Again, whatever Brigham Young may have meant when he made some of his puzzling statements is simply not clear to us today. Some of his personal views may have simply be wrong. But the scriptures and official LDS doctrine are clear: the husband of Eve in the Garden of Eden was not God the Father! (LDS FAQ: as you suggested)
Good you admit Brigham taught this. It cannot be denied. Again nothing new to me. At least they agree these sermons of Brigham are puzzling to say 'the least'.
Never the less Brigham did say them. I did not say he taught the saints much more about this, I think he finally realized it was sure craziness, and he changed his mind as Joseph also changed his theology. But the point remains that
Brigham boasts of his own discernment and wisdom and proclaims to speak with absolute clarity on the subject.
All while putting down 'all' other teachers and all of Christiandom that might disagree with him.
He nominates himself as revealing mysteries, that
all others are wrong, as was his habit, and all this with the intent to introduce new teachings. That he purposefully speaks ill of all previous Christian theologians, strongly suggests a purposeful manipulation of his audience.
The point is that BY here teaches various serious errors, these ideas of Adam God, God being a man and having a body, the pre-existence, and a natural means of birth for Jesus come from 'their' prophets, so don't blame non LDS for these ideas. All these LDS ideas work together to say what Brigham taught here. This man should not be trusted with truth, so how could he be such a prophet of God,
as to tell us to believe him and
not other teachers and teachings?
"My next sermon will be to both Saint and sinner. One thing has remained a mystery in this kingdom up to this day. It is in regard to the character of the well-beloved Son of God, upon which subject the Elders of Israel have conflicting views. Our God and Father in heaven, is a being of tabernacle, or, in other words, He has a body, with parts the same as you and I have..." (JD Vol1. p50)
Note Brigham is not being drawn off a planned sermon, this is an intended teaching of this day. Besides the strange teaching themselves, the LDS church's main theme is that
they are restoring the lost truths of Christianity to the world, and they are being restored
by their Prophets, namely Joseph, then Brigham. Is this really the person you want restoring biblical truth? Brigham should never be allowed to lead 'any' bible study with this attitude, or ideas, let alone lead the complete restoration of 'supposedly' lost truths:
"The question has been, and is often, asked, who it was that begat the Son of the Virgin Mary. The infidel world have concluded that if what the Apostles wrote about his father and mother be true, and the present marriage discipline acknowledged by Christendom be correct, then Christians must believe that God is the father of an illegitimate son, in the person of Jesus Christ! The infidel fraternity teach that to their disciples. I will tell you how it is. Our Father in Heaven begat all the spirits that ever were, or ever will be, upon this earth; and they were born spirits in the eternal world. Then the Lord by His power and wisdom organized the mortal tabernacle of man. We were made first spiritual, and afterwards temporal. (JD Vol1. p50)
(Besides all the references to Christian teachers as infidels , it says here that in order to understand Jesus is not illegitimate (Who said He was? Not Christians!) we need to understand Father God procreated all of us, including Jesus, in heaven prior to Earth. Brigham, confused, but still he is just thinking through Josephs theology, which if correct, could have Adam as the actual God of this world, because if you draw out Josephs theology to its logical conclusion, we can be Gods of our own planets, and on our planet we will have millions of spiritual offspring, albeit we will do all the consumating ourselves with our many wives, then our spiritual offspring have a chance on these earths to become mortal in flesh. So it makes sense that Adam could be our God in LDS theology)
"Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days! about whom holy men have written and spoken—He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later." (JD Vol1. p50)
(Again, try not to be influenced by Brigham's convincing
'Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth' and 'Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later' You may wonder where he gets his theology. It is what you get if you follow Joesph's teaching to a logical conclusion)
'They came here, organized the raw material, and arranged in their order the herbs of the field, the trees, the apple, the peach, the plum, the pear, and every other fruit that is desirable and good for man; the seed was brought from another sphere, and planted in this earth. The thistle, the thorn, the brier, and the obnoxious weed did not appear until after the earth was cursed. When Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, their bodies became mortal from its effects, and therefore their offspring were mortal. When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family; and when he took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his Father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel, and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve; from the fruits of the earth, the first earthly tabernacles were originated by the Father, and so (pg.51) on in succession. I could tell you much more about this; but were I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be nothing to it, in the estimation of the superstitious and overrighteous of mankind. However, I have told you the truth as far as I have gone. I have heard men preach upon the divinity of Christ, and exhaust all the wisdom they possessed. (JD Vol1. p50-51. On self government and mysteries)
(This discourse does not represent the way Jesus was begotten, or any physical relationship with Mary, that would be elsewhere, but what is wrong here, as I noted, is that their teachings are highly unbiblical, and they speak of other gods, many other gods. Therefore they are not restoring truth, they are false prophets, they were seriously intent on changing what the bible teaches, and not seeking truth)
'The eyes of the Gentiles are like the eyes of the fool, wandering to the ends of the earth. They are deceived, blinded, and far from understanding the things of God. All who would understand the things of God must understand them by the Spirit of God... The birth of the Savior was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood—was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers. Do you understand yourselves, brethren and sisters? Only to a small degree; and there are as yet but few who can strictly govern themselves" (Journal of discourses pg.115)
Take what you want, and there is plenty more exciting things from the wise LDS prophets of the restoration of missing truths...
