President Hugh B. Brown’s Special Witness of Jesus Christ

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

(by Dennis B. Horne)  

I bear my testimony to you, . . .

that from the center of my heart to the ends of my fingers and toes

I know that Jesus is the Christ. 

            “I humbly bear my testimony to you that I do know that God is my Father, that Jesus of Nazareth is my Redeemer and my friend. I thank him for the blessed privilege of engaging in the ministry, and I praise his holy name that through his servants he has shown his willingness to use the weakest of us to do some little good in that ministry.”[1] So stated Elder Hugh B. Brown to the assembled members at general conference.

 

President Henry D. Moyle’s Special Witness of Jesus Christ

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

(by Dennis B. Horne)

  

I know that as this call came to me,

 there came a witness of the Holy Ghost that I had never possessed before,

a change that sometimes I feel was physical as well as spiritual.

 

 

James H. Moyle’s Testimony

            Henry D. Moyle loved his father, an energetic man of great strength of mind, character, influence, and spirituality. While standing before religious educators at BYU, Brother Moyle spoke of his father’s valiant service as a missionary and of his becoming one of the first and most prominent lawyers in Utah:

Elder Orson F. Whitney’s Special Witness of Jesus Christ

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

(by Dennis B. Horne)

“I thought I was in the garden of Gethsemane.

I saw the Savior and his Apostles, Peter, James and John.”

            One of the most talented and able men to become an Apostle in the early decades of the 20^th Century was Orson F. Whitney, a remarkable man seldom remembered today.[i] The life-path he walked before becoming a member of the Council of the Twelve may also be one of the most unique of this dispensation: filled with private unorthodox loyalties, ideas, and actions to the point of obstinate heresy, while also simultaneously serving commendably as the most prominent and visible bishop in the Church, and then reforming and developing into a mighty apostle and special witness of Jesus Christ.

Refuting and Correcting BYU’s False Doctrine on the Origin of Man #58 - Concluding Thoughts

(by Dennis B. Horne)

            We now conclude the posting of 58 blogs meant to refute and correct the false teachings of some misguided and mistaken BYU faculty, among others, regarding macro-evolution. These posts have been seen by many thousands of readers over some 5 months. The first introductory blog ran April 6, and we conclude with this one as August comes to a close.

            What has been found?—that the formal, official and settled doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is clear that God created mankind/Adam and Eve in His image; that He is the original progenitor, of both body and spirit, of all “who belong to the family of Adam” (2 Nephi 9:21) and that Adam’s family includes “all men [and women]” (2 Nephi 9:22). Adam and Eve are therefore mankind’s ultimate mortal ancestor (after the fall) and that God is Adam’s father and Heavenly Mother is his mother and Eve’s mother (Moses 6:22; Luke 3:38). Not only do the scriptures teach this, that we sustain as doctrinally binding upon us, but prophet after prophet and apostle after apostle have also taught this truth.  (None of this doctrine is taking a position on the scientific theory or theories of macro-evolution, which the Church does not do and would be imprudent to attempt—since it changes with the next study or journal article.)

            It has not yet been openly revealed by scriptural text (and I do not know) where dinosaurs and so-called Neanderthals fit into the scheme of things relating to our earth. I do not know how past or current or future scientific interpretations of fossilized findings fit with the fact that all things were created first as spirits and then in an un- or imm- or amortal state where they could have existed forever, before the fall. But I know God knows and I know that some of the greatest prophets from past (and the present) dispensations have known. I believe the Prophet Joseph Smith knew but was not permitted to give this knowledge to the Church and hence the world (see D&C 76:114-117 and 3 Nephi 26:6-11).

President Heber J. Grant’s Special Witness of Jesus Christ

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

(by Dennis B. Horne)

God lives, Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was a prophet

of the true and the living God. . . .

God has given me a witness of these things.

I know them and I bear that witness to you.

            President Marion G. Romney loved to hear President Heber J. Grant express his special witness: “I remember the times I have thrilled as I have listened to President Grant bear his testimony. When he used to close conference, he would say: ‘I know as I know that I live that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Redeemer of the world, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the true and the living God, and that Mormonism, so-called, is in very deed the plan of life and salvation’ (Conference Report, Oct. 1934, 132). I never heard him say these words without getting a tingling feeling up and down my spine.”[1] Another apostolic associate of Brother Romney’s felt the same way: “When I was a young man,” remembered President Gordon B. Hinckley, “I sat in a general conference in this Tabernacle and heard President Heber J. Grant declare that he was grateful above all else for the testimony which he had of this, the work of God. I am now older than President Grant was when I heard him say those words. I now know how he felt.”[2]

Refuting and Correcting BYU’s False Doctrine on the Origin of Man #57 - Elder McConkie and President Romney Expound on Priesthood Power and Creation

 (by Dennis B. Horne)

Elder McConkie, “The Doctrine of the Priesthood”:

            Priesthood is power like none other on earth or in heaven. It is the very power of God himself, the power by which the worlds were made, the power by which all things are regulated, upheld, and preserved.

            It is the power of faith, the faith by which the Father creates and governs. God is God because he is the embodiment of all faith and all power and all priesthood. The life he lives is named eternal life. . . .

            Faith and priesthood go hand in hand. Faith is power and power is priesthood. After we gain faith, we receive the priesthood. Then, through the priesthood, we grow in faith until, having all power, we become like our Lord. . . .

            We received the priesthood first in the premortal existence and then again as mortals. Adam held the keys and used the priesthood when he participated in the creation of the earth. After his baptism he received the priesthood again, and he now stands as the presiding High Priest over all the earth. . . .

Refuting and Correcting BYU’s False Doctrine on the Origin of Man #56 - Elder George Q. Morris’s Teachings in General Conference on “The Origin of Man”

 (by Dennis B. Horne)

 

            The below October 1956 general conference address was given by Elder George Q. Morris, a now-little-known or remembered member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He first served as an Assistant to the Twelve, and then at age 80 was ordained an apostle, the oldest man to be so called and sustained in the history of the Church. That talk is followed by a BYU devotional address audio file in which Elder Morris teaches similar doctrine about the creation and destiny of righteous latter-day saints. Elder Morris was not a dynamic speaker, but still taught the truth from the scriptures, sounding much like his Quorum associates in his doctrinal views:

 

            My dear brethren and sisters, I am entirely dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord to direct me, and pray that the same sweet spirit that has prevailed will continue with us to lead me to say that which I should say. I am very thankful to the Lord that this his Church is built on the rock of revelation, so that we are not turned about in all directions by all kinds of opinions and doctrines. But as this is our blessing, we have also an obligation to know the truth, and live the truth, and speak the truth. What a supreme blessing is truth in this distraught world.

            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 be 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. Who else has the revelations of God? What other church in the world is based upon these revelations? Having them, we must be true to them.