The Gospel of Jesus Christ Is for All
Our Savior, Jesus Christ, has taught us that He is the way. Focus on developing your faith in God and the mission of His Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the Church of Jesus Christ, so named because it is His Church with the restored fulness of His doctrine and authority in these latter days.
It is “His Church” for many reasons. As we state in our first article of faith, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.” God the Father, the great Elohim, is the Father of our spirits, the framer of heaven and earth, and the author of the plan of our salvation. Jesus Christ is His Only Begotten Son, Jehovah, and the Messiah, “the God of the whole earth.” As the Book of Mormon declares, “Salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.”
Latter-day Saints invite each other and all men and women everywhere to “come unto Christ.” As a prophet has told us in the Book of Mormon, “I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.”
As your President, I pray for what our Heavenly Father wants for each of us—to be active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, proceeding forward on the covenant path into the eternities. We need one another’s prayers. I feel the positive effect of your prayers. I am thankful, and I love you.
We all have present or future concerns or struggles we are trying to overcome. Those may include questions or doubts. Whatever they are, the way to overcome them is to get closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Again and again, He has taught us that He is the way. Focus on developing your faith in God and the mission of His Son, Jesus Christ. Strong faith requires more than strong desire. It means daily trying, one step at a time, with prayer and scriptural learning.
We are all a work in progress. We are all at different places on what President Russell M. Nelson called “the covenant path.” We need to be patient with one another and, occasionally, even with ourselves. Overcoming uncertainty and doubt—which may include resolving conflicts between the evolving understanding of science and the sometimes incomplete teachings of religion—can be a lengthy process. It involves building faith and strengthening humility. Hold on to the first article of faith even if something else is uncertain. And while you wait, wait upon the Lord, which includes trusting in His timing as well as in His promises.
A major source of concern to your prophet leaders are those members of diminishing faith in Jesus Christ. We love you, young and old, men and women. So does the Lord God! He is relentless in His loving pursuit of each of you. Because of this concern and according to His words, I urge you to keep the commandments and be true to the covenants so many of you have made to guide you along the covenant path. Never let your secular learning limit your spiritual horizons.
We are grateful to know that there are two methods of gaining needed knowledge: (1) the evolving disclosures of man through the scientific method and digital information, which may be inaccurate, and (2) the truths discovered through the spiritual method, which begins with faith in God and relies on scriptures, inspired teaching, and personal revelation. There is no ultimate conflict between knowledge obtained by these different methods because God, our omnipotent Eternal Father, knows all truth and expects us to learn by both methods.
Along the way we should work to draw closer to Jesus Christ by increasing our humility. President Spencer W. Kimball defined humility as “teachableness.” He explained: “Teachableness [is] an ability to realize that all virtues and abilities are not concentrated in one’s self. … [Humility] is forgiving others in the realization that there may be errors of the same kind or worse [that we ourselves commit].”
Protect yourself with the weekly renewing of your covenants by partaking of the sacrament and with consistent efforts to live according to those sacred covenants. Those who have been endowed should include regular attendance at the temple. These simple practices will protect and strengthen you.
The Book of Mormon teaches that the great Creator died “for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.” This means that if our sins are to be forgiven through His Atonement, we must comply with the conditions He has prescribed, including faith, repentance, and baptism. The fulfillment of these conditions depends on our desires, our choices, and our actions. “He cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice.”
The Book of Mormon adds to our knowledge of how our Savior’s earthly ministry reached out to all of His scattered flock. It records His appearance and teachings to the Nephites on the American continent. There He repeated that the Father had commanded Him to visit the other sheep which were not of the land of Jerusalem. The Savior also taught that He would visit others “who [had] not as yet heard [His] voice,” such as the “lost tribes of Israel.”
The Book of Mormon is a great witness that the Lord loves all people and reaches out to all, everywhere.
“Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?”
Other Book of Mormon teachings contradict the erroneous assertion that the grace of God saves only a chosen few. The Book of Mormon teaches that our Savior inviteth “all to come unto him … ; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.” His grace is for all. Similarly, the Book of Mormon tells us that the children of God in “every nation” have His promise that He “manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”
These promises from the Book of Mormon are true. Millions believe them and have had experiences to affirm their truth. I invite all to believe them.
We believe that the Lord will eventually cause the inspired teachings He has given to His children in various nations to be brought forth for the benefit of all people. This will include accounts of the visit of the resurrected Lord to what we call the lost tribes of Israel and His revelations to all the seed of Abraham.
We live in the day foretold when righteousness is sent forth out of heaven and truth out of the earth “to sweep the earth as with a flood, [and] to gather out [the] elect from the four quarters of the earth.” All around us we see evidence that many in the world are hungry for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and His teachings. As declared on its title page, the Book of Mormon has come forth that we “may know [of] the covenants of the Lord” and also for the convincing of all “that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations.” I call upon all to act on these truths and to share them with others that we may all draw closer to Jesus Christ, our Savior. I make this invitation and add my testimony of Him and His mission in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.