3 Nephi 11:29-36

The Savior continues preaching against contention.  He makes it clear the devil is father of contention.  He is the one who “stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another” (3 Nephi 11:29).

Paul, writing to Timothy, warned against contention. 

But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,

In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure [GR perchance]  will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

2 Timothy 2:23 - 26

King Benjamin taught:

But, O my people, beware lest there shall arise contentions among you, and ye list to obey the evil spirit, which was spoken of by my father Mosiah.

For behold, there is a wo pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit; for if he listeth to obey him, and remaineth and dieth in his sins, the same drinketh damnation to his own soul; for he receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment, having transgressed the law of God contrary to his own knowledge.

Mosiah 2:32 - 33

Contention is not His doctrine.  The devil will stir up hearts of men with anger and cause them to contend with each other. His doctrine will do away with such things.  “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Christ declares His doctrine.  It is the “doctrine which the Father hath given unto me” (3 Nephi 11:32).  Christ bears record of the Father; the Father bears record of Him.  The Holy Ghost bears record of both the Father and Son.

In his epistle, the apostle John wrote:

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.  And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

1 John 5:6 - 9

There are the three that witness.  Moroni₂ wrote concerning witnesses, “And in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established; and the testimony of three, and this work, in the which shall be shown forth the power of God and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost bear record—and all this shall stand as a testimony against the world at the last day” (Ether 5:4).

What is Christ’s doctrine?  “[W]hoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved” (3 Nephi 11:33).  He taught this same doctrine during His mortal ministry.  “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16).  Those that believe in Him and are baptized “shall inhert the kingdom of God” (3 Nephi 11:33). 

Those that do not believe in Christ and are not baptized shall be damned.  The words of Christ came to Moroni₂, stating, “[W]hatsover thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me.  I am the same that leadeth men to all good; he that will not believe my words will not believe me—that I am; and he that will not believe me will not believe the Father who sent me.  For behold, I am the Father, I am the light, and the life, and the truth of the world”

(Ether 4:12). 

Once again, He tells us His doctrine.  The Father and Christ bear record of it.  Whomever believes in Christ will believe in the Father.  The Father will bear record of Christ and “will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 11:35).  John Welch writes, “Twice [Christ] defined his doctrine in exactly the same terms. It is the gospel of repentance, baptism, and becoming as a little child, to whom Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Ghost.”[1]

Christ testifies, “thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one” (3 Nephi 11:36).  Explaining this scripture, Benjamin Huff wrote, “when Christ says in 3 Nephi 11:36, ‘the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one,’ he is affirming that the other members of the Godhead will bear record of him and of the doctrine he is presenting.”[2]

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[1] Toward an Understanding of the Sermon as a Temple Text, John W. Welch, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed December 5, 2012.

[2] How Polemicism Corrupted Latter-day Saint Apologetics, Benjamin I. Huff, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed December 5, 2012.