Answersplease: Answersplease: …inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain. It was made to give light to those who dwell upon it, and to other planets; and so will this earth when it is celestialized" (Journal of Discourses 13:271). Here Young was acting as a prophet in giving this sermon, since he just said right before this statement in a previous sermon that every sermon he gives should be called scripture (13:95).

(sigh) Gee, I wonder when 'I rather think it is" got translated into 'Thus saith the Lord?"

I don’t know about you, but Young was NOT ‘acting as a prophet’ in giving this statement, and your claim that he said that ‘every sermon he gives should be called scripture’ is one of THE most annoying ‘out of context’ quotes anti’s come up with.

In fact, it is so carefully taken out of context that YOU have made it look like it means the precise OPPOSITE of what Young actually DID say.

Want proof? Here is the actual quote (You ARE aware that the entire text of the JoD is on line, right?) “I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they my not call Scripture. Let me have the privilege of correcting a sermon, and it is as good Scripture as they deserve. …Let this go to the people with 'Thus saith the Lord,” and if they do not obey it, you will see the chastening hand of the Lord upon them."

…and so you are presenting “I rather think it is…” and claiming that this means 'thus saith the Lord?" Answersplease…please.

There are a couple of HUGE qualifications that Young puts on his claim–qualifications that you have snipped to invisibility. First, Young claims that he needs to ‘correct a sermon.’ That is, to go over it, make certain that there were no errors, and that it was indeed inspired. By the way, NONE of the speeches in the Journal of Discourses would qualify under that one, because none of the speakers WERE able to vet those speeches. In fact, none of the speakers even knew that their speeches were being published until after the volumes were sent back to SLC.

Second, there is this VERY official 'thus saith the Lord" requirement. To us, as Mormons, that’s a very specific process. Simply saying it from the pulpit doesn’t necessarily make it so…it must be confirmed, and formally presented.

So now you are taking a quote from Young that not only does NOT say 'Thus saith the Lord," but considering Young’s speaking style, is actually an incredibly diffident “I rather think so…” in the SAME SPEECH in which he laid out the requirements for having what he says be scripture…a quote that Young was not able to ‘correct,’ nor had the words 'Thus saith the Lord?"

C’mon, answersplease. You can at least TRY to be fair, here.