On Living Forever – Sunday, April 21, 1946
It is a good thing occasionally to examine the reasons for some of the things we do. Customs and habits are relatively easy to make and relatively difficult to break. And among our most persistent habits and customs are those which have to do with traditional days and seasons, one of which is Easter. Some of its symbols have loomed large in our minds. The rabbits and the baskets and the eggs and new spring attire are among the sure signs of its coming, and all add their color to the season. But there would have to be a greater purpose than this to justify perpetuating Easter.
That purpose, of course, to many of us, is to commemorate the return from death to life of Jesus the Christ, the “firstfruits of the resurrection,” by whose triumph over death all mankind have the assurance of a like coming forth from the grave all of which faces us squarely with these facts: Either this event as witnessed and recorded in history is true or it is not. Either men are immortal or they are not. Either we ourselves shall pass through death to life and shall come forth again by resurrection or we shall not. Such issues are not to be compromised. They are true or they are false. Of course, we are free to believe what we want to believe. It is quite reasonable that men should be reluctant to accept what they cannot explain, and it is certainly true that no man now living can explain the process of resurrection. But then who is there among us to explain how life came to be in the first place—and who is there to deny that we live? If we should have to give up everything that men cannot explain, we should have to give up much indeed, including life itself. But it is fortunate that neither truth nor God is limited by man’s understanding.
If they were, We might expect nature and the universe to be in the same chaos as are man’s own affairs. Fortunately, they are not. And so we accept this day in recognition of the truth that if a man die he shall rise again. That we should live forever is surely no greater miracle than that we should live at all—for that same Power who gave us life here, has also given us life hereafter—us, and all men, and all those we love and cherish. Believest thou this? … Yea, Lord: I believe. . . *
*(John 11:26 and 27.)
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Apr. 21, 1946, 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, EST. Copyright 1946.
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April 21, 1946
Broadcast Number 0,870