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Christ and Mary at the Tomb, by Joseph Brickey. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

On cloudless nights, when I have the chance to be away from the interference of city lights and I can look up to see the vastness of creation shining in the sky, my thoughts usually turn to scripture passages that extol God’s resplendent creative power. Moses 1:33, for example, mentions the “worlds without number” Jesus created under the direction of his Father. Or Moses 7:30 proclaims that “millions of earths like this . . . would not be a beginning to the number of [God’s] creations.” These witnesses to the number and complexity of our Lord’s creations are staggering. But what moves me even more is the companion truth that Jesus Christ redeems all that he creates (Doctrine and Covenants 76:42–44). Through him, physical redemption—that is, resurrection—comes to everyone and everything that has been created physically, whether it be human beings, animals, or the earth itself (Moses 7:48–49, 64; Doctrine and Covenants 77:1; 84:101), even sons of perdition (1 Corinthians 15:22).

True it is that complete or comprehensive redemption in the celestial kingdom comes only to those entities that have lived in harmony with God’s laws (Alma 11:40–42; Doctrine and Covenants 88:17–20, 25). However, lest we diminish the power of the resurrection, we must remember that resurrection alone is redemption for all human beings, whether good or bad. Alma taught that “the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death” (Alma 11:41; emphasis added). Thus, resurrection is the exception to the rule that the wicked receive no redemption. The loosing of the bands of death, or resurrection, constitutes a form of redemption.

The prophet Jacob framed his testimony in more positive-sounding terms, but the doctrine is the same—resurrection is redemption: “to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; . . . and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord. . . . This corruption could not put on incorruption. . . . And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more. . . . For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more. And our spirits must have become . . . devils, angels to a devil. . . . O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; . . . death and hell” (2 Nephi 9:6–10). I repeat, resurrection is redemption!

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of our faith and our future. Our beloved past prophet Howard W. Hunter put it powerfully when he declared, “The doctrine of the Resurrection is the single most fundamental and crucial doctrine in the Christian religion. It cannot be overemphasized, nor can it be disregarded. Without the Resurrection, the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes a litany of wise sayings and seemingly unexplainable miracles— . . . with no ultimate triumph. No, the ultimate triumph is the ultimate miracle. . . . [Jesus’s] triumph over physical and spiritual death is the good news every Christian tongue should speak.”[1]

This is the fundamental point. Jesus’s bodily Resurrection is the crucial proposition of our Christian faith as well as the heart of our Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation. Without the Resurrection our existence ultimately would be pointless. If the Resurrection of Jesus Christ can be dismissed, then the divinity of Jesus Christ can be dismissed, and the works of Jesus Christ can be reduced to a list of ultimately meaningless aberrations of nature rather than miracles. The scriptures become mere collections of wise sayings or, even worse, a set of platitudes without eternal significance. Our future with any kind of physicality would be only a wish without hope of fulfillment. Entropy would reign over us. But we know with certainty that this is not the case.

The Empty Tomb. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Witnesses of the Resurrected Lord

Arguments against the historicity or actuality of the Resurrection seem to center on a general disbelief in the reality of supernatural events, discrepancies in the details of the Gospel accounts which cause a lack of trust in the claims of the New Testament, and a forgone dismissal of the assertions of eyewitnesses—both ancient and modern. However, supernatural phenomena ought not be dismissed just because not everyone has experienced them. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Above all, discrepancies in the accounts do not disprove the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, nor do they disqualify the Gospels as untrustworthy. In the reasoned language of one of the most distinguished New Testament textual experts in the world, the late professor Bruce M. Metzger (and a member of another faith, I might add), we find a counterargument: “If the evangelists had fabricated the resurrection narratives, they would not have left obvious difficulties and discrepancies—such as those involving . . . Jesus’ appearances, and similar details. That the accounts have been left unreconciled without any attempt to produce a single stereotyped narrative inspires confidence in the fundamental honesty of those who transmitted the evidence.”[2]

I affirm that even the most skeptical among us may rest assured that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ did happen and will bring about the redemption of all who have experienced a physical existence on this earth or other earths created by Jesus Christ. Again, Professor Metzger’s thoughtful assertions as a distinguished member of the academic community bolster faith in the historicity of the Resurrection:

The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is overwhelming. Nothing in history is more certain than that the disciples believed that, after being crucified, dead, and buried, Christ rose again from the tomb on the third day, and that intervals thereafter he met and conversed with them. The most obvious proof that they believed this is the existence of the Christian church. . . .

It is a commonplace that every event in history must have an adequate cause. Never were hopes more desolate than when Jesus of Nazareth was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb. Stricken with grief at the death of their Master, the disciples were dazed and bewildered. Their mood was one of dejection and defeat, reflected in the spiritless words of the Emmaus travelers, “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). A short time later the same group of disciples was aglow with supreme confidence and fearless in the face of persecution. Their message was one of joy and triumph. What caused such a radical change in these men’s lives? The explanation is that something unprecedented had occurred: Jesus Christ was raised from the dead! Fifty-some days after the crucifixion the apostolic preaching of Christ’s resurrection began in Jerusalem with such power and persuasion that the evidence convinced thousands.[3]

The Earth as a Witness

A brief survey of selected witnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ may provide instructive insights. The first of these is occasionally overlooked—the earth itself. In fulfillment of Zenos’s prophecy that the earth would groan and the rocks of the earth would rend because of the suffering and death of the God of nature (1 Nephi 19:12), Matthew reported that when Jesus died “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:51).

Samuel the Lamanite Prophesies, by Arnold Friberg. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Samuel the Lamanite also prophesied that at the time that Jesus yielded up the ghost, the earth would shake and tremble and the seismic calamity at that time would be much worse than Zenos’s prophecy may have intimated. Said Samuel, “The rocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it one solid mass, shall be broken up; yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath. . . . And there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great” (Helaman 14:21–23). Thus, it seems to me that the witness and testimony of the earth concerning the death of its Creator was far more intense, far more recognizable, and far more lasting than we can imagine.

Samuel’s prophecy also contained something that Zenos’s did not (at least, as we have it)—a vision of others being resurrected: “And many graves shall be opened, and shall yield up many of their dead; and many saints shall appear unto many” (Helaman 14:25). Indeed, Matthew describes the scene seen in vision by Samuel. But it could have happened only after Jesus himself was resurrected, he being “the firstfruits of them that slept,” or first of all creatures to be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:20). Matthew tells us that another “great [violent] earthquake” occurred when Jesus was resurrected (Matthew 28:2). And it would have been this second earthquake when “the [other] graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Matthew 27:52–53).

Matthew’s account is unique among the Gospels. Only Matthew reports the earthquakes, when the earth itself bore witness to both the death and Resurrection of its Creator, heaving to and fro, honoring his infinite and eternal sacrifice and signaling that a new and different age had arrived when the unprecedented power of resurrection was inaugurated. In the words of scholar Bruce Chilton, “The resurrection is portrayed [in Matthew] as ground zero, the time from which the ‘holy ones,’ the saints, arise and begin to encounter those who are still alive. The boundary between the living and the dead is fractured; . . . an eschatological epoch sees its commencement in the specific case of Jesus.”[4] Professor Chilton here seems to infer that the era of Jesus’s return, when all things would be made right, really began at his Resurrection.

Matthew’s report of the earthquakes and their results is supported and strengthened by other Restoration scripture. Already mentioned are the prophecies of Zenos and Samuel the Lamanite, preserved in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 19:12; Helaman 14:20–24). That the earth itself acted as a living witness to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, as well as the Resurrection of the first group of saints in history, is substantiated by Enoch’s experience. The great seer looked upon the earth and heard a voice from the bowels thereof. The earth expressed deep pain and sorrow over the wickedness of her inhabitants and asked when she would be cleansed and sanctified by her Creator (Moses 7:48). Enoch was then privileged to see in vision the scene of the Crucifixion. “And he heard a loud voice; and the heavens were veiled; and all the creations of God mourned; and the earth groaned; and the rocks were rent” (Moses 7:55–56). Thanks to revelations and scripture accounts restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith, we possess the testimonies of multiple witnesses—Enoch, Zenos, Samuel, as well as Matthew—all certifying that the living earth was a spectacular, animated witness of Christ’s suffering and atoning sacrifice.

But even more impressive is the way Restoration scripture corroborates Matthew’s unique declaration among the Gospels that righteous saints, “holy ones,” were resurrected after Jesus’s Resurrection and appeared unto many of the living in Jerusalem. This confirmation is found in the rest of Enoch’s vision after he saw the Crucifixion of the Messiah. He witnessed that “saints arose, and were crowned at the right hand of the Son of Man, with crowns of glory; and as many of the [righteous] spirits as were in prison came forth, and stood on the right hand of God; and the remainder were reserved in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day” (Moses 7:56–57). Significantly, the apocryphal book of Enoch is in harmony with the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price and also asserts in the context of judgment that “the just shall arise from their sleep” (1 Enoch 91:10)—“sleep” being a common euphemism in ancient literature, especially the New Testament, for the condition of those who have died (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 15:20; John 11:11; and 2 Peter 3:4).

Witnesses from the First Resurrection

Obviously then another witness to the literal bodily Resurrection of Jesus was that group of righteous saints who were resurrected right after their Master’s Resurrection (Matthew 27:52–53). There is so much confusion in the world about this passage in Matthew and the raising of these saints, or “holy ones.”[5] But Restoration scripture as usual saves us from confusion and speculation. We turn again to unique passages in the Book of Mormon for help in identifying who these Saints were that were the first to be resurrected after Jesus. The prophet Abinadi testified that they were “all the prophets, and all those that have believed in their words, or all those that have kept the commandments of God,” who had lived and died from the time of our first parents, Adam and Eve, until the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. “They are the first resurrection. They are raised to dwell with God who has redeemed them; thus they have eternal life through Christ” (Mosiah 15:21–23).

Christ at the Cross, by Carl Bloch. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

In 1918 President Joseph F. Smith saw in vision these souls assembled in the paradise of God, “awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the spirit world, to declare their redemption from the bands of death, . . . declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:16, 18). President Smith mentioned some of these individuals by name: Father Adam, the Ancient of Days; glorious Mother Eve; Abel, the first martyr; his brother Seth; Noah; Shem, the great high priest; Abraham; Isaac; Jacob or Israel; Isaiah, “who declared by prophecy that the Redeemer was anointed . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the [spirit] prison”; Ezekiel, who symbolically described scenes from the Resurrection (Ezekiel 37:1–13); Daniel; Malachi; and others (Doctrine and Covenants 138:38–49). As mentioned elsewhere, John the Baptist was in this group (Doctrine and Covenants 133:55). Apparently, translated beings such as Moses and Elijah were also part of this assembly of premeridian disciples awaiting this first resurrection and “were with Christ in his resurrection” (Doctrine and Covenants 133:55, emphasis added; see also 138:41).

All these were eyewitnesses of Christ’s Resurrection, as well as their own, many of whom went into Jerusalem and appeared unto many, according to Matthew (Matthew 27:53). What a stunning occurrence this must have been. Surely it changed at least some former skeptics into believers, just as Christ’s appearance after his Resurrection to his half brother, James (1 Corinthians 15:7), changed him from a nonbeliever (John 7:5) into an eyewitness of the Resurrection and a prominent leader in the Jerusalem branch of the Church (Acts 15:13).

Other Ancient Witnesses

The list of ancient eyewitnesses to our Lord’s Resurrection is substantial. Chief among them were the Apostles, for at least two reasons. One, they were the foundation of the Church, “Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20). Jesus chose his Apostles to lead the Church after his departure (John 15:16) and gave them the keys and sealing power of the holy priesthood (Matthew 16:18–19)—the consummate authority given to humankind on earth to act for God.[6] Two, they were commissioned by Jesus to be eyewitnesses of his resurrected, living reality (Luke 24:46–48; Acts 1:8). Their eyewitness certitude of Jesus’s Resurrection was the doctrinal foundation of the early Church. The criterion for selecting a new member of the Quorum of the Twelve to replace Judas Iscariot was that the individual “must be ordained to be a witness with us of his [Jesus’s] resurrection” (Acts 1:22).

The number of times Apostles declared themselves to be witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ constitutes an important theme in the Acts of the Apostles. Early on, after Jesus’s ascension it was Peter, the chief Apostle, who spoke on behalf of the entire quorum. On the day of Pentecost, for example, “Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: . . . God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it” (Acts 2:14, 32 NIV).

Christ's Apostles Examine His Wounds, by Jeff Ward. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

A short time later, when Peter and John went up to the Jerusalem temple at the time of prayer, three o’clock in the afternoon, they encountered a man disabled from birth. When the man asked for alms, Peter healed him, using the now famous words, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength” (Acts 3:6–7). The man, now leaping, went with the Apostles into the temple precinct, praising God. While the healed man was holding on to Peter and John, all the astonished people came running to them at Solomon’s colonnade (Acts 3:8–11). Peter then addressed the crowd: “The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses” (Acts 3:13–15; emphasis added).

A short time later, Peter was arrested along with other Apostles. They were made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest, who said, “Did we not straitly command you that ye should not teach in his [Jesus’s] name? and behold ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of your fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. . . . And we are his witnesses of these things” (Acts 5:28–30, 32; emphasis added).

After Peter had the revelation that changed the church forever by welcoming Gentiles into the fold, the chief Apostle met with Cornelius, the first Gentile convert to the church without first having to convert to Judaism. Peter testified that he now realized that God was no respecter of persons (he does not show favoritism), and then testified of Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed One, in these words: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: . . . for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly” (Acts 10:38–40; emphasis added).

The Apostle Paul testified that the early Apostles were witnesses of the Crucifixion and Resurrection as he taught people during his first missionary journey. Said he, “The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses” (Acts 13:27–31 NIV; emphasis added). The “many days” Paul spoke of was undoubtedly Jesus’s forty-day post-Resurrection ministry among the Apostles reported in Acts 1:1–3. During that time he showed himself to be a resurrected personage by sure signs and tokens (Greek tekmeriois), which we believe are some of the same tokens we receive in latter-day temples.

Christ Praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, by Hermann Clementz. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Ultimately, Paul spoke of his own call to be a witness of the risen Lord when he was back in Jerusalem after his third missionary journey. He was being falsely accused of defiling the temple. Standing on some steps of the Antonia Fortress (“castle” in Acts 21:34), Paul proclaimed his testimony by giving a spirited speech to the hostile crowd, describing his conversion to Christ while on the road to Damascus, and the role of one Ananias, who blessed him and proclaimed his chosen status. He said, “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law [of Moses], having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard” (Acts 22:12–15).

The foregoing examples describe and confirm the importance of apostolic eyewitnesses of Jesus’s literal Resurrection in the Church of Jesus Christ in the meridian dispensation. As it was in days of old, so it still is today, as the Prophet Joseph Smith stated, “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”[7]

Resurrection and Restoration

In these latter days, the restoration of authorized living apostles and prophets, possessing authentic witness of Jesus’s bodily Resurrection, began with Joseph Smith’s First Vision. It was of such epic significance that two resurrected beings, both God the Father and his Beloved Son, Jesus Christ,[8] appeared to inaugurate the ancient order of doctrines and practices that comprise the kingdom of God on earth. President Ezra Taft Benson said, “The appearance of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ to the boy prophet is the greatest event that has occurred in this world since the resurrection of the Master.”[9] The Prophet Joseph saw and heard the Father and the Son and so became a living witness of the literal bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sometime later Joseph was “ordained an apostle of Jesus Christ, to be the first elder of this church” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:2), alone possessing all the keys of the holy priesthood (Doctrine and Covenants 28:2–3; 132:7). Others would follow, but he was the first in this last dispensation of the fulness of times.

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught us much about resurrection, especially by simply bringing forth the Book of Mormon. Ages and ages before it was even written, the seer Enoch heard the voice of the Lord declare that in a future day he would send truth out of the earth, “to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men” (Moses 7:62). The Book of Mormon is proof that this promise has been fulfilled. According to Enoch’s experience its chief purpose is to testify of the reality of the Resurrection, Christ’s and everyone else’s. Many, many passages in Mormon’s record discuss resurrection and how it operates.

The Doctrines of Resurrection and Restoration

The Book of Mormon serves as a divine tutorial on the doctrine of the Resurrection. An aspect of that doctrine that is uniquely taught in the Book of Mormon is the relationship between resurrection and restoration. “The resurrection is a perfect manifestation of a larger law—the law of restoration.”[10]

Resurrection is a restoration of the spirit to the physical body and the body to the spirit. Every limb and joint will be restored to its body. Not even a single hair of a person’s head will be lost, “but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame” (Alma 40:23; emphasis added; see Alma 11:43–44). Resurrection is but one aspect of the restoration of all things, physical and spiritual, as taught by Alma (Alma 41:2–4). Resurrection “illustrates beautifully the justice and order upon which the kingdom of heaven is founded. In the resurrection each person is called forth by that law to which he has chosen to give allegiance. Thus, those choosing to live a celestial law will be called forth in a celestial resurrection; those who choose to live a terrestrial standard will come forth in a terrestrial resurrection; the adherents of a telestial standard will come forth in a telestial resurrection; and the sons of perdition will come forth in a resurrection of their own. The order of resurrection is from most righteous to most wicked—Christ is the first fruits of them that slept, and the sons of perdition will be the last.”[11]

I repeat, resurrection is one aspect of the law of restoration—bringing back that which once existed, good for good, bad for bad, a wicked state for wickedness in mortality. Were it not for Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, we would not possess such clarity about the law of restoration and its relationship to resurrection. How fitting and proper that the premier scripture of the Restoration should elucidate the relationship between restoration and resurrection—the latter being one of the doctrinal focuses of the Book of Mormon precisely because it is another witness of Jesus Christ.

A knowledge of the restoration-resurrection connection even helps give us insight into the prophet Ezekiel’s discussion of two seemingly disparate topics in one chapter—his vision of dry bones on the one hand and the coming together of the stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph on the other (Ezekiel 37). Both are part of the larger law of restoration: dry bones will live again through the restoration we call resurrection; Israel will inherit their lands of inheritance in the Resurrection as part of the restoration we call the gathering of Israel; and new scripture, the stick of Joseph or Book of Mormon, will merge with existing scripture, the stick of Judah or Bible, as part of the restoration of all gospel truth in the dispensation of the fulness of times. The Lord can restore physical life to dry bones, and he can restore spiritual life to floundering individuals and nations through the restoration of ancient scripture. This is all part of the Lord’s infinite power and plan.

Twenty-five Hundred Witnesses

Of special interest to me is the way the Book of Mormon describes how twenty-five hundred souls also became eyewitnesses of our Savior’s literal Resurrection. Upon his inaugural, post-Resurrection visit to the New World, he invited the multitude who had gathered at the temple in the land Bountiful to come forward and thrust their hands into his side, and to feel the nail prints in his hands and feet, so they would know for themselves that he was the God of Israel, their very God, and the God of the whole earth and had been slain for the sins of the world. “And this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come” (3 Nephi 11:14–15).

Here, one is reminded of the language used by John the Apostle to introduce his first epistle to help readers embrace Jesus of Nazareth as the resurrected Messiah through the testimonies of those who were his eyewitnesses. He wrote, “Brethren, this is the testimony which we give of that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled . . . the Word of life” (Joseph Smith Translation, 1 John 1:1).

The Resurrected Christ Appears to the Nephites, by Matthew James Warren. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

John’s credentials as an eyewitness are not inflated. It was John who was with Jesus and heard him declare, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). And it was John who then saw for himself Jesus bring Lazarus—already dead four days—back to life as a graphic visual aid, driving home the point that he really was “the Life,” that he did have power over death (John 11:44). It was John, beloved of Jesus on the basis of a family relationship and not arbitrary favoritism, who leaned on the Savior’s chest during the emotional events of the Last Supper (John 13:23). It was John who was at the cross and was asked by Jesus, as he hung there, to care for his mother, who was also the beloved disciple’s aunt (John 19:26–27). It was John who, running with Peter to the tomb because they were two of the chief Apostles, arrived first to inspect the empty tomb (John 20:4). It was John who, along with six other Apostles, was fed an actual dinner, cooked by their resurrected Master (John 21:9, 12–13). And it was John who, at the Savior’s invitation, asked for and was granted temporary power over death (being translated) to bring souls unto Christ until the Second Coming (John 21:20–23; Doctrine and Covenants 7:1–8). It was John who testified of all these things and who wrote down all these things (as the above parenthetical references attest) and who knew Jesus’s life so well that he supposed that if everything Jesus did “should be written . . . that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). To the point, John’s witness and testimony of Jesus Christ are beyond reproach.

The Book of Mormon mentions two other powerful prophets who received personal visitations by Jesus Christ centuries after his appearance to the twenty-five hundred souls at the temple in the land Bountiful. These two are the father and son prophetic duo, Mormon and Moroni (Mormon 1:15; Ether 12:39). The latter stated that Jesus talked with him “face to face,” and spoke to him “in plain humility, even as a man telleth another” (Ether 12:39). Without question, Moroni became a witness of the Savior’s living reality. Equally impressive is the way Jesus interacted with that prophet, in plain humility, as a friend speaks to another, not in a master-servant arrangement but in meekness and sensitivity.

Many Latter-day Witnesses

From this point on, sacred records are quiet about the emergence of eyewitnesses to the Savior’s living reality until a new age of restoration was inaugurated by the First Vision and a glorious flood of revelation began to wash over the world.

In these latter days, Jesus Christ has appeared to a documented list of witnesses. Among the earliest and most inspiring visitations to me is the one described by the Prophet Joseph Smith and Elder Sidney Rigdon. It carries with it a special feeling and power, perhaps because it harks back to Stephen’s experience in the early church (Acts 7:55–56) and it speaks of Christ’s complementary activities involving his creative and redemptive powers:

And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fulness; and saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshipping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever. And now after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the only Begotten of the Father—that by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:20–24)

Keeping in mind those words, fast forward in time to our day, to the testimony of another special witness. Speaking in the October 2014 general conference, President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve concluded his address, entitled “The Witness,” with this comment:

After all the years that I lived and taught and served, after the millions of miles I have traveled around the world, with all that I have experienced, there is one great truth that I would share. That is my witness of the Savior Jesus Christ.

Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon recorded the following after a sacred experience:

“And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

“For we saw him” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22–23).

Their words are my words.[12]

One would be hard-pressed to find a more potent modern witness of the Savior’s reality than that.

Others to whom the resurrected Christ showed himself, according to various accounts, include Martin Harris (1827),[13] Oliver Cowdery (1829),[14] Newel Knight (1830),[15] Lyman Wight (1831),[16] Orson F. Whitney (1876),[17] Heber J. Grant (1883),[18] John Taylor (before 1888),[19] Lorenzo Snow (1898),[20] George Q. Cannon (before 1902),[21] George F. Richards (1906),[22] Joseph F. Smith (1918),[23] David O. McKay (1921),[24] LeGrand Richards (1926),[25] Hugh B. Brown (1975),[26] and David B. Haight (1989).[27]

Other elect souls have had supernal personal experiences with Jesus Christ. Elder Melvin J. Ballard described the following occurrence while he was on the Fort Peck Reservation doing some missionary work with his brethren.

I found myself one evening in the dreams of the night in that sacred building, the temple. After a season of prayer and rejoicing I was informed that I should have the privilege of entering into one of those rooms, to meet a glorious Personage, and, as I entered the door, I saw, seated on a raised platform, the most glorious Being my eyes have ever beheld or that I ever conceived existed in all the eternal worlds. As I approached to be introduced, he arose and stepped towards me with extended arms, and he smiled as he softly spoke my name. If I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He took me into his arms and kissed me, pressed me to his bosom, and blessed me, until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt! When he had finished, I fell at his feet, and, as I bathed them with my tears and kisses, I saw the prints of the nails in the feet of the Redeemer of the world. The feeling that I had in the presence of him who hath all things in his hands, to have his love, his affection, and his blessing was such that if I ever can receive that of which I had but a foretaste, I would give all that I am, all that I ever hope to be, to feel what I then felt! . . . I see Jesus now not upon the cross. I do not see his brow pierced with thorns nor his hands torn with the nails, but I see him smiling, with extended arms, saying to us all: “Come unto me!”[28]

Undoubtedly, there are others in recent times who have been blessed with an eyewitness testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ’s living reality. President Harold B. Lee, eleventh President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, left us with this thought-provoking declaration:

Some years ago two missionaries came to me with what seemed to them to be a very difficult question. A young . . . minister had laughed at them when they had said that Apostles were necessary today in order for the true Church to be upon the earth. They said that the minister said, “Do you realize that when the Apostles met to choose one to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judas, they said it had to be one who companied with them and had been a witness of all things pertaining to the mission and resurrection of the Lord? How can you say you have Apostles, if that be the measure of an Apostle?”

And so these young men said, “What shall we answer?”

I said to them, “Go back and ask your minister friend two questions. First, how did the Apostle Paul gain what was necessary to be called an Apostle? He didn’t know the Lord, had no personal acquaintance. He hadn’t accompanied the Apostles. He hadn’t been a witness of the ministry nor of the resurrection of the Lord. How did he gain his testimony sufficient to be an Apostle? And the second question you ask him is, How does he know that all who are today Apostles have not likewise received that witness?”

I bear witness to you that those who hold the apostolic calling may, and do, know of the reality of the mission of the Lord.[29]

And finally, President Ezra Taft Benson, thirteenth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offered this testimony that serves as a fitting summary of all such witnesses:

Since the day of Resurrection when Jesus became “the firstfruits of them that slept,” there have been those who disbelieve and scoff.They maintain there is no life beyond mortal existence.Some have even written books which contain their fanciful heresies to suggest how Jesus’ disciples perpetrated the hoax of His resurrection. But I say, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest historical event in the world to date. In this dispensation, commencing with the Prophet Joseph Smith, the witnesses are legion. As one of those called as a special witness, I add my testimony to those of my fellow Apostles; He lives! He lives with resurrected body.There is no truth or fact of which I am more assured, or know better by personal experience, than the truth of the literal Resurrection of our Lord.[30]

Thank heaven (literally) for the many pure and clear witnesses of our Savior’s resurrected living reality—both ancient and modern. And thank heaven for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ that includes both latter-day scripture containing an unmatched understanding of the doctrine of the Resurrection and for the restored foundation of living witnesses of the Christ’s Resurrection. Truly, resurrection and restoration are intertwined.

Because of the restored gospel, we know of the Savior’s invitation to all who are willing to keep their covenants to become eyewitnesses for themselves: “Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:1).

Notes

[1] Howard W. Hunter, “An Apostle’s Witness of the Resurrection,” Ensign, May 1986, 16.

[2] Bruce M. Metzger, The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1965), 127.

[3] Metzger, New Testament, 126–27.

[4] Bruce D. Chilton, Resurrection Logic (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019), 134–35.

[5] See, for example, Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah, 2 vols. (New York: Doubleday, 1994), 2:1124–26.

[6] Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980), 92.

[7] Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Joseph Smith [2007], 49.

[8] Stephen E. Robinson, “God the Father, Overview,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols., ed. Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 2:548.

[9] Ezra Taft Benson, “Life Is Eternal,” Ensign, June 1971, 34.

[10] Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1991), 3:303.

[11] McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 3:303–4.

[12] Boyd K. Packer, “The Witness,” Ensign, May 2014, 97; emphasis added.

[13] Dean C. Jessee, comp. and ed., The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and Brigham Young University Press, 2002), 13.

[14] Jessee, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, 14.

[15] Brother Newell Knight “saw Heaven opened and beheld the Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, and had it made plain to his understanding that the time would come whe[n] he would be admitted into his presence to enjoy his society for ever and ever.” History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834], The Joseph Smith Papers.

[16] Church History in the Fulness of Times: Student Manual, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003), 100. The fourth general conference of the Church convened on June 3, 1831. Joseph Smith said, “The Lord displayed His power to the most perfect satisfaction of the Saints.” Lyman Wight described the coming of the Savior. “The Prophet Joseph, Harvey Whitlock, and Lyman Wight saw the heavens open and Jesus Christ sitting on the right hand of the Father. Lyman testified that he saw the Son of God making intercession to the Father for the Saints.” In F. Mark McKiernan and Roger D. Launius, eds., An Early Latter Day Saint History: The Book of John Whitmer Kept by Commandment (Herald Pub. House, 1980), 67; see also “Levi Hancock Journal,” Church History Department, Salt Lake City, 91–92.

[17] Jack M. Lyon, Linda Ririe Gundry, Jay A. Parry, eds., Best-Loved Stories of the LDS People (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997), 216–17. This is a magnificent description of the Savior’s experience in Gethsemane.

[18] Lyon, Gundry, and Parry, Best-Loved Stories of the LDS People, 261.

[19] Church History in the Fulness of Times, 430.

[20] Lyon, Gundry, and Parry, Best-Loved Stories of the LDS People, 239–40.

[21] In Lawrence R. Flake, Prophets and Apostles of the Last Dispensation (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2001), 184. “Brother Cannon’s witness of Christ’s reality stands as a moving testimony to the force behind all the efforts of his lifetime of service to the kingdom: ‘I know that Jesus lives; for I have seen him. I know that this is the Church of God, and that it is founded on Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. I testify to you of these things as one who knows.’ From Joseph E. Cardon and Samuel O. Bennion, comp., Testimonies of the Divinity of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints (Independence, MO: Zion’s Printing and Publishing, 1930), 87.

[22] Lucile C. Tate, Beloved Apostle (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982), 47. Apostle George F. Richards, father of Apostle LeGrand Richards, sent the account of his encounter with the Savior in a letter to his missionary son.

[23] Doctrine and Covenants 138:18–19, 23–25, 29–30.

[24] Clare Middlemiss, comp., Cherished Experiences from the Writings of President David O. McKay (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1955), 102.

[25] Tate, Beloved Apostle, 137.

[26] Edwin B. Firmage, ed., An Abundant Life: The Memoirs of Hugh B. Brown (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1988), 145.

[27] David B. Haight, “The Sacramen—and the Sacrifice,” Ensign, November 1989, 59–60.

[28] Bryant S. Hinckley, Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin Joseph Ballard (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1949), 156–57.

[29] Clyde J. Williams, ed., The Teachings of Harold B. Lee (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1996), 546–47.

[30] Ezra Taft Benson, “Five Marks of the Divinity of Jesus Christ” (address to Latter-day Saint Student Association LDSSA, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, December 9, 1979); emphasis added.