Summary: Brent L. Top, asks everyone the question: “Would you be willing to lay down your life rather than denounce your faith and testimony of the restored gospel?” What is our answer? Would we die for our testimony of the LDS church? If our life hung in the balance, and we were about to be executed in front of our families, like the example he uses, would we have the courage to take the bullet for the restored gospel? I sure hope so, because their is no greater cause or anything more important than being able to have the privilege of dying for the LDS church, Jesus and our testimony. What a blessing that would truly be! Brent L. Top says: "I like to believe that I could definitively and without hesitation declare that I would gladly lay down my life for my faith. Yet I am not sure giving that answer is as easy as it sounds. In fact, I am quite convinced that it isn’t that easy—nor was true discipleship ever intended to be easy, comfortable, convenient, painless, or free from sacrifice and sorrow. Nevertheless, I hope that I could and would be able to sacrifice my life for my testimony. In the meantime, however, I can say (as I should have said to my student who posed that penetrating question to me), 'I have made a covenant to do so if necessary.'" The last sentence is the most important part of all, where he says: "I have made a covenant to do so if necessary." Exactly! All of us that have been through the temple, and have made a very sacred covenant with God, "to die if necessary", if that is what it takes, to stand up for the church, our testimony, sacred temple covenants, Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. Those that haven't been through yet; this is what you have to look forward to and it is a great privilege to make these covenants. The example he shared, was the famous story about 2 LDS men in Mexico, that wouldn't renounce their testimony, when facing a firing squad. Brent L. Top said: "....two LDS fathers, the branch president and his first counselor, who were imprisoned and sentenced to death. They were told they would be spared the firing squad if they would denounce their Mormon beliefs. Because they refused to do so, the two men, President Rafael Monroy and Brother Vicente Morales, were executed in front of their families and branch members on 17 July 1915." What great men, to allow themselves to be executed in front of their families and branch members. Would you all be willing to do this and be so strong and brave like they were. Like I said earlier; let's hope so. I'm sure that their families were very proud of them and what they did for the LDS church and Jesus and would have wanted nothing less in that moment, than to see their great example. I'm sure they went straight to the Celestial Kingdom, where we all want to be. So, once again, be honest and ask yourselves: “Would you be willing to lay down your life rather than denounce your faith and testimony of the restored gospel?” This talk was originally given at a BYU-Idaho Devotional on December 9, 2003.
