Bruce R. McConkie

Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation.” I’ve got to get some revelation.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > January 1975

Bruce R. McConkie

Revelation is something that should be received by every individual. Now I say that we are entitled to revelation.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > June 1980

Bruce R. McConkie

All of the changes made by Joseph Smith in the King James Version of the Bible, for instance, are the voice of truth and revelation to the Latter-day Saints and carry the same verity as any of his revelations or inspired narrations. In terse and brief form, presenting scarcely more than an outline, here is the chronological summary of how the revelation of this soul-satisfying doctrine came to pass.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > August 1976

Bruce R. McConkie

But the thing with which we are particularly blessed is the knowledge, gained by latter-day revelation, of his Divine Sonship. Here we have exalted, noble beings on a plane and status so far above our present circumstance that we have no way of comprehending their dominion and glory, and we have one of them, God our Eternal Father, through the condescension and infinite love and mercy that he has for us, stepping down from his noble status and becoming the Father of a Son after the manner of the flesh.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > December 1984

Bruce R. McConkie

It is the right to receive revelation, to see visions, to be in tune with the Infinite. The spiritual gifts are the signs which follow those that believe; they are the miracles and healings performed in the name of the Lord Jesus; they include marvelous outpourings of truth and light and revelation from God in heaven to man on earth.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1977

Bruce R. McConkie

I know he was called and chosen and ordained to this ministry by the spirit of prophecy and revelation and was present when the Spirit of the Lord testified to each member of the Council of the Twelve that it was the mind and will of him whose witnesses we are, and on whose errand we serve, that President Kimball should now step forward and lead his people. And he—the Almighty—chooses the prophets and apostles who minister in his name and present his message to the world in every age and dispensation.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1974

Bruce R. McConkie

But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.” Now I do not minimize in any degree or to any extent the obligation that rests upon us to be gospel scholars, to search the revelations, to learn how to reason and analyze, to present the message of salvation among ourselves and to the world with all the power and ability we have;

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > July 1973

Bruce R. McConkie

It came by revelation. But he has not withheld the book of Revelation, because it is not beyond our capacity to comprehend; if we apply ourselves with full purpose of heart, we can catch the vision of what the ancient Revelator recorded.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > September 1975

Bruce D. Porter

Several years ago, while I was serving as a bishop, a sister came to me for a temple recommend interview. She was an adult convert to the Church who had been a faithful member since her baptism more than a decade earlier. She qualified for the temple

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > October 2000

Bruce R. McConkie

I shall speak of revelation, of the opening of the heavens, of revelation as it is given to prophets and apostles for the guidance of the Church and the world, and also of revelation to the Saints in general for their own guidance and that of their families. This gift is the right to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit. “No man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations,” the Prophet said, for “the Holy Ghost is a revelator” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith)

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1978

Bruce R. McConkie

In the revelation known as “the law of the Church,” the Lord says: “The elders, priests and teachers of this church shall teach the principles of my gospel” When this revelation was given, the Bible and the Book of Mormon were the only scriptures available to the Latter-day Saints.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > April 1979

Bruce R. McConkie

In all of this, once again, the emphasis is on the day of restoration and on the past, present, and future gathering of Israel.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > October 1973

Bruce R. McConkie

We have been given the Holy Scriptures—those marvelous compilations of the divine word—by a gracious God to guide us back into his eternal presence. They had the fulness of the everlasting gospel, received revelations, saw visions, entertained angels, performed miracles, and heard the words of their prophets—prophets who saw the Lord, knew of his goodness and grace, and taught of Christ and the salvation that comes through his atoning blood.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > December 1985

Bruce R. McConkie

It is the right of members of the Church to receive revelation. Religion comes from God by revelation and deals with spiritual things; and unless and until a man has received revelation, he has not received religion, and he is not on the path leading to salvation in our Father’s kingdom.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > June 1971

Bruce R. McConkie

We say that revelation is coming anew. The present dispensation is like a great ocean.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > December 1976

Bruce R. McConkie

We say that revelation is coming anew. The present dispensation is like a great ocean.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > January 2004

Bruce R. McConkie

Joseph Smith’s statements, as recorded in the Book of Mormon and latter-day revelation, came as a refreshing breeze of pure truth: little children shall be saved. In our revelation the Lord says, “They cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me.”

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > April 1977

Bruce R. McConkie

The first of these gifts listed in our modern revelation on spiritual gifts is the gift of testimony, the gift of revelation, the gift of knowing of the truth and divinity of the work. I know there is revelation in the Church because I have received revelation.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > January 1973

Bruce T. Harper

When the project of publishing new editions of the standard works was first begun, President Spencer W. Kimball gave the original committee the charge “to assist in improving doctrinal scholarship throughout the Church.” The goal of everyone involved has been to put into the hands of the members of the Church the tools that will enable them better to study and understand the Lord’s reve... The concept of a new triple combination was first considered during the preliminary discussions about the Bible, but the need for the new edition became more pressing in 1976, when the Church accepted as canon two additional revelations: Joseph Smith’s vision of the celestial kingdom and Joseph F. Smith’s vision of the redemption of the dead.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > October 1981

Bruce R. McConkie

There were no visions, no revelations, no rending of the heavens; the Lord was not raining down righteousness upon a chosen people as He had done in days of old.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > April 2005

Bruce R. McConkie

For the present we know only that a gracious God has made his saving truths available at those times and under those circumstances, when men were prepared to receive them. All of the rivers of the past have or will flow into the ocean of the present; already all of the keys and powers have fallen to our lot; in due course all of the doctrines and truths will be manifest to us.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > April 1980

Bruce R. McConkie

The heresy that exists in the sectarian world in this field is that the heavens are sealed, that there is no revelation, that there are no miracles, and that there are no gifts of the Spirit. Now, just a word or two from our revelations relative to Joseph Smith’s prophetic position: “I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments”

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > June 1980

Bruce R. McConkie

There are those who apply the names of Deity to some spirit essence that is immaterial, uncreated, and unknowable and that fills the immensity of space and is everywhere and nowhere in particular present. The truth about God, the truth about religion, the truth about salvation—these things can only be known by revelation.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1980

Bruce A. Van Orden

He also directed Gordon B. Hinckley, secretary of the General Missionary Committee at the time, to prepare the presentation of the endowment ceremony in such a way that it could be delivered in a single ordinance room in different languages to accommodate the multiple languages of the European Saints.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > October 1999

Bruce R. McConkie

We are that people, a people who once again receive revelation, a people to whom God has given anew the fulness of his everlasting gospel, in consequence of which we praise his holy name forever. From the day of Adam to the present moment—whenever the Lord has had a people of his own; whenever there have been those who have hearkened to his voice and kept his commandments; whenever his saints have served him with full purpose of heart—there has been Zion.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1977

Bruce R. McConkie

Only the title by which a member of the Council of the Twelve is proud to be addressed; only the title which honors the President of the Church, who is designated by revelation as the first elder (see ); only the office to which millions of persons are ordained in the vicarious ordinances of the holy temples.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > June 1975

Bruce R. McConkie

In her sorrow and in her tears and in her anxiety, she sensed a presence, supposed it was the gardener, and said with perfect proprietary right, “Sir, if you have taken him, show me where that I may take him”.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > December 1980

Bruce R. McConkie

And so, in process of time, there is “a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories … from the days of Adam even to the present time.” The keys of the kingdom of God—the right and power of eternal presidency by which the earthly kingdom is governed—these keys, having first been revealed from heaven, are given by the spirit of revelation to each man who is both ordained an Apostle and set apart as a member of the Council of the Twelve.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1983

Bruce R. McConkie

O Lord, increase our faith, and let the sick be healed and the dead raised even in greater numbers than at present. Let testimony and revelation and visions and miracles multiply among us.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1984

Bruce R. McConkie

I do not think that the very angels of God in heaven, speaking as they are privileged to do with the trump of God itself, have language given them which can overstate the importance of these matters which have come to us by revelation. At the present time, in most places, our greatest need is to find investigators.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > February 1985

Bruce R. McConkie

There were no visions, no revelations, no rending of the heavens; the Lord was not raining down righteousness upon a chosen people as he had done in days of old.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1975

Bruce R. McConkie

I have what is known as “the testimony of Jesus,” which means that I know by personal revelation from the Holy Spirit to my soul that Jesus is the Lord; that he brought life and immortality to light through the gospel; and that he has restored in this day the fullness of his everlasting truth, so that we with the ancients can become inheritors of his presence in eternity. We were present when the great cry went forth from him through the midst of eternity: “Whom shall I send to be my son, to work out the infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice, to put in full force and operation the terms and conditions of my eternal plan?

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > July 1972

Bruce R. McConkie

What Prayer Is. Once we dwelt in our Father’s presence, saw his face, and knew his will. Now we are far removed from the divine presence; we no longer see his face and hear his voice as we then did.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > January 1976

Bruce R. McConkie

And as we do so, please keep in mind that everything I have so far or shall hereafter put in quote marks is copied from the Bible, except in one instance where help is sought from a passage of latter-day revelation.

Gospel Library > Magazines > New Era > April 1972

Bruce R. McConkie

Of them the revelation says, “These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.” A testimony of the gospel comes by revelation from the Holy Ghost.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1974

Bruce R. McConkie

What I shall now do, if properly guided by the Spirit, is to invite you to view with me successive scenes involving our sisters of the past and our sisters of the future, as these scenes are set forth in the revelations and in our history. Scene three: Rebekah, whom Isaac loved I think Rebekah is one of the greatest patterns in all the revelations of what a woman can do to influence a family in righteousness.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > January 1979

Bruce R. McConkie

Here is a man who has given to our present world more holy scripture than any single prophet who ever lived; indeed, he has preserved for us more of the mind and will and voice of the Lord than the total of the dozen most prolific prophetic penmen of the past. To one man who was at death’s door, the man of God said, “Brother Fordham, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to arise from this bed and be made whole.” Wilford Woodruff, who was present, said, “His voice was like the voice of God, and not of man.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1976

Bruce R. McConkie

We must learn that God is our Father; that he is an exalted and perfected personage in whose image we are created; that he sent his Beloved Son into the world to redeem mankind; that salvation is in Christ, who is the revelation of God to the world; and that Christ and his gospel laws are known only by revelation given to those apostles and prophets who represent him on earth. The key to true worship is contained in a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1833 in which the Lord revealed anew the testimony of an ancient disciple.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > December 1971

Bruce R. McConkie

In a future day the Lord will expect more of his Saints in this regard than he does of us. “When the Lord shall come, he shall reveal all things,” our latter-day revelations tell us—“Things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof.”

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > June 1982

Bruce A. Van Orden

One of his purposes is to test us—that is, to see if we will believe in him and obey his laws while we live separated from his presence. Nephi’s Witness of the Savior. After presenting the witnesses of Lehi, Jacob, and Isaiah, Nephi wrote, “I proceed with mine own prophecy.”

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > February 1990

Bruce R. McConkie

They hold the keys of the kingdom of God on earth at this hour and from them come the words of life and truth and revelation that will give us, if we conform to them, peace in this life and eternal glory in the life to come. If virtue garnishes our thoughts unceasingly, our confidence shall wax strong in the presence of God and he in turn will rain down righteousness upon us.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > January 1974

Bruce R. McConkie

The truths in the Bible are reaffirmed and new revelations come, setting forth things which few have known from the foundations of the earth. It is revelation and angels and visions and gifts of the Spirit.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1979

Bruce R. McConkie

The doctrine of the priesthood is known only by personal revelation. We have the revealed promise that if our souls are “full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith” and if we “let virtue garnish [our] thoughts unceasingly; then shall [our] confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon [our souls] as the dews from heaven.”

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1982

Bruce R. McConkie

The prophets and seers were silenced; the holy scriptures were no longer made available to the masses of men; none could see the way to perfection; none knew the way back to the Eternal Presence. Within a single decade the Book of Mormon came forth; the Church and kingdom of God on earth was reestablished; revelation and prophecy became the order of the day; and the gifts of the Spirit—all those ancient signs and wonders and miracles—were poured out upon the faithful.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1978

Bruce R. McConkie

But our joy and rejoicing is not in what lies below, not in our past—great and glorious as that is—but in our present and in our future. But we know that our work is in the living present and our glorious destiny lies ahead.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > May 1980

Bruce L. Andreason

When we sustain a new leader, it is our privilege to pray and come to know by revelation that those who have been called to lead us have indeed received authority from God. Elisha’s ministry lasted more than 50 years and presents similarities and differences to that of his master.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > August 2002

Bruce R. McConkie

If you hear a prophetic voice, if an apostolic witness is borne in your presence, if the servants of the Lord give you a message from their Master—what is your reaction?

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1981

Bruce R. McConkie

We shall study doctrinal matters; we shall study by subjects; each subject will be presented as taught in all of the Standard Works. That little episode that occurred on the Emmaus road and which was climaxed in the upper room is the paramount illustration in all the revelations that have ever been given as to what kind of a being a resurrected person is and how we, patterned after him, will yet become if we are true and faithful in all things.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > April 1975

Bruce C. Hafen

Other personal manifestations have been so quiet that those who received them were unaware of the angelic presence. What wonderful events had blessed them in only a few years: the Vision in the grove, the publication of the Book of Mormon, the formal organization of the Church, the optimistic launching of missionary work, the school of the prophets, and mighty revelations outlining a glorious future.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > April 1992

Bruce R. McConkie

We have experts who have read the Book of Mormon, and I have read what our experts have to say about it.” This account dramatizes one of our problems in presenting the message of the Book of Mormon to the world.

Gospel Library > Magazines > Ensign > November 1983