(THIS post didn’t get published at the time it was scheduled for, I just noticed this so I am publishing it now, 5 days late. Sorry about that!)
Hello! In the video above I go through some of the content in this article. It includes portions of Bruce R. McConkie’s talk where he shared the lyrics of this song (that he wrote) and his final testimony.
This upcoming week’s lesson, November 4–10 is titled “I Speak unto You as If Ye Were Present” and studies Mormon 7-9. The suggested song mentioned in this lesson is I Believe in Christ which was written by Text: Bruce R. McConkie 1915–1985 Music: John Longhurst, b. 1940. The free sheet music for this arrangement can be found here: http://marileekaymusic.com/sheet-music/
In the Come Follow Me Manual it says:
- “Moroni knew what it felt like to be alone in a wicked world—especially after his father died in battle and the Nephites were destroyed. “I even remain alone,” he wrote. “I have not friends nor whither to go” (Mormon 8:3, 5). Things may have seemed hopeless, but Moroni found hope in Jesus Christ and his testimony that “the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on” (Mormon 8:22). Mormon 7:5 “Believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up.” “Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ.”
I want to share a bit about Bruce R. McConkie who wrote the lyrics or the poem that became I Believe in Christ. Serving as one of the 12 apostles, he shared his final testimony during a general conference about Jesus Christ. His son “Joseph Fielding McConkie” gives us some insight on his final address and an earlier talk in which he shared the lyrics of I Believe in Christ. I included some excerpts below.
- It was in that talk (In his April 1972 general conference address) that my father first read in public the words he had written of the hymn: “I Believe in Christ.” His talk was entitled The Testimony of Jesus. (At the time he was not a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles, he was serving in the first council of the 70). But shortly after that general conference talk, (later that year) he was called to the apostleship.
- (After more than a decade of serving as an apostle) On Tuesday evening, April 2, (1985) Mother called our home. I answered the phone. I could tell immediately from the sound of her voice that something was seriously wrong. She then explained that Dad’s blood tests had come back that day and that they were very bad. “The doctors can do nothing for him,” she said. “They told me to take him home and make him as comfortable as possible” for what they said would be the last few days of his life. She told us that Dad had instructed her that the family was to accept the will of the Lord and that they were not to fast and pray anymore for the extension of his life.
- As for conference, she explained that the doctors said that he would be too weak to speak and that should he try, he would pass out in front of a national television audience and embarrass the whole Church. “Nevertheless,” she said, “your father wants to give that talk. It means more to him than anything he has done in this life, but he cannot even finish reading it to me, as each time he attempts to do so he breaks down in tears.”
- As he stood to his full height of six feet five inches to approach the rostrum in the old Tabernacle, he was thin, even gaunt—his step measured as if his balance were uncertain. As he faced the congregation, his features were sufficiently jaundiced that many watching on television instinctively reached forward to adjust the color, yet the sound of his voice was measured, deep, and strong. It was the confident, sure sound to which the Saints had become accustomed. “I feel,” he said, “and the Spirit seems to accord, that 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.” Thus began the final testimony of Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1985) of the Quorum of the Twelve. What followed was one of the most electrifying testimonies ever borne from that historic spot from which prophets and Apostles had been teaching and preaching since the days of President Brigham Young.
- He could hardly eat and was very weak, but as his son says: Our prayer was answered. Dad was given both the strength and emotional control to give his talk. When he was called on that Saturday morning, the sixth of April, the Spirit took over, and one of the most powerful talks ever given in the Tabernacle was delivered. Elder McConkie passed away 13 days later. His final instruction to his wife and family was to “Carry on.”
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Media sources: Steve Pierce, Brad Leishman, Suzanne Lapine
ChurchofJesusChrist.org:
“1972 & 1985 Elder Bruce R. McConkie”
“All may know the truth Moroni’s Promise”
“Jesus Christ Appears in the Ancient Americas”
*Reach out if you would like the sheet music for any of the arrangements I don’t have sheet music for yet and I will transcribe and post them. You can find the songs I already have sheet music for here: http://marileekaymusic.com/sheet-music/
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