Elder John A. Widtsoe's testimony regarding the radio amplifier as a witness of divine hearing
Published October 25, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
Elder John A. Widtsoe uses the technology of a radio amplifier in the Salt Lake Tabernacle as a modern parallel and evidence that God can hear human prayers, despite skeptics' claims that God is too far away to hear. He argues that just as voice waves can be amplified and carried, human righteousness and prayer can act as an amplifier for the Holy Spirit.
This account was delivered by Elder John A. Widtsoe as part of his address titled 'The “Mormon” Institution Works' during the morning session of the Ninety-Third Annual General Conference on April 7, 1923, held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
In Their Own Words
“I am speaking just now before one of the amplifiers, and if I am speaking into this concave device properly, I imagine that my voice is carried much better than it ordinarily is, into the remote parts of this building, and possibly into the Assembly Hall. It is a tremendous advance, a tremendous rebuke to those of my day, unbelievers in God, who have said to me: 'What is the use of praying? God can not hear. Your voice merely stirs waves in the air, and God is so far away that the waves disappear and can not reach Divinity.' ... I know, my brethren and sisters, that the main concern of man is to make of himself, by righteous living and by proper attempt, day by day, by doing that which he knows to be right, a great amplifier by which he may understand the whisperings of the Holy Spirit of God. — John A. Widtsoe, Ninety-Third Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 7, 1923”
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), Vol. 85, No. 35 (1923). https://archive.org/details/millennialstar8535eng (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Additional sources (periodical research): Ninety-Third Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1923. https://historicalgeneralconferences.weebly.com/1923-april.html
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