If it Were Not So, I Would Have Told You – Sunday, April 25, 1943
Perhaps it is true that there are more people on the face of earth this Easter Sunday who would more deeply appreciate having an assurance of the reality of the message of Easter than at any previous recorded time in this world’s history. With the specter of uncertainty on many fronts, with millions separated from their loved ones, the assurance that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that He died and arose again on the third day and established the pattern of everlasting life for all men to follow, would give unspeakable comfort to those who live with hovering anxiety.
Happily, to a generation that sorely needs this assurance, it can be said that there is no more validly attested fact of all history—a fact documented by the words of many highly accredited witnesses and testified to through all the ages by the prophets who have spoken for God. Of course, there are still those who say that the grave is the end of life. And they who find comfort in this fallacy, it is their privilege to believe it. But in it there is no hope for those whom death has parted—and since it holds no hope, and since it is contrary both to revelation and reason, it is much to be wondered why there are those who would have us believe it.
Though death do us part, there is yet another meeting place where men may grow in intelligence, in God-like achievement, worlds without end. Such is the promise of Easter—a promise which assures us that death was robbed of its victory long ago, and that those who have departed this life yet live, even as the Lord Himself lives, and again we shall behold them—mothers, children, families, friends, to renew again all the sweetness of life together. To the mothers and fathers whose sons have gone forth, to those who grieve for the departed, to those who face death-which is all of us—this is the message of this day, which gives meaning to the present and brings understanding out of confusion and assurance out of sorrow. Said Jesus the Christ, “If it were not so, I would have told you.” (John 14:2) “For notwithstanding they die, they shall also rise again.” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:27). “Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad.” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22) “If it were not so, I would have told you.”
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, April 25, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright-1943.
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April 25, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,714