Previously unpublished talks by Bruce R. McConkie

[inho]

from Restitution of all things (Lecture given by Bruce R. McConkie during the 1967 CES Conference on the campus of BYU.)

What we were hopefully trying to end with yesterday was this concept, the patriarchal order, as far as we are concerned, centers in and revolves around Celestial Marriage. When an individual progresses in the Church to the point that he has the blessings of that order of the priesthood, he has thereby entered into a patriarchal order in which he becomes an inheritor of all the blessings of Abraham and becomes a natural patriarch to his posterity. In consequence of which he can do anything where his posterity are concerned and Abraham can do where his are involved or Jacob can do where his are involved. So that he ought, among other things, to give the patriarchal blessings to his own descendants.

...

Question: Did you say a father should be able to give his family patriarchal blessings? Would that be the same as the blessings received from the patriarch?

BRM: It’s precisely the same...

Question: (Inaudible) . . . made the point that while the father should give patriarchal
blessings to their children, they still should be taken to the patriarch to receive a blessing.

BRM: That’s all right. That’s all right in our system. Now, they don’t have to be taken to the patriarch, I do that. I give my children a patriarchal blessing and in addition let them go to a patriarch. All I can say for the patriarch is he better get in tune, because I gave it first. The fact is if these blessings come from the same source, they will be in harmony with each other.

Question: You record them then?

BRM: Sure, I record them. I record them just exactly like any other patriarchal blessing, I declare their lineage; I call them anything I feel like telling them. Really that is their patriarchal blessing and anything a patriarch tells them I am delighted to have them have as additional blessings; but give them. I am the natural patriarch for my children and this is what ought to be. Now, I have a patriarchal blessing which came from my father and I have another one that came from the patriarch to the Church, As it ought to be, my father told me what was involved and the patriarch to the Church just said a few little incidental things and that’s the way it happened, ...

Question: (Inaudible) . . . declared lineage for your children?

BRM: I declared lineage, President Joseph Fielding Smith says, it’s in writing in Doctrines of Salvation, if the father gets the inspiration, he can declare the lineage. Well, the only issue is, do you get the inspiration? And that in principal applies to anything in a patriarchal blessing. You shouldn’t say anything you don’t have the inspiration to say anyway, So if I get the inspiration to tell my children they are of the tribe of Ephraim, which I did, it’s true they are of the tribe of Ephraim and I declared their lineage, Now, should I say the patriarch better conform, that’s all, To what I said. ...

from Patriarchal Order - Eternal Family Concept (Lecture given by Bruce R. McConkie during the 1967 CES Conference on the campus of BYU.)

Now this is the patriarchal order. And anybody who becomes on the basis that is here stated, a natural patriarch to his posterity, has every right that Jacob has and he ought to give his children a patriarchal blessing. And he has every right that Abraham had and we’re beginning to teach in the Church that fathers ought to give their own children their patriarchal blessings. It’s been in the Melchisedek priesthood lessons for three successive years. The concept will hopefully get over that patriarchal blessings are a family affair. The natural patriarch giving the blessing. My father gave me a patriarchal blessing. I give my children a patriarchal blessing. He did it after he became a natural patriarch to his posterity through this Priesthood which the prophet said was patriarchal authority. I do it after the same thing has come to me. He gets the blessings of Abraham, through a temple ordinance. I get the blessings of Abraham through a temple ordinance. I bless my children. He blesses his children. It’s a family affair.

[inho]

from Resurrection (Lecture given by Bruce R. McConkie during the 1967 CES Conference on the campus of BYU.)

Orson Hyde is one of them, yes that is right. Well, there are some reasons that were evident to the early brethren that this was the case and there’s not been question really that they are right. President Smith told me a story once about his experience as a young missionary in England. A sectarian minister was derailing him, “Why, you Mormons teach that Christ was married.” President Smith said, “We Mormons don’t teach any such thing as that.” And then he said to me, “But if that minister had said, ‘you Mormons believe that Christ was married,’ I don’t know what in the world I would have said.” Well, you only teach as much and say as much as in wisdom there are hearers qualified spiritually to receive. And so we keep still. But in view of the fact that these quotations are in our literature, there really shouldn’t be any reason why we shouldn’t be aware that the fact is there are some things that cause us to know without any question that He was.

[inho]

from When Will the Son of Man Come (Lecture given by Bruce R. McConkie during the 1967 CES Conference on the campus of BYU.)

Question: What about the 144,000? Aren’t they supposed to be from the tribes returning?

BRM: I don’t know. But that will occur at the moment of His coming. If you divided this into two headings, you would say conditions precedent and conditions concurrent. You list the events that are occurring on earth so close and approximate to his coming that they are actually involved in it. Now these high priests, as you mentioned, are going to stand on Mr. Zion with Him when He comes. So that’s almost concurrent.

[Seek the Truth]

I always liked Bruce R.

[Robin Hood]

In my view he was the last scholar to hold the apostolic office.
I can't think of a member of the current quorum who could be described in the same way.

[brianj]

In my view he was the last scholar to hold the apostolic office.
I can't think of a member of the current quorum who could be described in the same way.

I have described listening to Dallin Oaks as a bittersweet experience. Sweet because I love his style, bitter because I wish I had professors like him at my university. I wouldn't mind a pop quiz after one of his talks!

He doesn't have a style anywhere near that of the two talks I have heard from McConkie, but he is most definitely a scholar.

[sandman45]

Yea the last apostle to throw around his opinions and ideas as absolute fact. Joseph and Brighams teachings were revelation and true and not speculation with the purpose of furthering ones ego.

[brlenox]

The latest leak by MormonLeaks is actually really interesting. They published 37 documents written by Bruce R. McConkie. These include undelivered talks and drafts of talks. There are several gems among these. Since these are leaked documents, and they are transcribed pdfs, it is impossible to be 100% sure about their provenance, but they seem legit to me.

I haven't read through all of them yet. So far, my favourite is a document titled THE RECEIPT OF THE REVELATION OFFERING THE PRIESTHOOD TO MEN OF ALL RACES AND COLORS, where McConkie gives very detailed account about the events surrounding the lifting of the priesthood/temple ban.

This is fascinating material. I have copies of transcripts of the 1967 presentations, 32 in total. I think I counted 36 in his list, however, some are mislabeled and some are entirely new and many that were published are not the ones in the copies that I have. So I have a week or so of comparing and printing to get all of them put together.

Thanks for the link - it will be fun putting it all together.

[brlenox]

In my view he was the last scholar to hold the apostolic office.
I can't think of a member of the current quorum who could be described in the same way.

President Eyering is not a wit behind Elder McConkie in my opinion. In recent presentations he has said somethings that no one has ever taught to my knowledge and he says them in such a way that if you have not had the witness that taught yourself you would not notice that what he said was so profound. It has happened several times now and I can tell that there is little understood by anyone that is not understood by President Eyering but very carefully delivered.

[brlenox]

from Unpublished article McConkie wrote for the Easter 1981 First Presidency Message

It is clear to all that nations the world over are arming themselves with the most awesome and destructive weapons ever devised by men. We deplore the use of nuclear weaponry with its terrible potential for the destruction of life, property, and even of civilization itself. We recognize that such weaponry exists in a number of nations and that others are devoting their wealth and means to acquire it. All history attests that armed nations become warring nations, and it was the Prince of Peace who said, “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” (Matt. 26:52.)

Our constant prayer is that the United States of America will spare no effort in seeking to reach an understanding with other nations that would stop a catastrophic nuclear arms race. We hope and pray that the American nation will be a beacon of righteousness to all the world and will qualify to receive the Book of Mormon promise: “Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.” (Ether 2:12.)

These are great. How can we know for certain that they are authentic?

I own around 50 % or slightly less of the material. I knew the teachers aid to Joseph Fielding McConkie and they were cataloging boxes and boxes of material after his fathers death. So of that material I am confident.

[brlenox]

Here is a link to a blog post written by Dennis B. Horne, who has written biography of Bruce R. McConkie. He laments that these private documents were leaked through anti-Mormons. Nevertheless, he gives some background to the documents. He points out that some of them have actually been published before or have been rewritten in some published talks. He seemed to be aware of the existence of the memo on the Priesthood Revelation.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s Leaked Papers: a Sorry and Sad but Salvageable Situation

Dennis Horne wouldn't happen to be related to David Horne of George Albert Smith "revelation" fame would he?

His father, I believe was Walter Horne who was well ingrained into church leadership society. They are an old family in the church and well respected.

[EmmaLee]

"What people don’t generally visualize about the conditions concurrent, I have this pointed out now in the references in the text, is that there are going to be wars and desolations going on at the time of His coming. Here is one of the sweetest little heresies you will ever find. People in the Church are everlastingly saying, oh, if people would only repent and live better, we’d bring to pass the millennium. If we would just improve ourselves we’d get to the point where the millennium would be ushered in. This is pure nonsense. There isn’t any scripture that intimates this in any way.

When all of these scriptures talk about conditions concurrent, they talk about the desolations, the wars, the carnage, the bloodshed, the wickedness and the fact that the earth is going to get more wicked until the Lord has to come and destroy it by fire. When Jesus comes, He is going to come in the midst of the greatest war that has ever been on earth. The exact hour is when the revelation is fulfilled that says, “I will gather all nations together against Jerusalem.” The whole world will he at war. Jerusalem will be the focal point where the battles make place. This is Armageddon. This is the name of the plain Esdraelon, or whatever it is, outside Jerusalem where the war and conflict will be centered at the hour of the Second Coming.

Well, the Second Coming is fixed, there is a definite time; it won’t be put off or it won’t be hastened. When it does come there will be this war, bloodshed and difficulty which surpasses anything that has ever been. I rather surmise that there will be a little period of time involved, that this won’t just happen overnight. When you see the sort of thing that we just saw over in Palestine, you begin to wonder and think how are things working around. There are one set of nations in the world seemingly on one side and another set on the other side, meaning Russia on one hand and us on the other. It seems like this is a little of the initial ferment and preparatory historical events that lead up to the day when the great cataclysm will break forth."

https://mormonleaks.io/wiki/documents/0 ... e-1967.pdf

[EmmaLee]

Here is a link to a blog post written by Dennis B. Horne, who has written biography of Bruce R. McConkie. He laments that these private documents were leaked through anti-Mormons. Nevertheless, he gives some background to the documents. He points out that some of them have actually been published before or have been rewritten in some published talks. He seemed to be aware of the existence of the memo on the Priesthood Revelation.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s Leaked Papers: a Sorry and Sad but Salvageable Situation

Dennis Horne wouldn't happen to be related to David Horne of George Albert Smith "revelation" fame would he?

His father, I believe was Walter Horne who was well ingrained into church leadership society. They are an old family in the church and well respected.

If this is the Walter Horne you are referring to, he is my uncle. He was a very sweet man, the most Christ-like I've ever known. https://history.lds.org/missionary/indi ... 6?lang=eng

[brlenox]

Here is a link to a blog post written by Dennis B. Horne, who has written biography of Bruce R. McConkie. He laments that these private documents were leaked through anti-Mormons. Nevertheless, he gives some background to the documents. He points out that some of them have actually been published before or have been rewritten in some published talks. He seemed to be aware of the existence of the memo on the Priesthood Revelation.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s Leaked Papers: a Sorry and Sad but Salvageable Situation

Dennis Horne wouldn't happen to be related to David Horne of George Albert Smith "revelation" fame would he?

His father, I believe was Walter Horne who was well ingrained into church leadership society. They are an old family in the church and well respected.

If this is the Walter Horne you are referring to, he is my uncle. He was a very sweet man, the most Christ-like I've ever known. https://history.lds.org/missionary/indi ... 6?lang=eng

Does he have a son also named Walter Horne as Dennis is not old enough to have had a father who died in 1930.

[EmmaLee]

Dennis Horne wouldn't happen to be related to David Horne of George Albert Smith "revelation" fame would he?

His father, I believe was Walter Horne who was well ingrained into church leadership society. They are an old family in the church and well respected.

If this is the Walter Horne you are referring to, he is my uncle. He was a very sweet man, the most Christ-like I've ever known. https://history.lds.org/missionary/indi ... 6?lang=eng

Does he have a son also named Walter Horne as Dennis is not old enough to have had a father who died in 1930.

Nope, my uncle, Walter M. Horne (the poet), did not have a son named Walter.

[e-eye2.0]

"What people don’t generally visualize about the conditions concurrent, I have this pointed out now in the references in the text, is that there are going to be wars and desolations going on at the time of His coming. Here is one of the sweetest little heresies you will ever find. People in the Church are everlastingly saying, oh, if people would only repent and live better, we’d bring to pass the millennium. If we would just improve ourselves we’d get to the point where the millennium would be ushered in. This is pure nonsense. There isn’t any scripture that intimates this in any way.

When all of these scriptures talk about conditions concurrent, they talk about the desolations, the wars, the carnage, the bloodshed, the wickedness and the fact that the earth is going to get more wicked until the Lord has to come and destroy it by fire. When Jesus comes, He is going to come in the midst of the greatest war that has ever been on earth. The exact hour is when the revelation is fulfilled that says, “I will gather all nations together against Jerusalem.” The whole world will he at war. Jerusalem will be the focal point where the battles make place. This is Armageddon. This is the name of the plain Esdraelon, or whatever it is, outside Jerusalem where the war and conflict will be centered at the hour of the Second Coming.

Well, the Second Coming is fixed, there is a definite time; it won’t be put off or it won’t be hastened. When it does come there will be this war, bloodshed and difficulty which surpasses anything that has ever been. I rather surmise that there will be a little period of time involved, that this won’t just happen overnight. When you see the sort of thing that we just saw over in Palestine, you begin to wonder and think how are things working around. There are one set of nations in the world seemingly on one side and another set on the other side, meaning Russia on one hand and us on the other. It seems like this is a little of the initial ferment and preparatory historical events that lead up to the day when the great cataclysm will break forth."

https://mormonleaks.io/wiki/documents/0 ... e-1967.pdf

I agree on the premise of this but also understand that as the wicked become more wicked the righteous will become more righteous. So by that logic more righteousness wouldn't usher in the 2nd coming but it would accompany it. I am not exactly sure what it will look like but President Eyring said we and the generations after us need to be stronger for what is coming.

[EmmaLee]

Agreed. ^^

[Durzan]

The second coming is fixed not on a specific time, but rather on a specific set of enevitable conditions. The actual time the second coming occurs could vary over a certain interval of time depending on exactly how those conditions play out.

One of those conditions (put in general terms) is that the world must satisfy any one of the following:
1. Absolute righteousness of mankind will bring about the Second Coming in a peaceful manner. (Very Improbable, but still possible... given the prophecies of God foretell the opposite if anything, but this could be seen as a warning instead of an absolute conclusion.)

2. Absolute Wickedness of mankind will bring about a destructive second coming. (significantly more likely than the first option, but modern revelation indicates that there will be righteous men and women on earth that are able to seek refuge in Zion.)

3. A balance of wicked and righteousness. Note that this doesn't mean in numbers, as one righteous individual balances over 100 wicked individuals. Therefore overwhelming majority of the world is absolutely wicked, but balanced by a proportionate amount of exceedingly righteous individuals encountered in Zion. (This seems the most likely condition to be fufilled.)

[inho]

Mormon Leaks has published more McConkie documents:
https://mormonleaks.io/wiki/index.php?t ... kie_Papers

Dennis B. Horne gave some background information for these documents too:
A “McConkie Papers” Leak Update: More Evil that can be Turned to Good