But if not...

Daniel 3:18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods...

Neal A. Maxwell
We have been given three special words-but if not-by three submissive young men who entered their fiery furnace, knowing "our God ... is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, ... But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods." (Daniel 3:17-18; italics added.) ("Willing to Submit," Ensign, May 1985, 72)

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not know if God would spare them from the fiery furnace. They simply said: "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." (Daniel 3:17-18.)

Note the words "but if not." These are words of unconditional commitment. The possibility of "if" was with these three until the very moment of their rescue, but they had determined their course regardless. Sometimes we must "take the heat," even if we are not certain the thermostat of trial will soon be turned down.

When we have that kind of courage, neither will we walk alone in our own "fiery furnace," for, as is recorded in Daniel, there was a fourth Form in that fiery furnace with the valiant threesome, and the Form was "like the Son of God"! (Daniel 3:25.) (All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1979], 48)