The Gospel

In church today we had a combined meeting with the young men. A return missionary from my ward gave a lesson about the gospel and Christ.

He started out by sharing Ecclesiastes 12:1-7.

1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy ayouth, while the bevil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;

5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long ahome, and the mourners go about the streets:

6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

7 Then shall the adust return to the earth as it was: and the bspirit shall return unto God who cgave it.

What does that mean? Well, we can try to make it hard. Which is what we do a lot.
But all it means is what the first verse says. Learn it in your youth. The rest is describing things about being old, metaphors and stuff that is hard to understand because they are ancient.

Then he went on and talked a little bit about his mission. He served in Louisiana (I'm not 100% sure, but I'm almost positive that's were he went), where most people are already Christian. So he thought that he didn't have to teach them about Christ, because they already believe.

So his approach was to try telling them about Joseph Smith. Which didn't work most of the time. So he prayed and studied. He soon discovered that he was approaching them the wrong way.
He noticed that Christ was mentioned in every lesson in Preach the Gospel. He then changed his approach from "Let me tell you about a prophet" to "Let me share with you an important truth." His success shot up.

He then changed the direction more towards testimonies, and started with Numbers 21:6-9.

6 And the Lord sent afiery bserpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

7 ¶ Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have asinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses bprayed for the people.

8 And the Lord said unto Moses, aMake thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall blive.

9 And Moses made a aserpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

We then turned to the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:20

20 And now, my brethren, I have spoken plainly that ye cannot err. And as the Lord God liveth that abrought Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and gave unto Moses power that he should bheal the nations after they had been bitten by the poisonous serpents, if they would cast their eyes unto the cserpent which he did raise up before them, and also gave him power that he should smite the drock and the water should come forth; yea, behold I say unto you, that as these things are etrue, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other fname given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved.

Then in 1 Nephi 17:41.

41 And he did straiten them in the wilderness with his rod; for they ahardened their hearts, even as ye have; and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying bserpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be chealed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the dsimpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.

Then he called his brother up, and had him stand on a chair. He told us that if we would look at him every morning, we wouldn't be tired. He asked us if we believed him. He then asked us if it were one of the young men leaders that said it would we believe it. He then asked if the bishop were so say it, and finally Thomas S. Monson, if we would believe it. I would believe it if the prophet told us it were true.

And he made a point that many would not believe because it was too easy.
So, then he described the simplicity of testimonies. How they don't have to be a long speech. How the most effective testimonies are the ones that are short and sweet.

He shared one last scripture, Doctrine and Covenants 76:22-25

22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the atestimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he blives!

He made a point here that the testimony could have ended here, just a testimony "that he lives."

23 For we asaw him, even on the bright hand of cGod; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only dBegotten of the Father—

24 That by ahim, and through him, and of him, the bworlds are and were created, and the cinhabitants thereof are begotten dsons and daughters unto God.

25 And this we saw also, and bear record, that an aangel of God who was in authority in the presence of God, who brebelled against the Only Begotten cSon whom the Father dloved and who was in the bosom of the Father, was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son,

The basic point of the whole lesson was that the gospel is simple. It is plain. Just as it is easy to look at something and be healed, it should by easy to understand the gospel. It is everything we have been taught in our youth. It is all based on Christ. Once the understanding clicks there, I know it does everywhere else. I have seen this happen in my life recently since I have started seminary, and started studying His life. Everything is starting to make so much more sense.

And so he ended the lesson with his testimony. I bear the same testimony to you. I know Christ lived and died for us. I know he is my Saviour.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.