We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are:
first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by
immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of
the Holy Ghost.
This article of Faith is one that is continually quoted and
beat into our brains- we all know it. These principles were taught in all of
our Standard Works; by Jesus Christ in the New Testament and later by his
apostles, as well as by the prophets and Jesus Christ himself in the Book of
Mormon (3 Nephi 11:23-27), they were given as revelation to Joseph Smith
(D&C 20: 68-79) and were taught to the dead (vicariously done through us in
the temples- D&C 138:33).
The dictionary describes a principle as a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the
foundation for a system. And we learned in March ( while studying the 3rd
Article of Faith) that an ordinance
is a sacred, formal ACT that has spiritual meaning and that all of the Saving
Ordinances (such as baptism) are coupled with a covenant; A
covenant is a sacred agreement between God and a person or group of
people. In Mosiah 18:10 it says after
describing the acts of faith, repentance, baptism and the holy ghost that 'ye
have entered into a covenant with him... that ye will serve him and keep his
commandments...' By knowing these
definitions we know that these truths are actions, or preparations for actions,
that are performed as an agreement with God; this adds another weight to these
principles and their importance.
When you research one of these four topics you usually get
it coupled with the other ones. They are
important on their own but also, and maybe more importantly, as a group in
order to bring about salvation. I tried to research these topics, not as a
group, but individually to see how each one reinforces and edifies the whole of
this Article of Faith.
FAITH IN THE LORD
JESUS CHRIST:
This article of faith is a list of things that need to be
done to be saved. In Acts 16:31 it says,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." This answers the question of what is needed
to be saved and that is have faith in Jesus Christ.
Mosiah
26:17-24 says," And blessed art thou because thou hast
established a church among this people; and they shall be established, and they
shall be my people. Yea, blessed is this people who are willing to bear my name; for in my name shall they
be called; and they are mine...For behold, this is my church; whosoever
is baptized shall be baptized unto repentance. And whomsoever ye receive shall
believe in my name; and him will I freely forgive... For behold, in my name are
they called; and if they know me
they shall come forth, and shall have a place eternally at my right hand."
From
this scripture I learned that we need to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ
and to 'know him.' This is what I focused on in faith; if we
know him and have faith in him, we will ACT LIKE HIM! Throughout the scriptures
Christ gives us examples of ways we can be like him and ways we can show our
faith in him.
Christ
showed obedience to Heavenly Father
when he was baptized, even thought it was not necessary for his salvation. In 2
Nephi 31:7 it says, "And
now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did
fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water?
Know
ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the
children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the
Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be obedient unto him in
keeping his commandments.
Wherefore, after he was baptized with water the Holy Ghost
descended upon him in the form of a dove.
And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness
of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he
having set the example before them."
I like these scriptures because they show his obedience and his example to us;
we can follow that example and have the faith needed to be obedient to Heavenly Father's commandments.
In Ether 12:27 it talks about humility when it says, "And if men come unto me I will show unto
them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my
grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they
humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things
become strong unto them." This scripture continues, in verse 28,
to lay out some other characteristics we need, "Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show
unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain
of all righteousness." These three values are very closely tied and
bring faith in the Jesus Christ.
In Moroni 7: 41-42 it says, " And
what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ
and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this
because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have
faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope."
This scripture talks about the need for hope in order to have faith, and
vise versa. This brings to mind the
scripture that says, "..Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of
things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope
for things which are not seen, which are true" (Alma 32:21).
These values go again full circle to
add that in order to have faith and hope you must also be meek and lowly of
heart. Moroni 7: 43- 44 says, "And again, behold I say unto you that
he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none
is acceptable before God, save the meek and
lowly in heart; and if a man be meek
and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is
the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is
nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity."
Which
then brings us to Charity; Moroni 7: 45 says, " And charity
suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not
her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in
iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things."
This scripture gives us many other values that Christ has that we can
follow to be like him and in turn have a
strong faith in him. It continues in
verse 48-37 saying, "But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever;
and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto
the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all
who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of
God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he
is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure.
Amen."
In
Mosiah 18:9-10 it talks about these values and says, if you believe these
things then why wouldn't you follow Christ and be baptized? I like this idea and this bluntness because I
think that often people believe but do not what to make the commitment but this
scripture says that in believing you should WANT to make a commitment to show
your firm faith. It says, "Yea,
and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that
stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in
all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may
be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that
ye may have eternal life— Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your
hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a
witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will
serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more
abundantly upon you?"
This makes me think of the story of the
Anti-Nephi-Lehites, a group of wicked people that were taught the gospel. These people had faith in Jesus Christ and
therefore laid down their lives, literally, for their beliefs. Alma
24:19 sums this story up in saying, "And
thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the
truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin;
and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the
weapons of war, for peace." I
think this is a great example of faith
in Jesus Christ. If we have a true
faith we will act like Him, obey Him and stand as a witness of Him.
One of my new favorite scriptures sums
up this section of the article of faith (and leads into the next). D&C 20:37
" And again, by way of
commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism—All
those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come
forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church
that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon
them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end,
and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of
Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his
church."
REPENTANCE:
After studying about faith in Jesus Christ my thought went
back to Mosiah 18 and I thought, "Why wouldn't you repent?"
(I have had a hard time putting my studies of repentance
into words, so if it seems disjointed I am sorry.) The idea and need for repentance starts with
our premortal existence and the choice that we made to be free and to have
choice; Because we were given this agency Jesus Christ came and atoned for each
of us; Because of the atonement, we can
repent and be made clean. So we need to
take advantage of the atonement and repent.
I then think, as a lot of people do, that repentance for
the sin, which is ultimately wrong, everyone needs the atonement and needs to
repent often and with sincerity, that is why we have an opportunity weekly to
take the sacrament. In Alma 41: 11-14 it
talks about this idea, " And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I
would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of
iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the
nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of
happiness...Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren;
deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these
things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored
unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a
righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded
unto you again."
I like this scripture because it
says that because we are human we all make mistakes but as we try to be good we
will get a good reward; I compared 'being good' to keeping the commandments and
repenting when needed and the 'reward' is the atonement working in our lives
and promise of eternal life. Earlier in
Alma 41 it says (5-6), "The one raised to happiness according to his
desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other
to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all
the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh. And
so it is on the other hand. If he hath repented of his sins, and desired
righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto
righteousness." This again brings
up the idea that if we are good and strive to be good we will be rewarded. So
this all goes back to faith and the willingness to keep the commandments and
repent when we fall short, which we all will because we are human.
BAPTISM BY IMMERSION
FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS:
The first thing that I studied was the order, rules, words
and sacrament (D&C 20: 68-79). I
think this is an important thing to study because it helps us better understand
what we are actually covenanting when we are baptized, that we will remember
Him, keep His commandments, and are willing to take His name upon us (Moroni
4&5).
Another important part of being baptized is the DESIRE. In Mosiah 18:8-10 it says, " Behold, here are the waters of
Mormon... and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be
called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may
be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and
comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God
at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until
death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first
resurrection, that ye may have eternal life— Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what
have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness
before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve
him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly
upon you?"
Another thing that I studied was why we needed to be
baptized. I found a lot of these answers
in 2 Nephi 31, a chapter in the Book of Mormon which is commonly referred to as
the Doctrine of Christ. In verse 5 it sums this up when it says, "And now,
if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to
fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to
be baptized, yea, even by water!"
In verse 6-10 it talks about the reasons that the Savior was
baptized and I think we can use these same guidelines in our lives: humble,
obedient, example, showeth (physical sign/remembrance).
LAYING ON OF HANDS
FOR THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST:
It was kind of hard studying the GIFT of the Holy Ghost
because it is not commonly called a 'gift' in the scriptures. As I researched 'Baptism of' and 'Mission of'
the Holy Ghost I found a lot of scriptures that had action words describing the gift of the Holy Ghost, such
as, baptised, born, filled, sanctified, reception of, quickened, remission, and
sanctification. I like that when talking about the Holy Ghost
it invokes and action; both on our part to be in a position to feel it and how
the Holy Ghost touches our lives.
I also studied the story of Nephi and Lehi (Helaman 5) when
they were put into jail for preaching the gospel. While they were 'encircled by fire' but they
were not burned and they were filled with the spirit. In verse 45 it says, "And behold, the
Holy Spirit of God did come down from heaven, and did enter into their hearts,
and they were filled as if with fire, and they could speak forth marvelous
words." I loved this story because
it describes the feeling of the spirit as fire.
The spirit is often described as a still small voice, a 'quickening in
the inner man' (Moses 6:65), a comforting feeling, ect. But I liked the description of fire in ones
heart; I think that often when I am
feeling the spirit strongly I get choked up, like I am going to cry, and I
think that feeling, of pressure and intensity, could be a fire of truth from
the Holy Ghost.
Although ENDURING TO
THE END is not a part of this Article of Faith it is mentioned in most of
the scriptures relating to these topics and covenants. I believe enduring to
the end is a way to continually renew, remember and keep these principles and
covenants. In 2 Nephi 31 (describing the
Doctrine of Christ) it lays out and talks about these principles and in verse
20 it says, "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in
Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men...
Ye shall have eternal life." I think 'press forward' in this scripture is
referring to enduring to the end. This
chart I made shows the full circle and importance of continuing the circle of
these principles and enduring to the end.
