Bruce R. McConkie, The Caravan Moves On, Ensign, Nov. 1984, 82

I propose some simple tests that all of us may take to determine if we are true to the faith. They consist of a few basic questions, all of which must be answered correctly in order to gain the full blessings of the gospel in this life and inherit eternal life in the realms ahead.

Our well-beloved brother Paul, an Apostle of old, counsels us in these words: Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. (2 Cor. 13:5.)

And we may well ask ourselves: Do we believe all of the doctrines of salvation? Are we keeping the commandments? Are we valiant in the cause of truth and righteousness? Will we be saved in the kingdom of God?

From among many questions that all of us must one day answer, let me test you on these:

Test one: Do I worship the only true and living God?

There is no salvation in worshiping a false godneither a cow; nor a crocodile; nor a cedar post; nor even a spirit essence, without body, parts, or passions, that fills the immensity of space.

True believers worship that Holy Being who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Rev. 14:7.)

He is the Father of spirits with whom we dwelt before the foundations of the earth were laid. He is our Father in Heaven, who ordained and established a plan of salvation by which his spirit children might advance and progress and become like him.

He is a Holy Man, a personage of tabernacle, having a body of flesh and bones; and he created mortal man in his own image, male and female created he them. (Gen. 1:27.)

He is a glorified and exalted being in whom all fulness and perfection dwell, who knows all things and has all power, all might, and all dominion.

Test two: Do I believe in the fall of Adam?

There is no salvation in a system of religion that rejects the doctrine of the Fall or that assumes man is the end product of evolution and so was not subject to a fall.

True believers know that this earth and man and all forms of life were created in an Edenic, or paradisiacal, state in which there was no mortality, no procreation, no death.

In that primeval day Adam and Eve were in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. (2 Ne. 2:23.)

But in the providences of the Lord, Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. (2 Ne. 2:25.)

By his fall, Adam introduced temporal and spiritual death into the world and caused this earth life to become a probationary estate.

Test three: Do I believe in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ?

As to this question, I give my own personal answer. It is:

I know that my Redeemer lives; with Job I testify. What though the ravages of disease destroy my body; what though I am slain by the sword of deathyet I know that he who bought me with his blood shall soon reign on earth and that in my flesh shall I see God. (Job 19:26; see also Job 19:25.)

I am a witness that he was lifted up upon the cross of Calvary; that he was crucified, died, and rose again the third day; that he ascended into heaven, where, sitting on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, he now reigns in everlasting glory; and that he will soon come again among the sons of men.