From Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s book ‘To My Friends,’ he shared. . . .
. . . . We are always looking for common ground and common partners in the “hands-on” work of the ministry. We would be eager to join hands with our friends of every denomination in a united Christian effort to strengthen families and marriages, to demand more morality in the media, to provide humane relief effort in times of natural disasters, to address the ever-present plight of the poor, and to guarantee the freedom of religion that will allow all of us to speak out on matters of Christian conscience regarding the social issues of our time. We have a significant record of working together with others on these foundational issues—as, for example, when we have partnered with Catholic Charities in dozens of joint humanitarian efforts both domestically and internationally. And we look forward to continued efforts to unite our faith with all those who recognize and cherish the role of religion in our society. Most particularly, we must band together to make certain the day never comes that you and I or any other responsible cleric in this nation is forbidden to preach from the pulpit the doctrine he or she holds to be true. But in light of recent socio-political events and current political challenges stemming from them, particularly regarding the sanctity of marriage, that day could come unless we act decisively in preventing it.3 The larger and more united the Christian voice, the more likely we are to carry the day in these matters. In that regard we should remember the Saviors warning that “a house divided against itself” will be a house which finds it “cannot stand” against more united foes pursuing an often unholy agenda.4
Building on some of this past history, and desirous that we not disagree where we don’t need to disagree, I wish to testify to you, our friends, of the Christ we revere and adore in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe in the historical Jesus who walked the dusty paths of the Holy Land and declare that He is one and the same God as the Divine Jehovah of the Old Testament. We declare Him to be both fully God in His Divinity and fully human in His mortal experience, the Son who was a God and the God who was a Son; that He is, in the language of the Book of Mormon, the Eternal God.”5 We testify that He is one with the Father and the Holy Ghost, the Three being One:6 one in spirit, one in strength, one in purpose, one in voice, one in glory, one in will, one in goodness, one in grace—one in every conceivable form and facet of unity except that of their separate embodiment. We testify that Christ was born of His divine Father and a virgin mother, that from the age of twelve onward He was about His true Father’s business, that in doing so He lived a perfect, sinless life and thus provided a pattern for all who came unto Him for salvation.
In the course of that ministry we bear witness of every sermon He ever gave, every prayer He ever uttered, every miracle He ever called down from heaven, and every redeeming act He ever performed. In this latter regard we testify that in fulfilling the divine plan for our salvation, He took upon Himself all the sins, sorrows, and sickness of the world, bleeding at every pore in the anguish of it all, beginning in Gethsemane and dying upon the cross of Calvary as vicarious offering for those sins and sinners, including for each of us. ~Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, To My Friends (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014), 204-207 (The above is from the Dwarsligger® edition.)
