All your philosophy, even every
iota of it which is true, belongs to the religion of the Latter-day Saints; and
I say to all such, if you believe the truth, you believe just as the Latter-day
Saints believe. It is said in this book (the Bible) that God made the earth in
six days. This is a mere term, but it matters not whether it took six days, six
months, six years, or six thousand years. The creation occupied certain periods
of time. We are not authorized to say what the duration of these days was, whether
Moses penned these words as we have them, or whether the translators of the
Bible have given the words their intended meaning. However, God created the
world. If I were a sectarian I would say, according to their philosophy, as I
have heard many of them say hundreds of times, "God created all things out
of nothing; in six days he created the world out of nothing." You may be
assured the Latter-day Saints do not believe any such thing. They believe God
brought forth material out of which he formed this little terra firma
upon which we roam. How long had this material been in existence? Forever and
forever, in some shape, in some condition. We need not refer at all to those who
were with God, and who assisted him in this work. The elements form and
develop, and continue to do so until they mature, and then they commence to
decay and become disorganized. The mountains around us were formed in this way.
By and by, when they shall have reached their maturity, the work of
disintegration and decay will commence. It has been so from all eternity, and
will continue to he so until they are made celestial.
Source: Brigham Young, “Personal Revelation the Basis of
Personal Knowledge—Philosophic View of Creation—Apostacy Involves
Disorganization and Return to Primitive Element—One Man Power,” September 17,
1876, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: Joseph F. Smith, 1877),
18:231-32
