March 22, 2018

Did You Miss the Evening with a General Authority?

Elder D. Todd Christofferson

On January  26, 2018, Elder D.  Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Kim  B. Clark of the Seventy spoke about defending truth to Church Educational System religious educators in a worldwide broadcast from the Salt Lake Tabernacle. View the devotional here.

Elder Clark began the devotional and testified of learning deeply about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Additionally, Elder Clark extended the Savior’s invitation to learn of Him, saying, “Learning to know Jesus Christ opens our hearts and minds to the influence of the Holy Ghost and brings us assurance of the Lord’s love” (“Learn of Me” [evening with a General Authority, Jan.  26, 2018], broadcasts.lds.org).

Elder Christofferson spoke next and explained the need to defend eternal truth and understand that “a knowledge of truth in any significant measure requires divine assistance, either through the Light of Christ or by the aid of the Holy Ghost” (“Truth Endures,” [evening with a General Authority, Jan.  26, 2018], broadcasts.lds.org). We learn all truth through divine assistance.

Truth itself is independent and unchangeable. Elder Christofferson described it as “a fixed reality” (“Truth Endures”). Relativist thinking and moral relativism—or believing that truth depends on the morals and ethics of an individual—does not uphold order and justice and denies the core principles of our existence.

The role then, as seminary and institute teachers, is to “help our students, in the Savior’s term, ‘do truth,’—that is, wholeheartedly embrace the Light of Christ that is in them and welcome the added light and truth that come through the Holy Ghost” (“Truth Endures”). As we help our students practice these principles, they will be able to learn eternal truths.

Elder Christofferson concluded his address by testifying of five core truths that we must continually teach: 

  1. “God, our Heavenly Father, lives, the only true and living God.

  1. “Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God.

  1. “Jesus Christ came to earth to redeem His people; He suffered and died to atone for their sins.

  1. “He rose again from the dead, bringing to pass the Resurrection.

  1. “All will stand before Him to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works” (“Truth Endures”).