam, not anyone else. Although we are all spirit children of the Father, Jesus is the Only Begotten of the Father, in mortality, even from the beginning, not Adam, not anyone else. This the Lord Himself says."Elder Petersen added, "The Apostle Paul has an interesting passage in his epistle to the Hebrews. He spoke of the Savior and declared Him to be in the express image of His Father's person. Then he asked this question: 'Unto which of the angels said he [God] at any time Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?' (Heb. 1:5.) And of course the answer is immediate and obvious -- none of the angels, not even Adam, or Michael, the chief of the angels.

"In this passage Paul was speaking only of Jesus Christ. In the very next verse, as he continued to speak of Jesus, Paul called the lowly Nazarene the first begotten and declared, 'Let all the angels . . . worship him,' and this they did -- including Adam, who adores the Only Begotten of God, the Savior Jesus Christ, and is always subservient to Him.

"When the Apostle John wrote one of his most familiar passages he said, 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' (John 3:16.)

"And who was thus given of the Father to be crucified? Who wrought out the atonement on Calvary? Jesus of Nazareth! He was the Only Begotten of God. He alone was the Sacrificial Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. Adam was the Savior's progenitor only in the same sense in which he is the ancestor of us all.

"God had only one begotten son in the flesh."

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