Quotes from Bruce R. McConkie

As we read, ponder, and pray, there will come into our minds a view of the three gardens of God—the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Garden of the Empty Tomb where Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.

If the sole source of one's knowledge or assurance of the truth of the Lord's work comes from reason, or logic, or persuasive argument,...it is not a testimony of the gospel

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. His atonement is the most transcendent event that ever has or ever will occur from Creation's dawn through all the ages of a never-ending eternity.

All who believe and obey the glorious gospel of God, all who are true and faithful and overcome the world, all who suffer for Christ and his word, all who are chastened and scourged in the Cause of him whose we are—all shall become as their Maker and sit with him on his throne and reign with him forever in everlasting glory.

We know that in some way, incomprehensible to us, his suffering satisfied the demands of justice, ransomed penitent souls from the pains and penalties of sin, and made mercy available to those who believe in his holy name.

His rising from death on the third day crowned the Atonement. Again, in some way incomprehensible to us, the effects of his resurrection pass upon all men so that all shall rise from the grave.

Now, the atonement of Christ is the most basic and fundamental doctrine of the gospel, and it is the least understood of all our revealed truths. Many of us have a superficial knowledge and rely upon the Lord and his goodness to see us through the trials and perils of life. But if we are to have faith like Enoch and Elijah we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived.

We must search the scriptures, accepting them as the mind and will and voice of the Lord and the very power of God unto salvation.

I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better than I know now that he is God's Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way.

Faithful persons are expected to seek the gifts of the Spirit with all their hearts.

To fill the full measure and purpose of our mortal probation, we must have patience. This mortal existence is the Lord's sifting sphere, the time when we are subject to trials, testing, and tribulations. Future rewards will be based on our patient endurance of all things.

fasting, with prayer as its companion, is designed to increase spirituality; to foster a spirit of devotion and love of God; to increase faith in the hearts of men, thus assuring divine favor; to encourage humility and contrition of soul; to aid in the acquirement of rightousness; to teach man his nothingness and dependence upon God; and to hasten those who properly comply with the law of fasting along the path to salvation.

As men die temporally for want of temporal bread, so they die spiritually for want of spiritual food.

The most important single thing that any Latter-day Saint ever does in this world is to marry the right person, in the right place, by the right authority.

Plural marriage is not essential to salvation or exaltation.

Obviously the holy practice (of polygamy) will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium.

God... is a personal Being, a holy and exalted man.

As long as man's beliefs, or any part of them, are based on error, he is not completely free, for the chains of error bind his mind.

Christ was Begotten by an immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers.

When the real history of the world is written, it will show god's dealings with men, and the place the gospel has played in the rise and fall of nations.

The Atonement of Christ is the most transcendental event that has ever occurred or that will ever occur, since the sunrise of creation to all ages of eternity

Religious music is by far the greatest music of the ages. What is there to compare-in rhythmic beauty, poetic sublimity, and inspired teachings-with the Psalms of David?

Before an empty tomb, we will come to know that Christ our Lord has burst the bands of death and stands forever triumphant over the grave.

His rising from death on the third day crowned the Atonement. Again, in some way incomprehensible to us, the effects of his resurrection pass upon all men so that all shall rise from the grave.