BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes.
In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures.
In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming of Christ—Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman, and other unfamiliar names. We hope those names will become more familiar to you as you read their inspiring words and feel the relevance and divinity of their messages through these letters.)
Let us know if you’d like to receive your own digital copy of the Book of Mormon, and/or if these messages encourage and assist you spiritually as well.
Doctrine of Christ
A Blog post
This week I wanted to discuss the Doctrine of Christ. It is something very near and dear to my heart, and I know that it will bring peace to your life as it has brought peace to mine! There are 5 steps in the Doctrine of Christ and those are: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.
People may find themselves at varying stages in this process, but the first step that always must be taken is faith! Whether the step be great or small, any act of faith is immediately blessed by our loving Heavenly Father. Such an example is Nephi, son of Nephi, where he does amazing works by his faith, “And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily. And in the name of Jesus did he cast out devils and unclean spirits; and even his brother did he raise from the dead, after he had been stoned and suffered death by the people.” The people could not disbelieve him! What amazing faith!
However, our faith can also be only a desire. As Alma states in Alma 32, we must exercise our desire until it becomes faith growing brighter and brighter until that perfect day. The second step is repentance, and having touched on God’s mercy, I will say only read Mosiah 27 to learn more about the reward of repentance. Third is baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. This is the first sacred covenant that we make with our loving Heavenly Father, and as we do this, we promise him to take upon us the name of Christ (See Doctrine and Covenants 20:37). By doing this we promise to obey God’s commandments, but this is not all. It also allows us to be redeemed of our sins. Not only through just the baptism, but also receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost does essentially 5 things for us, and I learned what they were through this play on letters: Double T WDC! Which stands for: T-teach T-testify W-warn D-direct C-comfort. Last but not least, enduring to the end! For us the trials are never over, and neither are the temptations. So we can never give up! We must constantly, vigorously, and tenaciously pursue the Gospel and constantly exercise faith, repent of our mistakes, renew our covenants we made with God, and most certainly keep the companionship of the Holy Ghost!