After showing Himself to the brother of Jared, he told him He
was prepared from the foundation of the world. “Who verily was foreordained [GR
having been foreknown] before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in
these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20).
“But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and
Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory
be thine forever” (Moses 4:2).
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will
wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people [OR reproach
of His people] shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath
spoken it.
“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we
have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for
him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:8-9).
“The very important work that had to be done was to save us
from sin and spiritual death and to show us how we could return to him. Unlike
Satan, who wants to destroy you, Heavenly Father wants you because he loves
you. He has provided ways to protect you from Satan. And whom did He choose to
show us the way? His Son Jesus Christ.”[1]
His mission is to redeem His people. “The next day John
seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1
Corinthians 15:3).
“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus
2:14).
“And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my
soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I
will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily saw my Redeemer, even
as I have seen him” (2 Nephi 11:2).
He told him He was Jesus Christ, the Father and the Son. “And
now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children
of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath
spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith
on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his
daughters” (Mosiah 5:7).
“Moroni’s work on the abridgment of the record of the
Jaredites—which appears in the Book of Mormon today as the book of Ether—offers
up a surprise that most readers will not have suspected. ‘In a startling act of
literary appropriation,’ writes [Grant] Hardy,
‘he Christianizes the Jaredite record …
The idea that the Jaredites did not know about Jesus will come as a surprise to
most Latter-day Saints. At first glance, the Jaredite story does not seem that
different from what we have seen elsewhere in the Book of Mormon; Christ is
mentioned regularly and reverently. Yet if one were to go through the book of
Ether with a red pencil and differentiate Moroni’s direct narrator’s comments
from his paraphrase of the twenty-four plates, it would soon become obvious
that, with a single exception, specific references to Jesus Christ appear only
in Moroni’s editorial remarks.’ Understanding
the Book of Mormon: A Reader’s Guide (p. 235)
“The single exception, of course, is the appearance of the
premortal Savior to the brother of Jared, as recorded in Ether 2–3. But that
prophet is told to write an account of his experience, seal it up, and never
speak of it thereafter (see Ether 3:14, 21–22). And, says Hardy, ‘The remainder
of the book of Ether reads as if that is precisely what happened’ (p. 236).”[2]
Through Him, all who believe in Him will have eternal life. “He
is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can
never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no
more death” (Mosiah 16:9).
We will all become His sons and daughters. “But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name” (John 1:12).
“And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind,
yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born
again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state
of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters” (Mosiah
27:25).
[1] Follow
Him, Sister Michaelene P. Grassli, October 1989 General Conference.
[2] An
Apologetically Important Nonapologetic Book, Daniel C. Peterson, Maxwell
Institute website.
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