>I am deleting the top four elements of teh array since I want a slightly different field list.
>

I assume you mean top four "rows" and not "elements."
ADEL() doesn't redimension the array, it moves data up from rows under the deleted one and replaces the remainder with .F., e.g.

Dimension lax(2,2)
lax[1,1]="Hello"
lax[1,2]="There"
lax[2,1]="Buenos"
lax[2,2]="Dias"
ADEL(lax,1)
Display Memory Like lax
** displays

LAX         Pub    A  
   (   1,   1)     C  "Buenos"
   (   1,   2)     C  "Dias"
   (   2,   1)     L  .F.
   (   2,   2)     L  .F.

You need to redim the array after the ADEL()

>HOWEVER, if I do not delete the top rows (at least one) I get an error that says the original database (that =AFields() got the array from) exist which I NOT the name I am trying to create.

Array[1,12] holds the name of the table in the DBC - e.g., you can have a DBF named sometable and call it ThisIsMyTable in the DBC. Change this element to the new table name or blank it out