Elder McConkie gave his last General Conference talk and bore his Testimony on April 6, 1985. That is just 1 month after our son, Douglas, was born. I remember what an impact his message had on my soul at that time. We are fortunate that Ensign Magazine has reprinted it for us in the April 2011 issue.". . . the most important doctrine I can declare, and the most powerful testimony I can bear, is of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. His atonement is the most transcendent event that ever has or ever will occur from Creation's dawn through all the ages of a never-ending eternity. It is the supreme act of goodness and grace that only a god could perform. Through it, all of the terms and conditions of the Father's eternal plan of salvation became operative. Through it are brought to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Through it, all men are saved from death, hell, the devil, and endless torment. And through it, all who believe and obey the glorious gospel of God, all who are true and faithful and overcome the world, all who suffer for Christ and His word, all who are chastened and scourged in the cause of Him whose we are--all shall become as their Maker and sit with Him on His throne and reign with Him forever in everlasting glory." [Italics added for emphasis].
"[The Garden of Gethsemane], like Eden where Adam dwelt, like Sinai from whence Jehovah gave His law, like Calvary where the Son of God gave His life a ransom for many, this holy ground is where the sinless Son of the Everlasting Father took upon Himself the sins of all men on condition of repentance."
". . . no mortal mind can conceive the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane. We know He sweat great gouts of blood from every pore as He drained the dregs of that bitter cup His Father had given Him. We know he suffered, both body and spirit, more than it is possible for man to suffer, except it be unto death. We know . . . 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. We know that . . . the pains and agonies of an infinite burden caused Him to tremble and would that He might not drink the bitter cup. We know that an angel came from the courts of glory to strengthen Him in His ordeal, and we suppose it was mighty Michael, who foremost fell that mortal man might be."
"Many died from scourging alone [multi-thonged whip into whose leather strand sharp bones and cutting metals were woven], but He arose from the sufferings of the scourge that He might die an ignominious [humiliating] death upon the cruel cross of Calvary. Then He carried His own cross until He collapsed from the weight and pain and mounting agony of it all."
" . . . on a hill called Calvary . . . while helpless disciples looked on and felt the agonies of near death in their own bodies, the Roman soldiers laid Him upon the cross. With great mallets they drove spikes of iron through His feet and hands and wrists. Truly He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. Then the cross was raised that all might see and gape and curse and deride . . . for three hours from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Then the heavens grew black. Darkness covered the land for the space of three hours, as it did among the Nephites. There was a mighty storm, as though the very God of nature was in agony. And truly He was, for while He was hanging on the cross for another three hours, from noon to 3:00 p.m., all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane recurred."
"And, finally, when the atoning agonies had taken their toll--when the victory had been won, when the Son of God had fulfilled the will of His Father in all things--then He said, "it is finished" (John 19:30), and He voluntarily gave up the ghost."
"As the peace and comfort of a merciful death freed Him from the pains and sorrows of mortality, He entered the paradise of God."
"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. He then received all power in heaven and on earth, obtained eternal exaltation, appeared unto Mary Magdalene and many others, and ascended into heaven, there to sit down on the right hand of God the Father Almighty and to reign forever in eternal glory."
"His rising from death on the third day crowned the Atonement. . . . the effects of His Resurrection pass upon all men so that all shall rise from the grave. As Adam brought death, so Christ brought life; as Adam is the father of mortality, so Christ is the father of immortality. And without both, mortality and immortality, man cannot work out his salvation and ascend to those heights beyond the skies where gods and angels dwell forever in eternal glory."
Elder McConkie asks us to have faith like Enoch and Elijah--"we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived." He also asked us to join with him "in gaining a sound and sure knowledge of the Atonement"; to "cast aside the philosophies of men and the wisdom of the wise and hearken to that Spirit which is given to us to guide us into all truth."
Elder McConkie also said, "We must search the scriptures, accepting them as the mind and will and voice of the Lord and the very power of God unto salvation."
He also said, " . . . Creation is father to the Fall; and by the Fall came mortality and death; and by Christ came immortality and eternal life. If there had been no Fall of Adam, by which cometh death, there could have been no Atonement of Christ, by which cometh life."
Elder McConkie's testimony continues, "And now, as pertaining to this perfect Atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God--I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that He is the Son of the living God and was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself, independent of any other person. I am one of His witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in His hands and in His feet and shall wet His feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that He is God's Almighty Son, that He is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through His atoning blood and in no other way. God grant that all of us may walk in the light, as God our Father is in the light, so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, will cleanse us from all sin."
What a personal and powerful testimony!
Elder McConkie died on April 19, 1985 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Posted by Christy Larsen
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