Brigham Young teaches the Saints that Adam was not literally created from the dust of the ground; account in the book of Genesis is similar to "baby stories."

Date
1858
Type
Speech / Court Transcript
Source
Brigham Young
LDS
Hearsay
Scribed Verbatim
Reference

Brigham Young, "The Gospel—Growing in Knowledge—the Lord's Supper—Blessings of Faithfulness—Utility of Persecution—Creation of Adam—Experience," Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: Asa Calkin, 1858), 2:6

Scribe/Publisher
Asa Calkin
People
Brigham Young, Adam
Audience
Latter-day Saints, Reading Public
PDF
Transcription

Some of you may doubt the truth of what I now say, and argue that the Lord could teach him. This is a mistake. The Lord could not have taught him in any other way than in the way in which He did teach him. You believe Adam was made of the dust of this earth. This I do not believe, though it is supposed that it is so written in the Bible; but it is not, to my understanding. You can write that information to the States, if you please—that I have publicly declared that I do not believe that portion of the Bible as the Christian world do. I never did, and I never want to. What is the reason I do not? Because I have come to understanding, and banished from my mind all the baby stories my mother taught me when I was a child.

But suppose Adam was made and fashioned the same as we make adobies; if he had never drunk of the bitter cup, the Lord might have talked to him to this day, and he would have continued as he was to all eternity, never advancing one particle in the school of intelligence. This idea opens up a field of light to the intelligent mind. How can you know truth but by its opposite, or light but by its opposite? The absence of light is darkness.

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