"Members of the Church who have testimonies and who live clean and upright lives, but who are not courageous and valiant, do not gain the celestial kingdom," Elder Bruce R. McConkie said at the October 1974 general conference. "Theirs is a terrestrial inheritance. Of them the revelation says 'These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.' (D&C 76:79.)

"As Jesus said, 'No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.' (Luke 9:62.)"What is the testimony of Jesus? And what must we do to be valiant therein?

" 'Be not . . . ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,' Paul wrote to Timothy, ' . . . but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel.' (2 Tim. 1:8.) And to the Beloved John came this divine message: 'The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.' (Rev. 19:10.)"

Elder McConkie said: "The testimony of our Lord! The testimony of Jesus! What a glorious and wondrous concept! It opens the door to glory and honor with the Father and the Son forever! The testimony of Jesus is to believe in Christ, to receive His gospel, and to live His law.

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"Jesus is the Lord. He is God's own Son who came into the world to ransom us men from the temporal and spiritual death brought upon us by the fall of Adam. Jesus has bought us with His blood. He is the resurrection and the life. He 'hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.' (2 Tim. 1:10.) He is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Advocate with the Father."

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