[Editorial note: The information in this post is an overview of Elder Mark E. Petersen’s (and others’) teachings and experience and may not necessarily represent official Church understanding. The current information is found on a fairly recent Church History Topic on “Organic Evolution.” It may be found here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/organic-evolution?lang=eng]

“The Lord counsels us to learn from all the best books, as you know” Elder Mark E. Petersen stated to a gathering of church religious educators. “‘The glory of God is intelligence,’ and the glory of man is intelligence. We must learn. We must acquire more knowledge. We must apply that knowledge. We must develop wisdom with that knowledge. If we are eventually to become perfect as God is perfect, then our learning must be on and on continuously. We must have an almost insatiable desire for more knowledge and more learning. The big thing about it, though, is that we must make sure that our knowledge is good knowledge, that it is uplifting knowledge, that we get fact and not theory. We must have the facts. If we learn mistaken notions, we got off on a tangent. It is only the truth that keeps us on the track, and there we must be highly selective in the kinds of books we read and in the kinds of instructions we accept.”^[1]

This kind of cautionary warning often showed up in Elder Petersen’s teachings throughout his ministry.

A Quick Introduction

Mark Petersen was born in 1900 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He served a mission to Canada (Nova Scotia) from 1920 to 1922. After returning he married Emma Marr McDonald in the Salt Lake Temple. He attended the University of Utah for his education. Mark then worked for the Deseret News, the church-owned newspaper, for his career. Such was his talent that he moved from the lowest rung to the highest, when he was called into the Quorum of the Twelve.^[2]

Brother Petersen served in two stake presidencies. His voice was strong and projected well and he used it to his advantage, becoming a fine orator and expounder of the gospel.

Mark’s work at the newspaper was generally exciting, enjoyable, and challenging. He planned to spend the balance of his life there. He wrote most of the Church News editorials over more than four decades. During these years President J. Reuben Clark noticed Mark’s talents and began mentoring him, and President Heber J. Grant alternately criticized and praised him over articles he read in the Deseret News.^[3] At age 43 Mark Petersen felt he was on a satisfying course for the remainder of his working life—but then everything changed drastically.

Called into the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Elder Petersen’s call to the apostleship actually has its roots in one of the more sorrowful tragedies in church leadership history. The story begins with President Joseph F. Smith’s declining health in 1917, worsening into 1918. When his son, Elder Hyrum M. Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, died in January, the grief was overwhelming for him. Combined with gradually failing health, he struggled under the burden.^[4] Yet the vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve needed to be filled. Richard R. Lyman was chosen and became the next apostle.

Sometime in the 1930s, Elder Lyman began committing adultery with a woman he had been assigned to counsel and assist to full activity in the Church. This situation came to light in 1943, whereupon the Quorum of the Twelve held a disciplinary council and excommunicated him.

Only a few weeks before this episode, Mark, then working as the Managing Editor for the Deseret News, had a prophetic dream that something terrible would happen to Elder Lyman and that he would take his place in the Twelve. “Then on a very fateful day, Joseph Anderson came over to the office at the Deseret News and told me that President Grant wanted the little notice that was in the envelope which he handed me placed on the front page of the newspaper. . . . It was a plain announcement, but no news story was to accompany it. When I read it, to my horror I saw that Brother Lyman had been excommunicated from the Church. . . .” And then: “Mark began to feel nervous about the second part of his dream in which he took Elder Lyman’s place. A few days before April conference he received a telephone call from Joseph Anderson asking him to come to see President Grant. . . . As Mark related, . . . ‘I knew exactly what he was coming for. When he came in, he shook hands with me. He had been a great friend to me over the years . . . He sat down and told me that the Brethren had appointed me the new member of the Council of the Twelve. I said, ‘President Grant, I have known for some weeks that this was coming.’ I told him about my dream. He shook my hand warmly and told me that the Lord had given me the right impression. I was sustained the following Sunday, April 7, 1944, in general conference. I felt so weak and young and so inadequate, as, of course, I was all of those things.’”^[5]

Thus began Elder Mark E. Petersen’s service in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Observations About the Brethren as Prophets, Seers, and Revelators

As will be shown, Elder Petersen came to love and admire the men he served with deeply. As he took pains to explain, he quickly learned that they would not be selfish in their motives in teaching doctrine to the Church; that they had no axe to grind but were humbly and with pure motives trying to do their best to teach, convert, edify, and strengthen; to erase doubt and confusion from the minds and hearts of church members. He knew they were God’s chosen prophets, seers, and revelators, and while not perfect, were indeed apostles and special witnesses. Two expressions substantiating that fact follow, each shared by Elder Petersen at intervals:

Five years ago, I stood at this pulpit trembling from head to foot, when I accepted a call to the Council of the Twelve. I have lived now these five years, in close association with the men you sustained today as the leaders of this Church. I have come to know them well. I knew most of them well before I came to this position, but not nearly so well as I now know them.

I have discovered that these men are great men—great in the sense of true greatness. I know that in the Presidency of the Church are men who are great in the same sense in which Lincoln was great. I know they are prophets of God in the same sense in which Moses and Jeremiah and Elijah, Peter and Paul were prophets of God. I have discovered that these men do not have any selfish motives, that they are giving of their time and their talents, of their physical and mental and spiritual strength, giving all they have for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. I have discovered that they are honest and true; that they are faithful and devoted; that they love the Lord their God with all their hearts, and with all their souls. I know that they are men of God in the real sense of the word.^[6]

He would later repeat the general substance of this message:

I want you to know that I sustain the Brethren with all my heart and soul. I know they are prophets, seers, and revelators; I know it as I know I live. I’d like you to know that when I went into the Council of the Twelve, I went in as a very obscure person. But having been a newspaperman for many years, I had learned to be somewhat observant and I watched the Brethren very carefully. It was marvelous to me to see how they did their work and how these men, fifteen of them sitting in a council—all of them endowed with bright minds, all of them endowed with free agency, all of them laboring under the Spirit of God, all of them from different walks of life with different background, different types of experience, different points of view on so many things—it was marvelous to me to see how a subject presented to them came under discussion and how the Spirit worked and how complete unanimity came out of the discussion. It was an education such as I never dreamed I would get. It was marvelous. I have sat with them for ten years, and I have seen them work. I’ve knelt with them as they have prayed; I have felt their humble spirit. I have traveled with them miles and miles. I have labored with them in conferences. They are men of God—marvelous men, inspired men—men who receive now the revelations of Almighty God. The Church today is guided by revelation just as it was in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. That is my testimony to you.^[7]

With such endorsement as this, one’s confidence in their doctrinal teachings measurably increases and solidifies. While not every word uttered by them is eternal truth, we can rely on the accuracy of the great bulk of their teachings—especially those they deliberately chose to restate and expound repeatedly throughout their Apostolic ministries. Elder Petersen was no exception and, as seen below, understood well his obligation to teach only true doctrine.

It seems some people view the Apostles’ teachings as a matter of passing historical interest only, while others recognize and value the voice of authority in their inspired words (see D&C 1:38).

Teachings about Science and Religion

The first two major recitations referencing science and religion in Elder Mark E. Petersen’s discourses (that I can find) are from an April 1952 general conference talk and a February 1953 BYU devotional address. In the conference message, he reminisced about a visit with a struggling student:

A week ago a young man told me about the trial that came to him in school. Some of the teachings he received from an instructor who had no faith appeared to have weakened the faith of this young man.

I am always sorry when I hear about teachers in our public schools who try to destroy the faith of our young people. It always grieves me to hear of instances like this. I know that the great majority of the schoolteachers, themselves, are wonderful people; they are believers in God. Many of them are devoted students of the scriptures. But unfortunately, occasionally we find a teacher, whether in the field of philosophy or science, who seems to take it upon himself to destroy the faith of our young people.

I appeal to our young folk to realize that true science is not anti-religion, and that there is no unity among the scientists with respect to many things now being taught by some instructors who interpret them to mean that there is no God. Science has never come to a unity of understanding on that point, young people, so do not be disturbed by the godless teachings you may get in the classroom.

Elder Petersen then went on to mention by name three prominent scientists of his day and quote a little of what they had written about the creation and the problems of atheism (he did that in several of his talks). Continuing, he said:

So young people, when you are faced in your classrooms by faithless men who stand before you and try to destroy your faith, think of what these great scientists have said. . . . I tell you there is nothing outmoded about faith in God, and when you go to school, you do not need to believe everything that is told you by these faithless men, whether in philosophy or science classes. You do not need to accept their evidence alone. . . .

I shall never forget when I was in a sociology class I saw the professor, a short, bald-headed, bewhiskered man stand there in front of our class and actually defy us to believe in God. He defied us to believe in a special creation or that man is a child of God.

I have always understood that it was against the law to discuss religion in the schools. But these men apparently claim academic privilege or some kind of academic freedom [tenure], I think they call it in taking the right to destroy the very faith which the law prohibits us from teaching in the public schools. And when they do it, I think they are in violation of the spirit of the law, just as much as if they were teaching religion. Young people, remember the great men of the world believe in God.

We do not get our faith from science, however, and I hope you will never take the position that we must even seriously regard what science says about religion. Faith comes by revelation. No matter what science might do to promote religious faith, it can never save a man. Salvation comes through revelation and the power of God restored to men in these last days. And that revelation is available. That revelation has come. The power of God and his priesthood are now here among men and salvation comes through them.”^[8]

“The Race of God”

Over his 40-year Apostolic ministry, Elder Petersen spoke to BYU students several times very forcefully and candidly about mankind literally being of the race of God in contrast to the theory of organic evolution (excerpts are given below for 1953, 1955, 1973, and 1977). This particular February 1953 devotional address seems to be the first major declaration that Elder Petersen strongly opposed such theories, favoring instead scriptural teachings of Christ as the Creator. He taught:

I am so glad that you believe in God. I am so glad that you accept Him as the great Creator of all. He is the great Creator. He made all things. He made this earth on which we live. He made the light. The scripture makes it clear that the Gods decided to create this world. In the process of their work they did separate the light from the darkness. They put lights in the firmament of heaven. As they looked upon their work they said it was “good.” And then they separated the waters from the earth; and they said it was “good.”

Then they began to make life upon the earth. All sorts of vegetation. And each bit of vegetation was given a commandment—to reproduce after its own kind; after its own image and likeness. As God surveyed His work, He announced that it was “Good.” Then He created the birds in the air and the fish in the sea, and they were given a similar commission—that they were to bring forth after their own kind; after their own likeness and image. As the Lord surveyed that bit of His work, again He was pleased and announced that it was “good.” And then He created the animals, and each one of them was commanded that it should bring forth after its own kind; reproduce in their own likeness and image: the cow, the bear, the horse, the sheep—all the animals. As He surveyed all of that, he pronounced it “good.” Then came the time for the creation of man; the time for the crowning act of creation. Why was it the crowning act? Why was it so important? God was placing His own race upon the earth; His own children. God knew that He was to perpetuate His own race; that we were His offspring; that we were to come to the earth and that we were to have experience in mortality.

So He placed us here and the record says that man was made in the exact image and likeness of God. Why?—because we are of the race of God. We are His children. Is it at all unusual that a child should resemble its parent? He was our Father; we, His children. The first of our race to enter mortality was placed on the earth. They [Adam and Eve] were in the exact image and likeness of God—just as the cows that were placed upon the earth and reproduced after their kind had more cows that were in the exact likeness and image of the parent cows. Just as was the case with the horse, and with the sheep, and with the trees and the birds and the bees and the flowers. Each one bringing forth after its own kind. Then God brought His own race upon the earth and commanded that they should reproduce after their own kind; in their own likeness and image. And they in turn were in the likeness and image of God. Therefore, as they reproduced, they reproduced the race of God; each one being in the exact likeness and image of God. Wasn’t it a marvelous creation? He, our Father; we, His children; we, of the race of God. After He had made man, male and female, in His own likeness and image, He surveyed His work. This time He did not say it was only “good.” This time He said, “It is very good.” It was a great act.

Having made man and woman after His own likeness, He introduced something that had not been introduced in creation before. Not with the animals, not with the birds nor the bees nor the fish nor the vegetation. Something different was now being introduced—because there was a different species—here was the race of God. The animals and the birds and the bees were His creations, yes. They had life in themselves; He gave them the right and the power of reproduction after their own kind. But now with man, who was of the race of God, something else had to be introduced before He could give them the commandment. That something else was marriage. So God brought the woman whom He had made to the man whom He had made. They twain became one flesh; she, his helpmeet. Having given her, in the bonds of holy matrimony, to the man, the Father in heaven stood before those two and gave them a commandment: to bring forth after their own kind. To multiply and fill up the earth with more of the race of God. . . . It [sex] is holy. It is part of the function of Almighty God.^[9]

We suppose that for those with eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand, he felt that this wording was more than plain enough.

A couple of months later, at the April general conference, Elder Petersen briefly alluded to certain postulates of science again: “I do not believe that we can bring into our classrooms or sermons the philosophies and doctrines of uninspired men of the world, no matter how well educated they may be, and present them as accepted truth.

“I do not believe we should accept every theory advanced by men of science as though it were true. These men change their minds much too often for that.”^[10]

In the 1950s, when the Church was much smaller, and when the Brethren were much closer to ordinary members, they often had visits or discussions with church members (and otherwise) that they sometimes related to others. (One such example was given above.) As he opened his October 1955 general conference talk, Elder Petersen reviewed his chat with a university student (it cannot be known whether this is the same student or a different one from the above). He remembered: “Occasionally, however, there are some of our young people who go off on a tangent and do not keep the faith. One day I had a young man come in to visit with me. He had lost his faith. He came to me not because he thought I could do him any good, but because his mother had asked him to come to one of the brethren and see if some different picture might be given to him whereby his faith might be restored. As he came into the office and sat down and opened the subject, he told me he had lost his faith, and he told me in what class at school he had lost it and who the teacher was who had been responsible for it.”

Then they discussed the science issues, during which Elder Petersen referenced certain prominent scientists that he knew of (in his day) that believed in God. The fate of the young man is not given but we assume that Elder Petersen’s efforts were in vain, valiant that they were: “As he told me about his difficulty, he said that he could not believe in God anymore because who could believe in a Creator or suppose that there was some being who could create an earth like this. He did not believe in the Savior nor that the Savior ever wrought out an atonement that would do us any good. How could the death of a man on a cross two thousand years ago benefit a person now in this modern, enlightened time? And who could believe in a resurrection? It was all just incredible.”

Elder Petersen then discussed some 1950s scientific discoveries with the student and how they related to scripture. “Then I said, ‘I would like to tell you something that is incredible to me. I can believe all these things, but I would like to tell you something that is incredible.’ And he said, ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘It is incredible to me to believe that the earth could be made by chance, without a Creator.’”

Elder Petersen said that he showed the young man a book authored by a scientist that disputed a chance creation of the world and the theory of evolution, and he quoted a few paragraphs from it. Then, in concluding his discourse, Elder Petersen talked about and read from the published conclusions of another scientist who believed in God as a creator.^[11]

“Be Honest with the Church”

The longstanding problems members can encounter between some scientific theories and religion and how they related and interacted were not lost on Elder Petersen, who had some definite views and did not hesitate to share them. He did this in another BYU devotional just a month after his general conference address about the student that lost his faith. Elder Petersen was deeply concerned with how spiritually weak students might deal with these issues.

During this BYU devotional address on the subject of honesty, he discoursed in a different direction than one might have supposed. He counseled:

We hope that in your [school] work you will be honest with this great university. We hope that you will be honest with your fellow students. We hope you will be honest with your faculty. And then we hope that you will be honest with your parents and with their ideals and their standards. And we hope that you will be honest with this great Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I’m not going to talk about money this morning; I’m not going to talk about lying nor stealing. But I would like to talk about a few of the other phases of this subject of honesty you may not consider as frequently as we do some of these other matters.

I mentioned that I hoped you would be honest with yourselves and honest with the Church. When ideas and teachings that seem to be contrary to what you have been taught all your lives are presented to you [in school], instead of jumping to conclusions, will you be willing to be honest with the Church, with the faith of your fathers, with your own selves? Will you be honest enough to really make an investigation? If people bring to you peculiar notions that you know are not taught by the Church, be honest with the Church. Investigate those things and just because they may border on the spectacular; or because they happen to come from somebody who may have impressed you in an unusual way. Don’t take everything as gilt-edged truth until you have investigated. Remember that this Church has a great history. Remember that some of the best brains that have ever lived on the earth have been in this Church and upon investigation have decided that it’s true. And who are we, any one of us, to throw down the result of that experience?

In every school and in every student there is always attention given to this inevitable conflict (as they say) between religion and science. I would ask that you be honest both with religion and with science when you give consideration to it. I would ask that you be honest with your own selves.

When we speak of being honest with science may I suggest that you do not impose on true science the unfair status of being blamed for false, bigoted, and misguided deductions that are not based on fact. If you think true science destroys faith you are being dishonest with true science. If you think true scientists are irreligious you are not being quite honest with true scientists. Pseudo-scientists with half-baked conclusions deduced from untried theories may attack faith, but not the true scientist who at most will say he does not know.

On this subject of science and religion be honest with your Church and admit that discoveries are made by others than scientists, and that it is as possible for a prophet to receive a revelation from heaven as it is for a scientist to discover a polio vaccine. On this same subject be honest with your parents who have taught you faith; who know the value of faith. Do not throw down all their experience and all their teachings for any false scientific notions. Do not break their hearts by throwing down all they stand for because of the teachings of some prejudiced person who is not sufficiently honest either with you or himself to teach you the actual facts on the matter of science and religion.^[12]

Teaching Only Approved Doctrine

Teaching of God as the creator and that His children were of His race was fundamental eternal truth to Elder Petersen—though he often didn’t differentiate between the Father and the Son—and he relied on the scriptures to reinforce and support the doctrine. “When I go to a stake conference,” he stated to a group of CES religious educators, “I go there as a representative of the President of the Church. I am an official representative of the Church and therefore I must represent the official views of the doctrines of the Church rather than any peculiar notions I myself might have. If, in the exercise of my free agency, I get up and preach something that is off side, I am out of the line of my duty and I do not preach under the light and guidance of the Holy Ghost, because the Holy Ghost is not going to inspire me to preach some doctrine that is contrary to the policy established as I have just outlined for you under the direction of the President of the Church. So as a member of the Council of the Twelve I never knowingly preach anything that is contrary to what the Brethren have decided, because my responsibility is to go out and promulgate the policies officially established by the Presiding Councils of the Church.

“I cannot go out as an apostle of the Church and announce some new doctrine or policy. If I did I would be out of line. The only things I can announce are those which the Brethren previously have announced officially.”^[13]

Of course, this understanding applied to all members of the Twelve, who taught the same doctrine of the creation and mankind constituting the race of God as did Elder Petersen. These quorum members were united in their teachings.

Elder Petersen’s Quorum Associates’ Harmonious Teachings

In 1954 Elder Petersen wrote the Foreword for a book authored by President Joseph Fielding Smith, titled Man: His Origin and Destiny.^[14] Among other things, therein he wrote:

Conflicting attitudes expressed concerning science and religion have confused many people. Especially has this been true in the class room where hypotheses have been set forth erroneously as facts and where deductions made from those theories have been regarded as established truth.

Many of the followers of Darwin, for instance, carried his views to the extreme of materialistic atheism, declaring not only that creation occurred without the aid of any Intelligent Creator, but that as a matter of fact, no such Being even exists.

Both science and religion have suffered as a result. The greatest damage, however, has been among students who have lost their faith in God through accepting these man-made theories as facts.

But time changes things. Whereas for years atheistic deductions were made from scientific research, now true scientists, armed with what they term “the new knowledge,” are revising their “hasty first conclusions” as Sir James Jeans expressed it, and have discovered “evidence of a designing or controlling power that has something in common with our individual minds.”

The present day attitude of top scientists was expressed recently by Dr. Joseph W. Barker, president and chairman of the Research Corporation of America, and formerly dean of the engineering school at Columbia University, in an address at Ripon University. He explained there that scientists of the nineteenth century were misled by certain of their observations, and as a result came to conclusions which were definitely atheistic. . . .

Recognizing his [Pres. Smith’s] possession of this superb knowledge of both science and religion, some of us urged him to write a book on the creation of the world and the origin of man, setting forth both the up-to-date views of science, and the facts provided through revelation.

The present volume is the result. It is a most remarkable presentation of material from both sources under discussion. It will fill a great need in the Church, and will be particularly invaluable to students who have become confused by the misapplication of information derived from scientific experimentation.

In the book’s Preface, President Smith informs us that the “some of us” meant by Elder Petersen as coaxing President Smith to write the volume were Elders Petersen and Marion G. Romney of the Twelve and Elder Milton R. Hunter and Bruce R. McConkie of the First Council of the Seventy, at least. Elder Petersen may well have included Elder Delbert L. Stapley, Elder George Q. Morris, and Elder Ezra Taft Benson in that group of “some of us” also, for those Quorum members shared President Smith’s and Elder Petersen’s views on the creation and man being of the race of God. Their scriptural explanations are profoundly insightful.

For example, Elder Stapley, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, deliberately taught the following in a carefully prepared written message he gave at a BYU devotional in 1962:

I have selected as my theme this morning, “Man a Child of God.” To be sure I say what I want to say properly, I have elected to read what I have prepared. I think when I finish you will understand better why I have chosen to read my talk. . . .

Man is a child of God. The earth was made for man and not man for the earth. Man is the greater, and like his Eternal Father possesses creative powers and unlimited abilities. Nephi, the son of Lehi, taught: “Behold, the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited. And he hath created his children that they should possess it.” God revealed to Moses that he created man in his own image and after his likeness. How lofty and inspiring this knowledge is to his children here on the earth.

To know that they have not evolved from some lower organism of life as teachers of evolution would have us believe, but are the literal offspring of Deity. Man’s evolution does not concern his origin and beginning. God determined the fact of his form and creation. But man’s evolution as a son of God is to rise toward the likeness of his Eternal Father in Heaven. . . .

When God created man in his own image and likeness and placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, he, Adam, became the first flesh upon the earth. Also the first man. After Eve was created and given to Adam as his eternal helpmate, God commanded that they should multiply and replenish the earth. This commandment was obeyed and the record of Moses informs us that, “Adam begat Seth in his own likeness an image.” Moses used the same language in stating that God created man in his own image and after his likeness. When recording that Adam begat Seth in his own likeness and image, the interpretation for both teachings therefore must be the same. If Seth, the son of Adam, was in his likeness and image, and Adam was in the image and likeness of his father, then Seth also would not only be in the likeness of his father Adam, but in the likeness of his God.

Luke, in giving the lineage of Joseph, who was accepted by the people as the father of Jesus, stated that Joseph was the son of Heli, and then continues the lineage from son to father all the way back through Abraham and Noah to the beginning of man, and closes the genealogical record by saying, “which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.” [Luke 3:38] This is the true record of man’s beginning upon the earth as a son of God—created in his image and likeness. This teaching, then, of man’s divine origin in the image and likeness of his Eternal Parent, applies to all the descendants of Adam and Eve.^[15]

As another example, Elder George Q. Morris, also of the Quorum of the Twelve, taught the below doctrine in a general conference address from October 1956. The situation he recounts is familiar; a student running into scientific teachings at a university that were opposed to the revelations he had grown up with—so he sought counsel: “At a meeting I recently attended where reference was made to a revelation concerning the origin and nature of man and the creation of the world, a young man came to me—a fine young faithful Latter-day Saint—and said he was so discouraged and depressed by the teachings he was receiving in college that he worried about it, and about how he could pass his examinations because he could not accept these teachings. Of course I could only tell him that he would have to hold to the truth no matter what the situation was. That is an obligation that we do have as a people.”

Then Elder Morris developed his theme from the scriptures, strongly opposing evolution:

I hope this young man can hold to that principle, and I am concerned for all of our young people as they go into the field of higher education and meet all the ideas that are so prevalent, which are in sharp conflict with the revelations of God that we know to be true. I suppose he had been taught something about the origin of man according to the theory of organic evolution. I presume he might have been told what I remember reading in some man’s writings, that we would have to look for our origin in some minute life in the ocean, perhaps, or in some amoeba-like organism—the simplest form of life. That, he said, was man’s beginning. But we know better than that. . . .

Now, no matter what men may think, no matter what their theories may be, we need not be disturbed in the least because we know the truth; I hope our children can be assured by their parents that they need not be disturbed because these revelations are true. Man did not come from the bottom of the ocean, but from heaven, and God is his Father. . . .

So what manner of creatures are we? His [Jesus’] Father was our Father. The offspring is like the parent. You cannot change that law. . . .

Now these are the truths concerning ourselves. Let us realize who we are and what we are and how we should live. And when we meet these teachings opposed to God’s word that come to us and our children, let us know what they are. They are nothing but the opinions of men. Think how fantastic that a man, who is a son of God, should deny God and insist that he came from a low form of life up through the shapes of lower animals to the image of God. How preposterous that is! But our concept is based on the principle that the Apostle Paul laid down. The first verse in the Bible says that the earth was created by God, and the first chapter, that God created man in his own image. All through the scriptures it is proclaimed that man is a son of God.

When men do not believe the truth, what is left for them to believe? Nothing but delusion and fallacy and error! . . .

When our children are told about the “missing link” or the “prehistoric man” what can we say? In the light of the revealed word of God, what are we to conclude? The Lord Jesus Christ who created man and the earth has, from the creation, declared that we all originated in heaven. His teachings are that we were perfectly organized beings with spiritual bodies similar in form to our mortal bodies, but of finer material; that we were sons and daughters of God and came to the earth in these spirit bodies patterned after the spirit body of the Lord Jesus Christ; that we each took from the earth a body of flesh and blood to tabernacle our spirit body, as did he; that we were men and women with spirit (material) bodies, in the same form as these we now have, long before this earth was ever formed; that in the eternities past men like us with bodies of flesh and blood have lived in worlds like ours, many of which have passed away, and that others have been created for men like us to inhabit. . . .

“And worlds without number have I created, . . . And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come. . . . For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:33, 38, 39.)

This being true, man did not originate here in spirit or body. Man in a body of flesh and blood has lived through the eternities. How foolish to look for the origin of the human body in this world at this late time. The theory that man came into his present form through a process of evolution is untrue—a mere delusion. This being the case and so declared by the divine Creator of all these worlds, our own included, it must follow that there never was a “missing link” on the earth. There never was a “prehistoric man,” in the sense that he was part man and part something else. No such creature ever existed in this or any other world. He or it exists only in the minds of men who refuse the truth and have a theory of their own that is utterly false—contrary to the revealed word of God. Such an idea could come only after rejecting God’s word. That creature which men visualize in their minds because of their false theory, they draw in pictures and they model in clay and say that such a thing once existed upon the earth. There never did exist such a creature in the earth, or out of the earth. God sent man as a perfect being, his offspring in his image, with a material (spiritual) body in the same form as we are now, to be born on the earth, to obtain a tabernacle of flesh and have an earth existence. We are all pre-earth men, but not one a “prehistoric man.” The earth did not originate man. “The Man”—“the Son of Man”—created the earth and all that is in it.^[16]

Such are examples of the teachings of other members of the Quorum of the Twelve; all in conformity and harmony with Elder Petersen in their opposition to evolution. Perhaps the strongest endorsement of the teachings of Elder Petersen and President Joseph Fielding Smith (coming some 23 years later) came from Quorum of the Twelve President Ezra Taft Benson, also at a BYU devotional. Possibly he was one of the Apostolic associates that prodded President Smith into preparing his book since he vigorously defended it to students and faculty, saying:

More recently, one of our Church educators published what he purports to be a history of the Church’s stand on the question of organic evolution. His thesis challenges the integrity of a prophet of God. He suggests that Joseph Fielding Smith published his work, Man: His Origin and Destiny, against the counsel of the First Presidency and his own Brethren. This writer’s interpretation is not only inaccurate, but it also runs counter to the testimony of Elder Mark E. Petersen, who wrote this foreword to Elder Smith’s book, a book I would encourage all to read. Elder Petersen said: 

Some of us [members of the Council of the Twelve] urged [Elder Joseph Fielding Smith] to write a book on the creation of the world and the origin of man. . . . The present volume is the result. It is a most remarkable presentation of material from both sources [science and religion] under discussion. It will fill a great need in the Church and will be particularly invaluable to students who have become confused by the misapplication of information derived from scientific experimentation. [Brackets and emphasis in original]

When one understands that the author to whom I alluded is an exponent of the theory of organic evolution, his motive in disparaging President Joseph Fielding Smith becomes apparent. To hold to a private opinion on such matters is one thing, but when one undertakes to publish his views to discredit the work of a prophet, it is a very serious matter. 

It is also apparent to all who have the Spirit of God in them that Joseph Fielding Smith’s writings will stand the test of time.^[17]

While the (disputed) science in President Smith’s famous (though unofficial) book may not stand the test of time (now over 70 years), the doctrine in it surely will, for he simply expounded the scriptures. Science changes, but sound doctrine doesn’t. Yet, what will science/biology say about evolution in 50, 75 or 100 years from now? Will today’s theories be found largely obsolete then? Will more science have caught up to revelation?

 

“You Are of the Race of Divinity”

At succeeding general conferences, Elder Petersen continued to repeat the doctrine. Following are some excerpts, starting with October of 1960:

The day is past, my young brethren, when we have to be shaken in our faith by the pseudo teachings of certain men. The day is past when we need to doubt that God lives. The great minds of the world today now teach there is a God. He does live. They teach that he is a great mathematician. They teach that he is the Creator of the universe, and they say that this great Deity who made the universe must be a person because they see purpose in all creation, and you cannot have purpose without a person. Therefore, they say, God, the Creator, is a person.

But we do not take our faith from science, do we? We receive our faith in God from revelation, and we who live now . . . may well be thankful that we live now because God has appeared in modern times, in modern United States of America. He has appeared to modern men, and modern men have seen him, seen his face and figure, and have written descriptions of him. They have talked with him face to face. They are competent witnesses.

There need be no doubt in anybody’s mind now about God. He lives. He has been in the United States in modern times, and these competent witnesses leave you their testimony, and we leave you our testimony that we know that he lives because he has been seen and heard in America, in these, the last days. We are his children, and because we are his children we may become like him. Because we are his children he has raised us up at this time of the world’s history to do a particular work, and the accomplishment of that work is the great destiny to which you and I have been born.

We have been placed in the earth now to fulfill that destiny. Our destiny is that as his servants we shall prepare the way for his coming in glory in the future, not too far distant.

Are you willing, young people, to accept that destiny? Are you willing to so live that you may fill this destiny? Are you going to catch the picture of your own identity and know that you are a child of God, and that you are not a descendant of some monkey or some ape, but that you are actually the descendant of God Almighty on High, and that you are of the race of divinity?

Are you willing to accept that doctrine? Isn’t it far better to accept the doctrine that you are a child of God than that you are a descendant of some lower form of life not even as high as you?

Yes, we have our destiny, and the destiny is divine.^[18]

Then in the October 1968 conference he returned to the subject:

If man understood his true purpose in life as it is revealed in the gospel, and if he knew the secret of his origin, he could begin to free himself from the shackles of this ignorance.

Who are we?

What is the purpose of our existence?

Can a man who thinks that life came about by chance on a globe that was made by accident have any overlying purpose to guide him?

Can a man who thinks he evolved from the lowest forms of life have any lofty aspirations?

Does the idea that we are descendants of ape-like ancestors inspire us to any great heights of achievement?

The importance of having purpose in life cannot be overstated. . . .

[Elder Petersen then quoted several eminent scientists from his day who promoted the idea of intelligent or divine design; a creator intelligence; see the original at the link for these.]

Now, what is the truth about the origin of man? Paul gave it to us: We are the children of God. We are his offspring. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. (See Rom. 8:16-17.)

And what does that mean?

It means that we have a mighty purpose in life, which purpose is that we may become like God.

Jesus commanded us to achieve this purpose, saying: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5:48.)

Then, being children of God, we can see our true destiny. And being thus related to him, as his children, we now see ourselves in an entirely new light — not as the descendants of ape-like creatures living an aimless existence, but as the descendants of Almighty God, with the possibility of becoming like him.

Now we can understand the true place and dignity of man. Now we can see his infinite potential.

As members of the family of God, we can know that he has placed us here on earth in a type of school that will help us to become like him, if we are willing to follow the curriculum.^[19]

 

Teaching BYU Students about the Creator and the Creation

As we have seen, along with his general conference talks against evolution, Elder Petersen also used some of his assignments to speak to BYU students and faculty to give them the same strong warnings and cautions. The below excerpt from the September 1973 devotional address may contain the most lengthy and emphatic formal explanation he ever made against the theory of evolution as he unfolded the scriptures:

There has developed in recent years what almost amounts to a cult in certain fields. This is a cult which also points the finger of scorn at believers and would seek to make us ashamed of our faith. It is one which would have us reject the doctrine of a special creation and accept the unproven but time-worn theory that all life evolved from lower forms, that worms and microbes were our ancestors, and not God. It teaches that God is not our father, but that our first progenitors were microscopic forms which came into existence spontaneously, without cause, without reason, and without purpose. According to this theory of primordial life, man at one time developed from an ancestor which, as one writer described him, was “a hairy, four-legged beast which had a tail and pointed ears and lived in trees.” I ask you, which requires more faith, to believe that God is our father, or that some monkey-like ape gave us birth? And which would you rather have as your father, a creeping ape or Almighty God?

Our religion tells us that God is our Father. Some so-called intellectuals who point the finger at religion have become so domineering in their attitude toward those who do not believe their ghastly theories that they assume an attitude almost approaching tyranny. In some circles it has become persecution. . . .

Yes, our religion tells us that God is our Father, and that we lived with him before we were born on this earth. It tells us further that every creature, microscopic and otherwise, was made by him before it lived here on the earth, and also that each one was made as a spirit before it was made in the flesh here in mortality. There were two creations, one in which God made all things in the spirit. That is, he made the real life, the real being, as a spirit, in the first creation. And then, in the second creation, he provided these mortal tabernacles in which he placed these spirits that he had created in the preexistence. I hope you read the scriptures on this. Moses, in the book of Moses, was very specific on this subject, and I’d like to read to you what Moses had to say:

And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth; And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. . . . in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air. [Moses 3:4–5]

They’re significant words, aren’t they? He made all life in heaven, making them spirits, which were the real persons—or the real creatures, or whatever they were. He made them all as individual persons—or creatures, as the case may be—and they were in the spiritual creation. Then he created the mortal part of life, this earth and all mortality. But at the time he made the spirits there was no flesh, Moses says, “upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air” (Moses 3:5). He hadn’t even sent them here. And then another very interesting thing in the second chapter of Moses: he says that when he did place them here on the earth, he placed within each one the seed of reproduction with the power to reproduce after its own kind. Well, he gave human beings the power to reproduce, didn’t he? We have within ourselves the seed to reproduce, but what do we reproduce? We reproduce after our own kind, don’t we? The only reproduction among human beings is more human beings, isn’t that right? Whoever heard of a human being bringing forth a horse or a cow or—well, excuse me for being ridiculous, but it’s to the point, isn’t it? Human beings can reproduce only human beings. And he put this seed in animals, likewise, so that animals can reproduce only after their own kind. So dogs will only reproduce dogs, and never cats or polliwogs. They will only reproduce after themselves. The same is true in vegetable life. An apple will only bring forth an apple, and it will not bring forth a cucumber. Now, I’m being a little extreme, but I think you get the point. God placed in everyone of his creations, as it says here in Moses 2, the seed within itself to reproduce after its own kind.

Of course it was a great discovery when the scientists discovered genes, the genes which keep the species true. And who made the genes? It was this same God, our Eternal Father, who decreed in the first place that everything would reproduce only after its own kind. Genesis sustains the Book of Moses in this, and it also says that every plant was made “before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew,” and so on (Genesis 2:5). And Genesis is very specific in declaring that all life was to reproduce after its own kind. The sectarian people have a hard time understanding the idea that man is made in the image of God and that God looks like a human being. But I ask you, he having made all these rules, he having created all things and now reproducing us after his own kind, how could we be other than the exact image and likeness of God? It had to be that way, because we’re the offspring of God. And since we are the offspring of God, and since the law is that everything should reproduce after its own kind, and inasmuch as God would not break his own laws, he reproduced after his own kind and thus man looks like God and man is in the image and likeness of God.

It’s a very interesting thing to read in section 77 of the Doctrine and Covenants some further information on this same subject. The Prophet Joseph Smith had great difficulty understanding the book of Revelation. The Prophet asked the Lord for some explanations, and in this section 77, certain explanations are made that have to do with this very subject. We learn from this section that in heaven beasts and fowls and creeping things exist as spirits. Then the scripture goes on: “That which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal; and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual” (D&C 77:2). So you see, the body matches the spirit, and the spirit was made in the preexistence, so that the body that’s made here fits the spirit that was made in the preexistence. Then notice this next part of this little section: “The spirit of man in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the beast and every other creature which God has created” (D&C 77:2). Isn’t that a marvelous and an interesting scripture? Lots of people don’t read that, but this is one of the most significant things in the Doctrine and Covenants, in my humble opinion. So in heaven God created the spirits of all forms of life as they appear in mortality, the mortal form being in the likeness of the spirit, with mankind being God’s own offspring, his literal children, having the full capability of becoming like him. . . .

Man, then, was always man, because he was made that way in the preexistence. Cows were always cows and horses were always horses, because they were made that way in the preexistence, when first they were made as spirits before they were tabernacled in flesh, since all things were made spiritually before they were temporally in the earth. Then trees were always trees, corn was always corn, cats were always cats, because they were made that way in the preexistence. . . .

Do you believe there was an Adam, described in the scripture as the first man? Do you believe there was such a thing as Adam’s transgression, sometimes called the Fall? Now I ask you, can you believe in Adam and in Darwinian evolution at the same time? Our religion teaches that there was no death in the world before the Fall. Do you believe that? And if you do, how can you accept Darwinism, which says there was death before Adam—or before the first human being, as some will accept it? This then becomes one of the great hurdles for LDS anthropologists, doesn’t it? According to our doctrine, the fall of Adam and the process of death are inseparable. Death and Adam are inseparable; death and the resurrection are inseparable; the fall of Adam and the atonement of Christ are inseparable; Adam and Christ are inseparable. If there was no Adam, there was no fall. If there was no fall of Adam there was no atonement by Christ. If there was no atonement by Christ our religion is in vain, for if there was no Adam, there was no Christ either. If there is no Christ, where are we? Are you ready to reject your inspired religion, your faith in God and Christ, to accept the questionable philosophy that may be thrust upon you by some unbelieving, even atheistic, professor of an unproved hypothesis? This is certainly a case in point where we must do as Joshua of old said, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 24:15).^[20]

 

Teaching of “Christ the Creator”

As he entered the last years of his Apostolic ministry, Elder Petersen gave several major addresses on Christ as the Creator and Savior, carefully but candidly teaching the true doctrine to the Church. One of these was to BYU students and faculty (1977), another to Church Educational System instructors (1980; these had the same title), and two more in general conference (1980 & 1983). In September of 1977 he delved into the doctrine at BYU:

What is the reason for our existence? What is its purpose? How does Christ fit into it all? These questions come down to the basic concepts over which both scientists and religionists have struggled for years. But we Latter-day Saints need not struggle over them, for we have received the answers by revelation. It is this that separates us from the world. Revelation makes us different and gives us special status.

We need not be disturbed by the hypothetical teachings of men, brilliant and scholarly though they may be. Although they search diligently, these men admit that they have no final answers to the basic questions of life. They seek earnestly, gathering a few data here and there, making their deductions, revising them from time to time, and hoping that in the end they may arrive at the truth. But we who have revelation already know the facts about our existence, and they all relate to God.

What does revelation say? It tells us that Almighty God was the Creator, and that he has revealed the truth about the origin of life and all else in creation. He himself says, “And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten” (Moses 1:33). Then it was through Christ that the Creation came to be. No true believer will reject these words, for they are revelation. Note that the Almighty here declares that he had a purpose in creation: “And I also created them for mine own purpose.” How often have the scientists debated the question of whether or not there is any evidence of purpose in creation! Some doubt, but many agree that there is. Having seen obvious purpose in creation, and to some extent seeing its significance, they ask: Could the uniformity we note in all nature, the mathematical precision which characterizes the movements of stars and planets, and the distinct evidence of planning as seen throughout the universe be the result of an accident? Could all this possibly exist without some great purpose? These scholars have said that inasmuch as there is manifest purpose in creation, there must be, of necessity, what they call a Purposer; and since there is not purpose without personality, then, they say further that the complexity of nature proclaims the existence of an infinite mathematical mind, and this mind they call God (see Alfred G. Fisk, The Search for Life’s Meaning, pp. 89–98). Others, as you know, refuse to believe, and see nothing in the cosmos but the result of accident or coincidence. . . .

There was a creation. There was a divine Creator, and that Creator was Jesus Christ. God’s purpose in creation, of course, was to make a suitable dwelling place for us, his children, where we might begin our development toward becoming like him; for we can become like him, and are so commanded. As God spoke to Moses he declared that it was through his Son, Jesus Christ, that creation came about. And the Bible, of course, agrees with that. . . .

May I make this crystal clear: Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, created all things under the direction of his Father, including life, and he did so according to a preconceived plan. He was the Creator of heaven and earth. This is the position we Latter-day Saints must take with respect to Jesus Christ. If we truly believe in him, we must believe his doctrine, and this is the doctrine of Christ. Are we willing to believe it? Are we willing to be Christians within the framework of this definition? I testify to you humbly as a servant of Christ—but also as one of his special witnesses—that these things are true.

Our knowledge of immortality is indisputable. Our indisputable knowledge of immortality gives us equally indisputable proof of the divine genesis of all things mortal. It testifies that there was no accident involved in the origin of life. No inanimate substance can produce life, as we have seen. Try as the scientists have to prove it otherwise, all of their experiments have established that inanimate substances remain inanimate and cannot produce mortal life even in microscopic form. Then neither can inanimate substances bring forth immortal life. Inanimate substances are as powerless to produce immortal life as they are to produce mortal life. If they could make mortal life, they would have to be given credit for making immortal life also, for life is life, whether mortal or immortal, and both are well known to us. Every portion of life comes from God, whether it be preexistent life, mortal life, the life of the departed spirit, of resurrected life. All life comes from God. This is something our men of learning are prone to forget or to reject as they reject religion altogether. Immortality, however, is something that they must deal with. They cannot ignore it, nor can they disprove it. It is here and it is real. But immortality is proof positive of the correct status of creation and establishes that it is of divine origin. How do we know there is immortality? For us, as I say, it is a demonstrated fact, for men have come back from the dead to us to prove it. Our whole religion is based on the principle of men coming back from the grave and ministering to us here on earth. . . .

That is the way in which we Latter-day Saints must regard Jesus Christ—not alone as the Babe of Bethlehem, not alone as the great Sacrificial Lamb who wrought out the Atonement on the cross, but also as Creator of heaven and earth.^[21]

Three years later, Elder Petersen spoke to an assemblage of church educators at a formal Old Testament symposium. When doing so, he quoted President Joseph Fielding Smith and also (his father) President Joseph F. Smith, while teaching the doctrine.

He stated:

If it was so repulsive to President [Joseph F.] Smith to think of our becoming reincarnated and returning to this world as a dog or a cat, would it be any less repulsive to suppose that human beings have their origin in a pedigree of cats or dogs or monkeys or apes? We never change our identity. We never did; we never will. We always were ourselves, we always shall be ourselves, whether in righteousness or sin, in life or in death, whether in the premortal existence or after the resurrection. Our personal identity never changes.

I would like to talk a bit about the Savior as the Creator. You remember how in the King James Version John, chapter 1, reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,” and so on; “all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1, 3). The Knox Catholic Bible says on page 86, “It was through him that all things came into being, and without him came nothing that has come to be.” The Church of Scotland version reads regarding John 1:3, “He was the agent through whom all things were made; and there is not a single thing which exists in this world which came into being without Him” (William Barclay, The Gospel of John [Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1956], p. 1). That is the Christ. He was the Creator. And nothing which exists in this world came into being without him. The Goodspeed American Translation: “Everything came into existence through him, and apart from him nothing came to be” (John 1:3). The New English Bible: “Through him all things came to be; no single thing was created without him” (John 1:3). And the New World translation: “All things came into existence through him, and apart from him, not even one thing came into existence” (John 1:3). How many of us really believe that, in this day when so much is said about the evolutionary processes? Do we have some notion about creation other than what is said in these scriptures? Will we accept the Savior’s own word that he was the great Creator? It was he who said to Joseph Smith, “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who created the heavens and the earth” (D&C 14:9). There are the words of the Savior. Dare anyone accuse the Savior of falsification? At another time he said, “Hearken, O ye people of my church, to whom the kingdom has been given; hearken ye and give ear to him who laid the foundation of the earth, who made the heavens and all the hosts thereof, and by whom all things were made which live, and move, and have a being” (D&C 45:1). These are the words of Jesus Christ. Do we fully believe them?

Now another testimony. Remember Moses talked with the Almighty about creation, and the scripture reads, “And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses [and they were talking about the universes in the sky]: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me. And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth.” (Moses 1:31–32.) Almighty God, our Father in Heaven, declared that Jesus Christ was the Creator. He brought about a special creation and it did not come about by any accident. “And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten” (Moses 1:33). He says that he created them for his own purpose, and what could that be? Did he not say, “This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”? (Moses 1:39). Was that not the purpose? We, his children, have been given the opportunity to become like him. That was his purpose. And that is why the Savior commanded in the last verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). That is why there was creation, that is why this earth was made, so that we could progress. We now have made a step toward becoming like him. Since we are his children and have a spark of divinity within us, it is possible for us to become like our Heavenly Father. We are commanded so to be. And therefore he said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” That was the reason for the Creation. That was the purpose he had in mind. . . .

Was it not a divine creative act? And in Joseph Smith’s Translation it says this, “And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (JST, Genesis 1:27). So there we have the Father and the Son talking together, participating together in the creation of man, of human life. If we believe in Joseph Smith, in all consistency we must fully accept his revelations. Those revelations teach a special creation, they teach that Christ is our Creator. They teach further that the creations came by advance design and with a special purpose in the divine mind. That purpose was that we, as his children, someday could become like God. . . .

Now there is something else. He not only created the worlds as they now are, but there will be a further creation affecting us and the worlds on which we will live after the Resurrection. This we should think about when we talk about the original creation. Could this next creation possibly come about by accident or by some “big bang,” or by some unguided evolutionary process? Notice this description: “The angels do not reside on a planet like this earth; but they reside in the presence of God, on a globe like a sea of glass and fire, where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord. The place where God resides is a great Urim and Thummin.” (D&C 130:6–8.) Who made it? Did that come about by some accident? “This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ’s” (D&C 130:9).^[22]

 

Sin and Retrogression to Cavemen

At the October 1980 general conference, during his address, Elder Petersen taught that grievous sin could easily have caused some of Adam and Eve’s posterity to degenerate into what some scientists had labelled cavemen. He said:

The plan of salvation, therefore, was instituted among these first human beings, Adam and Eve and their children. Angels taught them. The family believed. They were baptized and began to serve God. (See Moses 5.)

The scriptures say that as Adam tilled the ground and cared for the cattle and the sheep, Eve “did labor with him” (Moses 5:1).

They were highly intelligent people, not at all like either the hominids or the cavemen some claim the first humans to have been. They were well educated, having been taught by the Lord himself. What an education! What an instructor!

Think of it, and remember that “the glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth” (D&C 93:36). These gifts were imparted to Adam and Eve and their family. No one else could teach them, because they were the first human beings. That task was left to the Lord and his angels. . . .

It was a glorious period—until Satan came among them. That evil person defied the teachings of God and said to the children of Adam, “Believe it not,” and from that time some of the family loved Satan more than God (see Moses 5:13). They apostatized from the truth.

These dissenters lost the Spirit of God and as a result became carnal, sensual, and devilish (see Moses 5:13). With these evil attributes always comes retrogression. We should not be surprised, therefore, to hear of cavemen living in the dawn of time.^[23]

Elder Petersen developed cancer in the early 1980s, passing away as a result of it in 1984. Before his demise, however, he was able to give a final (April 1983) great doctrinal address to the Church on the creation with the title, “Creator and Savior” (he only gave one more general conference talk after it). Elder Petersen spoke on the atonement of Jesus Christ and of His role as the great Creator together, as eternal intertwined truths:

His atonement was the most important event that ever happened. The creation of this earth, the establishment of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and the labors of the great patriarchs and prophets—all were prelude to His achievement on Calvary. . . .

Much advance preparation was required for His atonement, even before He was born in the flesh. For one thing, an earth was required on which we, the children of God, could live during our mortal existence.

Of necessity that earth must be physical in nature, for we who were to live on it would be physical beings, such as we now are. It had to be a physical earth also on which the Savior could live out His mortal life. . . .

Therefore, a physical earth was essential to His mission. There was nothing ethereal about His work here on earth. It was not to be accomplished in some intangible or mystical way. . . .

His life on earth was real and physical. His death was real and physical, as was His resurrection, all taking place on this very real and physical planet. It fully demonstrated His genuine reality as a physical being.

When plans for His atonement were made in the primeval councils in heaven, a portion of that planning centered on the creation of this particular earth, for it would require an act of divine architecture, followed by a process of physical construction. . . .

The special creation of this earth was a vital part of the plan of salvation. It had a particular purpose. It was no afterthought. Neither was it an accident of any proportion, nor a spontaneous development of any kind.

It was the result of deliberate, advance planning and purposeful creation. The Divine Architect devised it. The Almighty Creator made it and assigned to it a particular mission.

This earth was not designed merely as a home for mortals, however. Not at all. It has a greater destiny than that. This earth will not remain in its present condition. It is to become immortal. It will pass through a refining process by which it will become a celestial globe and be like a Urim and Thummim in the skies. (See D&C 130:9.) That will require further acts of divine creation, and, of course, ordinary common sense tells us that no spontaneous accident could produce a change like that. . . .

Such is the final destiny of the earth. Such was the purpose God had in mind in creating it, for He planned it so in the beginning.

Do we appreciate what this earth really means to us? Do we see why it was made? Do we understand its purpose? Do we see that there was nothing accidental or spontaneous about its origin? Do we see that its creation was literally and truly, completely and exclusively, an act of God?

And who was the Creator?

Our Heavenly Father declares that it was His own Beloved Son who accomplished the mighty task.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made,” said the Apostle John. (John 1:3)

“By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

“And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” (Col. 1:16–17) So said the Apostle Paul.

The Almighty also affirmed it when he told Moses: “Worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.” (Moses 1:33; italics added)

Christ also taught that He Himself was the Creator. Said He to the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ … who created the heavens and the earth.” (D&C 14:9.). . . .

There we have it in His own words! The glorious, irrefutable truth! Christ is the Creator! Shall we not accept His word in preference to uninspired theories of men?

Probably the greatest challenge to belief in Christ today is the fast-spreading denial that He is the Creator, coming from men who would supplant the revealed truth with the very tenuous and fragile theory that the universe and all life came about in some mysterious, spontaneous, accidental manner.

To deny that He is the Creator is to deny also that He is the Christ.

To deny that He is the Creator is to deny that He can save us from our sins.

To deny that He is the Creator is to deny that He broke the bands of death. It is to reject the fact of the Resurrection.

To deny that He is the Creator is to deny that He wrought out an atonement on the cross at Calvary.

To deny that He is the Creator is to reject His gospel and the true Christian religion.

But He is the Creator! He is the Redeemer! He is the Savior of the world! He did accomplish His atonement on Calvary, and He did bring about the Resurrection. This we know by the revelation of God! His gospel is true and we love it, and we love Him and deem it a privilege to serve Him!^[24]

 

Doctrinal Works

Elder Petersen wrote many books explaining doctrine and scripture (his biography says 43). Some of these were expansions or reprints of talks he had given in general conference or at BYU devotionals, though many were written to address a particular doctrinal need he had seen.^[25] Some of them contained his position, taken from scripture, about the creation and the origin of man, and evolution. The main books (among others) treating the subject are titled, Adam: Who Is He? (1976), and Noah and the Flood (1982).

A few paragraphs from Adam: Who Is He? suffice to convey his views:

Their [worldly religion teachers] doctrine concerning original sin has been at the root of most of the trouble. But the more recent tendency of clergymen and scholars alike to call the Garden of Eden account in the Bible a mere myth has not helped the situation. Neither have the evolutionary theories that attempt to trace our pedigrees back to some accidental development of a single cell which, it is alleged, eventually became human. (1)

Luke says he [Adam] was the son of Deity, which is correct. (Luke 3:38.) (13)

Evolutionists now point to one discovery after another in an effort to bolster their claims. But the most they can do is to point to an isolated bone here and an isolated skull there, which they themselves evolve into missing links and so-called pre-men.

No one has ever found a missing link, because there is none. Never has there been any solid proof of man’s descent or ascent from the lower forms of life, or even his relationship thereto. It is all conjecture. And never has there been any acceptable evidence that creation came about by accident, for this, too, is conjecture. (39)

Yes, God lives. He gave us our creation, our earth, and all that is in it. He gave us also the sacred story of creation. He gave us the scriptures which provide it, and he gave us the testimony, his own testimony, that it is all true.

The discoveries of the anthropologists and their interpretation of those findings seem on the surface to be very convincing, but when they are carefully examined, they still are found to rest only upon hypothesis.

Unfortunately, such views are finding their way into the textbooks of our public schools and are being presented as though they were facts, as though they were proven beyond question. Hence our children are learning to accept those theories as facts and to regard evolution as the only true explanation of the origin of life. But not all scientists agree with the anthropologists by any means. (42-43)

 

Conclusion

It but remains to repeat Elder Petersen’s Apostolic witness of his teachings: “May I make this crystal clear: Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, created all things under the direction of his Father, including life, and he did so according to a preconceived plan. He was the Creator of heaven and earth. This is the position we Latter-day Saints must take with respect to Jesus Christ. If we truly believe in him, we must believe his doctrine, and this is the doctrine of Christ. Are we willing to believe it? Are we willing to be Christians within the framework of this definition? I testify to you humbly as a servant of Christ—but also as one of his special witnesses—that these things are true.”

 

 

[1] “Avoiding Sectarianism,” Address to Seminary and Institute Faculty, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, June 22, 1962, 1; copy in author’s possession. Context shows this warning was given about all kinds of falsehoods, not just false sectarian teachings.

[2] For this biographical information see Thomas S. Monson, “Mark E. Petersen: A Giant Among Men,” Ensign, March 1984. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1984/03/mark-e-petersen-a-giant-among-men?lang=eng

[3] This information is taken in summarized form from Peggy Petersen Barton, Mark E. Petersen: A Biography (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985).

[4] See Joseph Fielding Smith, Life of Joseph F. Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1938), 473-75.

[5] Barton, Mark E. Petersen: A Biography, 85-87.

[6] Conference Report, April 1949, 145; https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1949a/page/144/mode/1up?view=theater

[7] “Revelation,” address given at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 24, 1954, 9-10; copy in author’s possession. Also in Charge to Religious Educators, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Church Educational System and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1982), 171.

[8] Conference Report, April 1952, 104-07; https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1952a/page/104/mode/1up. In different talk, Elder Petersen mentioned this man again, explaining: “It is very interesting to see how opinions change. I remember when I was in the University of Utah I had a queer little professor. He wasn’t very tall—I think not much more than five feet—and he was baldheaded and had a funny little goatee. I will never forget the day he stood in front of us in one of our science classes and challenged us to believe in God. He said that the evidence of science (and I must tell you this was forty years ago, of course) definitely proves there is no God; that there was no special creation; and that it is foolish to believe in religion—that religion is nothing more than a superstition. He told us that right in the University of Utah.

“How things have changed! You remember how great a change was wrought in scientific thinking when the discovery of genes was announced. You remember that when the genes were discovered, it was made known that they preserved the purity of the species so that corn was always corn, horses were always horses, lions were always lions, and human beings were always human beings. I have a dictionary published in 1927. I looked in it to see if the word ‘genes’ appeared there. It did not. I looked in an encyclopedia dated 1937. That did not even have the word ‘genes’ in it. But the honest scientists, when they learned about genes, were willing to adjust their thinking accordingly” (Mark E. Petersen, “Avoiding Sectarianism,” 9).

[9] Mark E. Petersen, “Chastity,” also titled, “The Sacredness of Procreation,” BYU Speeches, February 3, 1953; (4 mins to 15 mins); audio file transcript excerpt created by author.

[10] Conference Report, April 1953, 83. https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1953a/page/83/mode/1up?view=theater

[11] “I Am not Ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,” Conference Report, October 1, 1955, 59-62; https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1955sa/page/58/mode/1up?view=theater

[12] “We Believe in Being Honest,” BYU Speeches, Nov. 1, 1955. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/mark-e-petersen/believe-honest/?M=A; 4 mins in.

[13] “Revelation,” Address given at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 24, 1954, 16-17. Copy in author’s possession. Also in Charge to Religious Educators, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Church Educational System and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1982), 136-37.

[14] For a mostly-adequate review of this volume and others written by Pres. Smith, see Reid L. Neilson and Scott D. Marianno, “Joseph Fielding Smith as Mormon Historian and Theologian,” BYU Studies Quarterly 57:1, 7-64 (esp. 49-53.); https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/true-and-faithful-joseph-fielding-smith-as-mormon-historian-and-theologian

[15] Delbert L. Stapley, “Man, A Child of God,” BYU Speeches, January 10, 1962; https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/delbert-l-stapley/man-a-child-of-god/?M=A

[16] Conference Report, October 1956, 46-47. https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1956sa/page/45/mode/1up?q=morris&view=theater See also these BYU Speeches:

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/george-q-morris/will-pass-the-test/?M=A

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/george-q-morris/foundation-of-revealed-truth/?M=A

[17] Ezra Taft Benson, “God’s Hand in Our Nation’s History,” BYU Speeches, March 28, 1977; https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/ezra-taft-benson/gods-hand-nations-history/ 

[18] Conference Report, October 1960, 80-81; https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1960sa/page/80/mode/1up?q=ape&view=theater

[19] Conference Report, October 1968, 99-100; https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1968sa/page/100/mode/1up?view=theater

[20] “We Believe in God, the Eternal Father,” BYU Speeches, September 2, 1973. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/mark-e-petersen/believe-god-eternal-father/. Elder Petersen was not the only apostle to use the word “persecution” in reference to how some scientists abuse faithful valiant church members who oppose their evolutionary teachings. Elder Bruce R. McConkie was another: “I think that some of the persecution of this [our] day is a little different and a little more insidious than when they tarred and feathered the prophet. The difficulty in this day is some of it in the intellectual field, is it not? You get persecuted intellectually. Somebody says to you, ‘Ah, you antique fossil, you do not believe in these modern theories that we have proved, which are evolution.’ You get more than one kind of persecution. You get some of this mental, or intellectual persecution which maybe is a little harder to bear and leads more people astray than when they were out tarring and feathering people” (“Salvation – Sons of God,” unpublished transcript of BYU Summer School religious educators class, 1967, 14-15).

Elder Petersen also stated this in another BYU address, briefly alluding to the topic: “The Great Prologue”:

“We Latter-day Saints believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, as the Son of God, and as the Creator of all things. We are committed to the doctrine of a special creation, and we believe that Jesus, under the direction of his Father, was the Creator. As John said, ‘All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made’ (John 1:3).” September 29, 1974; https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/mark-e-petersen/great-prologue/?M=A

[21] “Christ the Creator,” BYU Speeches, September 13, 1977; https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/mark-e-petersen/christ-creator/

[22] “Christ the Creator,” CES Symposium on the New Testament, August 14, 1980. Just the year before Elder Petersen had taught: “Again Paul testifies that Jesus Christ is the Creator and that creation came about by an act of the Son of God. It did not come about by accident; it did not come about just spontaneously. It came about by an act of God working through the Son, Jesus Christ.  “A Man Must Be Called of God,” BYU Speeches, September 30, 1979; https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/mark-e-petersen/man-must-called-god/

[23] “Adam, the Archangel,” Ensign, November 1980. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1980/11/adam-the-archangel?lang=eng

[24] “Creator and Savior,” Ensign, May 1983; https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1983/05/creator-and-savior?lang=eng

[25] See Barton, Mark E. Petersen: A Biography, 105-114.