In the eighth in a series of 15 videos set to be released by members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught that love and loyalty to the Savior bring unity.
Elder Christofferson’s Easter testimony video is based on his April 2023 general conference message titled “One in Christ.” In the video, he describes what it takes to create and maintain unity.
“It is only in and through our individual loyalty to and love of Jesus Christ that we can hope to be one—one within, one at home, one in the Church, eventually one in Zion, and above all, one with the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,” he said.
The differences that exist among those who follow the Savior can be so different that unity is impossible without the Savior, he said.
“We are too diverse and at times too discordant to be able to come together as one on any other basis or under any other name. Only in Jesus Christ can we truly become one.”
Honoring covenants made with Heavenly Father enable His children to find unity through Jesus Christ.
“The Resurrection of Jesus Christ bears witness of His divinity and that He has overcome all things. His Resurrection bears witness that, bound to Him by covenant, we too may overcome all things and become one,” Elder Christofferson said.
Elder Christofferson on the Savior
Elder Christofferson was sustained in general conference as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on April 5, 2008, in the solemn assembly when the late President Thomas S. Monson was sustained as President of the Church. He has spoken in general conference 38 times.
On the day he was sustained in April 2008, he focused his general conference message on what the Savior meant when He taught that individuals must be “born again.”
“His teaching about a physical and a spiritual baptism helps us understand that both our own action and the intervention of divine power are needed for this transformative rebirth — for the change from natural man to saint (Mosiah 3:19),” Elder Christofferson said.
He taught that spiritual rebirth, unlike the physical rebirth of baptism, is a process and the “central purpose of mortality.”
“Let us not justify ourselves in a casual effort. Let us not be content to retain some disposition to do evil. Let us worthily partake of the sacrament each week and continue to draw upon the Holy Spirit to root out the last vestiges of impurity within us.”
In October 2018 general conference, Elder Chistofferson taught what it means to be “Firm and Steadfast in the Faith of Christ.”
“To persevere firm and steadfast in the faith of Christ requires that the gospel of Jesus Christ penetrate one’s heart and soul, meaning that the gospel becomes not just one of many influences in a person’s life but the defining focus of his or her life and character,” he said.
