The Mystery of Godliness | Bruce R McConkie | 1985

To us mortals, the infinite wisdom and power of God may always be, in part, a mystery. However, there are many things about His nature that we can know.

This speech was given on January 6, 1985.

Read the speech here:
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/bruce-r-mcconkie/mystery-godliness/

Read more about Bruce R. McConkie here:
https://speeches.byu.edu/speakers/bruce-r-mcconkie/

Subscribe to BYU Speeches for the latest videos: http://www.youtube.com/c/byuspeeches

Read and listen to more BYU Speeches here:
https://speeches.byu.edu/

Follow BYU Speeches:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/byuspeeches
Twitter: https://twitter.com/byuspeeches
Instagram: https://instagram.com/byuspeeches
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/byuspeeches

© Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.

"I rejoice in the privilege of presenting to the young and rising generation some basic concepts about the deepest and most profound doctrine of the gospel.

It is the first principle of revealed religion, the great cornerstone upon which all else rests, the foundation for all of the doctrines of salvation.

I shall speak of what the revealed word calls the mystery of godliness.

If our vision is blurred where this doctrine and these concepts are concerned, or, if knowingly or unknowingly we have fallen prey to any of the false sectarian notions that abound with reference to them, our progress toward eternal life will be slow indeed.

Comprehending the Mystery of Godliness
A mystery, so the dictionary says, is “something beyond human comprehension.” Defining the word from a theological standpoint, it says a mystery is “an article of faith beyond human comprehension, as the doctrine of the Trinity.”

How apt this illustration is! If there was ever something beyond human comprehension, it is the sectarian doctrine of the Trinity.

This doctrine defines God and the Godhead as a three-in-one spirit essence that fills the immensity of space; it teaches that it and they are without body, parts, or passions; it acclaims that it and they are unknown, unknowable, and uncreated, and specifies, in the creeds, that unless we believe all these things we cannot be saved.

It is true that finite man cannot comprehend his Infinite Maker in the full sense of the word. We cannot tell how gods began to be or from whence existent matter came.

But we are duty-bound to learn all that God has revealed about himself and his everlasting gospel. If we are to gain eternal life we must come to know the Great God and his Only Begotten, whom he sent into the world. And this probationary estate is the appointed time to begin to know God, and to learn his laws, and thereby to start the process of becoming like him. If we do not so begin we shall never receive the promised reward.

Because God stands revealed or remains forever unknown, and because the things of God are known only by the power of the Spirit, perhaps we should redefine a mystery. In the gospel sense, a mystery is something beyond carnal comprehension.

The saints are in a position to comprehend all mysteries, to understand all doctrine, and eventually to know all things. These high levels of intelligence are reached only through faith and obedience and righteousness. A person who relies on the intellect alone and who does not keep the commandments can never, worlds without end, comprehend the mystery of godliness.

There is probably more ignorance and confusion as to the mystery of godliness than there is about any other doctrine. As set forth in the three creeds of Christendom—the Nicene, the Apostles’, and the Athanasian, which God himself said were an abomination in his sight—and as defined in the articles of religion of the various denominations, this doctrine is a mass of confusion and a mountain of falsity.

Even in the Church, thanks to a lack of knowledge and to intellectuality and the worldly enticement to conform to the general beliefs of an apostate Christendom, there are those who have fallen prey to many false delusions about deity. By way of illustration let us note some of the problems.

Who and What Is God?
Is there a God? If so, who or what is he? Is he the laws and forces of nature? Or an image of mud or gold? Or is he Baal, the resurrected son of El to whom the Canaanites offered human sacrifices? Is he Allah or Buddha or the confusing and contradictory nothingness described in the creeds of Christendom?

Is there such a thing as the Trinity in which the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three gods, and, yet one god, a god who neither hears, nor speaks, nor appears, as did the one worshipped by the ancients?

Is God omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, or are these descriptive designations part of the legends of sectarianism?

Are there three gods or one? Why does Jesus say his Father is greater than he, and Paul say Jesus is equal with the Father? Why the great scriptural emphasis on proclaiming that three gods are one, and that the Lord our God is one Lord?

Видео The Mystery of Godliness | Bruce R McConkie | 1985 канала BYU Speeches