In a sermon dated July 31, 1864, Brigham Young was recorded as having said the following against Calvinism:
I will here say that
it is a mistaken idea, as entertained by the Calvinists, that God has decreed
all things whatsoever that come to pass, for the volition of the creature is as
free as air. You may inquire whether we believe in foreordination; we do, as
strongly as any people in the world. We believe that Jesus was foreordained
before the foundations of the world were built, and his mission was appointed
him in eternity to be the Savior of the world, yet when he came in the flesh he
was left free to choose or refuse to obey his Father. Had he refused to obey
his Father, he would have become a son of perdition. We also are free to
choose or refuse the principles of eternal life. God has decreed and
foreordained many things that have come to pass, and he will continue to do
so; but when he decrees great blessings upon a nation or upon an individual
they are decreed upon certain conditions. When he decrees great plagues and
overwhelming destructions upon nations or people, those decrees come to pass
because those nations and people will not forsake their wickedness and turn
unto the Lord. It was decreed that Nineveh should be destroyed in forty days,
but the decree was stayed on the repentance of the inhabitants of Nineveh.
My time is too limited to enter into this subject at length; I will content
myself by saying that God rules and reigns, and has made all his children as
free as himself, to choose the right or the wrong, and we shall then be judged
according to our works.
Man appoints, but God
disappoints, man's ways are not like God's ways; men can search out and perform
many things as individuals, as families, neighborhoods, cities and nations, but
God holds the results of their doings and acts in his own hands. (JOD
10:324-25)
Notice a few things:
For Brigham, God’s decrees are contingent whether or not such is explicated when they are revealed by a prophet (cf. Jer 18:7-10 and the example of Jonah and the people of Nineveh).
God continues to decree new things, which is
not consistent with God being in an “eternal now.”
In Brigham’s theology, Jesus had the
free-will to accept or reject God the Father, showing that Jesus could
have sinned (but never did).
