Elder William J. Critchlow
"Brigham Young had something to say about percentages:
"’… while six-tenths or three-fourths of this people will keep the commandments of God, the curse and judgments of the Almighty will never come upon them, though we will have the trials of various kinds, and the elements to contend with.’ (JD 10:335-6.)
"We live in a wicked world like unto Babylon of old. Our latter-day prophets, like the prophets of old, have cried, ’Come out, come out of Babylon.’ To come out physically presents a problem, but spiritually it is possible, and spiritually we must come out if we are to prosper in the land.
"We come out spiritually when we pay honestly our tithes and offerings. We come out spiritually when we attend to our priesthood duties and attend our priesthood, Sacrament, and stake conference meetings. These the members of the Church have been commanded to attend.
"Once in the dim, distant past, our Father’s children turned from him. Has it been so long that we have forgotten how, at that time he cleansed the earth of wickedness with a flood? Has it been so long that we have forgotten the warning: ’And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man’? (Luke 17:26.) Have we forgotten how God spared a city of righteous people, Enoch’s people by translating them before the flood?
"In the great holocaust to come, the earth will again be cleansed of wickedness as it was in the days of Noah, and God may spare again a righteous people ’if six-tenths or three-fourths of this people will keep the commandments of God.’ (Conference Report, Oct. 1961, p. 56)
Eldred G. Smith
"Let us not be so self-righteous that we think that we have no need repentance, for the Savior himself preached repentance to the more righteous who were spared from the great destruction at the time of his crucifixion. At that time, on this hemisphere there was darkness for three days and great destruction; many cities and all their inhabitants were destroyed. Then the voice of the Lord was heard declaring that the more wicked had been destroyed, and the more righteous had been saved. To the righteous that were spared he declared as he might well say to us here today:
’O ye house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chicken under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart.’ (3 Nephi 10:6.)" (Conference Report, Apr. 1954, p. 88)