Refuting and Correcting BYU’s False Doctrine on the Origin of Man #48 - Elder Samuel O. Bennion Attacks the Theory of Evolution

 (by Dennis B. Horne)

            In the first half of the 20^th century Samuel O. Bennion served a lengthy term as a mission president and was then called as a member of the First Council of the Seventy (he died in 1945). He is almost completely unknown (outside of historical circles) to members of the Church today. Yet his influence during his time was significant. He was one who was not going to lay down for the biologists and other scientists of his day that sought to push evolution on everyone. So at a time when the subject was a hot-button issue, he spoke vigorously against it in general conference, of which the below are excerpts from his address:

 

            It is more necessary than it has ever been, it appears to me, that the Latter-day Saints should familiarize themselves with the revelations of God to his people in this day, when doubt and theory are everywhere present, leading so many of the children of men away from God. . . .

Elder LeGrand Richards’ Special Witness of Jesus Christ

[Readers desiring to obtain their own hardback copies of volume one of I Know He Lives: How 13 Special Witnesses Came to Know Jesus Christ can find copies on sale here  Softbound copies can be purchased here, on sale. An ebook (Kindle) edition is available on Amazon here, for cheap. The Amazon page also includes the Introduction and first chapter of volume one for free.]

(by Dennis B. Horne)

  

With all my heart and soul, I know this is the Lord’s work,

that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world, the head of His church,

that Joseph Smith was His prophet.

  

            Of Elder LeGrand Richards, President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “No one who listens to LeGrand Richards has any doubt that he knows that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, and that the Church is true; and I think there is no more significant contribution that any man can make than to serve as a witness of the Lord with power and conviction and sincerity, and LeGrand Richards does that in a marvelous way.”[1]

Refuting and Correcting BYU’s False Doctrine on the Origin of Man #47 - President George F. Richards’s Essays

(by Dennis B. Horne)

            George F. Richards, father of Elder LeGrand Richards and a past Apostle and President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, wrote some essays in his diary (two are shared below). These are being published as part of his entire diaries by the Church Historian’s Press, a project that I eagerly applaud. For our purposes, these essays contain his views and thoughts on subjects relating to the origin of man. The writing is not the greatest so I did some very slight editing to make a few passages easier to understand. I also included his notes from a lecture he attended given by Elder B. H. Roberts:

 

My First Essay

 

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” Should read, “formed or organized.” God did not create the heaven and the earth out of nothing as many suppose; but the Gods formed, or organized them out of elements which, though they could not with the naked eye be seen, did exist. Always did and always will exist because they are eternal. We have Joseph Smith and the ancient Apostle Paul for authority upon this subject.

Refuting and Correcting BYU’s False Doctrine on the Origin of Man #46 - Elder Charles W. Penrose’s Attempt at Reconciling the Age of the Earth with the Science of His Day

(by Dennis B. Horne)

            We are requested to touch upon a subject that seems to be much misunderstood by many people, including some of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even by persons who might be supposed to have correct information. It has been stated and published that “The earth is almost six thousand years old,” and on that theory, some inferences are drawn which are untenable if the premise is incorrect. The question is: are we to understand the assertion as literally true? If so, does not that come in direct opposition with the facts that are looked upon as demonstrated, and with scientific discoveries and rational teachings? The editor of the Millennial Star does not profess to know the precise age of this earth on which we live, but is prepared to state most emphatically that its age is very far in advance of that which is implied in the assertion that has given rise to these remarks.

Refuting and Correcting BYU’s False Doctrine on the Origin of Man #45 - The Second law of Thermodynamics

(by Dennis B. Horne)

Elder George R. Hill III, Formerly of the Seventy, excerpt from “Seek Ye Diligently”:

 

            The theory of evolution as presently taught posits that higher forms of life arose gradually from lower stages of living matter. Inheritable genetic changes in offspring are assumed to be spontaneous rather than the result of arranged or directed forces external to the system.

            This theory conflicts with a basic law of chemistry, the second law of thermodynamics, which states in part that it is not possible for a spontaneous process to produce a system of higher order than the system possessed at the beginning of the change.

Refuting and Correcting BYU’s False Doctrine on the Origin of Man #44 - Eve

(by Dennis B. Horne)

Note: Perhaps I shouldn’t have, but I used some sarcasm to make the point below:

 

            Poor confused Eve: according to BYU evolutionists her mother (or other ancestor) was an animal, evidently some kind of almost human ape or neanderthal, and not her resurrected Heavenly Mother. In Eve’s delusions about her state of existence in the garden of Eden, having partaken of the forbidden fruit and listened to Adam (her husband) prophesy under the power of the Holy Spirit, “heard all these things and was glad”—so she lied and said: “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient” (Moses 5:10-11). Having got everything wrong, and not understanding that she was a product of organic evolution, “Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.” I assume from all of this that the BYU biologists (and also the feminists) are ashamed of Eve for not knowing as much as they do about how she was created and lived; after all, she only heard it from God Himself.

President Ezra Taft Benson’s Special Witness of Jesus Christ

[Readers desiring to obtain their own hardback copies of volume one of I Know He Lives: How 13 Special Witnesses Came to Know Jesus Christ can find copies on sale here  Softbound copies can be purchased here, on sale. An ebook (Kindle) edition is available on Amazon here, for cheap. The Amazon page also includes the Introduction and first chapter of volume one for free.]

(by Dennis B. Horne)

  

There have been many in this dispensation who have seen Him.

As one of those special witnesses so called in this day,

I testify to you that He lives.

  

            “I cannot recall a time that I did not believe in Jesus Christ,” President Ezra Taft Benson said. “It seems that the reality of His life, death, and resurrection has always been a part of me. I was reared in a home by faithful parents who earnestly believed in and testified of Christ, for which I am most grateful.”[1] Elder Benson’s father, George T. Benson Jr., the grandson of Apostle Ezra T. Benson, brought a beautiful influence into the Benson home located in the small town of Whitney, Idaho. “When my own father went on a mission, . . .” Elder Benson said, “There came into that home a spirit of missionary work that has never left it, . . .”[2]