From Elder Neal A. Maxwell, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. . . .his testimony . . . “Moving in His Majesty and Power”
MY TESTIMONY COVERS the range of all that I have learned through the Spirit, through the scriptures through life, and through the mentoring of others. Because God’s is an inexhaustible gospel, it keeps growing, including Heavenly Father’s stretching plan of salvation, which is clearly the best way for His dealings for the human family and to achieve our eternal happiness, justice, and joy.
I exclaim of our Creator’s cosmos. It is overwhelming, it is stunning, and it accords completely with Heavenly Father’s plans for each of us.
I testify, too, His hand is there in ways we scarcely appreciate—as in the preparation for framing and ratifying and implementing the United States Constitution, in which we see His majesty—as well as those cosmic things of the universe.
I gladly testify of the remarkable way in which the Restoration occurred and marvel at how the Lord, using imperfect people, can proceed with His perfect work. And in particular, I look to the day when mankind will yet proclaim the Book of Mormon from the housetops, providing a more distinct alternative to human indifference, despair, and yearning.
I witness with equal strength to the handing down of keys of the Holy Apostleship held by Smith and currently by (at the time of Elder Maxwell’s writing of this book) President Gordon B. Hinkley. . . .(today November 2024: President Russell M. Nelson, as they will be held by subsequent Church presidents.)
It has always been easy for me to believe in God. I have struggled with my own impatience at times but not the basic doctrines. Everything attests to God’s goodness and His majesty—whether it is the universe He created or us as His spirit sons and daughters, or the raising up of a nation centered on the need to have moral agency. Every sign and indicator, as well as the whisperings of the Spirit, converge gracefully in my testimony of this great latter-day work.
Therefore, I thank and worship Heavenly Father for all that He has done in His plan by insisting on our agency in order that we might have joy. So also I thank and worship Jesus for all that he has done through the marvelous and great atonement, as things come to pass in the Lord’s due time.
I believe there is a “time appointed for every man” (Doctrine & Covenants 121:25). When that time comes, one is enveloped, as it becomes “Passengers only beyond this point.”
There is nothing like this work in all the world or in all of history, to which I gladly attest in growing gratitude and spiritual submissiveness which I share with my readers. Through it all, I have had a special wife, special parents, and special children and grandchildren to help me along the way.
It’s truly a marvelous work and a wonder. ~Neal A. Maxwell, (deceased) My Testimony (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2004) p.93-95
