3.025 The Gospel Began to be Preached

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as savory salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

I love books. I love to read. I love watching movies.

But you know, my favorite ones are the stories that have the hero's journey. But even more so, they have the hero that is the only one that can be the hero. We've been reading this week Genesis chapters 3 and 4 and Moses chapters 4 and 5.

And inside of them we've looked this week at several different aspects of the fall of Adam and Eve as well as the rise of Satan and his doings. We're going to finish off the week with a gem that I feel really needs to be established as we dive into the Old Testament. It's something that separates us as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and yet I don't think we see ourselves separated through this lens.

And then we're going to connect the two of those together with our hero ideas, our hero stories. Maybe you've already got one in mind or several in mind. The story of the Savior Jesus Christ, the only one that can save us.

But where does that story come from? Let's take a look at our verse for today in Moses 5, verse 58 and see. It says here right on the tail end of our reading for the week, And thus the gospel began to be preached from the beginning, being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by His own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost.

So what is it about us as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that resonates so much with this idea? Well, we don't just claim to be a Christian church; we claim to be the original Church of Jesus Christ, restored, brought back to the earth. We also believe that that gospel has been preached to every dispensation, to every prophet that's lived, starting with Adam and continuing on through his generations up to the present day.

And we see it here in verse 58. Verse 58, Adam and Eve received the gospel. Now, thinking back to our concepts this week, we've thought about Satan and deceiving and lying.

Wouldn't it be great if he could frustrate the work of God by eliminating key foundational doctrinal pieces from the Bible over generations and thousands of years of translations? Here we have inside of Moses evidence that the gospel of Jesus Christ was known to Adam and Eve. And yet, if we read the Genesis version of this story, we don't see that reference.

My friends, the Lord has set His gospel on the earth and it's been available from the beginning until today. We have an opportunity to live that hero story. Jesus Christ is the hero of our world.

He's the hero of God's plan. Only He was able to come and do what He did to save all of mankind. And here we sit on the back end of Him doing that.

He accomplished it. We get the blessings of it as we choose to follow Him, as we seek to have faith in Him, repent, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. You'll notice in that verse as well that holy angels taught this gospel.

People think it's so foreign that Joseph Smith claimed to have been visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ as well as other angels. And yet here we see established from the beginning the very pattern that God would use for His prophets and apostles going forward. I am grateful that we have this testimony that the gospel began to be preached from the beginning.

And I'm grateful to be on the earth today to have it in our lives as well. That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We'll be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.