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I'd like to welcome you to the Church History Library's Men and Women of Faith lecture series this evening. Tonight's lecture is entitled "Bruce R. McConkie: A Special Witness," presented by his son, Joseph Fielding McConkie. I'm April Williamsen, and I'm in charge of public programming for the Church History Library. Our upcoming lectures: next month on May 9th, we have Sister Debbie J. Christensen, who will be speaking on "Julia and Emily Hill: Sisters in Zion." And on June 13, we have Jay A. Parry, speaking on, "My Mother Was Always Praying: Latter-day Saint Women in East Germany during World War II." Some great, great lectures, I'm so excited to be able to have these wonderful speakers and their topics. We are so pleased this year to be able to hold our lectures in this historic Assembly Hall. This beautiful organ that you see behind you tonight is actually the third organ that has occupied the Assembly Hall. It was built by Robert L. Sipe of Garland, Texas, as a part of the renovations surrounding the building's 100th anniversary in 1983. There was much research, planning, and work that went into the design for this organ, but I'm going to save that information until next month. Now, this is what they call a teaser. So let me tell you about the history of the organs that have occupied the Assembly Hall. Now as you will recall, Brigham Young announced this building just 18 days before his death in August of 1877. He proposed tearing down the old Tabernacle, which stood on this spot, to erect the new building. An entry in the November 27, 1878, Journal History of the Church contained a newspaper article about the new organ being built. It stated in part, "It will have a frontage of 17 or 18 feet. The longest pipes about 16 feet. A few parts of the organ that was in the old Tabernacle are being used in its construction. But as it is being enlarged and additional pipes, bellows, stops, et cetera, it can really be called a new organ." The first organ was remodeled or built in the workshops on Temple Square, where all the woodwork and metal work for the Temple was being done. It was to be completed and installed by September of 1879. The first organ served well for many years. But by January, 1913, changes were needed. In January, it was announced that the extensive changes were being made to the Assembly Hall, including the installation of a new pipe organ. The Tabernacle Choir was to start rehearsing in the Assembly Hall, and organists were going to practice on the new organ. The newspaper article stated and I quote, "In order that organists may experience no difficulty in going from Assembly Hall organ to the Tabernacle instrument, the console for the new organ is to be a duplicate of that-- of the Tabernacle organ in all essential respects." February 22, 1913, there was another entry about the organ. Let me read just a few excerpts. Big headline: "Big Assembly Hall Organ Now on Way." "Word has been received at the Bishop's Building from the Kimball Organ Company of Chicago that the big new organ to be installed in the Assembly Hall is now on the way. It is expected to arrive here any day. It will have more than 200 pipes, ranging in height from 16 to eight feet, three manuals, and another pedal, and will practically be four organs in one. The exterior furnishing will be in oak. The keyboard will have more stops than any other instrument in the West, except the Tabernacle organ, though its range of volume is considerably less than the one in the larger Hall." The old organ in the Assembly Hall was broken up and sold for junk, the instrument being practically worthless for any other purposes. In tearing it down, its worthlessness was considerably improved upon, the final result being a mass of pipes and broken wood. In 1922, another change was made to the organ. The Deseret News wrote, "The organ in the Assembly Hall is to be entirely overhauled, and a new electric console will be installed. The rubber appliances connected with the old wooden bellows in the instrument have given out with all other parts and the equipment that are not easily replaced. It has, therefore, been decided to install the electric console, making the instrument a smaller duplicate of the Tabernacle organ. The smaller organ will be used for practice work, doing away with much of the wear and tear on the large instrument." The second organ was used for 60 years until the deterioration of the building determined that the Assembly Hall needed major repairs and renovation, which would coincide with the centennial of the building. And so in 1983, the third organ was built and installed and is now used regularly for concerts and meetings held here in the building. I'd like to introduce Brother McConkie. Joseph Fielding McConkie is the son of Amelia Smith and Bruce R. McConkie. He is the author of the book The Bruce R. McConkie Story: Reflections of a Son. He is also the author or co-author of 29 other books, the most recent which is titled, Just and Holy Principles in Defense of the Sanctity of Marriage. He graduated from BYU with a master's degree in Church history and a doctorate in educational administration. He also fulfilled a mission in Scotland. Brother McConkie is an emeritus professor of Scripture at Brigham Young University, where he taught for 30 years. Prior to joining the faculty at BYU, he was the director of the LDS Institute of Religion at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has served as an LDS chaplain in the army, a bishop, stake president, and is currently serving as a temple sealer. He and his wife, Brenda Kempton, have nine children and 26 grandchildren. We are pleased to have Brother McConkie with us this evening. Brother McConkie.

I'm delighted to have the opportunity to talk with you tonight and tell you a little bit about my father. Before I formally commence my remarks, there's a couple of observations I would like to make. You have been introduced, in some measure, to the history of this building. I would just make this observation. It has been my privilege over the course of a lifetime to visit the Holy Land and travel the length and breadth of the state of Israel; to visit Asia Minor, where many of the great events in the New Testament took place; to visit sacred sites from Cumorah and to the Sacred Grove; to the Salt Lake Valley that are a part of the great story of the Restoration and, I would add to that, sites also sacred in my mind to the formation of this nation.

But in all of that, I never feel more like I am walking on sacred ground than I do on Temple Square. Among other things, it was here, some 47 years ago, that I proposed to my wife, and my life has been blessed beyond measure because she said yes.

Some time before Bruce McConkie was old enough to hold the priesthood, the town bully in Monticello, where the McConkies lived, approached his father, Oscar W. McConkie, and told him that he had a boy who could whip his boy any time, any place. Oscar McConkie responded, "Well, that may be so, but that is not the purpose for which I am raising my son."

In a father's blessing given to his son as he was about to leave to serve as a missionary, Bruce was promised that, quote, "The day will come when you are yet tabernacled in the flesh, that all men who know you will look to you for counsel and for the witness of the truth, for through your faithfulness, you shall become a chosen vessel, exalted among your brethren in the Holy Order of the Priesthood of our God. The Lord will bless you, and your heart will be filled with understanding. Your wisdom shall be great, extending beyond the bounds of the earth, and you shall comprehend the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. And many revelations will be given unto you, and many things will be understood and taught you, which are and shall be mysterious unto those who are not willing to pay the full price of obedience to God's exalted law, but which great treasures shall be pearls of great price to you, for they shall light up your soul with everlasting joy," end of quote. Bruce Redd McConkie was a man of faith, raised in the home of faith, to do a work of faith. At his funeral, then Elder Boyd K. Packer said, and I quote, "If ever there was a man who was raised up unto a very purpose, if ever a man was prepared against a certain day of need, it was Bruce R. McConkie," end of quote. Now my thesis tonight is this.

In the morning session of conference on the 6th of April in 1985, Bruce McConkie sealed his life's work and ministry with a powerful testimony of Christ. The Spirit felt by those who heard this testimony will never be forgotten. Rarely does a week or more go by that I do not meet someone who heard that talk and who wants to remind me of it. I invite you to reflect with me on a lifetime of preparation that enabled Elder McConkie to speak with such power and such effect. All that is said rests upon these verities. One, you cannot teach what you do not know. Two, if you have taught-- if you have not taught anything, you cannot testify to anything. Three, competence as a witness is predicated upon knowledge, empirical knowledge, that which you have experienced, teaching this principle. The Savior said, if any man will do His will, he will know of the Doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Four, a valid and binding testimony of Christ grows out of a sound understanding of the Restoration. You cannot get to Gethsemane without going through the Sacred Grove. To that end, let me review with you some of the preparatory experiences that preceded that powerful testimony. Let us begin with Bruce McConkie, the young missionary. One could not suppose that his mission call as a young man was a matter of chance. The young Elder McConkie was called to serve in the Eastern States Mission. For all intent and purpose, he was called to serve in the combined Sacred Grove and Hill Cumorah Missions. He spent many an hour in these sacred places, reading, pondering, and praying. Here it was that he became intimately acquainted with the message of the restored gospel and the Spirit that attends it. Bruce McConkie was born to teach and to be a preacher of righteousness. He lived to do so. He never saw a pulpit he did not want to occupy. [LAUGHTER]

He never obtained a truth from Heaven that he did not want to share. Whether the word had been canonized as scripture or was prompted by the Holy Ghost, it mattered not. He wanted to declare it to all who would hear it. His mentors... As to mentors, we all have many to whom we are indebted. Standing above the many, two men in particular played key roles in laying the foundation of Dad's faith in the restored gospel. The first was Elder McConkie's father, Oscar W. McConkie. He was a man with the faith of Enoch and Elijah. Wholly obedient to gospel principles, his life was one of faith in action. The second was his father-in-law, Joseph Fielding Smith. Granddaddy Smith carried with him the Spirit of his fathers and a love for the Prophet Joseph Smith in greater measure than any man I have ever met. A family, according to the divine plan, the family is the primary classroom in which the Gospel is to be taught. And so it was in the family in which Bruce McConkie was reared. And so it was in the family that he and Mother raised. Back in a day of two and 1/2 minute talks, all McConkie children spoke on the same subject: Joseph Smith. If help was needed in preparing the talk, God-- Dad would guide us back to the First Vision. My sister Vivian recalled that, quote, "after an impressive lesson in a Sunday School class I attended as a child, I asked Dad if any prophet could be greater than Elijah. He talked to me about the work of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who had done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world than any other man who ever lived in it," end of quote. She spoke with tenderness about an occasion when she and Dad were alone in our home on Landborne Avenue. She was about 11 years of age. He had been upstairs, studying and writing, deeply moved by the things he was learning. His soul filled to the brim, he had to share it. And so he came down looking for that opportunity. Vivian being the only one at home at the time, he sat her down. And with all the fervency of his soul, he told her the Book of Mormon was true, and that no man could have written it. To understand the man is to understand that such feelings could not be constrained. The day after I received my mission call, he came to my room, woke me up, and said, "I want you to read the Book of Mormon and report." I read the Book of Mormon and reported, to which he said, "Now, I want you to read the Book of Mormon and report." By this time, I was in the mission field. I read the Book of Mormon a second time and reported. His response was, "Now what I want you to do is read the Book of Mormon and report." I read it the third time and reported. Dad wrote back and said, "Now you have laid the foundation upon which we can build," and then came the letters, filled with great doctrinal instruction. My missionary companions received letters telling them of current events. I received epistles like the Apostle Paul would write. As to current events, if there were such things in our neighborhood, Dad had no awareness of them. [LAUGHTER]

My younger brother Mark has memories of going on walks with Dad in the morning when they lived in Australia, where dad served as mission president. "Dad would teach me the principles of the gospel as we walked," Mark said. "On one occasion, he stopped and asked, 'Do you have any questions?'" Mark said no, to which Dad responded, "Well, Junior, you should always have questions." My brother Stanford remembers his questions to Dad being met with a question: "What do you think?" Dad would always measure our understanding before he gave answers, and the answers we got were commensurate with the preparation we had made. He did not mind a vigorous discussion. It was very important to him that we learned to think straight and that we learned how to get answers for ourselves. Dad told Vivian that when he was 19, he had done a verse-by-verse study of the Book of Mormon and had taken a sizable stack of notes. She asked, "Where are those notes?" He replied, "I threw them away." "I want to have them," she mourned. "The notes," he said, "were not important. The discipline was." Early in their marriage, Mother and Dad read The King James Bible and what we now call the Joseph Smith Translation together, comparing the two Bibles verse by verse. That they did this while he was a law student at the University of Utah, with all of its attendant pressures, captures his love of the Prophet Joseph Smith and everything he could learn from him. As his children grew older, his personal library grew smaller. He would complain that his books, particularly his copy of the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, were frequently missing. Something about the way he complained gave us the feeling that he was quite content to live in a home where such books were freely borrowed. When we entered adulthood and he found something he particularly wanted us to read, he would buy eight copies and give one to each of his children. He gave us all a copy of an Analytical Bible, which contained both a dictionary and a concordance. It takes no stretch of the imagination to see how this work influenced the creation of what we called the New Edition of the Scriptures, published in 1979. The Analytical Bible contains a 1973 copyright. He gave each of us a copy of Robert J. Matthews' book titled, A Plainer Translation, a history and commentary on the Joseph Smith Translation, which was published in 1975. Dad described it as a marvelous commentary on how Joseph Smith received revelation. Our current generation has the advantage of being raised with a Bible that has 600 footnotes and a section in the back where extracts too lengthy for inclusion as footnotes is found, all of which come from the Joseph Smith Translation. Before our 1979 edition of the Bible, the feeling in the Church was often one of uncertainty about the reliability of this text. What was known then as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held the copyright. We did not trust them, and they did not trust us. Our suspicion was that they had tampered with the text. It took the painstaking effort of a quiet and unobtrusive spiritual giant by the name of Robert J. Matthews to slay this dragon of distrust. For years, with great patience, he visited the RLDS Historian's office, seeking the opportunity to see the original manuscripts. In time, trust was developed, and he was able to compare it with the published version, verse by verse, and verify that they had rendered the text accurately. When Brother Matthews was called to join the scripture committee, he brought that knowledge with him. Dad shared Bob Matthews's confidence in the accuracy of the RLDS text. His assurance that the inspired version, as we then called it, was accurate rested on the witness of the Spirit. At a family night in the fall of 1971, he told me that he had been called in on the carpet for a talk I had given. Speaking at a fireside the previous Sunday, I had taken JST Genesis 50 as a text. This is where Joseph of Egypt prophesies relative to the Latter-day seer who would bear his name and commence the great work of the gathering. I asked if what I had done was wrong. He said no. I asked if I should quit teaching it, and he said, "You continue to do just as you are doing." His writings. When he wrote Mormon Doctrine, he freely drew upon the inspired version, quoting from it about 300 times. These were announced as errors by those who were critics of his book. When the first volume of Doctoral New Testament Commentary was published in 1965, Dad included the text of the King James Bible side by side with the inspired version. Again, he was sharply criticized for so doing. The two volumes that followed in 1970 and 1972 continued with the same format. After his call as an Apostle, he wrote a six-volume work to testify of Christ. It begins with the promised Messiah and concludes with the millennial Messiah. Between these two books are four other volumes of commentary on the ministry of Christ, both in the old world and in the new. In the writing of these books, he drew heavily on what we learn in the JST. Relative to Elder James E. Talmage's work, Jesus, the Christ, Dad said, quote, "His work is profound and sound and should be studied by every member of the true Church. And yet I hear his voice say, now is the time to build on the foundations I laid some 70 years ago, using the added knowledge that has come by research and revelation and to pen a companion volume to the one I was privileged to write," end of quote. Elder Talmage's work was first published in 1915. I note three things in particular that place us in a position to enhance what he wrote. First, President Joseph F. Smith's vision of the redemption of the dead received in 1918. Second, President Joseph Fielding Smith's Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, first published in 1938. And, third, our conversion to the Joseph Smith Translation, which did not take place until its introduction to the Church in the new edition of the Bible published in 1979. These resources bring with them a great deal of light not enjoyed by a writer in 1915. As to his own work, Elder McConkie said, quote, "It, too, is but an opening door. Others who follow will find the errors and deficiencies that always and ever attend every mortal work. We'll correct them and build upon whatever foundations that exist and will write greater and better works on the same subject," end of quote. His final work, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, was also intended to stand on the shoulders of Elder Talmage's work, The Articles of Faith. The great difference in the two books is that Elder Talmage teaches or defends the basic beliefs of the Latter-day Saints from Biblical texts. Elder McConkie declares the same doctrines from the revelations of the Restoration, drawing heavily on the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. The Joseph Smith Translation lectures on faith and the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, expanding the standard works. In 1973 Dad was assigned to the scripture publication committee. Today, I do not think it is much of a secret that it was Bruce McConkie that made the recommendation to the committee that Joseph Smith's vision of the celestial kingdom and Joseph F. Smith's vision of the redemption of the dead be added to our canon of scripture. We know them today as Section 137 and 138. The older generation will remember that these sections were first placed in the Pearl of Great Price in 1976. And then in 1979, they were moved to their present home in the Doctrine and Covenants. When Dad made the recommendation that they be added to our scriptures, he placed them in verse form with a number of revelations that he hoped to have canonized. This included two additional Articles of Faith. President Monson has teased Dad a little bit about this suggestion, saying, "We all know that there are only 13 Articles of Faith, not 15." The Articles of Faith were drawn from the Wentworth Letter, which Joseph Smith penned in 1842. This was before the temple endowment and the doctrine of eternal marriage had been revealed. Though his suggestions were not added to the Articles of Faith, Elder McConkie included them in his book, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith. They read as follows. Quote, "We believe that God has restored in these last days the fullness of His everlasting gospel, to prepare a people for the coming of the Son of Man and that this gospel shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all people, and then shall the end come. We believe in a premortal life, an eternal marriage, and salvation for the dead; in the Resurrection of the just and the unjust, an eternal judgment, and in kingdoms of glory in the eternal world," end of quote. Other suggestions. The Book of Mormon tells us that many parts, which are plain and most precious, along with many covenants of the Lord, were taken from the biblical record by the great and abominable Church before it went forth of the nations of the earth. Some of these records were revealed to and restored by Joseph Smith in the JST. Elder McConkie sought their inclusion in the Pearl of Great Price. This included a covenant made by God to Enoch and Noah relative to the last days, now JST, Genesis 9. A revelation given about the ministry of Melchizedek, setting forth the power and glory of the Holy Priesthood, now known to us as JST, Genesis 14. An inspired account of the Abraham Covenant, known to us as JST, Genesis 17. The Covenant of the Lord with Jacob relative to his seed and their bowing to the tribe of Joseph, JST, Genesis 48. The prophecy of Joseph, son of Jacob, relative to the Latter-day seer who would bear his name, JST, Genesis 50. He also included in his suggestion the inclusion of extracts from the Psalms 11, 12, 14, and 24, along with a number of other extracts from the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John. Though it was decided not to include these extracts in the Pearl of Great Price, they, along with others, can now be found in the lengthy extracts from the JST in the back of our present edition of the Bible. Elder McConkie also had sought the inclusion in our standard works of the entire Wentworth Letter, which he had put in verse form. To this, he had added the Lectures on Faith, which had found inclusion in Doctrine and Covenants from 1835 to 1921. Each of these suggestions included an expression of his love and loyalty to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Blacks and the priesthood. It was during this same period of time that President Kimball was laboring to prepare himself to importune the Lord relative to the Blacks and the priesthood. In doing so, he invited the members of the Quorum of the Twelve to give any expressions that they wanted in writing.

Dad responded to that invitation with simplicity and power, arguing that every passage of scripture that promised that the gospel would go to those of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people had to include those of every race and had to include the fullness of all gospel blessings. For him, the scriptural answer was simple and obvious, and the time had come for us to see the scriptures in a new light. After the receipt of this revelation, he spoke to the teachers in the Church educational system, saying, quote, "Forget everything that I have said or what President Brigham Young or President George Buchanan or whoever has said in the days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that has now come into the world," end of quote. Being a part of the receipt of this revelation was one of the greatest experiences of his life. Immediately after the public announcement had been made, he called his family together so he could share the experience with them. Nothing was important to Dad as standing in the light. If he discovered that he was wrong on something, he was thrilled with the additional light and pleased to be able to correct or improve his views. It never ceases to amaze me that this causes problems for some people. I've answered a number of calls in which someone has asked, "How can we trust what your father has written if he later changed his mind?" My response is, "How could you trust anyone whose life was devoted to the pursuit of truth that did not and could not learn something new and improve their views?" About the man. There were things that Dad simply could not understand. They included jealousy and pettiness and, above all, doubt where gospel principles were concerned. "I was born with the testimony," he said, "and from my earliest days have known with absolute certainty of the truth and divinity of this great Latter-day work." Doubt and uncertainty have been as foreign to me as the gibberish of alien tongues. Vanity was another of those things he just did not get. He was perfectly happy with haircuts given by Mother and could not understand why his sons were not perfectly happy with the haircuts he gave them. [LAUGHTER]

When he got the clippers out, there was just cause to consider running away from home. [LAUGHTER]

The things Dad enjoyed the most were a good gospel discussion and going for a walk in the evening with Mother. The assignment he enjoyed the most in all of his Church service was being a mission president. He loved to climb mountains and thought his sons ought to be with him when he did. He liked to go birding with Mother and claimed that no picture or painting of a bird could match it in its natural habitat. He was both a rockhound and a lapidary. He loved to cut, polish, and set stones. In the latter part of his life, he became a jogger and had a secret desire to run a marathon but could not find the time to train properly for such an event. He told my brother Stephen that he wanted to run 100 miles for every man who had served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, because they wouldn't do it for themselves.

He never pretended to be what he was not. He assumed no knowledge or experience that was not his. Yet he was wholly confident in what he knew and never pretended to know that which he did not know. He was very respectful of the competence of others. When he was a mission president, for instance, he put a 19-year-old missionary in charge of the mission fleet of cars and never questioned his recommendations. Elder McConkie was called to serve as a member of the First Quorum of Seventy when he was 32. He was a Seventy, not a high priest, as was the practice in that day. This means that he had not served in a bishopric or on a high council or in a stake presidency. Yet it was now his responsibility to train those who held such positions. Given that, he would not pretend to knowledge or experience that was not his. In leadership meetings, he taught bishops and stake presidents the gospel, but he did not teach them to be bishops or stake presidents. What he knew was the restored gospel and the scriptures, and so he taught the gospel and the scriptures, and he listened as the Spirit taught through him. In the coming years, he would say, "I learned the gospel by listening to what I said as I taught the gospel." To some, that will sound arrogant. To those who are familiar with the operations of the Spirit, it becomes a perfect description of how one listens and learns as the Spirit of the Lord unfolds understanding through you.

His favorite subject for a doctoral discourse was eternal marriage. And few that heard him preach will ever forget hearing him say, "The most important single thing that any member of this Church does in this life is to marry the right person in the right place by the right authority," or that "salvation is a family affair." When Elder McConkie was called on to speak, you knew you were going to be taught. He spoke with plainness and power. He was not a storyteller. Some of his colleagues, intending to be helpful, sought to coach him, telling him that he needed to be warmer and tell stories and be more personal. This was counsel that he did not accept.

He told me that, in 50 years, these men would be forgotten. But the words of the doctrinal teachers would still be quoted. It has taken far less time to prove him right. I recall the words of President Packer, spoken at Elder McConkie's funeral, quote, "His manner of delivery was unique. There was something of an Old Testament scriptural quality about them. It was not granted to Brother McConkie to judge beforehand how his discourses would be received and then to alter them accordingly. He could not measure what ought to be said and how it ought to be said by what will people think. Would his sermons leave any uncomfortable? Would his bold declarations irritate some in the Church? Would they inspire the critics to rush to their anvils and hammer out more fiery darts, as the Scriptures call them? Would his manner of delivery offend? Would his forthright declarations in content or in manner of presentation drive some learned investigators away? Would he be described as insensitive or overbearing? Would his warnings and condemnations of evil undo the careful work of others whose main intent was to have the world think well of the Church? Perhaps it was given to other men to measure their words in that way, but it was not given to him.

We have talked about this. And when he was tempted to change, the Spirit would withdraw a distance, and there would come that deep loneliness, known only to those who have enjoyed close association with the Spirit, only to find on occasion that it moves away. He could stand what the critics might say and what enemies might do. But he could not stand that. He would be driven to his knees to beg forgiveness and plead for renewal of the companionship with the Spirit, which the scriptures promise can be constant. Then he would learn once again that what was true of holy men of God who spake in ancient times applied to him. He was to speak as he was moved upon by the Holy Spirit. What matter if it sounded like Bruce R. McConkie, so long as the Lord approved? I knew him well enough to know all of that," end of quote. Because of his straightforward, no nonsense preaching style, there are many who felt that his view of the gospel was so strict that few, if any, would be saved. This was not the case. The April Ensign of 1977 published an article written by him, titled, "The Salvation of Little Children." In that article, he reviewed the scriptural promise of exaltation granted to those who died before they arrived at an age of accountability. Dad received more hate mail for this article than anything else he ever wrote. In a talk given at the LDS Institute of Religion here in Salt Lake, he outlined the plan of salvation in this language. Quote, "We don't need to get a complex or get a feeling that you have to be perfect to be saved. You don't. There's only been one perfect person, and that's the Lord Jesus. But in order to be saved in the kingdom of God and in order to pass the test of mortality, what you have to do is get on the straight and narrow path, thus charting a course leading to eternal life. And then being on that path, pass out of this life in full fellowship. I'm not saying that you don't have to keep the commandments. I'm saying you don't have to be perfect to be saved. If you did, no one would be saved. The way it operates is this. You get on the path that's named the straight and narrow. You do it by entering in at the gate of repentance and baptism. The straight and narrow path leads from the gate of repentance and baptism a very great distance to a reward that's called eternal life. If you're on that path and pressing forward and you die, you'll never get off the path. There is no such thing as falling off the straight and narrow path in the life to come. And the reason is that this life is the time that is given to men to prepare for eternity. Now is the time and the day of your salvation. So if you're working zealously in this life, though you haven't fully overcome the world and you haven't done all that you hoped you might do, you're still going to be saved. You don't have to do what Jacob said, "Go beyond the mark." You don't have to live a life that's truer than true. You don't have to have an excessive zeal that becomes fanatical and becomes unbalancing. What you have to do is to stay in the mainstream of the Church and live as upright and decent people live in the Church, keeping the commandments, paying your tithing, serving in the organizations of the Church, loving the Lord, staying on the straight and narrow path. If you're on that path when death comes, because this is the time and the day appointed-- this is the probationary estate-- you'll never fall off from it. And for all practical purposes, your calling and election is made sure," end of quote. Elder McConkie had the unique ability to capture the panoramic view of the plan of salvation and teach it with power and plainness. A classic illustration of this was the BYU devotional that he gave titled, "The Three Pillars of Eternity." In that talk, he declared that, quote, "The three events preeminent and transcendent above all others are the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement. These three are the foundations upon which all things rest. Without any one of them, all things would lose their purpose and meaning, and the plans and designs of deity would come to naught. Now we are speaking of the three pillars of heaven, of the three greatest events ever to occur in all eternity, of the three doctrines that are woven inseparably together to form the plan of salvation. We're speaking of the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement, and these are one. And be it noted that all things were created, all things fell, and all things are subject to the redeeming power of the Son of God," end of quote.

As I conclude, I return to those special experiences we shared together as a family. Dad and Mother never had the opportunity to do more than make a brief visit to the Holy Land. It was his desire to tour that land with his family. A trip was planned for May of 1985. Because my wife and I had led tours there, Dad placed us in charge of making the arrangements for the trip. To that end, we instituted family study classes some months before we were to go. In one of the first meetings, Dad had the assignment to review the Book of Genesis. He came to our family night with a 28-page outline. [LAUGHTER]

I explained to him that it was too much.

So he reduced his outline to three words: "family, family, and family." That is perhaps the best summary of the Book of Genesis ever given. Its message centers in the covenant of God made with Abraham, which embraces family past, family present, and family future. Dad died a few weeks before we were to leave on that trip, and the family prayer following the blessing to release him so that he could leave us, we extended the invitation to him to join us at those sacred places, of which he had written and preached so much. We have reason to believe that he did so. We spent some sacred moments together on the Mount of Beatitudes. At the garden tomb outside the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, we found a quiet place and sat in a circle to listen to a recording of his last talk. As we listened, a dove flew down into the center of our group, where it remained until Dad said, "Amen." Dad was born with a testimony and had no memory of a time when he did not know the restored gospel to be true. He never prayed to know if he should marry my mother. He was born to marry my mother, just as he was born to teach and testify of the restored gospel. He did not need to ask about such things. He just knew them. He was raised in a house of faith. He raised his children in the same kind of a home. As a young missionary, he caught the Spirit of the Sacred Grove and Cumorah. Elder McConkie was the keynote speaker at a symposium about the Doctrine and Covenants held at BYU in 1979. The theme of the symposium came from the Doctrine and Covenants, section 5, wherein the Lord addressed Joseph Smith, saying, "This generation shall have My word through you." In his masterful discourse, Elder McConkie said, quote, "The test of discipleship is how totally, and completely, and fully we believe the word that was revealed through Joseph Smith, and how effectively we echo or proclaim that word to the world," end of quote. When I reminded Dad's youngest brother, Oscar, about this talk, he responded, "That was vintage Oscar W. McConkie." It was a case of the voice of the father becoming the voice of the son. It was the doctrine upon which Dad was raised, and it was the doctrine upon which he raised his own children. Dad became one with the scriptures. As he unfolded the story of the events of that that preceded Gethsemane and the cross in his last conference address, he was able to say, quote, "In speaking of these wondrous things, I shall use my own words, though you may think they are the words of scripture, words spoken by other apostles and prophets. True it is that they were first proclaimed by others, but they are now mine, for the Holy Spirit of God has borne witness to me that they are true. And it is now as though the Lord had revealed them to me in the first instance. I have thereby heard His voice and know His word." As he concluded his remarks, he said, and I quote, "As pertaining to this perfect Atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God, I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha. And as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that He is the Son of the living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself, independent of any other person. I am one of His witnesses. And in a coming day, I shall feel the nail marks in His hands and in His feet and shall wet His feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that He is God's Almighty Son, that He is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through His atoning blood and in no other way," end of quote.

It is not enough for us as Latter-day Saints to bear testimony of Christ. Indeed, such a testimony may fail to distinguish us from the myriad of testimonies born in the world of our Lord and Master. Our testimony must rest in the revealed conviction that Joseph Smith is the great revelator of Christ for our day, and that there is a Spirit and power that comes from that knowledge that can be had in no other way and is lost to those of our own number that are fearful about voicing the name Joseph Smith. Bruce McConkie's final and unforgettable testimony, with which he sealed his mortal ministry, drew on this foundation: There is a Spirit and a power that we can all share when we are true to these principles. May I now make my voice one with that of my father's, that Jesus is our Lord and our Master, and that Joseph Smith is the great revelator for our day. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I would be pleased to respond to a question or two if any of you would like to ask. I met your father in May of 1981 at Mount Vernon, Washington, and I was the privileged one to be asked to be with him the afternoon after he had called a new stake presidency. I had the opportunity to ask him two or three questions. And one of which was how tedious it was for him to write the Mormon Doctrine. And he said, "Well, that wasn't anything at all to what I just completed my work on the Messiah series. And I just wanted you to know that since that time, I have enjoyed the Messiah series and his writings to this day, 32 years ago. And I just wanted to thank you for having the father you did. Well, the credit that I deserve-- [LAUGHTER]

--is that I mowed the lawn and tended the garden while he did those great things, I don't even think I'm going to get a footnote in history. We have to recognize the difference between reading scripture and studying scripture. And many of us don't-- I-- I'm a little bit of a smart aleck, and I offended a woman some years ago who came up to me after a talk I had given. And she wanted to brag a little bit, and she told me-- she said, "I want you to know that every morning at 5:30, our whole family is up reading the scriptures." And I said to her, "Well, I think that's wonderful. And you'll notice in the course of time that they'll be better readers." [LAUGHTER]

We weren't taught to-- my dad didn't teach us to read. My dad taught us to think.

He taught us to pray. He taught us how to get answers. He taught us how to be confident in what we know and modest about what we don't. Now, he taught us by example, primarily. He was a masterful teacher and a remarkable man.

My mother said of me, "If only we'd known when he was a baby, all we had to do was give him a ball and he'd quit bawling." [LAUGHTER]

After football season was over, in my senior year, I went out for the debate team. Dad marched around the house seven times, chanting, "Hurrah, hurrah, my son is going to use his brain. My son is going to use his brain." [LAUGHTER]

Our interaction was a little different.

I have a quick question. Having such a large family and such a demanding work schedule, what type of things did your father do with you to foster a strong family relationship?

Oh, I don't think that he was paranoid about that kind of thing.

We sometimes spent more time with him than we wanted, I mean-- [LAUGHTER]

He was-- he was hard to work with.

A little impatient in the yard, you know, when he wanted a tool or expected you to read his mind. But at the same time, we had some marvelous experiences together. The things that you remember-- that I remember about Dad, I mean, he came to a few ball games that I played in. It was usually a curse. I usually got injured in those games. [LAUGHTER]

He never taught me how to throw a baseball, or how to fix a car, or how to do any of those kind of things. He didn't know how to throw a ball. He didn't know how to fix a car. But what he knew, he taught us.

And he taught us so that it got recorded. He taught us how to follow the Spirit, and how to love truth, and how to love the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that was good enough.

That was good enough. May I ask a question please? Sure. If I understand correctly, this is a question concerning baptism for children. I think your father taught that baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, we're speaking figuratively when we say that the waters of baptism make us clean. What I understand-- if I understand correctly, it qualifies us by our covenant and by our repentance to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And it's the Holy Ghost that sanctifies from sin, in addition to the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. And yet I've probably been to hundreds of children's baptisms because of Church callings, and we have a large family. I hear people tell children who have just been baptized, now you're clean. Well, what are they clean of, because they haven't been held accountable for any sin until that time? Could you make a comment on that, please? Well, just very briefly, we don't believe in magic water. So it isn't water that washes away your sins. You have to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and you have to repent of your sins. Water is the ritual that symbolizes our willingness to do that. Now never take your doctrine from a baptismal service. [LAUGHTER]

OK? Get it from the scriptures. Go to the source. My father's expression was, "Don't drink below the horses."

OK. I have a question for you. Could you tell us-- I've seen him very stern. And did he have a sense of humor? And did he ask also-- Not that I was aware of. [LAUGHTER]

Let's get serious.

How many here think their dad had a sense of humor? [LAUGHTER]

Dads aren't about being funny.

And I don't think that has much to do with raising sons. But people tell me that he had a sense of humor, and I'm willing to believe them. [LAUGHTER]

I served as a chaplain in Vietnam and, in that capacity, was called to preside over a LDS servicemen's Conference.

And we had our LDS servicemen come from all over the land. We had expected as a conference visitor President Benson, who was presiding over a mission president seminar over in Hong Kong. But that morning, as they'd stood in the line at the airport, President Benson had been advised that, given his governmental status, that it might be unwise for him to go into Vietnam. It might cause some special problems and security problems. And so he turned around to my father and said, "Bruce, these are my tickets. You take them, and I'm taking yours. We're trading assignments." And so I was presiding over this conference when those who-- I wasn't-- I was speaking at the conference. My dear friend, Farrell Smith, the Air Force chaplain, really was presiding. But I was supposed to be the accordion speaker, so that I would just talk till he got there. And we weren't quite sure when he would get there. I'm good at that. I can just talk till they get here. And so the back door of this big-- I don't know what you'd call it. It was kind of an airplane hangar kind of thing where we were holding the conference-- opened up and in stepped my father instead of Elder Benson.

And he--

[INHALES SHARPLY] He saw his son, and he forgot-- he forgot about everything else and came bounding down-- I think they had to point at an aisle for him to get down. He came up to the stand and embraced me and kissed me and then said, "Conduct your meeting."

But it was a very tender experience for me and I think for everybody that was there. All of them could tell you the story, their version of the story. To me, it stood as an important reminder to be found standing where you should be standing when your father returns.

He was what a father should be. He wasn't perfect, and he was a little tough to get along with sometimes. And when you'd go up and see him and you'd pour your heart out to him and tell him about things that should be corrected, if it was his right to correct them, he'd correct them. And if it wasn't, he'd teach you that his job was to mind his own business. He was-- I never met a man that was more respectful of priesthood authority than he was, who are loyal to the brethren, more anxious to do that which the Lord would have him do.