Elder John A. Widtsoe's testimony regarding the radio amplifier as a witness of divine hearing
Published October 24, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
Elder John A. Widtsoe, speaking at the Ninety-Third Annual Conference, referenced a radio amplifier before him as a technological rebuke to those who disbelieve that God can hear human prayers from a distance. He argued that if a human voice can be projected great distances via technology, it is logically consistent that God, the creator of the laws of the universe, can hear the human voice.
In Their Own Words
“Elder Widtsoe said the device before which he was speaking, the radio amplifier, is a rebuke to the disbelievers. Some have asked the use of praying to a God so far away he cannot hear the human voice. If, said the speaker, his own voice, by means of this instrument, is thrown a great distance beyond its natural scope, what is impossible for God, who controls laws of the universe? How idle to say God cannot hear the human voice! — Millennial Star 85:20”
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), Vol. 85, No. 20 (1923). https://archive.org/details/millennialstar8520eng (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high)
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