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[Guest tomk]

Bruce R. McConkie States Mormons Are Not To Have A Personal Relationship With Jesus Christ Romans 5:9

At the top of this page is a quote from a talk by Bruce R. McConkie. I think the talk is being misrepresented or misquoted.

Can anyone find the talk online for me? I haven't had any luck finding it.

Thanks,

Tom

[Doctor Steuss]

Our Relationship with the Lord - Bruce R. McConkie

[Hemidakota]

To add more clarity on what Doctor Steuss stated, you can find the speech recorded in the BYU Speeches of the Year, 1981-1982, on page 98. [Actual date: BYU Devotion March 2, 1982]

[Doctor Steuss]

To add more clarity on what Doctor Steuss stated, you can find the speech recorded in the BYU Speeches of the Year, 1981-1982, on page 98. [Actual date: BYU Devotion March 2, 1982]

I didn't know they put out a hardcopy publication of the speeches. Groovy.

BTW, my post is a link to the speech (for those without the book cited by Hemidoakota).

[Gwen]

thanks guys. a lot of times i hear things that i know are out of context but i don't bother to look it up. i know what i know, i have no need to prove it to anyone. but WOW that is an awsome speech. thank you.

[Guest tomk]

I don't know if I am going to write to the owners of that site, but for the record, it IS entirely possible and in fact we are commanded to seek to have a close relationship with Jesus. We do not offer formal public prayers to Him, but otherwise we are free to "counsel" with Him whenever the need arises. It is unthinkable that having a close relationship with His Beloved Son would offend Heavenly Father in the slightest.

What's ironic is that I went to that site trying to find more information on the topic of having a closer relationship with Jesus. And here they are misquoting and misrepresenting our beliefs, saying we DON'T believe in having a close personal relationship with Jesus. Clearly we do:

Ether 12: 41

41 And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen.

How can we "seek" Him if we cannot even TALK to Him?

[Gwen]

this is my understanding and bits of what i got from reading the speach. by no means representation of "the gospel truth".

in the talk they were misquoting he said that having a relationship with each member of the godhead is important. i thought he made it very clear that we are to do that. what he cautioned is getting things out of order, putting the emphisis in the wrong place. as i pondered it i felt it was very much how i feel. i feel much closer to the father than the son. i've left testamony meetings before feeling bad, all kinds of testamonies about christ, which are wonderful and i do love the savior, but when i would bear mine it's more focused on the father. sometimes i've questioned if i'm missing something, if there was something i didn't get. i guess reading this speach left me with a bit of reasaurance that i was doing ok.

for me i get to know the savior through the scriptures, getting to know who he was, and through repenting. it is by him that i have grace from the father and by utilizing that as intended i come to love and know christ for providing that for me. i come to realize how much i owe that i could never repay. i come to understand brotherly love. lol i think for me it's very much comparable to how i see my big brother. when i was little there were more than one occassion that (i know now were no big deal) at the time seemed hopeless. my big brother came to my rescue and helped me do what i couldn't do. inspite of all the torment big brothers put little sisiters through lol i to this day look up to my big brother. i love him to death, there isn't anything i wouldn't do for him. for me that is the springboard for allowing me to remotely understand who christ is for and to me. everything i feel for the savior started there and has grown to a greater more eternal understanding. yet i know there is still much much more for me to learn and understand.

my relationship with the father is different. i receive justice and thus exaultation by and through him. he is the father, without him the grace of the savior would not only be useless but unnecessary. it is the fathers merciful plan that made the role of a savior necessary. the savior is the one that interceeds with the father to fulfill justice and allow us to feel his love, to gain exaultation. there is no other way but by the father. until about 7 yrs ago i had little understanding of the father, i didn't really think about it much. but in the last 7 yrs, after becoming a parent i have truely begun to understand who and what the father is. over this last bit of time is when my testamony shifted focus from christ to the father. my own experiances as a parent allow me to get to know someone that there is little written on, someone that there is little other way to understand and get to know. the idea of getting to know christ with the information we have seems easier than getting to know the father. in seeking answers to issues, in praying to the father many of my answers and understanding have come through my own children. if i can feel the way i can about the children he has put in my care i can only then begin to get a comprehension of how the father feels for me. that experiance for me changes everything.

i find it odd (though i may be different than everyone else in the world) that for me the mortal family is the sprigboard for my even beginning to comprehend what it means to understand the father and the son. many of the talks recently from the general authorities have been about families, having children, building and strengthing those relationships. maybe that is the only way to truely understand. is the diminishing of the family relationships and the desire to not have children part of the cause of the forgetfulness in our world of the father and the son?

there is mention in the speach that jesus too worshiped the father. we have one god. i don't think the father finds getting to know, understand, and loving the savior to be offensive. however, we are not to worship the savior instead of the father. lol sorry for relating everything back to the mortal family, that is just how i understand and have come to build my testamony. i have a sis in law that was a single mom for some time. grandma helped out a lot while she got herself established. the mother had no issues with her daughters relationship with grandma and in fact enjoyed the closeness that they shared. then one day the little one started calling grandma "mom". that upset mommy, suddenly she wasn't mommy anymore, grandma had "taken over". took some time for her to work out the emotion of that. i know of many grandmothers who have their grandchildren call them mom due to very similar situations. i think that feeling is more comparable to how the father would feel when we forget the order of things. have a great relationship with the son, but don't forget who the father is. does that make any since?

i think getting to know the father and the son seperatly is integral to understanding them together. as pointed out in the speach their purpose is so much the same that an answer from one is the same as an answer from the other, they would give the same answer. they are one in that. as you get to know one you do get to know the other. that is necessary to fully understand all that has been done for us and given to us. i think the point of the speach was the caution that as you get to know both (or one) don't forget what each has done and will do individually. don't forget who they are in specific and familial relation to you. that is what matters for eternity. one thing in this life is eternal, one thing alone was the church and every covenant made within designed to support and prolong. that is the family. in my opinion only by striving to have the mortal family god as asked us to can we fully understand what eternal family means, and our relationship with the father and the son.

i hope that makes some since. lol wow that is long. lol sorry for that.