Excerpts from LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie’s Address, given at BYU Devotional, March 2nd , 1982, titled, “Our Relationship with the Lord“.
(This entire address may be ordered from BYU under the date and this title, or from the Utah Lighthouse Ministries, www.utlm.org.)
“I shall speak of our relationship with the Lord … I shall set forth what we must believe relative to the Father and the Son in order to gain eternal life.
I shall expound the doctrine of the Church relative to what our relationship should be to all members of the Godhead, and do so in plainness and simplicity so that none need misunderstand or to be lead astray by other voices.
I shall express the views of the Brethern, of the prophets and apostles of old, and all those who understand the scriptures and are in tune with the Holy Spirit… I shall… stay with matters of substance. I shall simply go back to basics and set forth fundamental doctrines of the kingdom, knowing that everyone who is sound spiritually and who has the guidance of the Holy Spirit will believe my words and follow my counsel…
Now, it is no secret that many false and vain and foolish things are being taught in the sectarian world and even among us about our need to gain a special relationship with the Lord Jesus. I shall summarize the true doctrine in this field and invite erring teachers and beguiled students to repent and believe the accepted gospel verities as I shall set them forth.
There is no salvation in believing any false doctrine, particularly a false or unwise view about the Godhead or any of its members. Eternal life is reserved for those who know God and the One he sent to work out the infinite and eternal atonement…
It follows that devil would rather spread false doctrine about God and Godhead, and induce false feelings with reference to any one of them, than almost any other thing he would do. The creeds of Christendom illustrate perfectly what Lucifer wants so-called Christian people to believe about Deity in order to be damned.
These creeds codify what Jeremiah calls the lies about God. They say that he is unknown, uncreated, and incomprehensible. They say he is a spirit… they say he is everywhere…that he fills the immensity of space and yet dwells in the hearts of men… They say he is one-god-in-three…
These concepts summarize the chief and greatest heresy of Christendom. Truly the most grevious and evil heresy ever imposed on an erring and wayward Christianity is their creedal concept about God and Godhead. But none of this troubles us very much. God has revealed himself to us in this day as he did to the prophets of old…
We know that he has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; that he is resurrected, glorified, and perfected being; and that he lives in a family unit. We know that we are his spirit children… and that he ordained the laws whereby we might advance and progress and become like him…
Let us set forth those doctrines and concepts that a gracious God has given us in this day and which must be understood in order to gain eternal life. … We worship the Father and him only and no one else. We do not worship the Son and we do not
worship the Holy Ghost… All of us, Christ included, are the spirit children of the Father; all of us, Christ included, seek to become like the Father. In this sense the Firstborn, our Elder Brother, goes forward as we do. The plan of salvation is the gospel of the Father. … he ordained the laws by obedience to which both we and Christ can become like him.
The Father…ask[ed] whom he should send to be the Redeemer in the plan he devised. Christ and Lucifer both volunteered and the Lord chose his Firstborn and rejected the amendatory offer of the Son of the Morning…
Christ worked out his own salvation by worshipping the Father.
… [Christ] while yet a spirit being, had gained power and intelligence that made him like unto God… after he left his preexistent glory as we all do at birth; after he was born of Mary in Bethlehem of Judea— after all this he was called upon to work out his own salvation… Note it please, the Lord Jesus worked out his own salvation while in this mortal probation…until, having overcome the world and being raised
in immortal glory, he became like the Father in the full, complete, and eternal sense… Our relationship with the Father is supreme, paramount, and pre-eminent above all others. He is the God we worship… He is the one who was once as we are now… Our relationship with the Father is one of parent and child…It was his plan that provided for a fall and an atonement…
Our relationship with the Son is one of brother or sister in the pre-mortal life…
There are [those] who…in an effort to be truer than true they devote themselves to gaining a special, personal relationship with Christ that is both improper and perilous…
Another peril is that those so involved often begin to pray directly to Christ because some special friendship they feel has been developed. In this connection a current and unwise book (book by BYU professor George Pace), which advocates gaining a special relationship with Jesus, contains this sentence—quote: ‘Because the Savior is our mediator, our prayers go through Christ to the Father…’ Unquote.
This is plain sectarian nonsense. Our prayers are addressed to the Father, and to him only. They do not go through Christ…
Now I know that some may be offended at the counsel that they should not strive for a special and personal relationship with Christ.
…the very moment anyone singles out one member of the Godhead…that is the moment when spiritual instability begins to replace sense and reason.
The proper course for all of us is to stay in the mainstream of the Church…practice of the Church constitutes the interpretation of the scripture.
And you have never heard one of the First Presidency or the Twelve, who hold the keys of the kingdom… you have never heard one of them advocate this excessive zeal that calls for gaining a so-called special and personal relationship with Christ.
…never, never at any time have they taught or endorsed the inordinate and intemperate zeal that encourages endless, sometime day-long prayers, in order to gain a personal relationship with the Savior…
I am well aware that some who have prayed for endless hours feel that they have a special and personal relationship with Christ that they never had before.
I wonder if this is any or much different, however, from the feelings of fanatical sectarians who with glassy eyes and fiery tongues assure us that they have been saved by grace…when in fact they have never received the fullness of the gospel.
I wonder if it is not part of Lucifer’s system to make people feel that they are special friends of Jesus when in fact they are not following the normal and usual pattern of worship found in the true Church… Let me remind you to stay in the course charted by the Church. It is the Lord’s Church, and he will not permit it to be led astray. If we take the counsel that comes from the prophets and seers we will pursue the course that is pleasing to the Lord…
Now I sincerely hope that no one will imagine that I have in the slightest degree downgraded the Lord Jesus…I have not done so. As far as I know there is not a man on earth who thinks more highly of him than I do…I have preached more sermons, taught more doctrine and written more words about the Lord Jesus Christ than any man now living. I have ten volumes in print, seven which deal almost entirely with Christ, and the other three with him and his doctrines.
… you have been warned, and you have heard the true doctrine taught. Those who need to study the matter further would do well to get and study a copy of what I have said when it is published by the Brigham Young University…
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”