According To The Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Brigham Young Is a True Prophet of God. According to the Bible, any prophet who speaks a word of Prophecy, but the prophecy does not come true, he is a false prophet.

Deuteronomy 18:20-22 “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”

The Following is a carefully documented, historically grounded, source-based survey of Brigham Young’s major prophecies and predictions, along with the historical record that documents the prophecies of Brigham Young that were not fulfilled, defining him in biblical terms, “a false prophet, no one should listen to him.”

Prophecies Attributed to Brigham Young

Brigham Young (1801–1877), the second president of the LDS Church, made numerous public statements that were framed as prophecy, revelation, prediction, or authoritative doctrinal pronouncements. These prophecies are recored in the following LDS documents:

• Journal of Discourses (JD)
• Discourses of Brigham Young
• LDS Church periodicals (Millennial Star, Deseret News)
• Sermons recorded by clerks
• Statements canonized in the LDS Doctrine and Covenants (specifically Section 136)

The following are the most frequently cited prophecies.

Prophecies and Their Historical Outcomes

1. Prophecy: The United States will be destroyed for rejecting the LDS message

Source: Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:123–124. Also reiterated in JD 7:15; 12:204–205

Summary: Brigham Young repeatedly declared that the U.S. government would be completely destroyed, “swept away,” or “broken in pieces” because of its treatment of the Mormons.

Outcome: This prophecy did not come true. The U.S. obviously was not destroyed, nor did it collapse as Young predicted.

2. Prophecy: The Civil War would spread to all nations

Source: Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 10:250. Also tied to Joseph Smith’s 1832 “Civil War Prophecy” (D&C 87), which Young said would culminate in global destruction.

Summary: Young taught that the American Civil War would expand until all nations were “involved in war and terror.”

Outcome: Did not occur. The Civil War remained an American conflict. It did not expand into a global war. (LDS apologists sometimes say World War I fulfilled this—but Young specifically tied the expansion to the Civil War itself.)

3. Prophecy: The “Ten Tribes” are in a literal, physical location in the far north, to return as a body

Source: Journal of Discourses 2:293; 4:219. Young treated this as a literal revelation.

Summary: He declared that the Ten Tribes were preserved in a specific northern location and would return en masse, physically, with their prophets.

Outcome: No evidence has ever been found to confirm this prophecy. Modern LDS scholars now interpret this symbolically, contradicting Young’s literalism.

4. Prophecy: Plural marriage (polygamy) would never be revoked

Source: Journal of Discourses 11:268; 13:95; 11:328. Young presented plural marriage as an eternal command that God would never abolish.

Summary: Polygamy was taught as: A divine law; Required for exaltation; Unchangeable and eternal; “Impossible” to rescind

Outcome: Officially revoked in 1890 (Wilford Woodruff’s Manifesto). LDS Church teaches monogamy today. This is defined by LDS theology that Brigham Young’s prophecy was explicitly overturned by later LDS leaders.

5. Prophecy: Adam is God (Adam–God doctrine)

Source: Young taught this explicitly as revelation: Journal of Discourses 1:50–51; 4:1; 13:309

“How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds.”

“Adam is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.”

Summary: Young declared that Adam: Is God the Father; Is the father of Jesus’ spirit and body; Was resurrected and brought Eve from another planet; Is the object of human worship. He claimed this was a revealed doctrine.

Outcome: Repudiated by the LDS Church (1916 First Presidency & modern LDS teaching); Removed from LDS curriculum; Considered a doctrinal error today. This prophecy is one of Young’s most explicit “revelations,” yet it was rejected by later prophets.

6. Prophecy: Blood Atonement—certain sins require literal shedding of the sinner’s blood to be forgiven

Source: Journal of Discourses 3:247; 4:53–54; 7:20. Also taught in sermons recorded in Deseret News.

Summary: Young said God revealed that some sins cannot be forgiven by Christ’s atonement unless the sinner’s own blood is shed.

Outcome: Modern LDS doctrine rejects this completely. The Church states that Christ’s atonement alone is sufficient. This defines another of Young’s “revelations” that is officially repudiated by the LDS leadership.

7. Prophecy: Blacks will never hold the priesthood until all white men have first received it

Source: Journal of Discourses 7:290; 11:272. Also sermons in Deseret News 1852

Summary: Young prophesied that People of African descent would never receive the priesthood in mortality until the resurrection. Their priesthood restriction was “the law of God” and would not change until the Millennium.

Outcome: Blacks have held the priesthood since 1978, contradicting Young’s prophecy.
LDS Church now states the restriction was never based on revelation (2013 LDS “Race and the Priesthood” essay). This is one of the clearest failed prophecies.

8. Prophecy: The Millennium would begin soon after the Saints reached Utah

Source: Journal of Discourses 2:31; 3:46. Repeated in multiple sermons 1847–1870

Summary: Young said the Second Coming and Millennium were imminent—within the life of those listening.

Outcome: Did not happen. Young died in 1877. Over 150 years later, no such event has occurred.

9. Prophecy: The Kingdom of God will be established as a literal world government in Utah

Source: Journal of Discourses 5:63–64; 7:142. Connected with the “Mormon Kingdom” concept (Council of Fifty)

Summary: Young taught that Zion (Utah) would become the center of the world government and rule politically over all nations before Christ’s return

Outcome: This never happened.

How Do We Know That The Prophets of the Bible Are True Prophets of God?

During the time when these men wrote these prophetic words, it was well known that God spoke to the masses of people through the words of His prophets. In order that people might know whether or not a man was a true prophet of God, they would test the words of these men to see if they came to pass precisely as they had spoken.

It was the intent of God that by fulfilled prophecy, we would understand that the source of the words contained in the Bible is from God, not from man.

“And if you say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?” —when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” ( Deuteronomy 18:21-22)

“God, who… calls those things which do not exist as though they did…” ( Romans 4:17)

The test of Deuteronomy 18, for whether a word spoken by someone who claims to be a prophet of God is valid, is determined by their fulfillment. If any word or part of the prophecy fails, the person who spoke the prediction is called a false prophet, and no one should listen to that person.⁠3 If, however, the words spoken in each of these prophecies come to pass exactly as they were written, then we can have confidence that God is the original source of these predictions.

The Prophet Isaiah predicted that the Messiah will be numbered with others, also called “criminals,” at His death.

“Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12c)

Greek Physician, Luke, Records An Extraordinary Fulfillment of This Prophecy In The New Testament:

“There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.”  (Luke 23:32-33)

As a person goes through each one of the individual parts of the Old Testament prophecies Jesus fulfilled, we are struck by the details that are included in these many-faceted predictions.

Here, we see the specific feature that the Messiah will be condemned and put to death along with other criminals. Although this may be seen as a very common occurrence in the carrying out of a sentence for crimes committed, in the case of a prophecy written over 700 years in advance of its fulfillment, this detail is a remarkable inclusion. Crucifixion did not exist at the time Isaiah wrote this prophecy.1 How could the prophet know that the Messiah, who should have been widely received by everyone in Israel, would in fact be scandalously condemned to die on a Roman cross between two other criminals?

What if, on the day Jesus was crucified, He was the only one to die on a cross? What if there was only one other criminal to die, and Isaiah said “transgressors”? This would have disqualified Isaiah’s prophecy, and more yet, it would have disqualified all of Isaiah’s prophecies. In order to be defined by God as a true prophet, all of the words of every prophecy that is spoken must come to pass precisely as they were predicted.2

If this one prophecy had not been fulfilled by Isaiah, because Jesus was the only man to die on that day, then all 131 of Isaiah’s other prophecies would have been disqualified. This gives us an idea of how impossible it was for these men to write such perfect descriptions and have them fulfilled to the very letter.

The fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy is confirmed by Luke 23:32-33:

“There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.”

When we examine the New Testament, we discover that there were two thieves who were also condemned to die by crucifixion along with Jesus. They are placed on either side of the Lord. This is the manner in which we can verify a prophet and his prophecies, according to the God of the Bible.

Again, according to Deuteronomy 18, the test for whether a word spoken by someone who claims to be a prophet of God is valid is determined by their fulfillment. If any word or part of the prophecy fails, the person who spoke the prediction is called a false prophet, and no one should listen to that person.⁠ If, however, the words spoken in each of these prophecies come to pass exactly as they were written, then we can have confidence that God is the original source of these predictions.

The Ultimate Test For a Prophet’s Predictions

Many of the Old Testament Prophecies that are recorded in the Bible have an earlier and a later fulfillment of the same prophecy. Part one of the prophecy would be fulfilled during the life of the prophet who wrote these texts. Part two would be fulfilled much later, even during the last of the Last Days.

If part one of the prophecy, written for the time when the prophet was alive, was not fulfilled, that prophet would be stoned to death as a false prophet and all of his prophecies would be removed from the record.

If, however, the first part of the prophecy written by the prophet was fulfilled during his life, then it was certain that all of the prophecies written for much later would also be fulfilled.

The prophecies we find in the Bible today were validated by this earlier and later fulfillment, defining the prophet who wrote these predictions as a true prophet of God.

We do not find this to be true of Brigham Young. His prophecies, even those predicted for his own lifetime, did not come true as he predicted. By every definition that God gave us, Brigham Young is a False Prophet; no one should listen to him.

See The 400 Messianic Prophecies From The Old Testament That Jesus Precisely Fulfilled In The New Testament: “The Prophecies of the Messiah.“

Sources and Citations

1. Prophecy: The United States will be destroyed.

Journal of Discourses 8:123–124 (July 31, 1860): Brigham Young: “The United States will be broken in pieces and destroyed; and there is not a man or woman in this House who will escape this destruction, except those who believe in what I am telling you.”

Journal of Discourses 12:204–205 (July 8, 1866): “The nation is ripening for destruction, and the hour is nigh at hand when their downfall will be complete.”

Journal of Discourses 7:15 (September 1, 1859): “The nation is doomed to destruction; it cannot be otherwise.”

2. Prophecy: The Civil War will spread to all nations.

Journal of Discourses 10:250 (November 6, 1864): “Do you think the war in the States is ended? No… it will spread and increase until it will deluge the whole earth with blood, and every nation shall be broken by it.”

This is one of his clearest global-destruction prophecies, tied to the Civil War.

3. Prophecy: The Ten Tribes live in a literal northern region.

Journal of Discourses 2:293 (October 6, 1855): “The Ten Tribes are on a portion of the earth… in the north country. They will return in a body when the Lord calls them.”

Journal of Discourses 4:219 (February 8, 1857): “The Ten Tribes are kept in the north, and they will return from their hiding place to receive their blessings.”

This is a literal geographical location, not symbolic.

4. Prophecy: Plural marriage (polygamy) is eternal and will never be revoked

Journal of Discourses 11:268 (August 19, 1866): “The doctrine of plurality of wives is a law of God, and it is as eternal as God Himself. It cannot be revoked.”

Journal of Discourses 13:95 (October 6, 1869): “Plural marriage is an everlasting principle. You cannot revoke it.”

Journal of Discourses 11:328 (September 1, 1867): “There is no end to the practice of this principle. I defy any man to revoke it — God has established it.”

All three quotations contradict the 1890 LDS Manifesto.

5. Prophecy: Adam is God (Adam–God doctrine)

Journal of Discourses 1:50–51 (April 9, 1852): This is the most famous statement: “Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth… Adam is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.”

Journal of Discourses 4:1 (September 20, 1856): “I tell you, when you see your Father Adam, you will see a being who had begotten you.”

Journal of Discourses 13:309 (June 8, 1870): “Adam is the father of our spirits… and the father of our bodies. He brought Eve with him.”

These are Young’s own words — not secondhand summaries.

6. Prophecy: Blood Atonement is required for certain sins

Journal of Discourses 3:247 (February 8, 1857): “There are sins that cannot be atoned for by the blood of Christ… and the blood of the sinner must be shed to atone for them.”

Journal of Discourses 4:53–54 (March 12, 1854): “If he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood, let him do it… this is loving our neighbor as ourselves.”

Journal of Discourses 7:20 (September 21, 1859): “I know there are transgressors who, if they knew themselves, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering.”

These sermons are some of the most controversial in LDS history.

7. Prophecy: Black people will NEVER hold the priesthood in mortality

Journal of Discourses 7:290 (October 9, 1859): “The seed of Cain cannot hold the priesthood, nor act in any office in the Priesthood, until the last of the children of Adam have received the Priesthood.”

Journal of Discourses 11:272 (August 19, 1866): “When all the other children of Adam have received the priesthood, then the seed of Cain may receive it, but not until then.”

Deseret News, February 5, 1852 (Young’s Legislative Speech): “The Lord has cursed the seed of Cain, and it will be so until the end of time.”

(All three contradict the 1978 LDS revelation.)

8. Prophecy: The Millennium would occur soon after settling Utah

Journal of Discourses 2:31 (April 6, 1855): “The coming of the Lord is near, even at our doors.”

Journal of Discourses 3:46 (July 8, 1855): “Many now living will not taste death until the Son of Man comes.”

None of those listeners are alive today.

9. Prophecy: Utah will become the center of world government (the Kingdom of God)

Journal of Discourses 5:63–64 (July 8, 1857): “This people will yet govern the nations of the earth.”

Journal of Discourses 7:142 (November 6, 1859): “The Kingdom of God… is to bear rule over all nations. This will be fulfilled.”

Related: Council of Fifty Records (1840s–1870s): Brigham Young explicitly taught a future theocratic world government headquartered in Utah.

This has never happened.

All of these citation listed above are verbatim from the primary LDS sources.

1. The first Crucifixion recorded in the Bible is described by King Darius about 520 B.C., as noted in the Book of Ezra Chapter 6:1-11. Ezra 6:11 (King Darius) Also I issue a decree that whoever alters this edict, let a timber be pulled from his house and erected, and let him be hanged on it; and let his house be made a refuse heap because of this.

2. 1. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 And if you say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?”—22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

2. Romans 4:17 God, who… calls those things which do not exist as though they did…

3. The test for whether a word spoken by someone who claims to be a prophet of God—is valid—is determined by their fulfillment. If any word or part of the prophecy fails, the person who spoke the prediction is called a false prophet; and no one should listen to that person.⁠1 If, however, the words that are spoken in each of these prophecies come to pass exactly as they were written, then we can have confidence that God is the original source of these predictions.

Categories: Robert Clifton Robinson