Korea Talk by Bruce R. McConkie
TO ALL THE KOREANS AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF ASIA
--March 5, 1971
By Elder Bruce R. McConkie
(Note: this text is a copy of an article taken from a book entitled “The Expanding Church” compiled by Spencer J. Palmer, published by Deseret Book Company in 1978)
(Note: The era of change through which members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are now passing requires readjustment in attitudes and direction. As many Latter-day Saints are called upon to reach out from a Westernized church into the development of a universal kingdom of God, the peoples of Asia are of special concern. Their languages and traditions are relatively little understood in the Church at large, but with God’s help members will successfully meet the challenge of bridging that cultural gap. Asians are an extraordinary people whose influence will be increasingly felt as they obtain an honorable place within the ranks of the Church. Such is the thrust of the message published here for the first time. It was originally delivered by Elder McConkie at a dinner gathering of returned Korea missionaries and their families at the Provo Utah Sharon East Stake Center on March 5, 1971. Though the audience to which it was addressed was specialized, the message is of enduring and universal importance.)
What I shall do now, if I may be guided by the Spirit, is give you some feelings of what is involved in taking the gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth, with particular reference to Asia, and more specifically to the great nation of Korea.
By way of comparison, let us look back to the religious situation in the meridian of time. We are faced with some conditions that are analogous to those that prevailed when Jesus came and set up his church and kingdom on this earth in the meridian of time. He then had in force a particular system so far as preaching the gospel to nations and peoples was concerned. He had the express and pointed requirement that the gospel was meant only for the house of Israel, only for the literal descendants of Abraham. He taught them, and he sent the apostles and seventies to teach them. He laid a restriction upon them. He did not send his missionaries to other nations of the earth; as a matter of fact, in large measure this requirement had been in force for generations among people who were the seed of Abraham and the chosen lineage. Abraham’s children made up the family that was appointed to receive the gospel in that day and for that time.
Then there came a day when Jesus commanded that the gospel should go to all the world, and he erased what had been before. He removed all restrictions of the past. He said, in effect, “From this time, the gospel is to go to all the world.” He said it plainly and clearly and bluntly. But his apostolic ministers had been so completely and totally indoctrinated with the fact that the plan of salvation was limited to a particular nation that they found it exceedingly difficult to completely reverse the field and begin going to the gentile nations and to the ends of the earth. And so, we have a New Testament account of considerable difficulty and turmoil when Paul and Peter and others were involved in making the transition from a day when the gospel was limited, to the day when it went to everyone; the transition from a church that was for a limited group, to a world church.
Now, this change didn’t occur overnight. There was at least a quarter of a century involved, and during all that period there were conflict, turmoil, contention, difficulty, and differences of opinion. Much of the disagreement centered around circumcision, that is, around the adoption of the total Mosaic system, circumcision being the symbol of it. Finally a world concept of the church was established.
Now we are at the beginning of an era of transition in our day that in large measure is comparable to what went on in New Testament times. In this dispensation we haven’t yet taken the gospel to all the world, and yet we have revelations that require it. However, we have done the only possible thing that could have been done in this dispensation: we began the missionary work to the extent of our capacity and our ability. With a few missionaries we started out in the surrounding areas of the United States. Soon our missionaries were in Canada; then they were in England; then they spread to the nations of continental Europe; and then they went to the islands of the Pacific. And in all these places we had some impact. Yet in our revelations we are commanded to go to all nations; and so even in the early days, in an attempt to do what the Lord required, the missionaries went to India and to various nations in the nethermost parts of the Lord’s vineyard. But no success, to speak of, attended any of these labors. I can remember isolated instances of conversion only. And it has gone on that way until almost the present moment in the Church.
When I was a young missionary, we boasted with some pride that there were fifteen hundred to two thousand missionaries out in the world. At the present moment [1971) we have almost 14,000 missionaries in full-time service. The Church is doubling in membership in less than a quarter of a century, and the missionary force is increasing about as rapidity as the church membership increases. In no more than twenty years from now it will be no problem to have 25,000 missionaries out [this figure was reached in 1976], and forty or fifty years from now, 50,000; and seventy-five years from now, 100,000, just assuming the normal ratios of increase that are projected with the present rate of growth.
I indicate these figures to show that we are coming into a period of time when, for the first time in the history of the Church, we are beginning to get the strength to go out to the ends of the earth and fulfill in small measure now, but in large measure in due course, the requirement to take the gospel to all the people. We’re making our start.
It is in our day that we’re beginning in Asia, and it is in Asia where so many people are. We haven’t realized this in the Church for the obvious reason that our ancestry derives from western and northern Europe. We have been a European-centered culture, as it were. And predominantly, the influence of the church has been expended in that part of the world.
I’m not intending to indicate that there will ever be a day when there will be a total swing away from the culture we have and the influence that has so far been spread. But I do want to open the door and indicate that there is going to be a major shift in emphasis as other nations come in and make their influence felt in the gospel. So, as rapidly as we have gained the power—meaning the strength, the financial means, and the personnel—the Lord has somehow had some historical events occur, events that are wholly normal, circumstances without anything seemingly miraculous being involved, that have opened up other nations in the spread of the gospel.
Asia is where the people are. The first time my wife and I went to Japan we met Brother Ted Price, who was there with the American Embassy, a faithful member of the Church. He said to me, half in jest, but with a serious overtone, “When are you fellows going to quit doing missionary work with the minority groups and get over to where the people are?” The people are in Asia.
When we first went to Hong Kong, President Brent Hardy said, “Welcome to two of the four corners of the earth.” He meant his mission. I said, “How many nonmembers of the Church are there in your mission?” {He said, “One billion 700 Million.” Asia is where the people are! We have divided his mission since then—but there are still 1 billion 700 million people to whom we must preach.
We have dedicated the land of Indonesia. A little over a year ago we had twelve missionaries there. There are 131 million people in Indonesia; it is the fifth largest nation in the world.
We haven’t yet come to the point where we can get to all the nations of the earth. We don’t have the personnel; we don’t have the strength. There aren’t enough missionaries to do it. There are 840 million people who speak Mandarin, the largest number of people who speak any language in the world. We haven’t done a thing yet on mainland China. But we ought to realize that the Lord meant what he said when he gave the command, speaking of the gospel that was restored through Joseph Smith, that this gospel was going to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. That’s literal in the full sense of the word. There is to be no nation, no kindred, no tongue, and no people who will not hear the restored gospel, as it came through Joseph Smith, and hear it before the second coming of the Son of Man.
There’s a timetable, a divine timetable. We hear many sermons preached about how imminent the second coming may be—that it could be in so many years, that it will come soon because of this, that, or the other thing. I don’t know when the second coming will be, but it won’t be next week, and it won’t be next year, and it won’t be before an appreciable period of time, because it’s not going to come until two things take place.
The first thing that must take place is that the restored gospel is to be preached in every nation and among every people and to those speaking every tongue. Now there is one immediate reaction to this: Can’t we go on the radio and preach the gospel to Korea, or to the other nations of the earth? We certainly can, but that would have very little bearing on the real meaning of the revelation that says we must preach it to every nation, kindred, and people. The reason is the second thing that must occur before the second coming: The revelations expressly, specifically, and pointedly say that when the Lord comes the second time to usher in the millennial era, he is going to find, in every nation, kindred, and tongue, and among every people, those who are kings and queens, who will live and reign a thousand years on earth. (Revelation 5:9-10. )
The way we become kings and priests is through the ordinances of the house of the Lord. It is through celestial marriage; it is through the guarantees of eternal life and eternal increase that are reserved for the Saints in the temples. The promise is that when the Lord comes he is going to find in every nation and kindred, among every people speaking every tongue, those who will, at that hour of his coming, have already become kings and priests. This means that they’ve been converted to the truth and have grown in grace and the things of the spirit to the point that they receive the same blessings in the house of the Lord that some of us have received. All this is to preceded the second coming of the Son of Man.
This begins to put things in perspective, and I think we have commenced this transition period. We have commenced the quarter century of our day. There has been a transfer of the emphasis so far as the preaching of the gospel and the proclamation of the message of peace are concerned. We have commenced that period, and there are going to be some struggles and some difficulties, some prejudices and some uncertainties along the way. There are going to be members of the Church who are prejudiced against this nation or that because of the color of the people’s hair, or their eyes, or their skin, or because of some social circumstance that has existed in their prior history.
The Lord’s hand is in the missionary system of the Church. He works it out so that every time we have the strength to supply another 150 missionaries, we discover a place where we need another mission—and we put the additional 150 missionaries there. World events roll along and their difficulties and turmoil and war, and yet out of it all, doors are opened for the preaching of the gospel.
In Korea we had a war, and men died and their blood was shed; pride, iniquity, immorality, and all that attends war ran rampant. You might say the devil was having a field day. But the Lord hadn’t turned the world over to Satan; he was still keeping control. So out of all the difficulties that occurred in Korea came the preaching of the gospel to that nation. Into the Korean conflict was woven a silver thread of grace and goodness in life. Out of the Korean war came the Church in the Korean nation. How did it come? Obviously, we had our LDS servicemen there, including many returned missionaries and active Church members. You don’t have returned missionaries and Mormon elders who close their mouths. They taught the gospel to their buddies; converts were made. It was inevitable that their teachings would spill over in some measure to the native people. Thus, we ended up with little groups of Korean people in the Church when the so-called peace arrived. Now there was only one thing to do, and that was to take care of the Saints. Missionaries had to go in, and the spread of the gospel began anew. Now we have 5,000 members of the Church in Korea.
It is going to go like that from nation to nation and from kingdom to kingdom. I don’t have the slightest idea how we’re going to get into India, or China, or some of the other nations. But it is absolutely guaranteed that we’ll get there.
Just a little interesting sidelight on this. There are two Chinese languages, Mandarin and Cantonese. The people speak Mandarin in Taiwan and Nationalist China, they speak Cantonese in Hong Kong. We have a mission in Hong Kong with five thousand members, and another mission in Taiwan with five thousand members. Just by chance, we now have Saints in Hong Kong and in Taiwan whose ancestry stems from every major city on mainland China. One of these days, in the normal course of world events, something will happen to open mainland China to the gospel. And when that day comes, we will have hundreds of elders who will give anything in the world that they possess to get back to the land of their ancestors to preach the gospel and bear testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet. The Lord opens the way and prepares these things to come to pass.
In Korea, there are 32 million people. As a matter of fact, if we had the power and the strength, we would have two missions in Korea now. {Note: a second mission was organized in 1975] And there would be 15 or so million nonmembers in each mission. We have four missions in Japan [eight in 1978] And there would be 15 or so million nonmembers in each mission. We have four missions in Japan [eight in 1978] and there are 105 million people there. When Brother Ezra Taft Benson and I were assigned to the Asian area less than three years ago, they were just organizing the fifth mission in Asia. Now we have nine. Where we had a few hundred baptisms in years gone by, we now have many thousands.
The Church is growing, and it’s a very stable growth; it’s a sound and good growth. Korea is the only nation on earth where we baptize more men than we baptize women, and that has a lot of good, wholesome aspects to it. We’re getting a very high type of people everywhere in Asia. It would be interesting to know how it came about that the blood of Israel became scattered into the Asian parts of the earth. We can really only speculate about this. It is my judgment that we’ll never really know how this came about until the day we begin to receive revelation on it. This may well mean that it won’t be until the millennial era arrives; but the means by which it was brought to pass is not nearly as important as the fact that it exists.
Those people who have been given patriarchal blessings from Korea and elsewhere have been told by the spirit of inspiration that they are of the house of Israel. There isn’t any question at all about that. This means that in their veins flows the same blood that flows in our veins. It’s not just the single fact that God has made of one blood all the nations of men, that they should dwell in all the face of the earth. It is the fact that the house of Israel, the choicest and most select and favored blood of the earth, has been spread everywhere. And we’re getting that blood into the Church in Korea and in Asia, and I’m sure we’ll find it in all the untouched nations of the earth as rapidly as we get into them.
Last year there were six Korean couples who were able to go through the temple and receive their blessings; another seven couples are scheduled to go this year. That’s a small beginning. That’s the beginning of doing things that will make kings and priests in the Korean nation to prepare a people there for the second coming of the Son of Man. What we do in the spread of the gospel to that nation will have eternal overtones. It won’t be something that is limited to the brief span of mortality. It is going to affect people for all eternity.
In order to completely and totally fulfill the revelation that people are entitled to have the gospel taught to them in their own tongue and in their own language, the eventual destiny is to have the native people do the missionary work. This means Koreans teaching Koreans. We can’t do it until they become strong enough, and they can’t become strong enough without our help. Interestingly, in this respect, in the Japan Central Mission, 41 of the 165 missionaries who are now serving are native Japanese. One missionary in four of those on missions there is a native person. Nearly every one is a convert to the Church. Someday there are going to be hundreds and hundreds of native Koreans, in their own tongue and in their own language, teaching their own kindred and gaining the experience that will qualify them for positions of leadership in stakes of Zion that will be organized.
There can’t be any question at all but what there will be stakes in Korea. We just created our first stake in Asia; it was organized in Tokyo—four thousand members in six wards—and the day it was organized, every stake and ward officer had been to the temple and had had his own endowments. Every one of them was a full tithe payer. This is more than you can say for some stakes that are in the shadows of the temples, as it were.* [*As of 1978, there were 7 stakes in Japan.] As in Japan, so in Korea. There will be stakes of Zion. Someday there will be a stake in Seoul and one in Pusan, and who knows where else.
Now I don’t know whether there will be a temple in Korea, but I can say this: it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to see, in the lives of us here, the establishment of a temple there. The gospel can explode and expand and spread that rapidly. And I do know this in principle: that whenever there is a large enough congregation of Saints to justify these things, somehow the Lord opens a way and inspires the brethren, and the eventuality comes to pass. Someday, assuming the growth that there ought to be, we’ll need to have facilities so the people can get their own endowments and be sealed for eternity.
Those of you here who are the parents of missionaries in Korea should, in my judgment, take pride in the field of service where your sons are. They are laying a foundation for a great work, and they are working with a choice and favored people. Brother Palmer wrote on his program here tonight three distinguishing characteristics of Koreans. As I read these distinguishing characteristics, I thought to myself these ought to be the three distinguishing characteristics of Latter-day Saints everywhere: (1) hospitality, (2) family-centeredness and a great love for children, and (3) love for learning and education.
Koreans have a different background than we have, of course, which is of no moment to the Lord. We have a different social and cultural background than the Jews have or than Abraham or Moses had. And who knows what cultural background and educational circumstances prevailed before the flood, in those family of nations that had the gospel. The cultural background that we’ve had is of no moment. What counts is whether we receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and live its laws. We’re not trying to change the cultural background for anyone. I think what President George Albert Smith used to say, in principle, is an ideal guide for us. In talking of missionary work, he used to say, “Keep every good thing that you have, and then let us add the further light and knowledge that has come to us by revelation.”
Our customs are good for us and we have been trained in them. It is no different to have different social customs than it is to have different languages. You speak the language you inherit. And the Lord knows all languages. As far as he is concerned, it is just as good to speak Mandarin as it is to speak English. On this basis we are only trying to take truth to people throughout the world, truth in addition to what they have. Certainly, there are false things among every nation and in every culture. And what is false, we want to reject; and good and proper thinking people among them want to reject it also. But whatever is appropriate and good we want to preserve. It ought to be one of the aims of the Korean people to preserve their culture, to keep their own dances and their own dress and their own mores and ways of life alive, as long as they are not inharmonious with gospel principles. This is what the Church is saying to the Koreans and to all the people of Asia today.
May the Lord bless us one and all as we seek to serve him and carry forward his holy purposes in the nations of the earth, and especially among his other children in Asia. Let us labor to find the lost sheep of Israel who are among them. In helping to build up the kingdom in their part of the earth, we shall bless ourselves and all those whose lives we touch. The Lord has already blessed and prospered those who have been chosen to labor in this special part of his vineyard, and he will continue to do so in a marvelous and abundant manner. The work in which we are engaged is true and it will triumph. God’s word does not fail. Such Is my testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
By Elder Bruce R. McConkie
(Note: this text is a copy of an article taken from a book entitled “The Expanding Church” compiled by Spencer J. Palmer, published by Deseret Book Company in 1978)
(Note: The era of change through which members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are now passing requires readjustment in attitudes and direction. As many Latter-day Saints are called upon to reach out from a Westernized church into the development of a universal kingdom of God, the peoples of Asia are of special concern. Their languages and traditions are relatively little understood in the Church at large, but with God’s help members will successfully meet the challenge of bridging that cultural gap. Asians are an extraordinary people whose influence will be increasingly felt as they obtain an honorable place within the ranks of the Church. Such is the thrust of the message published here for the first time. It was originally delivered by Elder McConkie at a dinner gathering of returned Korea missionaries and their families at the Provo Utah Sharon East Stake Center on March 5, 1971. Though the audience to which it was addressed was specialized, the message is of enduring and universal importance.)
What I shall do now, if I may be guided by the Spirit, is give you some feelings of what is involved in taking the gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth, with particular reference to Asia, and more specifically to the great nation of Korea.
By way of comparison, let us look back to the religious situation in the meridian of time. We are faced with some conditions that are analogous to those that prevailed when Jesus came and set up his church and kingdom on this earth in the meridian of time. He then had in force a particular system so far as preaching the gospel to nations and peoples was concerned. He had the express and pointed requirement that the gospel was meant only for the house of Israel, only for the literal descendants of Abraham. He taught them, and he sent the apostles and seventies to teach them. He laid a restriction upon them. He did not send his missionaries to other nations of the earth; as a matter of fact, in large measure this requirement had been in force for generations among people who were the seed of Abraham and the chosen lineage. Abraham’s children made up the family that was appointed to receive the gospel in that day and for that time.
Then there came a day when Jesus commanded that the gospel should go to all the world, and he erased what had been before. He removed all restrictions of the past. He said, in effect, “From this time, the gospel is to go to all the world.” He said it plainly and clearly and bluntly. But his apostolic ministers had been so completely and totally indoctrinated with the fact that the plan of salvation was limited to a particular nation that they found it exceedingly difficult to completely reverse the field and begin going to the gentile nations and to the ends of the earth. And so, we have a New Testament account of considerable difficulty and turmoil when Paul and Peter and others were involved in making the transition from a day when the gospel was limited, to the day when it went to everyone; the transition from a church that was for a limited group, to a world church.
Now, this change didn’t occur overnight. There was at least a quarter of a century involved, and during all that period there were conflict, turmoil, contention, difficulty, and differences of opinion. Much of the disagreement centered around circumcision, that is, around the adoption of the total Mosaic system, circumcision being the symbol of it. Finally a world concept of the church was established.
Now we are at the beginning of an era of transition in our day that in large measure is comparable to what went on in New Testament times. In this dispensation we haven’t yet taken the gospel to all the world, and yet we have revelations that require it. However, we have done the only possible thing that could have been done in this dispensation: we began the missionary work to the extent of our capacity and our ability. With a few missionaries we started out in the surrounding areas of the United States. Soon our missionaries were in Canada; then they were in England; then they spread to the nations of continental Europe; and then they went to the islands of the Pacific. And in all these places we had some impact. Yet in our revelations we are commanded to go to all nations; and so even in the early days, in an attempt to do what the Lord required, the missionaries went to India and to various nations in the nethermost parts of the Lord’s vineyard. But no success, to speak of, attended any of these labors. I can remember isolated instances of conversion only. And it has gone on that way until almost the present moment in the Church.
When I was a young missionary, we boasted with some pride that there were fifteen hundred to two thousand missionaries out in the world. At the present moment [1971) we have almost 14,000 missionaries in full-time service. The Church is doubling in membership in less than a quarter of a century, and the missionary force is increasing about as rapidity as the church membership increases. In no more than twenty years from now it will be no problem to have 25,000 missionaries out [this figure was reached in 1976], and forty or fifty years from now, 50,000; and seventy-five years from now, 100,000, just assuming the normal ratios of increase that are projected with the present rate of growth.
I indicate these figures to show that we are coming into a period of time when, for the first time in the history of the Church, we are beginning to get the strength to go out to the ends of the earth and fulfill in small measure now, but in large measure in due course, the requirement to take the gospel to all the people. We’re making our start.
It is in our day that we’re beginning in Asia, and it is in Asia where so many people are. We haven’t realized this in the Church for the obvious reason that our ancestry derives from western and northern Europe. We have been a European-centered culture, as it were. And predominantly, the influence of the church has been expended in that part of the world.
I’m not intending to indicate that there will ever be a day when there will be a total swing away from the culture we have and the influence that has so far been spread. But I do want to open the door and indicate that there is going to be a major shift in emphasis as other nations come in and make their influence felt in the gospel. So, as rapidly as we have gained the power—meaning the strength, the financial means, and the personnel—the Lord has somehow had some historical events occur, events that are wholly normal, circumstances without anything seemingly miraculous being involved, that have opened up other nations in the spread of the gospel.
Asia is where the people are. The first time my wife and I went to Japan we met Brother Ted Price, who was there with the American Embassy, a faithful member of the Church. He said to me, half in jest, but with a serious overtone, “When are you fellows going to quit doing missionary work with the minority groups and get over to where the people are?” The people are in Asia.
When we first went to Hong Kong, President Brent Hardy said, “Welcome to two of the four corners of the earth.” He meant his mission. I said, “How many nonmembers of the Church are there in your mission?” {He said, “One billion 700 Million.” Asia is where the people are! We have divided his mission since then—but there are still 1 billion 700 million people to whom we must preach.
We have dedicated the land of Indonesia. A little over a year ago we had twelve missionaries there. There are 131 million people in Indonesia; it is the fifth largest nation in the world.
We haven’t yet come to the point where we can get to all the nations of the earth. We don’t have the personnel; we don’t have the strength. There aren’t enough missionaries to do it. There are 840 million people who speak Mandarin, the largest number of people who speak any language in the world. We haven’t done a thing yet on mainland China. But we ought to realize that the Lord meant what he said when he gave the command, speaking of the gospel that was restored through Joseph Smith, that this gospel was going to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. That’s literal in the full sense of the word. There is to be no nation, no kindred, no tongue, and no people who will not hear the restored gospel, as it came through Joseph Smith, and hear it before the second coming of the Son of Man.
There’s a timetable, a divine timetable. We hear many sermons preached about how imminent the second coming may be—that it could be in so many years, that it will come soon because of this, that, or the other thing. I don’t know when the second coming will be, but it won’t be next week, and it won’t be next year, and it won’t be before an appreciable period of time, because it’s not going to come until two things take place.
The first thing that must take place is that the restored gospel is to be preached in every nation and among every people and to those speaking every tongue. Now there is one immediate reaction to this: Can’t we go on the radio and preach the gospel to Korea, or to the other nations of the earth? We certainly can, but that would have very little bearing on the real meaning of the revelation that says we must preach it to every nation, kindred, and people. The reason is the second thing that must occur before the second coming: The revelations expressly, specifically, and pointedly say that when the Lord comes the second time to usher in the millennial era, he is going to find, in every nation, kindred, and tongue, and among every people, those who are kings and queens, who will live and reign a thousand years on earth. (Revelation 5:9-10. )
9. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;That is a significant statement that puts in perspective the preaching of the gospel to the world. Yes, we can go on the radio; we can proclaim the gospel to all nations by television or other modern invention. And to the extent that we do it, so be it, it’s all to the good. But that’s not what is involved. What is involved is that the elders of Israel, holding the priesthood, in person have to trod the soil, eat in the homes of the people, figuratively put their arms around the honest in heart, feed them the gospel, and baptize them and confer the holy Ghost upon them. Then these people have to progress and advance, and grow in the things of the Spirit, until they can go to the house of the Lord, until they can enter a temple of God and receive the blessings of the priesthood, out of which come the rewards of being kings and priests.
10. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
The way we become kings and priests is through the ordinances of the house of the Lord. It is through celestial marriage; it is through the guarantees of eternal life and eternal increase that are reserved for the Saints in the temples. The promise is that when the Lord comes he is going to find in every nation and kindred, among every people speaking every tongue, those who will, at that hour of his coming, have already become kings and priests. This means that they’ve been converted to the truth and have grown in grace and the things of the spirit to the point that they receive the same blessings in the house of the Lord that some of us have received. All this is to preceded the second coming of the Son of Man.
This begins to put things in perspective, and I think we have commenced this transition period. We have commenced the quarter century of our day. There has been a transfer of the emphasis so far as the preaching of the gospel and the proclamation of the message of peace are concerned. We have commenced that period, and there are going to be some struggles and some difficulties, some prejudices and some uncertainties along the way. There are going to be members of the Church who are prejudiced against this nation or that because of the color of the people’s hair, or their eyes, or their skin, or because of some social circumstance that has existed in their prior history.
The Lord’s hand is in the missionary system of the Church. He works it out so that every time we have the strength to supply another 150 missionaries, we discover a place where we need another mission—and we put the additional 150 missionaries there. World events roll along and their difficulties and turmoil and war, and yet out of it all, doors are opened for the preaching of the gospel.
In Korea we had a war, and men died and their blood was shed; pride, iniquity, immorality, and all that attends war ran rampant. You might say the devil was having a field day. But the Lord hadn’t turned the world over to Satan; he was still keeping control. So out of all the difficulties that occurred in Korea came the preaching of the gospel to that nation. Into the Korean conflict was woven a silver thread of grace and goodness in life. Out of the Korean war came the Church in the Korean nation. How did it come? Obviously, we had our LDS servicemen there, including many returned missionaries and active Church members. You don’t have returned missionaries and Mormon elders who close their mouths. They taught the gospel to their buddies; converts were made. It was inevitable that their teachings would spill over in some measure to the native people. Thus, we ended up with little groups of Korean people in the Church when the so-called peace arrived. Now there was only one thing to do, and that was to take care of the Saints. Missionaries had to go in, and the spread of the gospel began anew. Now we have 5,000 members of the Church in Korea.
It is going to go like that from nation to nation and from kingdom to kingdom. I don’t have the slightest idea how we’re going to get into India, or China, or some of the other nations. But it is absolutely guaranteed that we’ll get there.
Just a little interesting sidelight on this. There are two Chinese languages, Mandarin and Cantonese. The people speak Mandarin in Taiwan and Nationalist China, they speak Cantonese in Hong Kong. We have a mission in Hong Kong with five thousand members, and another mission in Taiwan with five thousand members. Just by chance, we now have Saints in Hong Kong and in Taiwan whose ancestry stems from every major city on mainland China. One of these days, in the normal course of world events, something will happen to open mainland China to the gospel. And when that day comes, we will have hundreds of elders who will give anything in the world that they possess to get back to the land of their ancestors to preach the gospel and bear testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet. The Lord opens the way and prepares these things to come to pass.
In Korea, there are 32 million people. As a matter of fact, if we had the power and the strength, we would have two missions in Korea now. {Note: a second mission was organized in 1975] And there would be 15 or so million nonmembers in each mission. We have four missions in Japan [eight in 1978] And there would be 15 or so million nonmembers in each mission. We have four missions in Japan [eight in 1978] and there are 105 million people there. When Brother Ezra Taft Benson and I were assigned to the Asian area less than three years ago, they were just organizing the fifth mission in Asia. Now we have nine. Where we had a few hundred baptisms in years gone by, we now have many thousands.
The Church is growing, and it’s a very stable growth; it’s a sound and good growth. Korea is the only nation on earth where we baptize more men than we baptize women, and that has a lot of good, wholesome aspects to it. We’re getting a very high type of people everywhere in Asia. It would be interesting to know how it came about that the blood of Israel became scattered into the Asian parts of the earth. We can really only speculate about this. It is my judgment that we’ll never really know how this came about until the day we begin to receive revelation on it. This may well mean that it won’t be until the millennial era arrives; but the means by which it was brought to pass is not nearly as important as the fact that it exists.
Those people who have been given patriarchal blessings from Korea and elsewhere have been told by the spirit of inspiration that they are of the house of Israel. There isn’t any question at all about that. This means that in their veins flows the same blood that flows in our veins. It’s not just the single fact that God has made of one blood all the nations of men, that they should dwell in all the face of the earth. It is the fact that the house of Israel, the choicest and most select and favored blood of the earth, has been spread everywhere. And we’re getting that blood into the Church in Korea and in Asia, and I’m sure we’ll find it in all the untouched nations of the earth as rapidly as we get into them.
Last year there were six Korean couples who were able to go through the temple and receive their blessings; another seven couples are scheduled to go this year. That’s a small beginning. That’s the beginning of doing things that will make kings and priests in the Korean nation to prepare a people there for the second coming of the Son of Man. What we do in the spread of the gospel to that nation will have eternal overtones. It won’t be something that is limited to the brief span of mortality. It is going to affect people for all eternity.
In order to completely and totally fulfill the revelation that people are entitled to have the gospel taught to them in their own tongue and in their own language, the eventual destiny is to have the native people do the missionary work. This means Koreans teaching Koreans. We can’t do it until they become strong enough, and they can’t become strong enough without our help. Interestingly, in this respect, in the Japan Central Mission, 41 of the 165 missionaries who are now serving are native Japanese. One missionary in four of those on missions there is a native person. Nearly every one is a convert to the Church. Someday there are going to be hundreds and hundreds of native Koreans, in their own tongue and in their own language, teaching their own kindred and gaining the experience that will qualify them for positions of leadership in stakes of Zion that will be organized.
There can’t be any question at all but what there will be stakes in Korea. We just created our first stake in Asia; it was organized in Tokyo—four thousand members in six wards—and the day it was organized, every stake and ward officer had been to the temple and had had his own endowments. Every one of them was a full tithe payer. This is more than you can say for some stakes that are in the shadows of the temples, as it were.* [*As of 1978, there were 7 stakes in Japan.] As in Japan, so in Korea. There will be stakes of Zion. Someday there will be a stake in Seoul and one in Pusan, and who knows where else.
Now I don’t know whether there will be a temple in Korea, but I can say this: it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to see, in the lives of us here, the establishment of a temple there. The gospel can explode and expand and spread that rapidly. And I do know this in principle: that whenever there is a large enough congregation of Saints to justify these things, somehow the Lord opens a way and inspires the brethren, and the eventuality comes to pass. Someday, assuming the growth that there ought to be, we’ll need to have facilities so the people can get their own endowments and be sealed for eternity.
Those of you here who are the parents of missionaries in Korea should, in my judgment, take pride in the field of service where your sons are. They are laying a foundation for a great work, and they are working with a choice and favored people. Brother Palmer wrote on his program here tonight three distinguishing characteristics of Koreans. As I read these distinguishing characteristics, I thought to myself these ought to be the three distinguishing characteristics of Latter-day Saints everywhere: (1) hospitality, (2) family-centeredness and a great love for children, and (3) love for learning and education.
Koreans have a different background than we have, of course, which is of no moment to the Lord. We have a different social and cultural background than the Jews have or than Abraham or Moses had. And who knows what cultural background and educational circumstances prevailed before the flood, in those family of nations that had the gospel. The cultural background that we’ve had is of no moment. What counts is whether we receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and live its laws. We’re not trying to change the cultural background for anyone. I think what President George Albert Smith used to say, in principle, is an ideal guide for us. In talking of missionary work, he used to say, “Keep every good thing that you have, and then let us add the further light and knowledge that has come to us by revelation.”
Our customs are good for us and we have been trained in them. It is no different to have different social customs than it is to have different languages. You speak the language you inherit. And the Lord knows all languages. As far as he is concerned, it is just as good to speak Mandarin as it is to speak English. On this basis we are only trying to take truth to people throughout the world, truth in addition to what they have. Certainly, there are false things among every nation and in every culture. And what is false, we want to reject; and good and proper thinking people among them want to reject it also. But whatever is appropriate and good we want to preserve. It ought to be one of the aims of the Korean people to preserve their culture, to keep their own dances and their own dress and their own mores and ways of life alive, as long as they are not inharmonious with gospel principles. This is what the Church is saying to the Koreans and to all the people of Asia today.
May the Lord bless us one and all as we seek to serve him and carry forward his holy purposes in the nations of the earth, and especially among his other children in Asia. Let us labor to find the lost sheep of Israel who are among them. In helping to build up the kingdom in their part of the earth, we shall bless ourselves and all those whose lives we touch. The Lord has already blessed and prospered those who have been chosen to labor in this special part of his vineyard, and he will continue to do so in a marvelous and abundant manner. The work in which we are engaged is true and it will triumph. God’s word does not fail. Such Is my testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
