The Restoration of the GospelWidtsoe, Osborne J. P.
Religion
The Restoration of the Gospel
Widtsoe, Osborne J. P.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
the blood of Christ without baptism and went to eternal torment if
they died without being christened by a minister. He taught the world
that infants were without sin. He taught that baptism was for the
remission of sins and was immersion in water, and to be valid must
be performed by one who was properly commissioned to administer that
sacred ordinance. He overthrew the prevalent belief that sprinkling or
pouring of water on the head was recognized by the Lord as baptism.
He taught that a man could not be saved without repentance--that
confession of belief in the Savior was not enough to save him. He,
with others, received the keys of authority held by all the ancient
prophets in their various dispensations, by the laying on of their
hands, in fulfillment of the promise that there should be a restoration
of all things. Among these prophets of old who came to him was Elijah,
who committed unto him the keys of his dispensation as spoken of by
Malachi, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the
hearts of the children to their fathers, lest the whole earth be
smitten with a curse at the coming of the great and dreadful day of
the Lord. Thus was introduced into the world again the doctrine of
universal salvation--the doctrine that the dead also may hear the
truth and be redeemed from sin on condition of their repentance and
acceptance of the ordinances performed by the living in their behalf.
He taught the eternity of the marriage covenant, and the perpetual
union of the family in the Celestial Kingdom of our Father, when the
contracting parties are sealed by the spirit of promise by one holding
the divine authority to officiate in these sacred ordinances. He taught
the literal gathering of Israel and the restoration of a remnant of the
Jews to their promised land and the rebuilding of Jerusalem as a holy
city. He gave to the world the Book of Mormon, a sacred history of the
ancient inhabitants of America, which contains the everlasting Gospel
as it was taught to them. He overturned the long-cherished error that
the heavens were as brass and no more revelation was to be received
from on high. Many other marvelous truths he taught to mankind as he
received them through divine revelation, correcting false beliefs and
placing again in the reach of the people the means of escape from their
sins and the judgment to come on condition of their repentance. Great
was the work that he performed under the direction and inspiration of
the Lord who commissioned him and ordained him to stand at the head of
the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times, holding the keys of power
and authority on the earth to officiate in Jesus' name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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