Apostolic Witness

In the quote below, M. Catherine Thomas related a personal experience she had with her husband, twelve other mission presidents and their wives, in Buenos Aires in 1997. In this account Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, referred to his own apostolic witness of Christ’s resurrection:

It was mid-morning in the Area Offices in Buenos Aires, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and his wife were due to arrive, but had been delayed by an emergency in a distant place. With little sleep and little time to refresh themselves, they entered our seminar room. After Elder Holland greeted each of us personally, he stood in the semicircle formed by some thirteen mission presidents and their wives and said, “We are not yet the Church of Jesus Christ.” His context was “the real way to do missionary work,” but the larger meaning of his principles went down into our hearts. “I testify that we are preparing for something, and there is a big gap between what we are and what we must become. I don’t know when the Savior will come, but the work is going very fast – faster than you think.”

“Why isn’t it easier?” he asked. “Because,” he answered, “we don’t believe in cheap salvation or cheap grace. We have to be pushed to the limit, back to the wall. Then the angels come and God speaks: ‘Be patient, Ill give you success. The only way out is through.’ We have to drink the bitter cup, even though we’re wanting, wishing for, another way. The Savior is the model: ‘I’ll drink the bitter cup to its dregs.’ The last words he said in the Old World were, ‘I will finish.’ The first words in the New World were, ‘I did finish.’ He suffered the will of the Father. This is required of all of us too. We bow our head and say, ‘Yes.’ That’s when all the miracles happen. We must be stretched as we can be, and then God will step in with His power.”

Then this: “If there are no miracles, it’s because we don’t want them. The majority don’t have miracles because they don’t live where miracles happen. When we become as obedient as Christ, we will have miracles.” He paraphrased the little French poem about our having to risk coming to the edge in order to experience the miraculous: “God says to us: ‘Come to the edge.’ ‘No, I’ll fall.’ ‘Come to the edge.’ ‘No, I’ll fall.’ ‘Come to the edge.’ So, I came to the edge, He pushed me, and I flew.”¹

Then he paused and said, “I love Jesus Christ and have a relationship I cannot really share. He is the most compelling theme in my life – a very rewarding obsession. I have often borne witness: Now I AM a witness. I am a witness of the Resurrection in the same sense as Peter, James, John, Brigham, and Wilford.” His witness is the fruit of unconditional commitment.²

Elder Holland’s apostolic witness is similar to David O. McKay’s testimony in the post Partakers of the Divine Nature.

Sources:

1. Based on my notes from the Mission Presidents Seminar, Buenos Aires, October 1997.↩
2. Thomas, M. Catherine. Light in the Wilderness: Explorations in the Spiritual Life. Orem, Utah: Amalphi Publishing, 2008. 318-319.↩

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