Friday, October 20, 2023

Brigham Young (April 17, 1870): Everyone, including Adam and Eve, are the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father

In a sermon dated April 17, 1870, Brigham Young taught that everyone, including Adam and Eve, are the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father:

 

What are his commandments? Did he ever teach the people anything that is wrong? If we read the requirements made by Jesus, by the Father, or by any messenger sent from the Heavens to the children of men we shall find nothing that will injure any human being or that will destroy the soul of one of the sons or daughters of Adam and Eve. . . . Some say, "We are the children of Adam and Eve." So we are, and they are the children of our Heavenly Father. We are all the children of Adam and Eve, and they and we are the offspring of Him who dwells in the heavens, the highest Intelligence that dwells anywhere that we have any knowledge of. (Brigham Young, "Keeping the Commandments," April 17, 1870, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [Liverpool: Horace S. Eldredge, 1871], 13:311)