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A sad day for Latter-day Saints

A sad day for Latter-day Saints

Last updated on: September 29, 2025 at 10:24 am by Dan Peterson

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A sad day for Latter-day Saints 2025-09-29T10:24:55-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The then-newly organized First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2018: President Russell M. Nelson, center; first counselor, President Dallin H. Oaks, left; second counselor, President Henry B. Eyring, right. All three were sustained by faithful members of the Church as prophets, seers, and revelators.

This has been a sorrowful day for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While my stake conference was beginning here in Orem, we learned of a deadly attack — apparently using first a vehicle, then an assault rifle and incendiary devices — on a Latter-day Saint sacrament service in Grand Blanc, Michigan, near Flint. That story is still unfolding.

And, of course, those who hadn’t already heard the news when it was released late last night awoke this morning to word of the passing of a beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. Our stake president was tearful and choked up as he read the Church’s official announcement at the commencement of our Sunday morning stake conference session. We scrapped the planned opening hymn and, instead, sang “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.” I don’t know how many dry eyes there were in the congregation. In any case, mine were not among them.

Please don’t miss this video retrospective from the Church: “Remembering the Life of President Russell M. Nelson”

I’ve found myself thinking, on and off throughout the day, of one of the most memorable musical experiences of my life: While my wife and I were living in Egypt more than forty years ago, we joined with the expatriate community choir to prepare and perform Franz Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G Major, D. 167, in the Ma‘adi Community Church, south of Cairo: Today, the “Credo” portion of that work, and very specifically one passage from the “Credo,” has been recurring to my mind. I haven’t found a recording of Schubert’s Mass that fully satisfies me, but I think that this one — coincidentally, it’s from Southern Utah University — will serve my purpose here. The portion to which I refer begins at 1:25, and speaks of Jesus Christ, the Son of God:

Qui propter nos homines,
Per nostram salutem
Descendit de caelis.
Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto
Ex Maria Virgine.
Et homo factus est.
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis
sub Pontio Pilato: Passus, et sepultus est.
Et resurrexit tertia die,
Secundum Scripturas.
Et ascendit in caelum:
Sedet ad dexteram Patris.

Who for us,
for our salvation,
descended from heaven.
And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit
of the Virgin Mary
and was made man.
[He was] also crucified also for us,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried.
And on the third day he rose again,
according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven.
He sits at the right hand of the Father.

Singing the passage Qui propter nos homines, Per nostram salutem, Descendit de caelis (at 1:25: “Who for us, for our salvation, descended from heaven”), I was entranced by its musical beauty and deeply moved by its truth. The grim brutality of Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato: Passus, et sepultus est (at 2:05: “[He was] also crucified for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried”) hit me powerfully. But then comes the triumphant joy of Et resurrexit tertia die, Secundum Scripturas (“And on the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures”).

These words and this music have been going through my mind all day. First because of the passing of President Nelson and then because of the horrible news out of Michigan. I believe these words of the classical Creed. I rejoice in them. And, today, I take enormous comfort from them.

Since 2020, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has used this logo, which is based upon Bertel Thorvaldsen’s 1833 statue of the “Christus.”

I think it fitting that they’re on my mind. President Nelson’s ministry focused on calling us to center our lives and our devotion on Jesus Christ. From his insistence on the full, proper, and official name of the Church to its “branding” with a new Christ-centered logo, he wanted the Saints to remember — and nonmembers of the Church to understand — that “we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Nephi 25:26). “The fundamental principles of our religion,” said the Prophet Joseph Smith, “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.”

President Nelson also emphasized the temple, and his presidency has seen an unprecedented burst of temple construction that is bringing the temple and its ordinances ever closer to Latter-day Saints wherever they may live, whether in Utah or in the Congo, whether in Mongolia or the islands of the Pacific. This has been exciting to watch.

In making our 2024 dramatic film, Six Days in August, we wondered how to conclude it. There was always the option, of course, of showing the wagons of the Saints, refugees from their newly-built city on the Mississippi, heading westward into the sunset toward their new home in the Great Basin. It seemed to us, though, that it was important to show what the whole thing was about, which was gathering the Saints and building temples — two of President Nelson’s principal and recurring themes. So we chose to focus not on the famously practical and effective Brigham Young, the Colonizer, but, rather, on Brigham Young as a man who was dedicated to the Temple and the Gathering. Led by Brother Brigham and the Twelve, the Saints tried to achieve two seemingly contradictory goals during their last months in Nauvoo: the completion of the temple and the abandonment of that temple for the trek westward. Viewers of Six Days in August see Brigham Young devoting hours, night and day, on the very eve of the Saints’ enforced migration westward to the performance of ordinances in the still-uncompleted Nauvoo Temple. And, of course, one of his first actions upon arriving in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake was to designate with his cane the place where the Salt Lake Temple would be built: “Here,” said President Young, “we will build the Temple of our God.”

President Nelson was a true and worthy successor, in that regard as in others, to Brigham Young:

My dear brothers and sisters, here is my promise. Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!

We can remember President Nelson by attending the temple, and by centering our lives on the Savior whom he served.

President Dallin H. Oaks, who served until last night as first counselor to President Nelson in the First Presidency of the Church
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

President Nelson’s family are in my prayers right now. But so too, and very much so, are President Dallin H. Oaks and his family, and the Quorum of the Twelve (which now includes fourteen members). Will President Oaks be the new president of the Church? Very likely so. In an important sense, though, he already is. He has been since last night.

Thanks to Robert Boylan for bringing this to my attention a few days ago.

A final note: As I write, we know nothing about the motivation of the attacker on that Latter-day Saint stake center in Michigan. He may have been an anti-Christian, or specifically an anti-Mormon, or a transgender activist, or a disaffected member of the Church, or somebody who blames Latter-day Saints for the death of Charlie Kirk, or just a malignant psychopath, or a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. (I confess, though, that I’m beginning to form suspicions: Although early accounts often turn out to be incorrect, some reports indicate that his pickup truck was adorned with two large American flags. One report says that he was demanding of his targets that they “Profess Jesus.”)

Whatever the attacker’s motives may have been, though, expressions such as that above (which was brought to my notice yesterday or the day before by Robert Boylan) don’t help. The person who posted the item immediately above, and people who read it and perhaps agree with it, may not even understand the difference between a Latter-day Saint chapel and a Latter-day Saint temple. And it only takes one individual to act on evil ideas like this. Assaulting a ward meetinghouse or a stake center wouldn’t be a very big step for such a person.

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