We Already Know Him

In the April 1985 General Conference, Bruce R. McConkie said, "...I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God's almighty Son..."  This last testimony Elder McConkie bore was powerful and it was immortalized in the hearts of those who heard it because of his untimely death two weeks later.

How sweet it would be for each of us if we could leave this world at the apex of our spiritual journey, declaring as we go that we will not know any better when we get there, that Jesus lives.

In order to truly understand the power and triumph of what he said, I think we have to consider a few things.

We already know Jesus personally.  We know God personally too.  We lived with them for a length of time our mortal minds probably can't even comprehend before we came to Earth.  It is only the veil placed over our minds that prevents us from remembering that life and those relationships.

We all sang together with joy when the plan to come to Earth was unveiled (Job 38:7).  But that is not all.  A loving Heavenly Father, whose plan it is to make each of us like himself, instructed Jesus to call his laborers for the period of 6 days in the creation of this world.  In other words, many if not all of us served as apprentices in the creation of this Earth and bringing into fruition the Great Plan of Happiness.  What exactly we learned from that experience would be hard to say but it stands to reason that we came here with enthusiasm and with a vested interest in succeeding, because we were participants in the Plan.

Russel M Ballard stated in the April 2018 general conference, '"...As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Notice a twofold action--God sends His Son.  The Son sends His servants--mortal men and women--to accomplish Their work."

This was the case also when "Michael and his angels fought against the dragon..." (Revelation 12:7) Who would those angels be, if not us?  It seems that we had the opportunity to participate in every event leading up to our presence in this world.

During all this eventful time spent in pre-earth events, we would naturally have developed a relationship with those we followed.

Thus, I think the reason, "Every knee will bend and every tongue confesses that Jesus is the Christ" (Romans 14:11) when he returns will be because everyone (even those who don’t believe in Him now) will remember the eons we spent together creating this world and planning our journey to the "second estate."  We will remember Jesus our brother, our friend, and our Savior.

So why don’t remember any of that now?  It seems like it would be helpful.

Bruce R. McConkie never could have made that declaration if he remembered all he had been through in the pre-existence.  We must, without the training wheels of God's presence, come to believe what we know by living here alone.   That is the culmination of all the work that we started in the pre-existence.

Knowledge is a naturally occurring byproduct of action.  That action must be of our own free will without influence from a loving Father in Heaven; otherwise, it would not be our own.  That is why we had to come here and forget all we know so that we can show through our actions, not our lips, that "[we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command..." (Abraham 3:25).  Our works will justify what we say we know. (James 2:18).

That is why I think phrases like, "Confess Jesus and be saved" will choke in the throats of those who knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ and did little with it while in this "probationary state."  With that confession, we will have traded our birthright for Esau's mess of Pottage.

Just imagine meeting the Savior, our longtime friend, and realizing that we squandered this one-time opportunity that we worked together so hard to bring into fruition; and for what...the mirage of fast cars, fame, or temporary worldly pleasures.

At that moment the scriptures will ring true that say we will want the mountains to cover us and hide us from the eyes of the Lord (Revelations 6: 15-16); not just because we will be ashamed of our evil works, but because of the anguish we will feel realizing that we missed the chance to become like our Father in Heaven.

John Greenleaf Whittier:
For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, "It might have been."