Quotes About the Chosen Generation
"It is not difficult to understand why the great God of heaven has reserved these special spirits for the final work of the kingdom prior to his millennial reign.... This generation will face trials and troubles that will exceed those of their pioneer forebears. Our generation has had periods of some respite from the foe. The future generation will have little or none....This is a chosen generation.... I believe today's [Church youth] will lead the youth of the world through the most trying time in history."
Vaughn J. Featherstone, "A Champion of Youth,"
Ensign, November 1987, p. 28
"I meet young people everywhere who are wonderful and faithful; youth who want to do the right thing and who indicate the reality of what I have been saying for a long time, that we've never had a better generation of young people in the Church than we have today. They are faithful. They are active. They're knowledgeable. They are a great generation, notwithstanding the environment in which many of them are growing up."
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Church News interview, June 7, 1995
"You, our youth of today, are among the most illustrious spirits to be born into mortality in any age of the world. Yours is a noble heritage and a wonderful opportunity."
Harold B. Lee, Youth and the Church, 1970
"...I return to Peter's great statement as I make a plea and offer - a challenge: 'Ye are a chosen generation.' How very true that is. Notwithstanding all of the problems that we have, this, I believe, is the greatest age in the history of the world. And you young people of this generation are a part of it. You are the beneficiaries of it. Its fruits are here to bless your lives if you will grasp them and live worthy of them...
Truly, my dear young friends, you are a chosen generation. I hope you will never forget it. I hope you will never take it for granted. I hope there will grow in your hearts an overpowering sense of gratitude to God, who has made it possible for you to come upon the earth in this marvelous season of the world's history."
President Gordon B. Hinckley, "A Chosen Generation," Ensign, May 1992, p. 70
"For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming. Every previous gospel dispensation has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not...
God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly. And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God..."
Make no mistake about it you are a marked generation. "
President Ezra Taft Benson - Cited in "Stalwart and Brave We Stand," Elder Marvin J. Ashton, Ensign, November 1989, p. 36
"I love the youth of the Church. I have said again and again that I think we have never had a better generation than this. How grateful I am for your integrity, for your ambition to train your minds and your hands to do good work, for your love of the word of the Lord, and for your desire to walk in paths of virtue and truth and goodness."
President Gordon B. Hinckley, "This is the Work of the Master," Ensign, May 1995, p. 70
"You have been born at this time for a sacred and glorious purpose. It is not by chance that you have been reserved to come to earth in this last dispensation of the fulness of times at this particular time. Your birth was foreordained in the eternities. You are to be 'the royal army of the Lord in the last days.' You are youth of the noble birthright. In the spiritual battles you are waging, I see you as today's sons of Helaman."
President Ezra Taft Benson, "To the 'Youth of the Noble Birthright,'" Ensign, May 1986, p. 43
"You are part of a marvelous generation, the best in the history of this Church. You read all about drugs and youth going down the road that leads to destruction. There are millions of them in this land. But I want to say that I believe with all my heart we have the finest generation of youth in this Church that we have ever had. I believe that.
They know the gospel better. They know the scriptures a lot better than some of us. They are bright, energetic, faithful, clean, virtuous, and they have ambition. God bless you, my beloved young friends. I do love you. I want you to know that. I pray for you. I pray constantly that I can do something to help the young people of this Church move along to greater accomplishment while keeping the faith and being true to the traditions of their forbears."
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Hailey 1st and 2nd Wards Sacrament Meeting, Sun Valley, Idaho, June 30, 1996
"It is my conviction that your generation is better and stronger than was ours... better in many ways! I have the faith that you young men and young women can meet the world on its own terms and conquer it."
Elder Boyd K. Packer, "To Young Women and Men," Ensign, May 1989, p. 54
"I have a great and compelling sense of gratitude and optimism about the youth of the Church. In saying this, I do not wish to imply that all is well with all of them. There are many who have troubles, and many who live far beneath the high expectations we have concerning them.
"But even considering these, I have great confidence in our young people as a whole. I regard you as the finest generation in the history of the Church. I compliment you, and I have in my heart a great feeling of love and respect and appreciation for you."
President Gordon B. Hinckley, "This Favored Season," New Era, Sept. 1993
"We are particularly proud of our youth. I think we have never had a stronger generation of young men and women than we have today. For the most part they are true to the faith of their forebears. Surrounded by forces that would pull them down and tremendous pressures to pull them away from time-tested virtues, they are going forward with constructive lives, nurturing themselves both intellectually and spiritually. We have no fears or doubts concerning the future of this work."
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Press Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 13, 1995
"You are great young people. I have said again and again, we have the finest generation of young people ever in the history of this Church. I believe it. You know the gospel better. You come to seminary and you learn about the things of the Lord here. You know more about the gospel than those of my generation at your age did without any question. I am satisfied of that. Furthermore, you are intrinsically better. You are wonderful young people!"
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Skyline High School Seminary Fireside, Salt Lake City, Utah, April 30, 1995
You are living in these last days and have a special purpose for being here. Of today's youth, the Young Men's General Presidency has said that:
"...this generation of [youth] is going to do deeds never done before. You are going to accomplish the seemingly impossible because you are on His errand. Your generation will fight the greatest army of Satanic hosts ever assembled. You will be severely out numbered. You will need a deep and abiding faith in Christ to survive-and you will survive. The Lord and his servants will triumph, we do know that."
Letter to the Youth of the Church," Church News, 9 May 1981, p.9
"All through the ages prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day. Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us. Make no mistake about it...this is a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short time than there is of us."
President Ezra Taft Benson
"I believe without any doubt that you are the finest generation this Church has ever had."
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Regional Conference, March 2, 2997
"It is my belief that the Lord has held many of you in reserve in the spirit world to come to earth at this particular time when temptations are the greatest and strength of character is most needed."
President Ezra Taft Benson
"My brothers and sisters, we are a chosen generation. This is the greatest season in the history of the world and we have been blessed to come forward at this time, this greatest of times, of discovery. This is the grandest age of all. During my lifetime, there have been more scientific discoveries than in all the generations that preceded it, and you and I are upon the earth at this time.
Beyond all this, we live in a time when the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored. This is the dispensation of the fullness of times, when all that the Lord placed upon the earth in prior generations has come forth in this generation, to bless those of us who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. How thankful we ought to be!
How anxious we ought to be to do that which the Lord would have us do. Out of the gratitude which we have in our hearts, we ought to be willing to do anything that He asks us—to live the Word of Wisdom, to pay our tithes and offerings to be active in the Church, to carry responsibilities, to reach out to those who come into the Church and help them and friendship them that they may remain true and faithful. My brothers and sisters, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood."
President Gordon B. Hinckley - From Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, member meeting. Church News May 9, 1998
"I love the youth of the Church. I have said again and again that I think we have never had a better generation than this. How grateful I am for your integrity, for your ambition to train your minds and your hands to do good work, for your love for the word of the Lord, and for your desire to walk in paths of virtue, and truth and goodness."
President Gordon B. Hinckley (L.D.S. Historical Calendar - 1999)
"My dear young friends, I speak to you as one who stands on the edge of eternity. From that perspective, I see you as the choicest spirits ever placed on the earth. The promises in your generation's patriarchal blessings, if you are faithful, seem to exceed the promises in Sister Faust's blessing and in mine. ...I want you to know that I believe in you. I believe you can be in the world but not of the world."
President James E. Faust, BYU Dev., Nov. 1, 1998, "We Believe in You"
"You are of the finest generation that has come to earth. You have prepared yourself well in the premortal existence and have been selected to come forth in this singularly important time in the unfolding of Father in Heaven's plan. I am deeply moved to be in your presence. I realize that the majority of you do not have the slightest idea of how truly capable, noble, and wonderful you are."
Elder Richard G. Scott of the 12 Apostles, BYU Devotional, March 3, 1996, "Do What is Right"
"My wonderful young brothers in the gospel, I love you and have great respect for you! You have been told often, and I will say it again: You are a chosen generation. You have been raised up by the Lord to carry His Church and kingdom into the 21st century. You have been chosen by the Lord to come forth on the earth when wickedness and evil are very powerful. But you are up to the challenge."
"I have every reason to regard you," said President Gordon B. Hinckley, "as the greatest generation we've ever had in this Church—notwithstanding all of the temptations which you face."
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin , Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, "Growing into the Priesthood", Oct. Gen. Conf. 1999, Priesthood Session
President Packer refutes this Quote (Deseret News article):
(The church is trying to stop the use of the following quote, as it is being erroneously credited to General Authorities, and has been changed somewhat. While our young people are special, the leaders don't want them to think others are going to "bow down and worship them". So it is here for your information only, and to correct others in their use of it—but it would be better not to use it yourselves.)
"You, the youth of the church today, were generals in the war of Heaven.
Someday when you are back in the Spirit World, you will be enthralled by other souls who will be from many other interesting time periods and who lived during the time of many great prophets.
You may ask one person, "When did you live?" and hear something like, "I was with Moses when he parted the Red Sea," or "I helped build one of the great pyramids," or "I fought with Captain Moroni."
And as you are standing there amazed at the people you are with, someone will ask you during which prophets' time you lived in; when you tell them that you lived during the time of President Kimball, President Benson, President Hunter, and President Hinckley, a hush will fall over every hall and corridor of Heaven and all in attendance will bow in your presence.
This is a very important stewardship we have been given. We were held back for 6000 years because we were the most righteous, most talented, most obedient servants of our Heavenly Father."
Are we still?
Quoted by Brad Wilcox, at Especially For Youth
An Early-Morning Seminary Teacher in Texas wrote (April 1999):
[The above] quote is by Jack Marshall and is used by Brad Wilcox in his book "Tackling Teenage Troubles" on page 26 and 27. I called to confirm this just last week for our CES coordinator by calling the Church Office Building. It is being attributed to many of the Brethren but Jack Marshall is the one who made this statement.
I was told by the secretary whom I spoke with that Jack Marshall is a popular youth speaker. I have a bio on him in the book "High Fives & High Hopes: Favorite Talks Especially for Youth." It states: Jack S. Marshall is an institute director in Pasadena, California. He is a popular speaker at youth programs and has published articles in the New Era, coauthored a book, and released two audio tapes of favorite talks. He and his wife, Liz, have five children. (This book was copyrighted in 1990).
I have seen his tapes in LDS bookstores. I hope this helps.