Bruce R. McConkie Quotes - 140 quotes

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Bruce R. McConkie

Bruce Redd McConkie (1915-1985) was a prominent leader and theologian in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was born on July 29, 1915, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He grew up in Utah and attended the University of Utah, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Juris Doctor. McConkie served in the Eastern States Mission from 1934 to 1936. In 1937, he married Amelia Smith, daughter of Joseph Fielding Smith, and they had nine children. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1946, McConkie was called to the First Council of the Seventy, and in 1972, he was appointed to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, where he served until his death. He is well-known for his extensive writings on LDS doctrine, including the influential book “Mormon Doctrine” and the multi-volume "Messiah Series". He also contributed to the chapter headings in the LDS Church’s 1979-81 editions of the scriptures. McConkie passed away on April 19, 1985, in Salt Lake City, Utah. His legacy includes his doctrinal teachings and his profound influence on LDS theology.

quote icon Celestial Kingdom: “Paul uses the term Mount Zion to refer to the abode of exalted beings, those who overcome all things and inherit the fulness of the father’s kingdom.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Now our Lord’s jurisdiction and power extend far beyond the limits of this one small earth on which we dwell. He is, under the Father, the Creator of worlds without number. (Moses 1:33) And through the power of his atonement the inhabitants of these worlds, the revelation says, "are begotten sons and daughters unto God (D&C 76:24) which means that the atonement of Christ, being literally and truly infinite, applies to an infinite number of earths.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Just as the creative and redemptive powers of Christ extend to the earth and all things thereon, as also to the infinite expanse of worlds in immensity, so the power of the resurrection is universal in scope. Man, the earth, and all life thereon will come forth in the resurrection. And the resurrection applies to and is going on in other worlds and other galaxies.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Although Christ - the Firstborn in the spirit and the Only Begotten in the flesh - is the Son of God the Father, and as such is a separate and distinct personage from the Father, yet there are three senses in which Christ is called the Father. ... 1. Christ is the Father in the sense that he is the Creator, the Maker, the Organizer of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are. (Isa. 9:6; 2 Ne. 19:6; Mosiah 15:4; 16:15; Alma 11:38-39; Ether 4:7.) 2. He is the Father of all those who are born again (Mosiah 27:24-29), who "are begotten sons and daughters unto God" through his atoning Sacrifice (D. & C. 76:24), who are "spiritually begotten" through faith, thus becoming "his sons and his daughters." (Mosiah 5:7.) 3. He is the Father by what has aptly been termed divine investiture of authority. That is since he is one with the Father in all of the attributes of perfection, and since he exercises the power and authority of the Father, it follows that everything he says or does is and would be exactly and precisely what the Father would say and do under the same circumstances. Accordingly, the Father puts his own name on the Son and authorizes him to speak in the first person as though he were the Father.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon If God is a just and holy being who is no respecter of persons and who loves all his children, he will provide a way for all to be saved. If he is a being in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, he will provide the same plan of salvation for all men in all ages. If those who lived in the meridian of time could be saved through faith, repentance, and baptism, such also must be the case for all who went before and all who came after. If salvation comes by believing in Christ and living the laws of his gospel, then all men must have an equal opportunity to believe and obey. If such an opportunity does not come to them in this mortal life, it must be theirs in the spirit world, before the day of final judgment.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon This promised restoration proves the universal apostasy, for if any nation, kindred, tongue, or people had the gospel, it would not be necessary to reveal it anew so that it might be taught to them. Moroni and other heavenly beings brought back to mortals the Lord's system of salvation, and the fulness of the everlasting gospel is now resident with men on the earth. This restoration includes the doctrines of salvation, the priesthoods and powers by which salvation comes, and the keys of presidency whereby all things in the Lord's earthly kingdom are governed.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The practice of infant baptism bears witness that those who espouse it have forsaken the true Christ and no longer rely on his redeeming power. Little children are alive in Christ because of the atonement. They “are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten, saith the Lord; wherefore they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me.” D&C 29:46-47.) They cannot sin; they cannot repent; they need no baptism.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon There is no such thing as a second chance to gain salvation by accepting the gospel in the spirit world after spurning, declining, or refusing to accept it in this life. It is true that there may be a second chance to hear and accept the gospel, but those who have thus procrastinated their acceptance of the saving truths will not gain salvation in the celestial kingdom of God ... There is no promise in any revelation that those who have a fair and just opportunity in this life to accept the gospel, and who do not do it, will have another chance in the spiritual world to gain salvation. On the contrary, there is the express stipulation that men cannot be saved with accepting the gospel in this life, if they are given opportunity to accept it.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The discerning of spirits is and can be practiced in righteousness only where the true Church and kingdom of God is found. In the final analysis, it takes apostles, prophets, priesthood, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and a knowledge of God's laws and the manner in which he operates, in order to separate the spirits into their two opposing camps. Only where these things are found can error be segregated from truth, because only there are the channels of revelation open.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon How resurrections are numbered or how many there are is of no special moment. What matters is the kinds and types of resurrections and who shall come forth in them … All we know with surety as to the time of any individual’s resurrection is that “every man” will come forth ‘in his own order,” that “celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial,” and bodies telestial will all come forth, successively, to find their places in kingdoms having the same names. (1 Cor. 15:23-44.) … Thus all shall rise from death to life, all shall come forth from the grave, all shall live forever in immortality. But oh, what a difference it makes whether we come forth in the resurrection of the just or that of the unjust, whether we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air or whether we are told to remain asleep in the dust of the earth until he calls again.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon When our revelations say of Christ, “From eternity to eternity he is the same, and his years never fail” D&C 76:4), they mean that from one preexistence to the next he does not vary, his course is one eternal round. They mean, for instance, that form our premortal or preexistent state to the day when the exalted among us provide a preexistence for our spirit children, he is the same.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Our revelations recite that Lucifer and his fellow rebels are, like us, the spirit children of the Father. Lucifer himself is a son of the morning. He and his like-minded associates comprised one-third of the hosts of heaven, and because of their open rebellion against light and truth, because they defied God and his government, knowing perfectly what the will of the Father was, they were cast out of heaven onto this earth. Their punishment eternal damnation. Progression ceased for them. No mortal bodies would ever house their spirit forms. For them there was to be no second estate, no probationary experiences, no resurrection, no eternal life—nothing but darkness and defiance; nothing but wickedness and rebellion; nothing but hatred and evil to all eternity, because they came out in open rebellion and with a perfect knowledge of the course they then pursued and of the consequences that attended it; they fought against God. It is an awful thing to defy the Lord, to make open warfare against the Supreme Being.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon ...the Sons of God ...are the ones who accept Christ and his laws and press forward in devotion to truth and righteousness living by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God (D&C 88:44)...

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Those who become the sons of God in this life are the ones who by enduring in continued righteousness will be gods in eternity.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Nothing is more important than marrying the right person at the right time, in the right place, and by the right authority.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead. He is a personage of Spirit, a Spirit Person, a Spirit Man, a Spirit Entity. He can be in only one place at one time, and he does not and cannot transform himself into any other form or image than that of the Man whom he is, though his power and influence can be manifest at one and the same time through all immensity.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Being “like unto God,” he became and was the GREAT I AM, the I AM THAT I AM, the Eternal One, the Lord Jehovah. He operated and ministered in his Father’s name and by his Father’s power.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Those who gain eternal life (exaltation) also gain eternal lives, meaning that in the resurrection they have eternal “increase,” “a continuation of the seeds,” a “continuation of the lives.” Their spirit progeny will “continue as innumerable as the stars; or, if ye were to count the sand upon the seashore ye could not number them.” (D&C 131:1-4; 132:19-25, 30, 55) … The opposite of eternal lives is eternal deaths. Those who come up separately and singly in the resurrection and who therefore do not have spirit children eternally are said to inherit “the deaths.” (D&C 132:16-17, 25).

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon In consequence of the innumerable blessings showered upon them by their Creator and Redeemer, men are morally bound to conform their lives to the divine will. It is their duty to keep the commandments. (Eccles. 12:13; Luke 17:10). By entering into the various gospel covenants and accepting positions in the Church, they also assume specific obligations and duties in the performance of which they are enabled to work out their salvation. “Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.” (D. & C 107:99-100.)

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon For those whose limited spiritual understanding precludes a recitation of all the facts, the revealed account, in figurative language, speaks of Eve being created from Adam's rib. (Moses 3:21-25.) A more express scripture, however, speaks of "Adam, who was the son of God, with whom God, himself, conversed." (Moses 6:22. Italics added.) In a formal doctrinal pronouncement, the First Presidency of the Church (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund) said that "all who have inhabited the earth since Adam have taken bodies and become souls in like manner," and that the first of our race began life as the human germ or embryo that becomes a man.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Knowledge is gained by obedience. There are some things a sinful man does not, and can not, know.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We are either for the Church or we are against it. We either take its part or we take the consequences. We cannot survive spiritually with one foot in the Church and the other in the world. We must make the choice. It is either the Church or the world. There is no middle ground. And the Lord loves a courageous man who fights openly and boldly in his army.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon PREDESTINATION: “The false doctrine that from all eternity God has ordered whatever comes to pass, having particular reference to the salvation or damnation of souls … and there is said to be nothing any individual can do to escape his predestined inheritance in heaven or in hell as the case may be.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon If righteous men have power through the gospel and its crowning ordinance of celestial marriage to become kings and priests to rule in exaltation forever, it follows that the women by their side (without whom they cannot attain exaltation) will be queens and priestesses. (Rev. 1:6; 5:10.) Exaltation grows out of the eternal union of a man and his wife. Of those whose marriage endures in eternity, the Lord says, ‘Then shall they be gods’ (D&C 132:20); that is, each of them, the man and the woman, will be a god. As such they will rule over their dominions forever.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon True greatness is found only in the family...our greatest joy would be to live together everlastingly as a family unit in eternity. There neither is nor can be anything greater than this.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon This earth is destined to be a celestial sphere. It is now in a telestial state and will return to its Edenic or terrestrial state during the Millennium. Its final destiny, in John’s language, is to be “a sea of glass like unto crystal” (Rev. 4:6), which our revelation identifies as “the earth, in its sanctified, immortal, and eternal state.” (D&C 77:1.) … “And the end shall come, and the heaven and the earth shall be consumed and pass away, and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth.” There was a new earth and new heavens when the Millennium commenced. This is a second new heaven and new earth; it is the celestial earth and its heaven. The language in each instance is similar, but the meaning is different. In one instance the new earth is the paradisiacal earth; in this case it is the celestial globe … All forms of life shall then be immortal; all shall come forth from death and live in a resurrected state forever; the resurrection applies to men and animals and fowls and fishes and creeping things—all shall rise in immortality and live forever in their destined orders and spheres of existence.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Immortality is one thing, eternal life another. Immortality is to live forever in a resurrected state; it is to have a tangible body of flesh and bones. After the judgment, immortal beings are assigned their places in the celestial, terrestrial, and telestial kingdoms. Eternal life is the name of the kind of life possessed by the Eternal One, by the Eternal Father. It is reserved for those immortal beings who gain an inheritance in the highest heaven of the celestial realm. Both immortality and eternal life come because of the atonement; both are part of the gospel … One comes as a free gift; the other is earned by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. The whole purpose of the plan of salvation is to provide immortality for all men and to make eternal life available for those who overcome the world and qualify for such a high exaltation. “For behold, this is my work and my glory,” saith God, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39)

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Such statements as, “Awake! and arise from the dust” (2 Ne. 1:14, 21, 23; Mosiah 4:2), are figures of speech, signifying that those addressed should rise above carnal, petty, groveling things and stand forth in the strength of the Spirit as men of character. Similar prophetic calls to Jerusalem to shake herself from the dust (2 Ne. 8:25; 3 Ne. 20:37; Moro. 10:31) are calls for her to come back from her downtrodden position of obscurity to the high eminence she should occupy in the eternal scheme of things. The Book of Mormon expression that men are “less than the dust of the earth,” as the context shows, has reference to the fact that the dust is obedient to the commands of the Creator, whereas men rebel against his will.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon What is meant by having one’s calling and election made sure? To have one’s calling and election made sure is to be sealed up unto eternal life; it is to have the unconditional guarantee of exaltation in the highest heaven of the celestial world; it is to receive the assurance of godhood; it is, in effect, to have the day of judgment advanced, so that an inheritance of all the glory and honor of the Father’s kingdom is assured prior to the day when the faithful actually enter in to the divine presence to sit with Christ in his throne, even as he is “set down” with his “Father in his throne.” (Rev. 3:21) … As with baptism, so with celestial marriage; after the glorious promise of eternal life that is part of each of these covenants, we must press forward in righteousness until our calling and election is made sure; and this high achievement grows out of and is the crowning reward of celestial marriage.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The building up of Zion—that is our work! All that we do in this life should be judged by this grand standard does it further the cause of Zion? What does it profit a man if he gain the wealth of the world, the power of kingdoms, the dominion of Caesars, unless what he does furthers the interests of Zion? Those interests are both temporal and spiritual and are concerned, solely and exclusively, with the salvation of the souls men. How do we go about building up Zion and strengthening her cause in all the earth? Between now and the Second Coming, our course is one of building up the Church and strengthening its influence among men. As the Mosaic law was a schoolmaster preparing Israel for the higher law of the gospel, so this pre-Millennial period is one in which the saints prepare for that Millennial glory reserved for those who abide the day of His coming.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Those who are born again not only live a new life, but they also have a new father. Their new life is one of righteousness, and their new father is God. They become the sons of God; or, more particularly, they become the sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. They bear, ever thereafter, the name of their new parent; that is, they take upon themselves the name of Christ and become Christians, not only in word but in very deed. They become by adoption the seed or offspring of Christ, the children in his family, the members of his household which is the perfect household of perfect faith. And further: Having become the sons of God (Christ), they also become joint-heirs with him of the fulness of the glory of the Father, thus becoming by adoption the sons of God the Father.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon To gain salvation every accountable person must receive two baptisms. They are baptism of water and of the Spirit. (John 3:3-5.) The baptism of the Spirit is called the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost. By the power of the Holy Ghost-who is the Sanctifier (3 Ne. 27:19-21)—dross, iniquity, carnality, sensuality, and every evil thing is burned out of the human soul as if by fire; the cleansed person becomes literally a new creature of the Holy Ghost. (Mosiah 27:24-26.) He is born again.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Why preach the gospel in the spirit world unless believing souls in that realm can repent and be saved? Truly, as Peter says, all men “shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.” All men are alive in the sight of God; to him there is no death and there are no dead. Accordingly, “for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Peter 4:5-6.) The judgments of God are just because of salvation for the dead. If the dead could not be saved on the same basis as the living, God would be neither just nor merciful, and thus would cease to be God.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon There is no way to overstate the importance of a written language and of having scriptural accounts that preserve the knowledge that God has revealed to prophets both past and present. Civilization could not exist without a written language … And so, from the beginning, the Lord provided a language and gave men the power to read and write. “It was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration. And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a language which was pure and undefiled.” (Moses 6:5-6). The thing which they first wrote, and which of all their writings was of the most worth unto them, was a Book of Remembrance, a book in which they recorded what the Lord had revealed about himself, about his coming, and about the plan of salvation, which plan would have force and validity because of his atonement. This was the beginning of the Holy Scriptures, than which inspired writing there is nothing that is more important.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon To the Lord’s people anciently, Babylon was known as the center of iniquity, carnality, and worldliness. Everything connected with it was in opposition to all righteousness and had the effect of leading men downward to the destruction of their souls. It was natural, therefore, for the apostles and inspired men of New Testament times to apply the name Babylon to the forces organized to spread confusion and darkness in the realm of spiritual things. (Rev. 17; 18; D&C 29:21; Ezek. 38; 39). In a general sense, the wickedness of the world generally is Babylon. (D&C 1:16; 35:11; 64:24; 133:14). As Babylon of old fell to her utter destruction and ruin, so the great and abominable church together with all wickedness shall be utterly destroyed when the Lord comes. Before that great day the servants of the Lord are calling, “Go ye out from Babylon” (D&C 133:5, 7), for the time is not far distant when “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev. 17:5) shall receive her foreordained doom, and an angel shall proclaim the fateful judgment: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” (Rev. 14:8).

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Belief brings salvation and belief brings damnation. Men are saved or damned, depending upon what they believe. If they believe in Christ and his saving truths, they are heirs of salvation. If they believe in a false system of salvation, they will be damned.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon There was no intermingling by the spirits in paradise and hell until after Christ bridged the “great gulf” between these two spirit abodes. (Alma 40:11-14). This he did while his body lay in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and his own disembodied spirit continued to minister to men in the spirit prison … “Until that day” the prisoners remained bound and the gospel was not preached to the (Moses 7:37-39). The hope of salvation for the dead was yet future. But now, since tour Lord has proclaimed “liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isa. 61:1), the gospel is preached in all parts of the spirit world, repentance is granted to those who seek it, vicarious ordinances are administered in earthly temples, and there is a hope of salvation for the spirits of those men who would have received the gospel with all their hearts in this life had the opportunity come to them.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The opposite of salvation is damnation, and just as there are varying degrees and kinds of salvation, so there are degrees and kinds of damnation. There is a “greater damnation” (Matt. 23:14) and, obviously, a lesser damnation …Those who fail to gain exaltation in the highest heaven within the celestial world, even though they do gain a celestial mansion in one of the lower heavens of that world.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The need for repentance is universal. It covers the whole earth, and it presses in upon all men. This need is as all-pervading and as everywhere present as are the effects of the fall; indeed, the fall itself took place so that death and probation and repentance might be the common lot of all men. This mortal life is the time and the day appointed for men to repent and prepare to meet God.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Kolob means “the first creation.” It is the name of the planet “nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God.” It is “first in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of time.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Time, as measured “after the manner of the Lord,” is that which prevails on Kolob. One revolution of that planet is “a day unto the Lord, after his manner of reckoning,” such “being one thousand years according to the time appointed” for our earth. (Abr. 3:4.) This earth was created and destined to pass through “seven thousand years of … continuance, or … temporal existence,” with the millennial era becoming its Sabbath of rest.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “The more enlightened a person is, the more he seeks the gift of repentance, and the harder he strives to free himself from sin as often as he falls short of the divine will. . . . It follows that the sins of the god- fearing and the righteous are continually remitted because they repent and seek the Lord anew every day and every hour” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1966–73], 3:342– 43).

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Terrestrial law is the law of decency and uprightness from a worldly standpoint. Those who conform to this higher order thereby create for themselves terrestrial bodies, which in turn can stand terrestrial glory and go to a terrestrial kingdom.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon How long did Adam and Abraham and Jeremiah (and all men!) spend in preparing to take the test of a mortal probation? What ages and eons and eternities passed away will Christ dwelt in the Eternal Presence and did the work then assigned him? How can we measure infinite duration in finite terms? To such questions we have no definitive answers. Suffice it to say, the passage of time was infinite from man's viewpoint. We have an authentic account, which can be accepted as true, that life has been going on in this system for almost 2,555,000,000 years. Presumably this system is the universe (or whatever scientific term is applicable) created by the Father through the instrumentality of the Son. FOOTNOTE 7. All of the prophets who have seen within the veil have known many things that were never preserved and passed on to their posterity and to the residue of men. Joseph Smith and the early brethren in this dispensation knew much that we do not know and will not know until we attain the same spiritual stature that was theirs. This matter of how long eternity has been going on in our portion of created things is one of these matters. The sliver of information that has been preserved for us is found in an epistle of W. W. Phelps, written on Christmas day, 1844, and published to the Church in the Times and Seasons. Brother Phelps speaks of Jesus Christ, whose goings forth, as the prophets said, have been from of old, from eternity, in what is a clear allusion to Micah's prophecy that Bethlehem shall be the birthplace of our Lord. 'Out of thee [Bethlehem Ephratah] shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel: whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.' Then, in an interpolative explanation of what is meant by 'from eternity, or from everlasting,' Brother Phelps says, 'And that eternity [the one during which Christ's doings have been known], agreeable to the records found in the catacombs of Egypt, has been going on in this system [not this world], almost two thousand five hundred and fifty-five millions of years.' (Times and Seasons 5:758). That is to say, the papyrus from which the Prophet Joseph translated the Book of Abraham, to whom the Lord gave a knowledge of his infinite creations, also contained this expression relative to what apparently is the universe in which we live, which universe has been created by the Father through the instrumentality of the Son. The time mentioned has no reference, as some have falsely supposed, to the period of this earth's existence.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Figuratively, dust means the grave or death as in such expressions as: “By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou shalt return unto the ground — for thou shalt surely die — for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou wast, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Moses 4:25; Gen. 3:19). “Sleep in the dust.” (D&C 63:51; Job 7:21.) David’s Messianic prophecy foretelling our Lord’s death, says he should be brought “into the dust of death” (Ps. 22:15.), though, as elsewhere prophesied (Ps. 16:10), the body of the Lord did not see corruption, that is, did not go back to the dust in the literal sense.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon I sometimes think that one of the best kept secrets of the kingdom is that the scriptures open the door to the receipt of revelation.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Celestial marriage is the gate to exaltation, and exaltation consists in the continuation of the family unit in eternity. Exaltation is eternal life, the kind of life which God lives. Those who obtain it gain an inheritance in the highest of three heavens within the celestial kingdom. (D&C 131:1-4). They have eternal increase, a continuation of the seeds forever and ever, a continuation of the lives, eternal lives; that is, they have spirit children in the resurrection, in relation to which offspring they stand in the same position that God our Father stands to us. They inherit in due course the fulness of the glory of the Father, meaning that they have all power in heaven and on earth. (D&C 76:50-60; 93:1-40).

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Heresy two concerns itself with the relationship between organic evolution and revealed religion and asks the question whether they can be harmonized. There are those who believe that the theory of organic evolution runs counter to the plain and explicit principles set forth in the holy scriptures as these have been interpreted and taught by Joseph Smith and his associates. There are others who think that evolution is the system used by the Lord to form plant and animal life and to place man on earth.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Heresy four: There are those who believe that the doctrine of salvation for the dead offers men a second chance for salvation.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Heresy five: There are those who say that there is progression from one kingdom to another in the eternal worlds or that lower kingdoms eventually progress to where higher kingdoms once were. This belief lulls men into a state of carnal security. It causes them to say, “God is so merciful; surely he will save us all eventually; if we do not gain the celestial kingdom now, eventually we will; so why worry?” It lets people live a life of sin here and now with the hope that they will be saved eventually.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Heresy six: There are those who believe or say they believe that Adam is our father and our god, that he is the father of our spirits and our bodies, and that he is the one we worship. The devil keeps this heresy alive as a means of obtaining converts to cultism. It is contrary to the whole plan of salvation set forth in the scriptures, and anyone who has read the Book of Moses, and anyone who has received the temple endowment, has no excuse whatever for being led astray by it. Those who are so ensnared reject the living prophet and close their ears to the apostles of their day. “We will follow those who went before,” they say. And having so determined, they soon are ready to enter polygamous relationships that destroy their souls.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon "Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world. We get our truth and our light line upon line and precept upon precept. We have now had added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don't matter any more....It is a new day."

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “Where spiritual things are concerned, as pertaining to all of the gifts of the Spirit, with reference to the receipt of revelation, the gaining of testimonies, and the seeing of visions, in all matters that pertain to godliness and holiness and which are brought to pass as a result of personal righteousness in all these things men and women stand in a position of absolute equality before the Lord. He is no respecter of persons nor of sexes, and he blesses those men and those women who seek him and serve him and keep his commandments.” (Ensign, Jan. 1979, p. 61.)

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We have sworn to fight alongside our friends and against our enemies, and we must not be confused in distinguishing friends from foes.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We are either for the Church or we are against it. We either take its part or we take the consequences. We cannot survive spiritually with one foot in the Church and the other in the world. We must make the choice. It is either the Church or the world. There is no middle ground. And the Lord loves a courageous man who fights openly and boldly in his army.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Members of the Church who have testimonies and who live clean and upright lives, but who are not courageous and valiant, do not gain the celestial kingdom. Theirs is a terrestrial inheritance. Of them the revelation says, “These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Please note that knowledge is gained by obedience. It comes by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. In the ultimate and full sense it comes only by revelation from the Holy Ghost. There are some things a sinful man does not and cannot know. The Lord’s people are promised: “By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5). But if they do not seek the Spirit, if they do not accept the revelations God has given, if they cannot distinguish between the revealed word and the theories of men, they have no promise of gaining a fullness of truth by the power of the Holy Ghost.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Now I take a text. These words were written by Paul to certain ancient Saints. In principle they apply to us: I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. [1 Corinthians 11:18–19] Now let me list some axioms (I guess in academic circles we call these caveats): —There is no salvation in believing a false doctrine. —Truth, diamond truth, truth unmixed with error, truth alone leads to salvation. —What we believe determines what we do. —No man can be saved in ignorance of God and his laws. —Man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge of Jesus Christ and the saving truths of his everlasting gospel. —Gospel doctrines belong to the Lord, not to men. They are his. He ordained them, he reveals them, and he expects us to believe them. —The doctrines of salvation are not discovered in a laboratory or on a geological field trip or by accompanying Darwin around the world. They come by revelation and in no other way. —Our sole concern in seeking truth should be to learn and believe what the Lord knows and believes. Providentially he has set forth some of his views in the holy scriptures. —Our goal as mortals is to gain the mind of Christ, to believe what he believes, to think what he thinks, to say what he says, to do what he does, and to be as he is. —We are called upon to reject all heresies and cleave unto all truth. Only then can we progress according to the divine plan.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “Bearers of the priesthood living in the various ecclesiastical units of the Church are divided into organizational units called quorums….Other special groups with administrative responsibility are also called quorums. Presiding Bishopric, High Councils, Ward Bishoprics … In this sense any group of priesthood bearers designated to perform a special labor could be considered a quorum.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “There are three great quorums in whose hands the power rests to preside over the Church and direct its affairs. … The meaning of this revelation (D&C 107), setting forth the order of succession in the Church … As long as a superior quorum is organized, there is no equality of powers and authority. There can never be two equal heads in the Kingdom of God.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Scant knowledge is available to us of Eve (the wife of Adam) and her achievements in pre-existence and in mortality. Without question she was like unto her mighty husband Adam in intelligence and in devotion to righteousness during both her first and second estates of existence. She was placed on earth in the same manner as was Adam, the Mosaic account of the Lord creating her from Adam's rib being merely figurative.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Implicit in the Christian verity that all men are the spirit children of an Eternal Father is the usually unspoken truth that they are also the offspring of an Eternal Mother. An exalted and glorified Man of Holiness (Moses 6:57) could not be a Father unless a Woman of like glory, perfection, and holiness was associated with him as a Mother. This begetting of children makes a man a father and a woman a mother whether we are dealing with man in his mortal or immortal state. This doctrine that there is Mother in Heaven was affirmed in plainness by the First Presidency of the Church.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon 3rd Zion is a Place Old Jerusalem: “At least from the days of King David, the name Zion was applied to one of the hills upon which Jerusalem is built or later, to the entire city.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon New Jerusalem: “The New Jerusalem to be built in Jackson county, Missouri, is also called the City of Zion or Zion. Dozens of revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants speak about this Zion. Isaiah and other of the ancient prophets have much to say about it and about the Jerusalem of old which shall be restored in grandeur and beauty in the last days.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We know that in some way, incomprehensible to us, his suffering satisfied the demands of justice, ransomed penitent souls from the pains and penalties of sin, and made mercy available to those who believe in his holy name Then, in a way incomprehensible to us, he took up that body which had not yet seen corruption and arose in that glorious immortality which made him like his resurrected Father His rising from death on the third day crowned the Atonement Again, in some way incomprehensible to us, the effects of his resurrection pass upon all men so that all shall rise from the grave.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon In a literal sense, the book of life, or Lamb’s book of Life, is the record kept in heaven which contains the names of the faithful and an account of their righteous covenants and deeds. The book of life is the book containing the names of those who shall inherit eternal life; it is the book of eternal life. It is “the book of the names of the sanctified, even them of the celestial world.” (D&C 88:2) Names of faithful saints are recorded in the book of life while they are yet in mortality. But those names are blotted out in the event of wickedness. (Rev. 13;8; 17:8; 22:19).

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon If there is a plan of salvation, it can be known only by revelation. If the gospel is revealed to men, it must come from God to prophets of God’s own choosing. If Deity reveals the ordinances of salvation, he must choose and authorize ministers to perform them. If there are no prophets to whom the Lord speaks, then his gospel, his mind and will, and his saving truths cannot be known. And if there are no legal administrators to preach the true gospel, to regulate the earthly kingdom, and to perform the saving ordinances, there will be no salvation.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We now come to the least known and least understood thing connected with the Second Coming. It might well be termed the best-kept secret set forth in the revealed word. It is something about which the world knows nothing; it is a doctrine that has scarcely dawned on most of the Latter-day Saints themselves; and yet it is set forth in holy writ and in the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith with substantially the same clarity as any of the doctrines of the kingdom. It behooves us to make a needed brief commentary about it. Before the Lord Jesus descends openly and publicly in the clouds of glory, attended by all the hosts of heaven; before the great and dreadful day of the Lord sends terror and destruction from one end of the earth to the other; before he stands on Mount Zion, or sets his feet on Olivet, or utters his voice from an American Zion or a Jewish Jerusalem; before all flesh shall see him together; before any of his appearances, which taken together comprise the second coming of the Son of God—before all these, there is to be a secret appearance to selected members of his Church. He will come in private to his prophet and to the apostles then living. Those who have held keys and powers and authorities in all ages from Adam to the present will also be present. And further, all the faithful members of the Church then living and all the faithful saints of all the ages past will be present. It will be the greatest congregation of faithful saints ever assembled on planet earth. It will be a sacrament meeting. It will be a day of judgment for the faithful of all the ages. And it will take place in Daviess County, Missouri, at a place called Adam-ondi-Ahman.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Salvation is a family affair … It is written that neither is the man without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord [1 Corinthians 11:11]. In the perfected church family it might also be said that neither are the parents without the children nor the children without the parents in the Lord’s type of family. The true gospel is family centered. Full salvation consists of the continuation of the family unit in celestial glory. Those for whom the family unit continues have eternal life; those for whom it does not continue do not have eternal life, for heaven itself is but the projection of a [righteous] family into eternity That power by which salvation comes is so great that it can make of earth a heaven, and of man, a god. The noblest concept that can enter the heart of man is the concept that the family unit continues in eternity, and that salvation is a family affair.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The holy Bible—as of now—is the most influential book ever written in the entire history of the world. As presently constituted, it contains those portions of the sacred writings of Judaism and of Christianity which have come down to us in relative purity. In its pure and primeval state it was composed of divine revelations and inspired writings. In substance and thought content, the word of the Lord thus written by the apostles and prophets and inspired men of old has been preserved for us by the transcribers and translators through whose hands it has passed. It is thus a divine library, a heaven-sent volume of holy scripture, a voice from the past that contains the mind and will and law of the Lord.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Faith and sacrifice go hand in hand. Those who have faith sacrifice freely for the Lord’s work, and their acts of sacrifice increase their faith. “Let us here observe,” the Prophet continues, “that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life; and it is through the medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Eternal life or exaltation grows out of the continuation of the family unit in eternity. Exalted beings—who shall sit with God on his throne and be as he is—shall go to the highest heaven in the celestial world. Such is the sole and only place where the family unit continues. There they will have eternal increase, meaning spirit children in the resurrection forever and ever. Those who go to all lower kingdoms do not and cannot have such an increase.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon All men are the spirit children of the Eternal Father; all dwelt in his presence, awaiting the day of their mortal probation; all have come or will come to earth at an appointed time, in a specified place, to live among a designated people. In all of this there is no chance. A divine providence rules over the nations and governs in the affairs of men. Birth and death and mortal kinship are the Lord’s doings. He alone determines where and when and among what people his spirit children shall undergo their mortal probation.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Heresy seven: There are those who believe we must be perfect to gain salvation. This is not really a great heresy, only a doctrinal misunderstanding that I mention here in order to help round out our discussion and to turn our attention from negative to positive things. If we keep two principles in mind we will thereby know that good and faithful members of the Church will be saved, even though they are far from perfect in this life. These two principles are (1) that this life is the appointed time for men to prepare to meet God—this life is the day of our probation; and (2) that the same spirit which possesses our bodies at the time we go out of this mortal life shall have power to possess our bodies in that eternal world.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The greatest truth known to man is that there is a God in heaven who is infinite and eternal; that he is the creator, upholder, and preserver of all things; that he created us and the sidereal heavens and ordained and established a plan of salvation whereby we might advance and progress and become like him. The truth pertaining to him is that he is our Father in heaven, that he has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s, that he is a literal person, and that if we believe and obey his laws we can gain the exaltation that he possesses. Now that is the greatest truth and the most glorious concept known to the human mind, and the reverse of it is the greatest heresy in all Christendom.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Suppose there had been no atonement of Christ—what then? The answer is obvious, and it is one to which the Book of Mormon prophets make frequent reference. It is that death would have triumphed; that there would be no victory over the grave; that there would be no resurrection, no immortal souls, no living forever with bodies of flesh and bones. Further, there would be no spiritual life, no eternal life, no return to the presence of God, no glory and honor and exaltation in the kingdom of heaven. And thus the purposes of the Almighty would fail, and if such were the case, he would cease to be God.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon In the ultimate and final sense of the word, the Father is the Creator of all things. That he used the Son and others to perform many of the creative acts, delegating to them his creative powers, does not make these others creators in their own right, independent of him, He is the source of all creative power, and he simply chooses others to act for him in many of his creative enterprises.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon I sometimes think that one of the best-kept secrets of the kingdom is that the scriptures open the door to the receipt of revelation. However talented men may be in administrative matters; however eloquent they may be in expressing their views; however learned they may be in the worldly things-they will be denied the sweet whisperings of the Spirit that might have been theirs unless they pay the price of studying, pondering, and praying about the scriptures.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon To carry forward his own purposes among men and nations, the Lord foreordained chosen spirit children in pre-existence and assigned them to come to earth at particular times and places so that they might aid in furthering the divine will. These pre-existence appointments, made ‘according to the foreknowledge of God the Father’ (1 Pet. 1:2), simply designated certain individuals to perform missions which the Lord in his wisdom knew they had the talents and capacities to do.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Just as those who partake unworthily of the sacrament eat and drink damnation to their souls, so those who are baptized unworthily receive cursings instead of blessings.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The war that began in heaven and has continued on earth will reach its climax during the little season after the Millennium. John says that when Satan is loosed, he “shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” Once again war shall cover the earth; it will be Armageddon all over again. “And they”—the armies assembled in the forces of Lucifer—“went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” (Rev. 20:8-9.) Then Satan was cast out into outer darkness forever.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon When we receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, we enter into a covenant with the Lord. It is the covenant of exaltation. In it, we promise to magnify our callings in the priesthood, to keep the commandments, “to give diligent heed to the words of eternal life,” to “live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God,” and to enter the patriarchal order which leads to a continuation of the family unit in the realms ahead. In return, the Lord covenants and promises that we shall inherit eternal life.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon [Lucifer, also called the Devil, was] a spirit son of God who was born in the morning of pre-existence.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon [Lucifer, also called the Devil, was] a spirit son of God who was born in the morning of pre-existence … obviously he gained for himself great executive and administrative ability and had a sufficiently compelling personality to influence for ill a myriad host of other sprit offspring of the Father. His position was one of great power and authority. He was “an angel of God” who “became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God.” (2 Nephi 2:17)

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Deacons. These brethren hold ordained offices in the Aaronic Priesthood and are “appointed to watch over the church, [and] to be standing ministers unto the church.” (D&C 84:111.) They assist the teachers in all their duties and are “to warn, expound, exhort, and teach, and invite all to come unto Christ.” (D&C 20:59) … In the Aaronic Priesthood there are four ordained offices: deacon, teacher, priest, and bishop. Holders of each of these offices (except patriarchs) are organized into quorums, which are self-governing organizations having their own presiding officers who are appointed to counsel, teach, and guide the destinies of those over whom they preside.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon It is better to be a partial Christian than a non-Christian. It is better to believe some of the doctrines of Christ rather than none at all. One truth paves the way for another, and we all need to advance in knowledge and understanding.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Those natural elements that make up the physical earth are sometimes referred to in the scriptures as dust. Thus Adam was created from the dust of the ground meaning that the physical body which he received was created from the elements of the earth. (Gen. 2:7; Moses 3:7; Abra. 5:7; D&C 77:12.) Similarly all men are created from the dust of the earth; that is, the elements organized into a mortal body are assembled together through the birth process. (Moses 6:69.)

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon God is known only by revelation. God stands revealed or he remains forever unknown.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Nothing in the entire plan of salvation compares in any way in importance with that most transcendent of all events, the atoning sacrifice of our Lord It is the most important single thing that has ever occurred in the entire history of created things it is the rock foundation upon which the gospel and all other things rest.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The atonement of Christ is the most basic and fundamental doctrine of the gospel, and it is the least understood of all our revealed truths Many of us have a superficial knowledge and rely upon the Lord and his goodness to see us through the trials and perils of life But if we are to have faith like that of Enoch and Elijah, we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived May I invite you to join with me in gaining a sound and sure knowledge of the Atonement.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon It is our firm conviction as a people that the stars and stripes will be waving triumphantly in the breeze, as a symbol of the greatness and stability of the United States of America, when the Lord comes. This nation was established to be the Lord’s base of operations in this final gospel dispensation. From it the gospel is to go to every other nation and people. The greater its influence among the nations of the world, the more rapidly the gospel spreads. But the Lord has told us that all nations, the United States included, shall cease to be when he comes.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Those who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” shall come forth in the first resurrection, which is also called the resurrection of life, or the resurrection of the just. It is of them that John wrote: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” (Rev. 14:12-13.) It is of them that Jesus says: “At the day of my coming in a pillar of fire, . . . a trump shall sound both long and loud, even as upon Mount Sinai, and all the earth shall quake, and they shall come forth—yea, even the dead which died in me, to receive a crown of righteousness, and to be clothed upon, even as I am, to be with me, that we may be one.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Whenever the judgments of God are poured out upon men, it is a day of judgment, a day of vengeance, a day when in a very realistic sense the books have been opened, the condemned persons found wanting, and a just punishment meted out to them. Inspired history abounds in illustrations of this type of judgment day. For the entire population of the earth, except those on the ark, the flood of Noah was a day of judgment and destruction … Death itself is an initial day of judgment for all persons, both the righteous and the wicked … Christ’s Second Coming will be a day of judgment for all those then living and for the righteous dead … After all men have been resurrected the day of the great final judgment will come.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The second coming of Christ is the great day of judgment for all men, both the living and the dead. In it those who qualify come forth in the resurrection of the just and obtain their rewards in the kingdoms established for them. At that time the decree goes forth that the rest of the dead shall remain in their graves to await the resurrection of the unjust and their consequent telestial inheritance. At that time the wicked among men are consumed as stubble, their bodies become dust again, and their spirits are consigned to an eternal hell to await the day of the resurrection of damnation. At that time those mortals who are worthy escape the burning, abide the day, and remain on the new earth with its new heavens in the presence of earth’s new King.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Ancient Israel was a nation, a kingdom, and a church all wrapped in one. Moses in his day was the prophet, seer, and revelator; Aaron was the presiding bishop; the twelve princes of Israel, one heading each of the tribes, held an equivalent status to that of the Twelve whom Jesus chose; and the seventy elders, who with Moses and Aaron saw the Lord, were what we would call the First Quorum of the Seventy. There were elders and judges bishops) and other officers, presiding, as circumstances warranted, over tens and fifties and hundreds and thousands. Israel operated as a theocracy, as a congregation of the Lord’s people, as a church.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Dead works are those unauthorized religious acts which men do in the false hope of gaining salvation through their performance. They are works without life, works which never gain the ratifying seal of approval from the Spirit and which do not lead to eternal life. They are not of God. All apostate ordinances and performances are of this sort. After the law given to Moses was fulfilled in Christ, every ordinance or ritual imitative of what legal administrators had done in righteousness when the law was in force became a dead work. Ordinances—such as baptism (though it may imitate the true mode, immersion)—are dead works when performed by sectarian churches. (D&C 22). Believing in and relying on infant baptism is “putting trust in dead works.” (Moro. 8:23). The religious performances of those outside the true Church of Christ are dead works, from which they are commanded to repent. (Heb. 6:1; 9:14).

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The three greatest events that ever have occurred or ever will occur in all eternity are these: 1. The Creation of the heavens and the earth, of man, and of all forms of life; 2. The Fall of man, of all forms of life, and of the earth itself from their primeval and paradisiacal state to there present mortal state; and 3. The infinite and eternal Atonement, which ransoms man, all living things, and the earth also from their fallen state so that the salvation of the earth and of all living things may be completed. These three divine events—the pillars of eternity—are inseparably woven together into one grand tapestry known as the eternal plan of salvation … The Father’s eternal plan called for the creation, for the fall, and for the atonement, all woven together into one united whole.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who so devote themselves to righteousness that they receive the higher ordinances of exaltation become members of the Church of the Firstborn. Baptism is the gate to the Church itself, but celestial marriage is the gate to membership in the Church of the Firstborn, the inner circle of faithful saints who are heirs of exaltation and the fulness of the Father’s kingdom.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon After the Millennium plus a little season—perhaps itself another thousand years—during which men turn again to wickedness, then cometh the end, not of the world, which occurred at the Second Coming, but the end of earth. Then the final battle against Gog and Magog, the battle of the Great God, will be fought. Michael will lead the armies of heaven and Lucifer the legions of hell.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Truly it [the salvation of little children] is one of the sweetest and most soul-satisfying doctrines of the gospel! It is also one of the greatest evidences of the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In his day the fiery evangelists of Christendom were thundering from their pulpits that the road to hell is paved with the skulls of infants not a span long because careless parents had neglected to have their offspring baptized. Joseph Smith’s statements, as recorded in the Book of Mormon and latter-day revelation, came as a refreshing breeze of pure truth: little children shall be saved. Thanks be to God for the revelations of his mind where these innocent and pure souls are concerned.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon There are degrees of belief, degrees of salvation, and degrees of damnation. To believe all the saving truths of the gospel is to gain full salvation; it is to become a son or daughter of God who inherits exaltation and rules and reigns forever in the highest heaven. To reject and oppose all divine truth, in the complete sense, is to gain full damnation; it is to become a son of perdition who dwells with Lucifer in hell forever. In between the glorious height of eternal life in God’s kingdom and the abysmal depth of eternal damnation in the kingdom of the devil, there are many degrees of salvation. The one each person obtains depends upon how much of the truth he chooses to believe and obey.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The gospel, the priesthood, and the church are everlasting, eternal, unending. They have and do and will exist in all worlds, in all ages, everlastingly. Like God himself, they are without beginning and without end. As to the gospel, it is the gospel of the galaxies; it is the everlasting gospel; it is the eternal plan of salvation. As to the priesthood, it has existed with God from all eternity; it is the very power of God; by it the worlds were made and souls are saved. As to the church, it is the Lord’s organized system of administration; it has existed in all dispensations; it is organized in heaven above and on the earth beneath.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Zion is people; Zion is the saints of God; Zion is those who have been baptized; Zion is those who have received the Holy Ghost; Zion is those who keep the commandments; Zion is the righteous; or in other words, as our revelation recites: “This is Zion—the pure in heart.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon However talented men may be in administrative matters; however eloquent they may be in expressing their views; however learned they may be in worldly things—they will be denied the sweet whisperings of the Spirit that might have been theirs unless they pay the price of studying, pondering, and praying about the scriptures.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Abraham stands in the same position as Noah for all who have lived since his day, as far as eternal blessings are concerned … He was promised the land of Canaan as an everlasting inheritance for him and for his seed. “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” (Genesis 13:16.) This has reference to eternal increase, for no man’s seed could exceed in number the dust particles of the earth. “Look now toward heaven,” the Lord said, “and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” And Abraham “believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 15:5-6.) All these things are part of the Abrahamic covenant.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon During the Millennium there will be both mortal and immortal people on earth. Those who are receiving their temporal bodies for the first time, and who are marrying and begetting children, will be living lives comparable to ours, except they will not be subject to disease and death … Those who are mortals—who have the paradisiacal type of mortality that will then exist—shall be changed to immortality in the twinkling of an eye when they become a hundred years old.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We have the fulness of the everlasting gospel, meaning that we have all that is needed to gain the fulness of salvation. We have every truth, doctrine, and principle, every rite, power, and ordinance—all that is needed—to gain exaltation in the highest heaven of the celestial world … Although salvation may be defined in many ways to mean many things, in its most pure and perfect definition it is a synonym for exaltation.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Heresy one: There are those who say that God is progressing in knowledge and is learning new truths. This is false—utterly, totally, and completely. There is not one sliver of truth in it. It grows out of a wholly twisted and incorrect view of the King Follett Sermon and of what is meant by eternal progression. God progresses in the sense that his kingdoms increase and his dominions multiply—not in the sense that he learns new truths and discovers new laws. God is not a student. He is not a laboratory technician. He is not postulating new theories on the basis of past experiences. He has indeed graduated to that state of exaltation that consists of knowing all things and having all power.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “The greatest truth known to man is that there is a God in heaven who is infinite and eternal, that he is our Father in heaven, that he has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s, that he is a literal person, and that if we believe and obey his laws we can gain the exaltation that he possesses. Now that is the greatest truth and the most glorious concept known to the human mind and the reverse of it is the greatest heresy in Christendom.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The summer patriot and the sunshine saint retreat when the battle wages fiercely around them. Theirs is not the conqueror’s crown. They are overcome by the world.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon To be turned over to the buffetings of Satan is to be given into his hands; it is to be turned over to him with all the protective power of the priesthood, of righteousness and of godliness removed, so that Lucifer is free to torment, persecute, and afflict such a person without let or hindrance. When the bars are down, the cuffs and curses of Satan, both in this world and in the world to come, bring indescribable anguish typified by burning fire and brimstone. The damned in hell so suffer.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We were on probation; we were schooled and tested and examined; we were given the laws and the circumstances so that we could progress ad advance.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon In a passage of great spiritual insight, the Nephite Jacob says: “For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection.” Both death and the resurrection are essential parts of the eternal plan; without either, there would be no purpose in life.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon To bring to pass the salvation of the greatest possible number of his spirit children, the Lord, in general sends the most righteous and worthy spirits to earth through the lineage of Abraham and Jacob. This course is a manifestation of his grace or in other words his love, mercy, and condescension toward his children. This election to a chosen lineage is based on pre-existent worthiness and is thus made “according to the foreknowledge of God.” (1 Pet. 1:2). Those so grouped together during their mortal probation have more abundant opportunities to make and keep their covenants of salvation, a right which they earned by preexistent devotion to the cause of righteousness.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon To us, the central thing in the plan of salvation is the atoning sacrifice of Christ. The blessings of the creation and the fall have passed upon all mankind. Those who kept their first estate earned the right to a mortal probation. But only those who believe and obey will gain the full blessings of the atonement. Accordingly, we speak of the gospel of Jesus Christ—he adopted his Father’s plan—to center our attention everlastingly in the One by whom salvation comes.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Alpha and Omega. These words, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, are used figuratively to teach the timelessness and eternal nature of our Lord’s existence, that is, that “from eternity to eternity he is the same, and his years never fail’’ (D&C 76:4).

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Telestial law is the law of evil, carnality, and corruption. Those who so live develop telestial bodies, which can stand telestial glory, which is found in a telestial kingdom. Terrestrial law is the law of decency and uprightness from a worldly standpoint. Those who conform to this higher order thereby create for themselves terrestrial bodies, which in turn can stand terrestrial glory and go to a terrestrial kingdom.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We know when Christ will come in the clouds of glory, attended by angelic hosts, to be with men on earth again—not the day or the hour, or even the month or the year, but we do know the generation … We know that when he comes again, he will take vengeance on the wicked and ungodly and usher in the year of his redeemed ... We know that when he comes the vineyard shall be burned; the wicked shall be as stubble, for they that come shall burn them up; and every corruptible thing, both of men and of beasts and of fowls, shall be consumed.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The fall of Adam brought temporal and spiritual death into the world. Temporal death is the natural death; it occurs when body and spirit separate, thus leaving the body to return to the dust whence it came. Spiritual death is to be cast out of the presence of the Lord and to die as pertaining to the things of righteousness. Adam died spiritually when he was cast out of the … garden … Adam died temporal when his spirit separated from his mortal body.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon The Book of Mormon is the foundation upon which the house of the restoration is built. Take it away and there is no restoration, no true church and kingdom of God on earth, no plan of salvation, no power and authority whereby man may be saved and exalted.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Under the Father, Christ is the Creator of this earth, of worlds without number, of all things.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Death itself is an initial day of judgment for all persons, both the righteous and the wicked. When the spirit leaves the body at death, it is taken home to that God who gave it life, meaning that it returns to live in the realm of spiritual existence. (Eccles. 12:7). At that time the spirit undergoes a partial judgment and is assigned an inheritance in paradise or in hell to await the day of the first or second resurrection.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Resurrection of the unjust—Resurrection of damnation, the second resurrection … At the end of the millennium, and in the morning of this second resurrection, those shall come forth who merit telestial bodies, and they shall be rewarded accordingly. Finally, in the afternoon of the second resurrection, those who “remain filthy still,” those who having been raised in immortality are judged and found wholly wanting, those whom we call sons of perdition, shall be cast out with Lucifer and his angels.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “Knowledge Precedes Faith. Which comes first, faith or knowledge? Answers: Faith is the child of knowledge. It is reserved for those who first have knowledge…and no one can have faith in God or in any gospel truth unless and until he comes to a knowledge of whatever truth is involved.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Now what does it mean to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus? It is to be courageous and bold; to use all our strength, energy, and ability in the warfare with the world; to fight the good fight of faith.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “Administrative affairs of the Church are handled in accordance with the law of common consent.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “Proper modern usage of terms conforms to this pattern: Priesthood is conferred upon an individual; he is ordained to an office in the priesthood; and he is set apart to a position of presidency or administration.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon I sometimes think that one of the best kept secrets of the kingdom is that the scriptures open the door to the receipt of revelation.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Doctrine of the priesthood--unknown in the world and but little known even in the Church--cannot be learned out of the scriptures alone....The doctrine of the priesthood is known only by personal revelation. It comes, line upon line and precept upon precept, by the power of the Holy Ghost to those who love and serve God with all their heart, might, mind, and strength.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “And thou”—ye Nephites, saith the Lord—”shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.” Where else in all history are there two better examples of peoples who were brought down and utterly destroyed than the Jaredites and Nephites? And whose voices, being stilled in death, yet speak from their graves for all to hear? Does not their united voice have a familiar spirit? Is it not whispering out of the ground the same prophetic message that is now and always has been the burden of the living prophets? Does not the Book of Mormon proclaim a familiar message, one already written in the Bible?

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Heresy three: There are those who say that temple marriage assures us of an eventual exaltation. Some have supposed that couples married in the temple who commit all manner of sin, and who then pay the penalty, will gain their exaltation eventually.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Obedience is the first law of heaven, the cornerstone upon which all righteousness and progression rest.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon We know the terms and conditions of the plan of salvation—how Christ died for our sins and what we must do to reap the full blessings of his atoning sacrifice.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them. The story of the rib, of course, is figurative.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon 2nd Zion is a People “Zion is the name given by the Lord to his saints.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon I do not know all of the providences of the Lord, but I do know that he permits false doctrine to be taught in and out of the Church and that such teaching is part of the sifting process of mortality.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon [Lucifer, also called the Devil, was] a spirit son of God who was born in the morning of pre-existence … obviously he gained for himself great executive and administrative ability and had a sufficiently compelling personality to influence for ill a myriad host of other spirit offspring of the Father. His position was one of great power and authority. He was “an angel of God” who “became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God.” (2 Nephi 2:17),

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:15–16.) The summer patriot and the sunshine saint retreat when the battle wages fiercely around them. Theirs is not the conqueror’s crown. They are overcome by the world.

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon “This first and chief heresy of a now fallen and decadent Christianity—and truly it is the father of all heresies—swept through all of the congregations of true believers in the early centuries of the Christian Era; it pertained then and it pertains now to the nature and kind of being that God is … This new God, no longer a personal Father, no longer a personage of tabernacle, became an incomprehensible three-in-one spirit essence that filled the immensity of space. The adoption of this false doctrine about God effectively destroyed the true worship among men and ushered in the age of universal apostasy.”

- Bruce R. McConkie

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quote icon Calling and Election Made Sure Bruce R. McConkie “ If we die in the faith, that is the same thing as saying that our calling and election has been made sure and that we will go on to eternal reward hereafter. As far as faithful members of the church are concerned, they have charted a course leading to eternal life. This life is the time that is appointed as a probationary estate for men to prepare to meet God, and as far as faithful people are concerned, if they are in line of their duty, if they are doing what they ought to do, although they may not have been perfect in this sphere, their probation is ended. Now there will be some probation for some other people hereafter. But for the faithful Saints of God, now is the time and the day, and their probation is ended with their death, and they will not thereafter depart from the path. It is true as the Prophet Joseph Smith said, that there are many things that have to be done "even beyond the grave" to work out our salvation, but we'll stay in the course and we will not alter from it, if we have been true and faithful in this life. “ (T. 342-363; Bruce R. McConkie at S. Dilworth Young's funeral)

- Bruce R. McConkie

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