As We Are Still Enjoying The Afterglow Of Easter...

As we are still enjoying the afterglow of Easter, the emphasis throughout this great conference has been on the divinity of Christ. From the profound and scholarly opening address of President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Saturday morning, through all the sessions of the conference, all have borne witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I cannot hope to add anything to what has been said unless, perhaps, emphasis by repetition. ¶

Little is known of the details of the Master's sojourn on the earth except during those three transcendent years of his ministry, the most eventful years of history. If we are to get a proper concept of the moral and spiritual significance and splendor of his unique life — from Bethlehem to Bethany — we must view it in the light of eternity. He lived his life on this earth at the summit of time, and on the high point of that summit we see the light of the resurrection, the most glorious beacon in the universe, flashing hope and courage to a benighted world. Let us from that eminence look back — back beyond Eden, and there we shall find that Jesus the Christ was with God the Father in the beginning. ¶

And that beginning must have antedated the beginning of which we read in Genesis when the earth was created, for the obvious reason that he was its Creator. Yes, he lived before time began as we understand time. There is ample scriptural evidence to support the belief that Christ had a pre-mortal existence. Time will not permit quoting or reading many of the passages of scripture, but I should like to refer to one or two. ¶

John, in his inspired preface, said: ¶

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ¶

"The same was in the beginning with God. ¶

"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. . . . ¶

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." ¶

(John 1:1-3, 14.) To this wonderful testimony Paul adds this corroboration "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: ¶

"And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (Colossians 1:16-17.) And the writer of Hebrews adds: ¶

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. ¶

"Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made worlds:" (Hebrews 1:1-2.) Jesus himself referred to his preexistence many times; for instance he said: ¶

"For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." (John 6:38.) And then in that greatest of all prayers we find the poignant passage: ¶

"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." ¶

(Ibid., 17:5.) At another time he chidingly spoke to his uncomprehending followers and said: ¶

". . . Doth this offend you? ¶

"What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" ¶

(Ibid., 6:61-62.) These proofs of Christ's pre-existence confirm our faith in the immortality of the soul for if the spirit had an existence before the body was created, so that spirit is capable of independent existence after the body dies. ¶

The fact that he came forth from the tomb with spirit and body reunited — and this is the central fact in the teachings of the apostles — gives divine assurance that we too, through his atoning sacrifice, shall partake of the blessings of the resurrection. Hearken to his promise: ¶

"... I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: ¶

"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. . . ." (Ibid., 11:2526.) And let us read together the words of John, written while he was on the Isle of Patmos, as recorded in Revelation, "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: . . ." (Revelation 1:7.) "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: ¶

"I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, . . ." (Idem, 17-18.) John continues "And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: ... ¶

"And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." ¶

(Ibid., 19:1, 16.) Furthermore: ¶

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. ¶

"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. . . . ¶

"And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end " (Ibid., 21:2, 6.) Zechariah said that when the Master shall appear he will stand on the Mount of Olives, and the mount shall be cleft in twain, and they beholding the wounds in his hands shall ask whence these wounds, and he shall reply, ". . . Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." (Zechariah 13:6.) "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south." (Ibid., 14:4.) We proclaim the pre-existence and divine nature of Christ, the purpose of his life, the reality of his resurrection and the certainty of his second coming as eternal and well-attested truths and prophetic promises. They have illuminating and inspiring significance for our troubled world. They are our heritage from the Judeo-Christian world, clarified and amplified by modern revelation. ¶

They are relevant to our time and age, which, as Adlai Stevenson recently pointed out, "is a time of conflict of ideology, as a time of ferment in technology, a period of revolution in science, ... an era when at last the means lie at hand to free mankind from the ancient shackles of pain and hunger. ¶

It is all these things, but the true crisis of our times lies at a deeper level. All this freedom and elbow room only thrusts onto us with more force the fundamental issue of the faith that is in us." ¶

As the late A. Powell Davies said: ¶

"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but brotherhood." ¶

There must be a re-affirmation of the truths concerning the fatherhood of God, the Godhood of Christ, and the brotherhood of man. Truths for which the Savior gave his life. Truth and brotherhood, love of God and fellow men, will make men free and establish peace in a world which is threatened with a devastating and final war. ¶

The truculent and blasphemous attempts of communist ideologies to erase Christ from their literature and to expunge all memory of him from the hearts and minds of men, in order to degrade and enslave men, must fail, for as God made man in his own image, so his image is indelibly stamped on the souls of men, and instinctively they know that they are the sons of God. ¶

The challenge of evil with its inevitable confusion tends to make the relevance of Christ's life and message more apparent and the application of his divine teachings more urgent. ¶

It would be cowardly almost to the point of treason to dilute, water down, and make insipid the soul-saving power of these glorious truths. Indeed, as Paul said: ¶

"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, . . . ¶

"And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:10-11.) We humbly but fearlessly add to the testimonies of the prophets and apostles of old our own witness that he lives, that he is a personal being, that he will come again with his resurrected, glorified body still bearing the marks of the crucifixion and that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, to which I testify in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶