The Very Powers of Hell Shaken Forever

When I was a freshman at BYU, I used to sit at night in my room with my roommate and listen to talks by Elder Holland together. We were both so inspired by his powerful messages both from general conference and BYU devotionals, and it is a cherished memory for me. I thought of that almost immediately when I found out this morning that President Holland had passed away, and I soon had a text from my old roommate who was remembering the same thing. Of all the general authorities I have listened to over the years, I don’t think any have had as profound an influence on me as President Holland. Here are some of talks from him that have blessed my life enormously: 

·       An High Priest of Good Things to Come. This talk I have nearly memorized because I have listened to it so often. In my formative teenage and mission years it was an incredible source of inspiration to keep going and have faith in the future. He declared in words still repeated often today, “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

·       Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence: This BYU devotional opened my eyes to the reality of the adversary and the incredible power of Paul’s words to the Hebrews about continuing despite any opposition that may come. President Holland declared, “Fighting through darkness and despair and pleading for the light is what opened this dispensation. It is what keeps it going, and it is what will keep you going. With Paul, I say to all of you: Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. I acknowledge the reality of opposition and adversity, but I bear witness of the God of Glory, of the redeeming Son of God, of light and hope and a bright future. I promise you that God lives and loves you, each one of you, and that he has set bounds and limits to the opposing powers of darkness. I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the victor over death and hell and the fallen one who schemes there. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and it has been restored, just as we have sung and testified this morning. ‘Fear ye not.’ And when the second and the third and the fourth blows come, ‘fear ye not. . . . The Lord shall fight for you.’ ‘Cast not away therefore your confidence.’”

·       Prophets, Seers, and Revelators: This talk was given in general conference shortly after I arrived in France as a missionary. I remember being so inspired by his witness of the Restoration as I sat in a chapel in Montpellier: “We do ‘thank thee, O God, for a prophet to guide us in these latter days,’ because many of those days will be windblown and tempest-tossed. We give thanks for that morning in the spring of 1820 when the Father and the Son appeared in glory to a 14-year-old boy. We give thanks for that morning when Peter, James, and John came to restore the keys of the holy priesthood and all the offices in it. And in our generation we give thanks for the morning of September 30, 1961, 43 years ago this weekend, when (then) Elder Gordon B. Hinckley was called to the apostleship, the 75th man in this dispensation to be so named. And so it goes down to a day such as this, and so it will go continually until the Savior comes.”

·       Missionary Work and the Atonement: I don’t remember how I first got a copy of the audio for this talk given in 2000 at the MTC, but I had many of its powerful statements going through my mind as I labored as a missionary, such as this one: “Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?... I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?”

·       However Long and Hard the Road: If you need encouragement to make it through difficult times, this is it. I am deeply moved by the stories President Holland shared in this BYU devotional and the way he used them to inspire us. After telling about the incredible building of the Salt Lake Temple, he said this: “Later that year the prestigious Scientific American (1892), referred to this majestic new edifice as a ‘monument to Mormon perseverance.’ And so it was. Blood, toil, tears, and sweat. The best things are always worth finishing. ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?’ (1 Corinthians 3:16). Most assuredly you are. As long and laborious as the effort may seem, please keep shaping and setting the stones that will make your accomplishment ‘a grand and imposing spectacle.’ Take advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow. Dream dreams and see visions. Work toward their realization. Wait patiently when you have no other choice. Lean on your sword and rest a while, but get up and fight again. Perhaps you will not see the full meaning of your effort in your own lifetime. But your children will, or your children’s children will, until finally you, with all of them, can give the Hosanna shout.”

·       Safety for the Soul: In this talk President Holland bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon in one of the most powerful witnesses of the divine origins of that book I have ever heard. He declared, “For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young, unlearned translator…. I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my ‘last days,’ but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days.”

·       None Were With Him: Ultimately the most important testimony from President Holland was his witness of Jesus Christ that He gave over and over again. This talk was one of my favorites. He taught this about the Savior’s great atoning sacrifice: “With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone. But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings that divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fails us. When the uttermost farthing had then been paid, when Christ’s determination to be faithful was as obvious as it was utterly invincible, finally and mercifully, it was ‘finished.’ Against all odds and with none to help or uphold Him, Jesus of Nazareth, the living Son of the living God, restored physical life where death had held sway and brought joyful, spiritual redemption out of sin, hellish darkness, and despair. With faith in the God He knew was there, He could say in triumph, ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.’” 

This is just a small handful of testimonies and teachings from President Holland that have blessed my life enormously. He was a master teacher and his words have been an inspiration to me for as long as I can remember. His witness of the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and the Savior Jesus Christ will be sorely missed, as will his inspiring messages to hold on through adversity. For me, the words of Mormon about Captain Moroni are a fitting tribute for President Holland: “Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Jeffrey R. Holland, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men” (Alma 48:17).