'Making a Case for Church History'

The historian and recorder for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feels no obligation more keenly than to "infuse church members with a sense of the practical, spiritual benefit and the eternal importance — not to mention the joy — of acquiring a knowledge of church history."

Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy spoke Friday to a gathering of LDS history enthusiasts at the fourth-annual Church History Symposium at Brigham Young University. His remarks were titled 'Making a Case for Church History.'

"Part to the appeal of such a title surely comes from my legal training," he remarked. "But more importantly, it seems in keeping with the Lord's way of encouraging His children to do the things they ought to do."

The study and enjoyment of the church's history is "an important part of a full life in the gospel of Jesus Christ," he said.

He cited scriptural passages from the Doctrine and Covenants to show that God regards it important to have "a record kept."

"The Prophet Joseph Smith took these directions from the Lord very seriously," Elder Jensen noted, adding that it wouldn't have been easy for the young prophet, who was neither a writer nor a historian by training or inclination.

"Joseph's frustrated exclamation concerning record keeping contained in an 1832 letter to William W. Phelps speaks volumes: 'Oh, Lord God,' he wrote, 'deliver us in due time from the little narrow prison almost as it were total darkness of paper pen and ink and a crooked broken scattered and imperfect language.'"

Yet in spite of his limitations, "a steady stream of revelations, translations, letters, journals, discourses, and histories emerged under his hand or at his direction," the church historian mused. "He truly is the father of Latter-day Saint history."

Elder Jensen said a knowledge of LDS history provides a Godly perspective. He cited Doctrine and Covenants passages stating that God is simultaneously aware of all things past, present and future.

"In our quest to become like God, knowing of 'things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come' provides us with a view of life that is God-like," he said. "This is of crucial importance."

Elder Jensen spoke of the power of historical narrative or stories in influencing men and women to live righteously.

Examples abound from scriptures and LDS history, he said, but added that some come from the lives of ordinary church members.

As an example he quoted an excerpt from the personal history of Thomas Briggs, a 19th-century British convert to the church who lost virtually all his material possessions in a fire at his farm in Salt Lake City.

When a neighbor brought him the bad news as he was returning home with a load of wood, he told the neighbor, "Last fall I came to Utah with nothing, and I had nothing now, and that I always dedicated everything to the Lord and if he thought fit to make a burnt offering of it, well and good."

In the personal history, Briggs wrote, "I comforted my wife the best I could. Then I went to work with a stronger will than ever. I asked my Heavenly Father to give me strength of body, and prayed that He would help me through as He had many times before."
Elder Jensen commented, "A story like this provides inspiration and balm for every man's soul."



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