(McConkie, Petersen, Clark, Benson)
Compiled by Dennis B.
Horne
Elder Bruce R. McConkie [self-explanatory letter to a private
individual, 1982]:
I have just read for the first time your letter . . . in which you spend six pages presenting the general thesis that [mentions a false doctrine]. As you might surmise I am inundated with a flood of letters and manuscripts which set forth quaint and cranky and bizarre and false doctrines. . . . It is my practice to discard them because I have neither the time nor the inclination to engage in discussions or debates on doctrinal matters of the sort contained in your letter. You have indicated a sincere desire for a response and I think in your case I will make a few comments.
I assume
you know already that your doctrine is false; that the entire thesis you have
presented is out of harmony with the teachings of the Church and that you are
wresting the scriptures and perverting the quotations from the Brethren. . . .
My reason
for writing you is to say that no wise member of the Church with a sound
understanding and a stable testimony would deliberately set forth to use the
scriptures and quotations from the Brethren to prove and establish as he
supposes, any basic doctrine that is known to be in conflict with the teachings
of the Brethren and that has been announced by the Presidency and the Twelve
officially as being false. This is a very perilous course to pursue. It is
destructive of faith. When such information comes in to the hands of
spiritually immature people it can have no effect other than to sow seeds of
doubt and uncertainty in their minds.
You have
asked for my reaction to your presentation. I do not see any merit in any
presentation that is based on false premises. It is possible to make a
seemingly logical presentation “proving” the [various false doctrines
mentioned] or almost anything. That is not the real issue. We should spend our
time sustaining true principles. A man who knows better is very foolish to
present false views. . . .
Jesus said
“Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.” (John 18:37.) Among other
things this means that true believers accept, by instinct almost, the true
doctrines of salvation when they are taught to them. It means they reject,
almost by instinct, heresies and false views. Pleas add to what Jesus said the
revealed concept that whether teachings are by his own voice or the voice of
his servants it is the same. . . .
This letter
is not written to argue the point or discuss the various passages. It is
obvious that you have enough background and experience in scriptural exegesis
and in researching the statements of the Brethren to figure out for yourself
what the doctrine is. This letter is written to give the counsel I have stated.
Anyone who has the talent you obviously have for analyzing and presenting a
viewpoint, should use your talent in the interests of the Church and not in
presenting views contrary to the accepted doctrine. I hope you will do so and
that you will take the counsel I have given. Sincerely, Bruce R. McConkie
Mark E. Petersen, October 1968 general conference:
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.
The discovery of an obvious purpose in creation is what now
begins to open the eyes of our greatest scientists to the facts of our
existence. They are learning that creation could not possibly exist, nor could
it have come into being initially, without a definite purpose. These scientists
now say they are convinced that creation came by the act of a supreme
Intelligence, that he had a purpose in creation, and since he has purpose he
therefore must be a person. Furthermore, they tell us that this Creator also
had a definite purpose in creating man to be like himself.
Listen to some of them.
Dr. Arthur H. Compton, Nobel Prize winner, writing in the
Los Angeles Times, said:
"Where there is plan, there is intelligence, and an
orderly unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic
statement ever uttered — 'In the beginning, God. . . .' "
In a volume entitled The Freedom of Man, published by Yale
University Press, Sir John Arthur Thomson says:
"We feel compelled — and it is a glad compulsion — to
say with the most philosophical of the disciples, 'In the beginning was Mind,
and the Mind was with God, and the Mind was God.' "
Alfred G. Fisk, in his book The Search for Life's Meaning,
says:
"Just as the ordered structure of the universe implies
a creative Intelligence, Architect or Orderer, so a belief in the objectivity
or purpose in the universe leads to a belief in a Purposer or Divine Agent who
is the source and spring of purpose in the Universe."
Sir Ambrose Flemming, in his Origin of Mankind, wrote:
"The ultimate cause of things and events is a selfconscious and personal
living Being
Life can only proceed from already living matter. It cannot
be derived spontaneously from non-living matter. We can obtain energy only from
some source or body already possessing it. It cannot arise spontaneously from
nothing. . . . Accordingly we can infer that the Cause which gave rise to our
self-consciousness and powers of thought, must have been itself selfconscious
and intelligent, or a Thinker.
Hence we may infer that the thought of the Intelligent First
Cause was not identical with ours, and therefore this separateness constitutes
that First Cause a Person."
Dr. Compton, writing for This Week magazine, said:
"Few scientific men today defend the atheistic
attitude. Design in the Universe presumes an intelligence. Evidence points to a
Beginner, a Creator of the Universe. A physicist's studies lead him to believe
this Creator to be an Intelligent Being. The intelligent God has an interest in
and relation to man, and it is reasonable to assume that He would be interested
in creating a being intelligent like himself."
Albert Einstein, in his book The World as I See It, says on
pages 267-68: "The harmony of natural law reveals an Intelligence of such
superiority that compared with it, all the scientific thinking and acting of
human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."
Origin and destiny of man
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 Godl
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 himl
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.
https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1968sa/page/98/mode/2up
Pres. J. Reuben Clark:
And finally, I will quote the passage from First Corinthians,
where Paul, speaking to the backsliding Corinthians, among whom already began
to appear what finally became the great apostasy, and complaining about them
and their thoughts, he said,
"For I determined not to know any thing among you, save
Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (I Cor. 2:2.)
There are all sorts of cults, all sorts of shadings of what
we have called Christianity. There is one group of scholars that work
insidiously sometimes, pretending Christianity and a belief in Christ, but
nevertheless who subtly and insidiously teach us things that do not come within
what we understand as Christianity. The position of these has been stated by
one scholar thus:
"Christ . . . cannot have been both the same unclouded
thinker of the moral sayings and the apocalyptic fanatic of the eschatological
passages."
And eschatology is defined as "The doctrine of the last
or final things, death, resurrection, immortality, the end of the world, final
judgment, and the future state; the doctrine of last things."
These teachers who announce this difference as to the life
of the Savior and his teachings, some of them, find place amongst us.
These critics say one of these two, the moral teachings or
the eschatology, must be given up as historical and the one chosen to be got
rid of is the eschatological. Anything beyond the moral teachings is put in the
realm of myth, legend, popular exaggeration, symbolism, allegory, or
transference of the miraculous from other departments of tradition into the
life of Jesus.
Their standard of elimination is that any "event which
lies outside the range of the known laws of Nature," must be disregarded.
This destroys the divine origin of Jesus, his miracles, his resurrection, and
much of his doctrine. . . .
And Luke says, more shortly than is recorded by the others:
"And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for
many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go
ye not therefore after them." (Luke 21:8.)
I think perhaps when we first read these extracts we may
think that the Savior is talking primarily of a person, somebody to come to
impersonate the Christ and claim to be the Christ. It seems to me, however,
from the way in which these records are made and what they say, that the Savior
also had in mind anyone who would come and say to you, "This is Christ
that I teach; that is Christ that I teach; that is the Christian
doctrine." In that sense I think that these scholars about whom I have
already read, who would discard everything that they could not account for by
the known laws of nature, they are in effect false Christs, for they are
telling us that the things that we believe in Christ are myths, tradition,
symbolism, allegory; they did not exist.
Now, that kind of a religion, that kind of Christianity
would require that we discard all that we know about the Great Council in
heaven and what was determined there, because these things lie outside the
known laws of nature, as those scholars understand them.
We would have to discard the Fall as being a myth, an
allegory, symbolism.
We would have to discard the virgin birth, the divine
conception, the very foundation of our religion; that would have to go.
We would have to discard the witness of the Father at the
time of the baptism of the Savior; that would go as myth, symbolism, allegory.
We would have to discard practically all of the miracles as
not taking place many. . . .
"And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is
Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:
"For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and
shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
"But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all
things." (Mark 13:5-6, 21-23.)
And Luke says, more shortly than is recorded by the others:
"And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for
many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go
ye not therefore after them." (Luke 21:8.)
I think perhaps when we first read these extracts we may
think that the Savior is talking primarily of a person, somebody to come to
impersonate the Christ and claim to be the Christ. It seems to me, however,
from the way in which these records are made and what they say, that the Savior
also had in mind anyone who would come and say to you, "This is Christ
that I teach; that is Christ that I teach; that is the Christian
doctrine." In that sense I think that these scholars about whom I have
already read, who would discard everything that they could not account for by
the known laws of nature, they are in effect false Christs, for they are
telling us that the things that we believe in Christ are myths, tradition,
symbolism, allegory; they did not exist.
Now, that kind of a religion, that kind of Christianity
would require that we discard all that we know about the Great Council in
heaven and what was determined there, because these things lie outside the
known laws of nature, as those scholars understand them.
We would have to discard the Fall as being a myth, an
allegory, symbolism.
We would have to discard the virgin birth, the divine
conception, the very foundation of our religion; that would have to go.
We would have to discard the witness of the Father at the
time of the baptism of the Savior; that would go as myth, symbolism, allegory.
We would have to discard practically all of the miracles as
not taking place
and those that might be accepted would be spoken of as
signs. A sign can be a miracle, but not necessarily so. A miracle is a sign,
but more than that.
We would have to discard the testimony of the Father, at the
time of the transfiguration, that Jesus was his Son.
We would have to discard that great occasion, the raising of
Lazarus and the incidents thereof, the reply of the Savior to Martha:
"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: ,
"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die." (John 11:2526.) That would have to go into the discard as myth,
allegory, symbolism, tradition.
Finally, we would have to discard all that we know about the
resurrection and its effect; all of that is gone.
As to all these, and almost countless other matters: be not
deceived, believe them not, follow not after the false Christs.
I would like you to appreciate that without the eschatology
of the records of the Savior's life, we should have nothing left but husks,
moral teachings, and ethics which, if lived, would make us a great people, a
humane people, a peaceful people, but would not carry us back into the presence
of our Heavenly Father.
In my view, that doctrine is not only sacrilegious, but to
me it is also blasphemy, something to be utterly cast away. We have less left
after they get through with their discards than the old paganism, for that
paganism, the old Greek mythology, did acknowledge and have a kind of worship
of divine beings which they conceived; they did believe in them and worship
them.
My whole soul rebels against this emasculation of
Christianity. Jesus did live. First, there was the great plan in heaven; that
did actually occur. All that we know about it took place there. There was the
plan; the earth was formed; Adam came; the human family followed. We came here
to prove ourselves. Finally, Christ was born in the Meridian of Time. He lived.
He taught. He gave instructions. He was crucified. Then on the morning of the
third day, he was resurrected, thus bringing to each and every of us the
blessings of the resurrection. We all shall be resurrected. All of that has
gone for these people to whom I refer. It is myth, tradition, allegory. Be not
deceived by them; believe them not; follow not after them.
Then we would have to discard all that transpired in the
restoration of the gospel, the Vision of the Father and the Son, the coming
forth of the Book of Mormon, the giving of the great commandments which compose
our Doctrine and Covenants. We would have to discard the Pearl of Great Price
and all that it says.
Now, brothers and sisters, let us be aware of this false
Christ, false Christianity which is taking root among some of our
intellectuals. Be not deceived, believe it not, follow not after it, as the
Lord said in those various records.
I bear my testimony as I have already indicated to the
truthfulness of the gospel, to the restoration of its great principles, to the
restoration of the priesthood, to the conferring of all of these things upon
the Prophet Joseph, to the passing down from the Prophet Joseph through the
Presidents of the Church until the present, that our President of the Church,
President David O. McKay, has all of the rights and the prerogatives and the
powers and authorities that were conferred upon the Prophet Joseph.
I bear you this testimony in soberness. I repeat, my soul
cries out against this heresy that is taught by this group of so-called
Christians.
President Ezra Taft Benson:
Do you have members in your stakes whose lives are shattered
by sin or tragedy, who are in despair and without hope? Have you longed for
some way to reach out and heal their wounds, soothe their troubled souls? The
prophet Jacob offers just that with this remarkable promise: “They have come up
hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the
wounded soul.” (Jacob 2:8; italics added.)
Today the world is full of alluring and attractive ideas
that can lead even the best of our members into error and deception. Students
at universities are sometimes so filled with the doctrines of the world they
begin to question the doctrines of the gospel. How do you as a priesthood
leader help fortify your membership against such deceptive teachings? The
Savior gave the answer in His great discourse on the Mount of Olives when He
promised, “And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived.” (JS—M 1:37;
italics added.)
The scriptures are replete with similar promises about the
value of the word. Do you have members who long for direction and guidance in
their lives? The Psalms tell us, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light
unto my path” (Ps. 119:105), and Nephi promises that feasting upon the words of
Christ “will tell you all things what ye should do.” (2 Ne. 32:3.)
Are there members of your flock who are deep in sin and need
to pull themselves back? Helaman’s promise is for them: “Yea, we see that
whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful,
which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the
devil.” (Hel. 3:29.)
Success in righteousness, the power to avoid deception and
resist temptation, guidance in our daily lives, healing of the soul—these are
but a few of the promises the Lord has given to those who will come to His
word. Does the Lord promise and not fulfill? Surely if He tells us that these
things will come to us if we lay hold upon His word, then the blessings can be
ours. And if we do not, then the blessings may be lost. However diligent we may
be in other areas, certain blessings are to be found only in the scriptures,
only in coming to the word of the Lord and holding fast to it as we make our
way through the mists of darkness to the tree of life.
And if we ignore what the Lord has given us, we may lose the
very power and blessings which we seek. In a solemn warning to the early
Saints, the Lord said this of the Book of Mormon: “Your minds in times past
have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly
the things you have received—
“Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church
under condemnation.
“And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion,
even all.
“And they shall remain under this condemnation until they
repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon.” (D&C
84:54–57.)
Oh, my brethren, let us not treat lightly the great things
we have received from the hand of the Lord! His word is one of the most
valuable gifts He has given us. I urge you to recommit yourselves to a study of
the scriptures. Immerse yourselves in them daily so you will have the power of
the Spirit to attend you in your callings. Read them in your families and teach
your children to love and treasure them. Then prayerfully and in counsel with
others, seek every way possible to encourage the members of the Church to
follow your example. If you do so, you will find, as Alma did, that “the word
[has] a great tendency to lead people to do that which [is] just—yea, it [has]
more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything
else, which [has] happened unto them.” (Alma 31:5.)
Like Alma, I say unto you, “It [is] expedient that [you]
should try the virtues of the word of God” (Alma 31:5), in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
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