Joseph Anderson

First Quorum of the Seventy (October 1, 1976 – December 31, 1978)
Assistant to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles (April 6, 1970 – October 1, 1976)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1986 General Conference
  • Presidents of the Church
    • “I feel greatly honored in being invited to bear testimony regarding my acquaintance and relationship with the leadership of the Church during the past nearly sixty-five years.”
    • “The major part of my life has been devoted to association with prophets of the living God. It was in February 1922 that I became the secretary to the President of the Church, President Heber J. Grant, and I continued in that position until he passed away in 1945.”
• April 1978 General Conference
  • Being “Anxiously Engaged”
    • “This quotation refers to nonmembers as well as Church members; all men and women have the power to do good. It is of the utmost importance that they have the desire and determination to live righteously. We should not be employed at any time in service that is not a good cause. When members of the Church are engaged in doing something that is evil or contrary to a good cause, we are not living up to the obligations we took upon ourselves in the waters of baptism. Very many people in the world, not of our church, are engaged in a good cause and are trying to bring forth much righteousness. Those who are endeavoring to improve mankind, who teach faith in God and the living of a goodly life, are engaged in a good cause and shall not lose their reward therefore.”
    • “The gospel of Christ includes all truth, visible or invisible to the naked eye. It is possible for all men to repent of their sins unless they commit the unpardonable sin. They may receive the blessings of a righteous life if they will only determine to keep the Lord’s commandments, if they will humble themselves and seek his help and guidance.”
    • “How can we be prepared for that day? We must keep the commandments of the Lord; we must be engaged in a good cause, endeavoring to bring forth much righteousness. We must warn our fellowmen. We must teach our children true doctrines and lead them in the paths of rectitude.”
    • “It is innate in human nature that when we have something interesting in life, something precious, something vital, we desire to share it with those whom we love. We have the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the most precious thing, the most important thing in all the world. We love the gospel of our Lord, we love our Father’s children, and we want to share the gospel with them because it will bring joy and happiness to their souls. If accepted and lived, it will bring salvation and exaltation in his kingdom.”
    • “Why are we so greatly interested in influencing our fellowmen to serve God and keep his commandments? They are God’s children; they are our brothers and sisters.”
    • “Think of the great tragedy, the terrible responsibility, that men take upon themselves when they treat so lightly, as is sometimes the case, the destruction of human life. The penalty is an eternal one.”
• October 1976 General Conference
  • We Are a Covenant-making People
    • “The gospel is the everlasting covenant.”
    • “Baptism by water is a part of that covenant—that everlasting covenant. Before entering into the waters of baptism one must learn about the gospel. He must have faith in it, that it is what the Lord says it is, His everlasting covenant, a light to the world, a light to His people. One must prove his faith and sincerity by repentance, by laying aside his evil ways before entering into the covenant of baptism. This holy ordinance, to be valid, must be performed by one having proper authority from Jesus Christ.”
    • “There are among us those who break this covenant after receiving it and turn therefrom. We plead with them to repent and seek forgiveness of their folly and make themselves worthy of the blessings that are promised to those who honor their priesthood covenants and keep the commandments of the Lord.”
• April 1976 General Conference
  • The Matter of Personal Testimony
    • “Notwithstanding the many and great miracles the disciples of our Lord had seen Him perform, there were times when they seem to have had some doubts in their minds concerning their Lord and Master, whether he was truly and indeed the Christ of whom the prophets had spoken.”
    • “It may be revealed to man by God through the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, for by that means can we know all things that it is expedient for us to know. The source of that testimony is the rock of revelation upon which the church of Christ is built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
• April 1975 General Conference
  • The Road to Happiness
    • “Who are the happy people today? Not those who forsake the Lord and devote themselves entirely to the pleasures of life and the physical things of the world. The truly happy people are those who have faith in the Lord and keep the laws of the gospel, those who forget self in their desire and effort to bless others.”
    • “We are fast approaching the time—and perhaps have reached it when our lives are in danger from hoodlums, gangsters, and other evil-minded persons, when lawlessness is so commonplace that our properties, our holdings, our rights and privileges, are in jeopardy. When we destroy the principles of honesty, integrity, and morality, our civilization is most certainly on the verge of losing the power to preserve itself.”
• October 1974 General Conference
  • A Testimony of Christ
    • “God, with his foreknowledge and his acquaintance with his children in their premortal state, knew that some would succumb to the wiles and temptations of Lucifer, that many would fall by the wayside. It was also known by the Father before they came here that of their own free will and choice Adam and Eve would partake of the forbidden fruit, which would open the way for God’s spirit children to take upon themselves mortality. Accordingly, the necessity for a Redeemer and a redemption was understood.”
• April 1974 General Conference
  • Strength of the Spirit
    • “We are living in an important time in the history of mankind and in the history of the Church. People are confused. There was a time when they were willing to accept the word of their ministers and religious advisers, but that time is changing. Regretfully, some ministers of religion are as confused as are the members of their flocks, and, among other mistaken ideas, have come out against the Ten Commandments, declaring that they are out of date and irrelevant to modern society.”
    • “There are those who would desire to destroy this great nation and its liberties for which our forefathers struggled and fought and bled, and there are also those whose great ambition is to cast reflection and doubt upon the revelations and teachings of the Church. They seriously question God’s revealed word and seem to have no desire for or interest in matters pertaining to the Spirit, which are of an eternal nature.”
    • “If we are to accomplish the great purpose of our earth life, we must have power to resist the forces of the evil one; we must overcome the weaknesses of the flesh; we must distinguish between the physical desires and the spiritual strength, which latter provides the cement that makes possible the accomplishment of life’s purposes and goal.”
• April 1973 General Conference
  • The Rock of Revelation
    • “Through his experience and his omniscience, our Heavenly Father knows the end from the beginning. Through his prophets he has revealed and does reveal the history of mankind, the timetable of life upon this planet.”
• October 1972 General Conference
  • Light and Knowledge to the World
    • “To Joseph Smith was given the commission and the authorization from heaven to restore to earth the doctrine, organization, and authority of Christ’s church to a people who had lost the fundamentals of true religion. Joseph Smith’s successors have built and are building upon the foundation that Joseph laid through revelation from God in proclaiming its truth to all the world and in preparing a people to meet the Savior when he shall come to reign upon the earth a thousand years in peace and righteousness. Elder Harold B. Lee, whom we have sustained in this conference as a prophet, seer, and revelator and President of this church, is God’s representative, the mouthpiece of the Lord to his people today, a man whom we love, a man whom we can sustain and support with all our hearts.”
    • “God the Father and his beloved Son have manifested themselves in this dispensation. Heavenly messengers have personally restored the priesthood of God, the power to act in his name. The Spirit of God is operating upon the minds of men and women everywhere. Light and knowledge are being poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth. Marvelous scientific developments are being used to make possible and speed up the preaching of the restored gospel to mankind.”
• April 1972 General Conference
  • Man’s Eternal Horizon
    • “I think perhaps there has never been greater need for faith than is the need today, particularly faith in divine leadership. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a general rule, have faith in divine leadership, but the world needs faith in God, that he rules the world; and the people of this nation and the world need that faith, faith in the God of this land and faith in the God of the world, who is Jesus Christ.”
    • “Our horizon should extend to an unlimited future beyond death—out beyond those things of a temporal nature. Our horizon of the future should not be confused with the close-up horizon of present conditions.”
    • “Our happiness here and hereafter depends upon our actions here. We should therefore seek the finer things of life. The road leading to eternal life must be paved with obedience to the commandments of the Lord.”
• October 1971 General Conference
  • The Living Christ
    • “There are those who have wished that they might have had the privilege of living when the Savior was upon the earth, that they might have known him and heard the sound of his voice and felt the touch of his hands. Yes, it would have been a great privilege and blessing to have been with him when he walked upon the earth had we been among his followers and had faith in his mission. Very few at that time recognized him as the creator of heaven and earth and the Savior of mankind.”
    • “Yes, the world needs contact with the heavens in this day and age. The world needs a prophet. Little does the world generally realize that the Lord is revealing his mind and will through his living prophets today. As Latter-day Saints and members of the Lord’s church, we are truly a light set upon a hill, and it is our privilege and responsibility to assist in the great work of the Savior in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”
• April 1971 General Conference
  • Eternal Joy Is Eternal Growth
    • “We are required to live exemplary lives, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and it is also our responsibility to carry the true gospel message to all mankind.”
    • “One cannot expect to inherit eternal life if he is not willing to pay the price and to do the things required for such salvation and exaltation.”
    • “This does not mean that one can receive exaltation in the kingdom of our Heavenly Father at bargain prices. There are those who offer such bargains, but one gets merely what he pays for. If we are to attain eternal life in our Father’s kingdom, it is not sufficient that we have mere passive belief in our Lord and Savior and his great redeeming sacrifice. Surely one cannot expect to receive the greatest blessings that the Father has in store for his faithful children by paying bargain prices.”
    • “The conditions upon which salvation in our Heavenly Father’s kingdom may be attained are incorporated in the plan that was formulated in the heavens before we came here, and there is no possibility of such salvation without obedience to that plan.”
• October 1970 General Conference
  • The Library of the Mind
    • “I am highly honored and yet greatly subdued in my feelings that I should be considered worthy of the love and confidence of the Lord and of his living prophets to receive the call that has come to me to serve as one of the chosen servants of the Lord. I am humbled by my inadequacy, and my constant prayer is and will be that the Lord will qualify me to do my part in assisting in the rolling forth of this great work in which we are engaged. I love the Lord, I love the gospel, and I love the Brethren.”

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