Knowing Christ through Joseph Smith

By Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85)

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

From “Joseph Smith—The Mighty Prophet of the Restoration,” Ensign, May 1976, 94–96. Capitalization standardized.

There is one by whom the knowledge of Christ and of salvation has come in our day.

We teach and testify that salvation is in Christ. He is our Lord, our God, our King. We worship the Father in His name, as have all the holy prophets, and all the Saints of all ages.

We rejoice in Him and in His atoning sacrifice. His name is above every name, and to Him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord of all, without whom there would be neither immortality nor eternal life.

But I shall now speak of another, of the one by whom the knowledge of Christ and of salvation has come in our day. …

I shall speak of Joseph Smith, Jr., the mighty prophet of the Restoration, the one who first heard the heavenly voice in this dispensation, the one through whose instrumentality the kingdom of God was once again established among men. …

In the spring of 1820 [God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ] rent the veil of darkness which for long ages had shrouded the earth. … They came down from Their celestial home to a grove of trees near Palmyra, New York. Calling young Joseph by name, They then told him that … he would be the instrument in Their hands of restoring the fulness of Their everlasting gospel. …

All men may well ask themselves where they stand with reference to Joseph Smith and his divine mission. Do they inquire after his name and seek that salvation found only in the gospel of Christ as revealed to His latter-day prophet … ? The great question which all men in our day must answer—and that at the peril of their own salvation—is: Was Joseph Smith called of God? …

… Let there be no misunderstanding. We are witnesses of Christ. He is our Savior. … But we are also witnesses of Joseph Smith, by whom we know of Christ, and who is the legal administrator to whom power was given to bind on earth and seal in heaven, that all men from his day forward might be heirs of salvation.