President Hugh B. Brown

First Counselor in the First Presidency

Many of the speakers during this conference have referred to the celebration of Easter and the resurrection of the Lord. Yesterday the President of the Church preached a powerful sermon on the fact of the resurrection of Christ. This morning we join with millions of people throughout the world in celebrating Easter in commemoration of this miraculous event This is a time when we should re examine and reaffirm our faith and rededicate our lives to Christ's service.

The scriptures testify of Him

His birth into mortality and the details of his death and resurrection are well-attested facts of history. In addition to the New Testament story of these miraculous events, the scriptures, both old and new, abound with inspired predictions concerning his second coming.

Let us examine the basis of our faith as it is to be found in the Holy Bible and other sacred records and attempt to evaluate and coordinate the antemortal, the mortal, and the postmortal life of this transcendent personage.

The Apostle John tells us that the Word-which he identifies as the Savior-was with God in the beginning. This is a precise and unambiguous declaration, not only that he was with God in the beginning, but that he himself was invested with the powers and rank of godship and that he came into the world and dwelt among men. He was the Creator of all that is.

At another time he chidingly spoke to his uncomprehending followers and said: "Doth this offend you?

These and other proofs of Christ's preexistence confirm our faith that all men had a spiritual existence before mortal birth and that the souls of all men are immortal. Obviously, if the spirit had an existence before the body was created, that spirit is capable of independent existence after the body dies.

Assurance of the resurrection

This gives divine assurance that we too, through his atoning sacrifice, shall partake of the blessings of the resurrection. Hearken to his promise when he said,

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

Though some deny, we affirm His divinity

In these times of uncertainty, conflict, chaos, and confusion, where there is unprovoked aggression, attempted subjugation, and enslavement, when people are being denied their freedom and their liberties, and especially when whole nations of men, including some of the clergy, pride themselves on their atheism, deny the existence of God, speak of Christ as a myth and of religion as an opiate, when increasing numbers of men are declaring that God is dead and others are asking whether he in fact ever lived-in times like these we must reexamine and reemphasize our faith in Jesus the Christ the Son of God, and conform our lives to his teachings and emulate his matchless example.

Indicative of the lack of faith, the confused and muddled thinking, and the dangerous teachings of some religious leaders, I quote from the February 22, 1966, issue of Look magazine (pp. 25-29):

"Last September, the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of California left on sabbatical for Cambridge University in England `to find out what I really do believe.' . . .

"What he believes is hardly typical of a bishop. `I've jettisoned the Trinity the Virgin Birth and the Incarnation,' he told Look in his Cambridge flat recently. . . .

"The inquiry has inevitably led the Bishop to the enigma of Christ Himself. He sees Him not as Jesus among the lilies in a stained-glass window but as a country carpenter turned itinerant preacher for three powerful years. . . .

"Cambridge University, where [the] Bishop . . . is staying, is the womb of what has been proclaimed-and condemned-as the 'new theology.' . . . Its innovators, mainly Cambridge dons are reacting to a society throttled by secularism. Only ten percent of the English attend church. . . .

"The old theology starts with the divinity of Christ and tries to explain how God became man. The new theology starts with the only indisputable fact-that Christ was man-and tries to show how God acted through Him uniquely.'"

We reaffirm our faith in the Bible as the word of God. We believe in its teachings, its doctrines, its definitions and its revelations of an omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient God. The fact that man was created in his image confirms our faith that he is a living and personal God. He is our Eternal Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, and the promised Messiah.

We proclaim the preexistence and divine nature of Jesus the Christ, the purpose of his earth life, the reality of his resurrection and ascension, 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. This is an age of conflict of ideology, a time of ferment in technology, a period of startling and revolutionary progress in science-an era when at last the means lie at hand to free mankind from the ancient shackles of pain and hunger, fear and war. But the true crisis of our times lies at a deeper level. All this freedom and so-called elbowroom only thrusts upon us with additional force the fundamental issues of our faith.

The Fatherhood of God, Godhood of Christ, Brotherhood of Man, we affirm

There must be a reaffirmation of the truths concerning the fatherhood of God, the godhood of Christ, and the brotherhood of man-truths for which the Savior lived and died. Brotherhood-love of God and fellowmen-will make men free and establish peace in a world that is threatened with a devastating and final war.

The truculent and blasphemous attempts of the Communists to erase Christ from their literature and to expunge all memory of him from the hearts and minds of men must fail for as God made man in his own image, so his image is indelibly stamped upon the souls of men, and instinctively they know that they are the immortal sons of God, predestined to be free. This inborn conviction accounts for the courageous and undiscourageable resiliency of many persecuted people.

The challenge of evil leading inevitably to chaos, confusion, and defeat tends to make the relevance of Christ's life and message more apparent, the application of his divine teachings more urgent, and eventual victory beyond question.

As Paul said, the time would come when "every knee should bow . . .

Prophecy and history testify

A comprehensive knowledge of prophecy (which is but history foretold) and of history (which is often prophecy fulfilled) confirms the fact that God lives. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible contains the continuing story of God's dealings with his universal family, his begotten children.

The United States of America and her allies have been forced to take up arms in defense of liberty and freedom. The scriptures, both ancient and modern, justify defending the liberties and freedom of ourselves and our weaker neighbors.

The various presidents of the United States, regardless of party, have declared that we have no desire for territorial gain or acquisition nor the subjugation of weaker nations. We stand for freedom and liberty for all, together with the right of untrammeled self-determination-all in the interest of permanent world peace.

The President of the United States recently restated and underlined this policy and disclaimed any intent on the part of the United States to gain empire, bases, or dominion. This is in strict harmony with the word of God given to ancient prophets, some of whom were kings, generals, and leaders of armies.

"Therefore, . . . let us resist evil, and whatsoever evil we cannot resist with our words, yea, such as rebellions and dissensions, let us resist them with our swords, that we may retain our freedom, that we may rejoice in . . . the cause of our Redeemer and our God."

Universality of God's care

The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches the universality of God's concern for men and that obedience is a universal and fundamental law of progress, both temporal and spiritual. The aristocracy of righteousness is the only aristocracy that God recognizes. This leaves no room for self-righteous expressions in words or actions of being "holier than thou." There is a real unity in the human race, and all men have a right to equal consideration as human beings, regardless of their race, creed, or color.

For any church, country, nation, or other group to believe that it is the only people in whom God is interested or that it has special merit because of color, race, or belief, that they are inherently superior and loved by God without regard to the lives they live, is not only a great and dangerous fallacy but is a continuing barrier to peace. This is demoralizing, whether it is the exploded and presumptuous myth of an Aryan race of supermen or disguised in more subtle forms. Let us steadfastly avoid such demoralizing arrogance.

The most important problem facing us in working out a long-range program for peace is a tolerant and sympathetic understanding between races and creeds. As Thomas Bracken wrote:

"O God, that men would see a little clearer,

Or judge less harshly where they cannot see!

O God, that men would draw a little nearer

To one another! They'd be nearer Thee,

And understood."

("Not Understood. We Move Along Asunder," Latter-day Saint Hymns [1927], No. 352.)

We have fought two world wars and numerous other engagements to secure freedom and self-determination for ourselves and others, and yet we know the same old satanic forces are at work to destroy the peace and prosperity of the human family. We cannot have peace in the world until we have tolerance and understanding. The happiness we seek can only be found in righteousness, for wickedness never was happiness. There is no legerdemain method of getting blessings.

Christ will come again

Having briefly considered then his preexistence, his mortal birth, his transcendent ministry, his crucifixion and miraculous resurrection and ascension, let us look to the future: is his work finished or is he still active and interested in the affairs of men? will he appear again on this earth?

The scriptures are replete with predictions and warnings concerning this event, but time will permit us to refer to but few of them.

Luke tells us that great events shall precede his coming: "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

"Men's hearts [shall fail them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

And the Apostle Paul tells us in Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. . . ."

We humbly repeat what we often sing: "I know that my Redeemer lives! He lives, all glory to his name! He lives, my Savior still the same; O sweet the joy this sentence gives: `I know that my Redeemer lives!'" to which I testify in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.