It stormed heavily on April 9, 1852, but the people turned out for the sessions of the Spring LDS Conference that were that day. Each session of the six-day church conference was filled to capacity. Those desiring the best seats lined up outside the doors hours before they opened. At times, because the crowds were so large, many male members would leave the tabernacle to allow more room for the women to attend.

At 6:00 on the evening of the ninth, all LDS male members gathered together in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for another session. The house was full. After the usual introductory exercises, Mormon Prophet and President Brigham Young began to address his brethren upon various subjects. He instructed them concerning the place recreation and amusements should occupy in their lives and concerning the principle of tithing.

Then, after a moment's pause, the Mormon Prophet took up his next topic. The question was, Who begat Jesus Christ in the flesh? This was a hot issue. There had been no little dispute about it among the LDS Elders, and there were opposing views. As a Prophet and ` mouthpiece of God, Brigham Young stepped forward to silence all erroneous opinions and to declare with finality the true answer to the inquiry (8).

First, he repeated the fundamental Mormon doctrine that the Father and Son each has a physical body of flesh and bones. Next, he set forth Mormonism's belief that God the Father in a pre-existent period, begot every spirit that would come to this earth. Then Brigham looked out over the vast audience and boldly commanded all of his hearers, whether near or far, Mormon or non-Mormon to take heed to his next statements:

Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken - He is our father and our God, and the only God with whom WE have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later (9).

After declaring that Adam was the God of this world and the Father of its inhabitants, Brigham then addressed the original inquiry concerning the savior's birth:

When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. he was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family; and when he took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel, and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.... I could tell you much more about this; but were I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be nothing to it, in the estimation of the superstitious and over-righteous of mankind. However, I have told you the whole truth as far as I have gone... What a learned idea! Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our Father in heaven. Now let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation. I have given you a few leading items upon this subject, but a great deal more remains to be told. Now, remember from this time forth, and forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. I will repeat a little anecdote. I was in conversation with a certain learned professor upon this subject, when I replied, to this idea - "if the Son was begotten by the Holy Ghost, it would be very dangerous to baptize and confirm females, and give the Holy Ghost to them, lest he should beget children, to be palmed upon the Elders by the people, bringing the Elders into great difficulties." Treasure up these things in your hearts. In the Bible, you have read the things I told you tonight; but you have not known what you did read (10).

Having made this response, Young concluded his comments with another reference to tithing. The Mormon choir then sang a hymn and Elder H. G. Sherwood gave the closing benediction.

Few of the Latter-day Elders who filed out of the Tabernacle that night missed the meaning of what their prophet had just announced. Upon returning home that evening, Hosea Stout, the prominent Mormon pioneer, recorded the following in his daily journal:

Friday 9th April 1852. - Stormy morning. attended conference House much crowded, did not stay in House long. after noon was not in because of the crowd. - Another meeting this evening. President B. Young taught that Adam was the father of Jesus Christ and the only God to us. That he came to this world in a resurrected body & more hereafter (11).

Samuel Rogers, who also was present that night, similarly noted the content of Brigham Young's discourse:

April 16 1852, Conference commenced on the 6 and continued untill the 11, it was heled in the new tabernacle, adjourned untill the 6 of next October we had the best Conference that I ever attended during the time of the Conference President Brigham Young said that our spirits ware begotten before that Adam came to the earth, and that Adam helped to make the Earth, that he had a Celestial boddy when we came to the Earth, and that he brought his wife or one of his wives with him, and that Eave was allso a Celestial being, that they eat of the fruit of the ground untill they begat children from the Earth, he said that Adam was the only God that we would have, and that Christ was not begotten of the Holy Ghost, but of Father Adam...(12).