Sunday, August 29, 2021

Brigham Young on the Absolute Necessity of Divine Revelation to Know of the Reality of God and Truth of the Gospel

In his journal for September 1, 1849, we find the following record of a sermon Brigham Young himself delivered, showing the absolute necessity of divine revelation for us to truly know the reality of God and the truth of the Gospel:

 

I look upon my own existence to the li[gh]t within me, if I have talent given me I shall venture to tell them in part—for an exp[anatio]n on this point wo[uld] require many worlds to convey the idea unless h[eav]n[l]y words r given, it wo[ul]d require vol[umes] to explain—there is a Sp[irit] in every human being & living creature [and] the insp[iratio]n of the Al[might]y giveth it understanding, without that, we co[ul]ld not convey it to ano[the]r man—consequently my doctrine is [that] absolutely no man or woman can understand the things of God unless the Al[mighty] giveth understanding—the whole of the Gospel is founded on that prin[ciple that] we must [k]no[w] by the rev[elatio]n of J[esus] C[hrist]—[To[ recollect[,] I apply a Sp[irit]—yet philosophy applies life to all. (George D. Smith, ed., Brigham Young, Colonizer of the American West: Diaries and Office Journals, 1832-1871, 2 vols. [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021], 1:160)