Mormon Quotes

Earth

Brigham Young
The earth is a living creature and breathes as much as you and I do.
Brigham Young, Teachings of President Brigham Young, ed. and comp. by Fred C. Collier, v. 3, 1852‑1854, 1987, p. 241, also in Essential Brigham Young, p. 82
Brigham Young
Here let me state to all philosophers of every class upon the earth, when you tell me that father Adam was made as we make adobes from the earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale. When you tell me that the beasts of the field were produced in that manner, you are speaking idle words devoid of meaning. There is no such thing in all the eternities where the Gods dwell. Mankind are here because they are the offspring of parents who were first brought here from another planet, and power was given them to propagate their species, and they were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth.
Brigham Young, The following comments were part of a discourse given by President Young in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on October 9, 1859. The source reference is J.D. 7:285
Brigham Young
If [the sun] was made to give light to those who dwell upon it, and to other planets; and so will this earth when it is celestialized. Every planet in the first rude, organic state receives not the glory of God upon it, but is opaque; but when celstialized, every planet that God brings into existence is a body of light, but not till then.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 13:271
Brigham Young
We have heard a great deal about Adam and Eve ‑‑‑ how they were formed and some think he was made like an adobe and the Lord breathed into him the breath of life. For we read, "From dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Well, he was made of the dust of the earth, but not of this earth. He was made just the same way you and I are made but on another earth. Adam was an immortal being, when he came on this earth. He had lived on an earth similar to ours.
Brigham Young, Journal of L. John Nuttall (private secretary to President Young). February 7, 1877
Brigham Young
Michael was a resurrected Being and he left Eloheim and came to this earth & with an immortal body, & continued so till he partook of earthly food and begot children who were mortal.
Brigham Young, Records of Wilford Woodruff, January 27, 1860
Brigham Young
Before me I see a house full of Eves. What a crowd of reflections the word Eve is calculated to bring up! Eve was the name or title conferred upon our first mother, because she was actually to be the mother of all human beings who should live upon this earth. I am looking upon a congregation designed to be just such beings.
Brigham Young, Millennial Star, v. 31, p. 267
Brigham Young
Adam and Eve were the names of the first man and woman of every earth that was ever organized and ... Adam and Eve were the natural father and mother of every spirit that comes to this planet, or that receives tabernacles on this planet, consequently we are brother and sisters, and ... Adam was God, our Eternal Father.
Brigham Young, Journal of Joseph Lee Robinson, October 6, 1854
Brigham Young
Adam & Eve had lived upon another Earth, were immortal when they came here. Adam assisted in forming this earth & agreed to fall when he came here, & he fell that man might be & the opposite principle to good, the devil, the serpent, the evil, was placed upon the earth that man might know the good from the evil, for without an experience in these things man could not know the one from the other. As soon as the devil was on earth he sowed the seeds of death in everything so as soon as they began to eat of the fruit of the earth they received into their system the seeds of mortality & of death so their children were mortal & subject to death, sorrow, pain & wo. Then when they partook of life, joy, ease & happiness, they would know how to prize it. Father Adam would never cease his labors to redeem his posterity & exalt them to all the glory they were capable of receiving.
Brigham Young, Journal of Wilford Woodruff, May 6, 1855
Joseph Smith
We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did, and I will show it from the Bible.
Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp.345‑346
Joseph Smith
He [Adam] is the father of the human family, and presides over the spirits of all men, and all that have had the keys must stand before him in this grand council. This may take place before some of us leave this stage of action. The Son of Man stands before him, and there is given him glory and dominion. Adam delivers up his stewardship to Christ, that which was delivered to him as holding the keys of the universe, but retains his standing as head of the human family.
Joseph Smith, Messages of the First Presidency, v. 1, p. 113, July 1839; History of the Church, v. 3, pp. 386‑387
John Taylor
Thus we are the only people that understand anything about the present position or the cause of the organization of the world and of man, and that understand anything correctly about a preparation for a future state; that we are the only people that know how to save our progenitors, how to save ourselves, and how to save our posterity in the celestial kingdom of God; that we are the people that God has chosen by whom to establish his kingdom and introduce correct principles into the world; and that we in fact are the saviours of the world, if they ever are saved;
John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 6:163
Wilford Woodruff
Some of his [Orson Pratt's] doctrines as contained in the Seer were being discussed. Brother Pratt alsovthought that Adam was made of the dust of the earth. Could not believe that Adam was our God or the Father of Jesus Christ. President Young said that He came from another world & made this. Brought Eve with him, partook of the fruits of the earth, begat children & they were earthly & had mortal bodies & if we were faithful, we should become Gods as He was.
Wilford Woodruff, The Journal of Wilford Woodruff. September 17, 1854
Joseph Fielding Smith
I tell you, life did not commence upon this earth spontaneously. Its origin was not here. Life existed long before our solar system was called into being. The fact is, there never was a time when man‑‑‑made in the image of God, male and female‑‑did not exist... The Lord has given us the information regarding his creations, and now he has made many earths, for there never was a beginning, never was a time when man did not exist somewhere in the universe, and when the time came for this earth to be peopled, the Lord, our God, transplanted upon it from some other earth, the life which is found here.
Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol 1:139‑140
Joseph Fielding Smith
The dividing of the earth [Genesis 10:25] was not an act of division by the inhabitants of the earth by tribes and peoples, but a breaking asunder of the continents, thus dividing the land surface and creating the Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere. By looking at a wall map of the world, you will discover how the land surface along the northern and southern coast of the American Hemisphere and Europe and Africa has the appearance of having been together at one time. Of course, there have been many changes on the earth's surface since the beginning. We are informed by revelation that the time will come when this condition will be changed and that the land surface of the earth will come back again as it was in the beginning and all be in one place. This is definitely stated in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, v. 5, pp. 73‑74
Joseph Fielding Smith
Does it not appear to you that it is a foolish and ridiculous notion that when God created this earth he had to begin with a speck of protoplasm, and take millions of years, if not billions, to bring conditions to pass by which his sons and daughters might obtain bodies made in his image? Why not the shorter route and transplant them from another earth as we are taught in the scriptures?
Joseph Fielding Smith, President Joseph Fielding Smith, in his book: Man, His Origin and Destiny, pp 276‑277
Orson Pratt
What! is the earth [alive] too? If it were not, how could the words of our text be fulfilled, where it speaks of the earth's dying? How can that die that has no life?
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 1:281
Eliza Roxcy Snow
Adam and Eve are the names of the fathers and mothers of worlds.
Eliza Roxcy Snow, Women of Mormondom, p. 179
Eliza Roxcy Snow
Adam is our Father and God. He is the God of the earth.
Eliza Roxcy Snow, Women of Mormondom, p. 179
Eliza Roxcy Snow
In the beginning, the Gods created the heavens and the earths. In their councils they said, 'Let us make man in our own image.' So, in the likeness of the Fathers, and the Mothers ‑‑ the Gods ‑‑ created they man ‑‑ male and female. When this earth was prepared for mankind, Michael, as Adam, came down. He brought with him one of his wives, and he called her name Eve.
Eliza Roxcy Snow, Women of Mormondom, p. 179
Heber C. Kimball
We often sing, "This earth was once a garden place," where God our Father dwelt, and took possession and a stand that mankind will take who attain to that honour....When he (Adam) planted the garden, he planted it with seeds he brought with him: and he also brought the animals from the earth he lived upon, where his Father dwelt.
Heber C. Kimball, The following is an interesting statement made by President Heber C. Kimball on June 12, 1860, delivered at Willow Creek. The J.D. reference for this is 8:243‑244
Heber C. Kimball
Some say the earth exists without spirit; I do not believe any such thing; it has a spirit as much as any body has a spirit.
Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:172
Heber C. Kimball
When we escape from this earth, (do) we suppose we are going to heaven? Do you suppose you are going to the earth that Adam came from? that Eloheim came from? where Jehovah the Lord came from? No. When you have learned to become obedient to the Father that dwells upon this earth, to the Father and God of this earth, and obedient to the messengers He sends‑‑‑when you have done all that, remember you are not going to leave this earth. You will never leave it until you become qualified, and capable, and capacitated to become a father of an earth yourselves.
Heber C. Kimball, On November 14, 1852, President Heber C. Kimball gave an address in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. The reference is J.D. 1:356
Hosea Stout
B. Young spoke to the meeting in a very interesting manner. Adam and Eve were made of the dust of the Earth from which they came, they brought their bodies with them. They had lived, died and been resurrected before they came here and they came with immortal bodies, and had to partake of the fruits of this Earth in order to bring forth mortal bodies, or natural bodies, that their seed might be of the dust of this Earth as they were of the dust of the earth from which they came.
Hosea Stout, Samual W. Richards, Vol. 2 215 March 25, 1855: British Mission President (Honerallby released in 1854)
B. H. Roberts
We are informed that the Lord God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb before it grew on our planet. As vegetation was created or made to grow upon some older earth, and made to grow, so likewise man and his helpmate were brought from some other world to our own, to people it with their children. *** . . . instead of being molded as a brick we are brought forth by the natural laws of procreation: so also was Adam and his wife in some other world.
B. H. Roberts, Elder B. H. Roberts, in an article printed in The Contributor Vol. 10:265 (1889)
B. H. Roberts
Accepting this statement of Joseph Smith relative to our planet in its present state being created or formed from the fragments of a planet which previously existed, one may readily understand how the supposed differences between scientists and believers in revelation have arisen. Scientists have been talking of the earth's strata that were formed in a previously existing planet; they have considered the fossilized flora and fauna imbedded in those strata.... If scientists shall claim that the fossilized remains in the different strata of the earth's crust reveal the fact that in the earlier periods of the earth's existence only the simpler forms of vegetation and animal life are to be found, both forms of life becoming more complex and of a higher type as the earth becomes older, until it is crowned with the presence of man — all that may be allowed. But that this gradation of animal life owes its existence to the processes of evolution is denied.... The claims of evolution as explained by the philosophers [not scientists] of the Darwin school, are contrary to all experience so far as man's knowledge extends.
B. H. Roberts, LDS Historian B.H. Roberts, The Gospel and Man's Relationship to Deity, pp. 281‑282
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