President Gordon B. Hinckley: 'Deeply grateful'
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In his 49 years as a General Authority, said President Gordon B. Hinckley, he has spoken well over 200 times in general conference.
On Sunday morning, in his 97th year, the Church president once again stepped to the pulpit, declaring his health to be "quite good, despite all rumors to the contrary," but "with my age in mind, I wish to give you my testimony of the basic truths of this work."
President Hinckley then proceeded to expound on five truths of which he declared he is certain.
First, he bore testimony of the nature of Deity. He spoke of the Nicene Creed, a compromise reached in the year A.D. 325 by the clergy of the day concerning the nature of Deity. Its basic elements are still recited by most of the Christian faithful. "Personally, I cannot understand it. To me the creed is confusing.
"How deeply grateful I am that we of this Church do not rely on any man-made statement concerning the nature of Deity. Our knowledge comes directly from the personal experience of Joseph Smith, who, while yet a boy, spoke with God the Eternal Father and His Beloved Son, the Risen Lord. He knelt in Their presence; he heard Their voices; and he responded. Each was a distinct personality."
One of the great overarching doctrines of the Church, President Hinckley said, "is our belief in God the Eternal Father. He is a being, real and individual. He is the great Governor of the universe, yet, He is our Father, and we are His children. We pray to Him, and those prayers are a conversation between God and man. I am confident that He hears our prayers and answers them. I could not deny that. I have had too many experiences of answered prayers."
President Hinckley's "second great certitude" has its foundation in the vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith. "It is that Jesus lives. He is the Living Christ. He is the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Messiah of the New. Under His Father's direction, He was the Creator of the earth."
During His mortal ministry, "He healed the sick, caused the blind to see, raised the dead, and rebuked the scribes and Pharisees. He was the only perfect man ever to walk the earth. All of this was part of His Father's plan. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He suffered so greatly that He sweat drops of blood as He pleaded with His Father. But this was all a part of His great atoning sacrifice. He was taken by the mob, appeared before Pilate with the mob crying for His death. He carried the cross, the instrument of His death. On Golgotha He gave His life, crying out, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34)."
His body was laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and, three days later, "on that first Easter morning, the tomb was emptied," President Hinckley related. He appeared to Mary of Magdala, His apostles and others. He appeared in the land Bountiful in the Western Hemisphere. "This is all recorded in detail in the Book of Mormon, which stands as a second witness of the divinity of our Lord."
Third, President Hinckley spoke and bore testimony of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Without it life is meaningless. It is the keystone in the arch of our existence. It affirms that we lived before were born in mortality. Mortality is but a stepping stone to a more glorious existence in the future. The sorrow of death is softened with the promise of the Resurrection. There would be no Christmas if there were no Easter.
"I speak next of the great certitudes that have come with the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is the restoration of the priesthood, or the authority given man to speak in the name of God. This priesthood is of two orders: the lesser, also known as the Aaronic, was restored under the hands of John the Baptist. The higher order of priesthood, the Melchizedek, was restored under the hands of Peter, James, and John."
President Hinckley quoted President Wilford Woodruff who, speaking to the young men of the Church, said: "I desire to impress upon you the fact that it does not make any difference whether a man is a Priest or an Apostle, if he magnifies his calling. A Priest holds the keys of the ministering of angels. Never in my life as an Apostle, as a Seventy, or as an Elder, have I ever had more of the protection of the Lord than while holding the office of a Priest." (Quoted by President Hinckley from Wilford Woodruff, Collected Discourses 1886-1898, 10 Aug. 1891, v. 2.)
President Hinckley continued: "The Melchizedek or Higher Priesthood empowers men to lay their hands upon the heads of others and give blessings. They bless the sick. As James declared in the New Testament: 'Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord' (James 5:14).
"Now finally," the Church president said, "I mention the blessings of the house of the Lord, which have come of the restoration of the ancient gospel. These temples, which we have greatly multiplied in recent years, offer blessings that are had nowhere else. All that occurs in these sacred houses has to do with the eternal nature of man. Here, husbands and wives and children are sealed together as families for all eternity. Marriage is not 'until death do ye part.' It is forever, if the parties live worthy of the blessing. Most remarkable of all is the authority to do vicarious work in the house of the Lord. Here, ordinances are performed in behalf of the dead, who did not have opportunity to receive them while in life."
Continuing, President Hinckley related the account of a woman in Idaho Falls, Idaho, a widow, who, over a period of 15 years, acted as proxy in giving the temple endowment to 20,000 individuals in the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple. "She completed her 20,000th endowment on a Friday and returned on Saturday to do five more. She passed away the following week."
He noted that this "one little woman" performed vicarious endowments for as many people as were assembled in the Conference Center. "Think of the reception she must have received on the other side."
In his concluding remarks in his Sunday morning address, President Hinckley declared: "God bless you, every one, you faithful Latter-day Saints."
