I find this amusing...the wikipedia entry on him was already updated within a hour of the end of the session stating his call as an Apostle.
Here is the link to the wikipedia entry for a biography of Elder Christofferson.
In trying to learn more about him, I looked at this interview from a reporter at Reuters.
The reporter made sure to ask some of the hardest questions about the LDS Church, including will women receive the priesthood, are LDS men able to be sealed to more than one woman, what is the church's relationship to politics, and his personal beliefs on evolution.
I'm proud to say that I think Elder Christofferson answered unequivocally and honestly in all cases. Some answers would better than others, but they all addressed the question directed and answered it with either a Yes, No or I don't know.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Reuter's reporter: Do you believe in Evolution?
Elder Christofferson: I don't know. That's a very intriguing question. I can't think of a doctrinal statement by the church on evolution. We do believe certainly in a divine hand in creation. And one of our scriptures says there is a lot yet to be revealed.There's not much that's frankly been revealed on the religious side regarding it. You've got a basic account of creation over different periods - we're not talking necessarily about 24 hour days but periods in which God directed creation. The hows, the details, I don't know, to be honest with you. We don't claim to know.
REUTERS: Are there documents about the church's history that are purposely being concealed from the public, hidden in archives or vaults, as some historians assert? If so, what are these?
Elder Christofferson:I don't know if every document ever produced that's not private and confidential has ever been published, I'm not sure. There is no particular effort to hide things that could legitimately be public just because that never works. Somehow it always comes out, so what's the point? So there's not a hidden secret vault of things that contradict what we teach as far as the church's history is concerned or other things that we are afraid of seeing the light of day. That's not true. But there are confidential records, that sort of thing. Some of them are deemed confidential for the rights of individuals. We have disciplinary councils of the church
I am confident to say there is no secret document that would blow the church out of the water that's been held at a secret vault.
REUTERS: Does the LDS church believe that the second coming of Christ is imminent? Is that an accurate characterization?
CHRISTOFFERSON: Probably not in the way most people understand imminent. One of the prophesies that you find in the New Testament, Matthew, is that the Gospel has to be preached in all the world before that happens. We're making every effort to do that but we're far from accomplishing it. There are places where you can't go, period. There are other places where we are in an infant stage, so to speak, in that process. So we don't pretend to know but we think it's some years away.
REUTERS: The Woodruff Manifesto, which banned polygamy in 1890, never revoked section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants - Joseph Smith's 1843 revelation on plural marriage - why?
CHRISTOFFERSON: It's consistent with biblical teaching, with Book of Mormon teaching, and that is to say, to use computer language, the default mode is monogamy. That was divinely established at the beginning of time with Adam and Eve and it continues unless God for His own purposes, for whatever reason, permits, or authorizes or directs in this case the practice of plural marriage, and there have been times when He has, if you look at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the old patriarchs of the Old Testament. And this instance here in the early (LDS) church history.
As I said earlier, we believe in this continuing flow of revelation and it's His right to authorize or de-authorize - to turn it on or turn it off. But unless God were to specifically reveal to the Prophet this must be done at this time, it's not, it's wrong without his direction.
I have also found one Conference talk of his given at the Oct 2000 conference where he addresses the question, "What is the destiny of the countless billions who have lived and died with no knowledge of Jesus?" Its a hard one, and one that had kept me from joining other Christian churches because I wasn't satisfied with their answers. It was the LDS Church with its doctrines of baptism and salvation for the dead that allowed me to believe in the necessity for all people to be baptised to enter into the Kingdom of God.
In that talk he also describes a doctrinal question that had puzzled my husband for a few years: How was the Savior able to take upon our sins and redeem us while simultaneously meeting the demands of justice? Elder Christofferson states, '"The principle of vicarious service should not seem strange to any Christian. In the baptism of a living person, the officiator acts, by proxy, in place of the Savior. And is it not the central tenet of our faith that Christ's sacrifice atones for our sins by vicariously satisfying the demands of justice for us? As President Gordon B. Hinckley has expressed: "I think that vicarious work for the dead more nearly approaches the vicarious sacrifice of the Savior Himself than any other work of which I know. It is given with love, without hope of compensation, or repayment or anything of the kind. What a glorious principle."'
From this much that I have read of his words, I see the Elder Christofferson is a man of everyday language but a deep and abiding understanding of the gospel, doctrines and history of the Church. I'm pleased that he is the newest apostle and I look forward to hearing his words and counsel at future church meetings.
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