President Russell M. Nelson spoke for just under 15 minutes at the October 2024 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He referred to Jesus Christ 86 times.
Maybe that should not surprise anyone, given that President Nelson is considered by members to be not only the church’s president but a living prophet, apostle and special witness of Christ.
For decades, however, some outsiders and critics have accused church leaders of referring more to the church’s founding prophet, Joseph Smith, and his successors in general conference talks than to Jesus Christ.
“Other Christians think, in their perspective, that we pay more attention to or more often speak about ‘the Brethren’ rather than the Brother,” said Darius Gray, an independent Latter-day Saint historian and former journalist.
The Deseret News reviewed the 34 talks given at the church’s October 2024 general conference to count the number of times speakers referred to Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and President Nelson.
“My guess is that they referred to Jesus dozens of times, Joseph Smith half a dozen times and President Nelson somewhere in between,” said Nathan Oman, a church member and historian and professor of law at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The actual totals surprised even longtime Latter-day Saint historians and writers.
- Total references to Jesus Christ — 1,604 (an average of 47.2 times per talk)
- Total references to Joseph Smith — 104 (3.1 times per talk)
- Total references to President Russell M. Nelson — 92 (2.7 times per talk)
“That’s a wonderful, heartening statistic,” said Terryl Givens, senior research fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. “It has been subject to conversation that one hears in many quarters that one hears more references to President Nelson than Jesus Christ.
“This puts the lie to that claim and suggests that there has been a conspicuous recentering of Christ in leadership talks, and that’s something that I think the church needs to hear.”
Gray laughed in wonder at the count.
“I’m somewhat surprised and very, very edified,” he said. “It’s been a complaint among some members and an accusation among others in the Christian family, so I’m just thrilled to hear that.”
Oman said that while he underestimated the magnitude of references to Jesus Christ, he was not caught off guard.
“I’ve been listening to general conference for 49 years and that’s my experience,” he said. “The language is Jesus-soaked, so the fact that it’s more than 10 times the number of references doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Another Latter-day Saint scholar said he could imagine April conferences delivering even more references to Jesus Christ because they regularly fall on or around Easter. In fact, this spring, President Nelson and his counselors in the First Presidency have encouraged an increase in Easter celebrations among church members.
“We are in the spring Easter season, right when we celebrate in more detail the life and especially the Atonement of Jesus,” said John W. “Jack” Welch, a founding director of Scripture Central.
“There’s no other church that is blessed with the commandment to gather in general conference twice a year, and we come together and we hear the most important things talked about. For us to have an Easter celebration every year is, I think, very rich, and it indicates what we really hold most sacred.”
Speakers mentioned Jesus Christ an average of 47 times per talk in the October conference.
President Nelson referred to Christ four times in one memorable portion of his talk.
“Here is my promise to you,” he said. “Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find him in the temple. You will feel his mercy. You will find answers to your most vexing questions. You will better comprehend the joy of his gospel.”
The only speaker who mentioned Christ more often than President Nelson was President Jeffery R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who referred to Christ 108 times.
President Holland used the names “Jesus Christ,” “Jesus” or “Christ” a total of 19 times. He referred to Christ as “this Refuge from the Storm,” “the Headmaster” and “our Messenger of Salvation.”
Many references were utilitarian. For example, in addition to calling Christ “our Perfect Role Model” twice, 30 of the 74 references by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, were to “he,” “him” or “his,” necessary and common references throughout the conference.
Many speakers referred to Christ as they quoted scripture or other church leaders.
A reference by President Holland to Jesus Christ as “the great Jehovah of the Old Testament and Good Shepherd of the New” is an example of why the Deseret News did not use AI or a computer database to review the conference talks.
Latter-day Saint theology holds that God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate and distinct beings. The words “God” and “Lord” often are used regularly by leaders and members to refer to either Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ.
October conference speakers referred to God the Father 700 times, the Deseret News found. The analysis may not be perfect. If anything, however, it likely undercounts references to the Savior when making determinations between “God” and “Lord.” Context was critical to understanding the references to deity.
For example, one of the 70 references to Christ by Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles noted, as President Holland did, that Latter-day Saints believe Jesus Christ is the Jehovah of the Old Testament.
“The Pharisees’ reaction to Jesus was clear evidence that their presumptuous attitude left no place in their hearts for the Savior’s words and God’s way,” Elder Soares said. “In response, Jesus wisely and courageously declared that if they were true covenant children of Abraham, they would do the works of Abraham, especially considering that the God of Abraham was standing before them (italics added) and teaching them the truth at that very moment.”
Oman said listening for context is part of Latter-day Saint culture.
“One of the weird things about Latter-day Saints is we do almost all of our theology in sermons,” Oman said. “Russell M. Nelson is not writing theological treatises. Latter-day Saints have written theological treatises in the past, but I don’t think there’s any general authority that’s tried to write a theological treatise since (Elder) Bruce R. McConkie.
“So when general authorities talk theology, the genre, the medium that they use to talk theology is almost always a sermon, but in sermons you’re oftentimes sort of theologically imprecise. Sometimes the purpose of the sermon is to clearly explain doctrine. Someone like President Oaks is trying to be precise and clear about doctrine, but I think there are other folks for whom that’s not really their main goal.
“What they’re trying to do is motivate people to feel the spirit and connect to God, or warn people about this particular danger or temptation or something like that. They have rhetorical tasks in their sermons where an enormous amount of theological precision just isn’t particularly important.”
Where speakers used “they” and “their” to refer to both the Father and the Son, the Deseret News counted a reference for both. The same was done for a handful of instances when speakers referred to the Trinity and the Godhead.
President Nelson’s emphasis on using the correct, full name of the church led to a couple dozen references to Jesus Christ.
The Deseret News found that many of the references to Joseph Smith and President Nelson were to their teachings about Jesus Christ. Church leaders and members generally quote the current church president because he is set apart to receive revelation for the church and act as Christ’s spokesman on earth.
In some ways, criticism has been abating, said Welch, author of “Charting the Book of Mormon,” which includes charts about names for Christ used by Book of Mormon authors, including “First-Fruits” and “the Very God of Israel.”
“Those making those criticisms (about references to Christ) haven’t been listening to conference for the past 10 years. This is an old criticism,” he said. “It goes back to the days when the less-friendly people wanted to brand us as not Christian, even though the name of the church is the Church of Jesus Christ.”
In the past, some critics tried to exclude Latter-day Saints from some interfaith groups. Today, Latter-day Saints work broadly with other faiths around the world on efforts ranging from religious freedom legislation to humanitarian aid and more.
Other names for Christ used by church leaders in October included “God of Hope,” “Rescuer” and “Master Potter.”
One other reference stood out in the Deseret News review of the talks on the church’s website. Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who is from England, maintained the British spelling of “Saviour” in the written version of his talk.
Regardless of the names used for Jesus Christ, Gray said he was thrilled to learn that he had been spoken of so often.
“I am happy to hear that,” Gray said. “I am more than happy to hear that.”