[Brigham speaking]
. . . no matter whether I am
right or wrong or Joseph we must yield our opinion or judgment to the man
ordained to lead the church these are not the premises to reason from it is not
the retraction or reading Brother Orson put out demands I have been patient I
call you to witness although I knew many of them to be false and others I don’t
believe it is my business to talk about I have said it to brother Orson you
know I can’t comprehend that knowing [ever/here?] while we are in the flesh and
comprehend organization of first Deity anything to do with it. My belief is
that you and I don’t know anything about it is what I said a great many times
to you . . . (“Orson Pratt, 4 April 1860, before Brigham Young and the Twelve,
page 6,” Church History Catalog, CR 100 317)
. . . there has been preached in
public and also been published in the sermons of Brother Young that Adam is the
father of spirits and the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ [of] the spirits
of all men upon the earth as well as the Father of body of our Savior I think
these principles have been intimated when I read the revelations that were
given to Joseph I read directly to the contrary in my estimation according to
my views [on the] subject I read in the revelations given to Enoch that he
called upon the people to repent and spoke of a record that was given of the
first ministration to Adam that the Lord spoke to Adam and told Adam he had an
Only Begotten Son which was Jesus Christ who should come in meridian [of] time
here were 3 personages one Adam another was the Father and another was the Son
all 3 spoken of the person speaking to Adam had a Son Jesus Christ which he
said should come in the meridian of time consequently Adam could not be the
Father of Jesus Christ unless he had two Fathers that is one point this is why I
differ from Brother Young and why these things make the impression upon my mind
and the difficulty in bringing my judgment to coincide with Brother Young’s . .
. (“Orson Pratt, 4 April 1860, before Brigham Young and the Twelve, page 19,” Church
History Catalog, CR 100 317)
. . . there this principle saying it so fully
established and established in six or 8 sermons of Brother Young and
immediately found the doctrine disapprobated I corrected them . . . (“Orson
Pratt, 4 April 1860, before Brigham Young and the Twelve, page 22,” Church
History Catalog, CR 100 317)
. . . if I prefer a charge
against you you have as many to prefer against me and there is only one thing I
might regard and I did at time though you may take it believe it or not as I
did plurality who was preaching the doctrine of Adam being our Father to my
personal positive knowledge that was Joseph’s doctrine and what he believed you
perhaps never heard him say it but I have and so did Brother Kimball and
Willard Richards that that was his belief and what he knew and he said that
every one of us that kept the celestial law would be Adams too that was
Joseph’s doctrine and as for Adam’s being made like an adobe it is the height
of nonsense and I tell you where I had a revelation as much as any man ever
lived on this earth it was when we was in Luke Johnson’s room when the power
came upon us so that it raised the neighborhood they felt it all over the
neighborhood like the earth quake and there I told the story that you and I if
faithful we be Adam and before it we get a resurrected body then we was capable
of commencing the work in spirit and it takes a natural body to beget a natural
body you recollect that revelation [to night/but not?] [true?] Woodruff George
A and you recollect it raised the whole neighborhood the shake of power of God
that came on the neighborhood when a man gets his celestial glory and is
crowned with crowns of glory immortality and eternal lives he has not yet the
power to beget a body but he begets spirits but those are born in the
eternities of the Gods and when he has the privilege by his Dictator you may
have the privilege of forming a world he goes there and puts every seed and
animal upon it places every creature there is in the earth under the earth
throughout the earth and upon the earth that flies in the heavens swims in the
water is placed by that Creator and he is called in the endowment Michael . . .
(“Orson Pratt, 4 April 1860, before Brigham Young and the Twelve, pages 26-28,”
Church History Catalog, CR 100 317)
According to a friend:
Due to Brigham's reference of
Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards hearing the doctrine from Joseph Smith
personally, I wonder if what happened here was that Joseph said something to
them about progressing onto future worlds as Adams, in connection with the
principles of the Endowment ceremony. And furthermore, it seems plausible that
he made private remarks to them about the Ancient of Days in 1842, when he
began teaching his Anointed Quorum about the Endowment ceremony. Willard
Richards' report of the May 4, 1842 Endowment ceremony seems to suggest
such teachings as having taken place (see DHC 5:1-2).
