WE, THE DISCIPLES AND SERVANTS of our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, solemnly proclaim that all mankind is fallen from the beginning and therefore Jesus Christ plainly taught the holy and sacred means by which all mankind, as many as will, mayest receive a complete personal redemption in mortality, and in the flesh shall see God.¹ He personally claims this holy and sacred means as “my doctrine”² and is also affirmed by prophets in restored scripture and first-hand witnesses as “the doctrine of Christ.”³

IN THE PREMORTAL REALM, an Everlasting Covenant was established whereby personal redemption and an increase in glory was made possible by and through the fulfillment of an infinite, atoning sacrifice of a Savior.  This Everlasting Covenant was reintroduced to Adam and Eve on this earth—continuing as an Everlasting Covenant—and was renewed, or made new, through Jesus Christ. A covenant with God has always been an agreement or pledge of sacred power, most binding, and the utmost integrity.  Every promise of God is a pledge that will be fulfilled as we keep our commitments. God’s commitment is binding and His words cannot fail. Being everlasting, the terms or conditions of the covenant are binding and not negotiable but also cannot and will not ever change—from people to people, generation to generation, dispensation to dispensation—with God being the same yesterday, today, and forever⁴. Each person makes a promise to fulfill this Everlasting Covenant when they partake of the sacrament⁵ and promise to always remember the Savior who is the only means whereby they can receive personal redemption.

WE DECLARE that the Savior, Jesus Christ, stands supreme in His authority and knowledge of His doctrine “and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto [Him].”⁶ His own teaching of His doctrine that is cited primarily in the Book of Mormon⁷ is incontestable.  Therefore, we affirm the Lord’s own doctrine that personal redemption and eternal life are possible in mortality through exercising principles of righteousness, repentance, making a sacrificial offering of a broken heart and contrite spirit,⁸ and receiving the true saving ordinances. At a minimum, principles of righteousness include having sufficient hope—belief and trust in the divine nature of God—and exercising faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Repentance is turning, or returning, our hearts to the Lord as the source of all truth and avoiding any dependence upon any other person for absolute truth. We also affirm that the only true saving ordinances taught by the Lord are to “be baptized in my name”—the name of the Son.⁹  To be baptized in the name of the Son is to “be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten.”¹⁰ The ordinance of baptism of water by immersion¹¹ is a sign of “repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ” and keep His commands which is revelation.¹² The consummate ordinance to the baptism of water is the baptism of fire (blood) and Holy Ghost (Spirit)¹³—“by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified”¹⁴ This fire offers a sanctification for complete remission of sins¹⁵ through the blood of Christ and this Holy Spirit offers justification for greater glory to one’s own spirit. It’s only through this sanctification and justification power that a person’s soul can then house the gift of the Holy Ghost that will continually guide a person in all things including to the presence of the Lord in the flesh.¹⁶ The Savior is the living example having literally demonstrated His doctrine during His mortal life.¹⁷

WE WARN AND FOREWARN, equally as the Lord has already warned that “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them.”¹⁸ We affirm Nephi’s additional witness that “Behold, this is the Doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.”¹⁹ If another saving doctrine is taught through other saving ordinances, it is because “Satan doth stir up the hearts of the people to contention concerning the points of [His] doctrine; and in these things they do err, for they do wrest the scriptures and do not understand them.”²⁰ Further, we warn that any alternative doctrine, or alternative saving ordinances, taught or held by any person or religious institution will ensure that peoples shall further remain under condemnation and have their minds continually darkened because of “vanity and unbelief.”²¹ The Lord responds to Pharisees and false teachers of every dispensation saying, “In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”²²

THE SAVIOR’S PURPOSE in revealing His doctrine is to further His work and His glory which are in keeping with the Everlasting Covenant—“to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”²³ His purpose is to ensure that all people “may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”²⁴ In addition, His purpose was to clarify and ensure that “neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been”²⁵ even among His devout followers.

THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT is “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”²⁶ This commandment indicates a very personal relationship with the Lord—one of friendship, honor, respect, trust, desire, mentoring, learning, loyalty and other attributes shared between a Master and a servant. This commandment is knowing that receiving light, truth, love, salvation, justification and even the promise of eternal life are the fruits of a divine and personal relationship with the Lord. It is to have unshaken faith in Him and His divine nature. It is realizing that there is no other means, nor way, nor person capable of offering redemption—remembering that his paths are righteous and “the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.”²⁷ This commandment is to trust in thee forever, not putting one’s trust in the arm of flesh, yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm,²⁸ that in all cases, a person must get truth or the confirmation of truth from the Lord God. Therefore, we solemnly declare that there is no person or religious institution that can administrate or mediate this absolute personal relationship. We also declare that religious or temple ceremonial rites of any institution can be powerful symbols to teach and possibly point people to Christ and this relationship but do not have redemptive power in and of themselves.²⁹ Instead, we affirm prophetic teachings that the only means by which personal salvation and eternal life may be received in mortality is in and through a personal relationship with the Holy Messiah, Jesus Christ.³⁰ Further, we declare that a person cannot come unto Him “save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save,”³¹ and that a person’s only good works are to seek for personal revelation and keep His commands.

IN EACH DISPENSATION the Everlasting Covenant and its doctrine have been restored by servants including this current latter-day dispensation to Joseph Smith where it was plainly taught until the church came under condemnation.³² The Lord’s servants have held the solemn responsibility to learn the true doctrine of the fathers,³³ then receive the fulness of the Everlasting Covenant for themselves, and “therefore, go forth unto this people, and declare the words which I have spoken, unto the ends of the earth.”³⁴ A true servant is known both by revelation and by their fruits³⁵—whether they have received the Lord for themselves, exercise powerful gifts of the spirit, teach the true doctrine of Christ, encourage every soul to seek personal redemption in and through the Lord only, and even whether they set themselves up as a light unto the people or take honor upon themselves for priestcraft.³⁶ Parents—mothers and fathers—have a sacred duty to seek these blessings for themselves and teach this true doctrine to their children³⁷ and will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations. Each soul is beloved of heavenly parents, and, as such, has been endowed with free will, having equal opportunity to exercise their own conscience in order to “awake, and arise from the dust… that [they] mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto [them]… may be fulfilled.”³⁸ All human beings—black and white, bond and free, male and female, young and old—must spiritually awaken and have their soul stirred up in remembrance of their duty to God,³⁹ that ye may walk blameless before him, that ye may come unto Him and partake of His goodness⁴⁰ to even “seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life”⁴¹ so that ye may walk after the holy order of God. Each person has a solemn responsibility to learn, believe, live, and teach the doctrine of Christ—It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.⁴²

WE CALL UPON each soul everywhere to learn, to believe, to live and to teach it as Christ’s doctrine, that it is the only doctrine that is able to offer salvation and eternal life, that “this is the way, and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God.”⁴³

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“Verily, verily, I [the Lord] say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them.”

3 Nephi 11:39-40

For more learning of the Doctrine of Christ, see The Doctrine of Christ Study Guide

Scripture References

1. Moses 5:9-10
2. 3 Nephi 11
3. 2 Nephi 31
4. Moroni 10:19; 2 Nephi 29:9; Mormon 9:9; Alma 31:17; Doctrine & Covenants 20:12
5. 3 Nephi 18
6. 3 Nephi 11:32
7. 3 Nephi 11-30
8. 3 Nephi 9:20; 12:19; Moroni 6:2; 2 Nephi 2:7; Ether 4:15; Doctrine & Covenants 59:8; 20:37
9. 3 Nephi 11:21-38; 21:6; 30:2; 2 Nephi 31:11-13,21; 9:23-24; Moroni 7:34; Mormon 7:8
10. Moses 6:59
11. 3 Nephi 11:23-26; 7:25; 2 Nephi 31:5-14; Helaman 16:5; Mormon 7:10; Doctrine & Covenants 33:11-12; 39:4-6
12. 2 Nephi 31:10-14
13. 3 Nephi 11:35; 12:1-2; 9:20; 2 Nephi 31:8-21; Mormon 7:10; Ether 12:14; Doctrine & Covenants 33:11-12; 39:4-6; 19:31; Moses 6:66
14. Moses 6:60
15. 3 Nephi 12:2
16. Moses 5:9-10
17. 2 Nephi 31:5-8
18. 3 Nephi 11:39-40
19. 2 Nephi 31:21
20. Doctrine & Covenants 10:63; 2 Peter 3:1-18
21. Doctrine & Covenants 84:43-57
22. Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-9; JSH 1:19
23. Moses 1:39
24. 2 Nephi 25:26
25. 3 Nephi 11:22,28
26. Matthew 22:37
27. 2 Nephi 9:41
28. 2 Nephi 4:34
29. 2 Nephi 28:5
30. 2 Nephi 2:6; 10:24; Mosiah 3:17-18; 16:3; Alma 38:9
31. 2 Nephi 31:19; Alma 7:14; 34:18
32. Doctrine & Covenants 84:43-57
33. Abraham 1:1-4
34. 3 Nephi 11:41
35. Matthew 7:15-20; 3 Nephi 14:1-27
36. Alma 1:12-16
37. Moses 6:57; 5:12; 7:1
38. Moroni 10:31
39. Alma 4:3,19; 7:22
40. 2 Nephi 26:33
41. Doctrine & Covenants 101:38
42. Doctrine & Covenants 131:6
43. 2 Nephi 31:21

For more learning of the Doctrine of Christ, see The Doctrine of Christ Study Guide