Area Leadership Message
The Gospel and Atonement of Jesus Christ Are for All People
We are all children of God. We are created in the image of God. “Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents.”1
Because of the unimaginable love of our Father in Heaven, He created a plan for us that through which, if followed, we can return to live with Them in a more glorious form. President Russell M. Nelson taught “I have learned that Heavenly Father’s plan for us is fabulous, that what we do in this life really matters, and that the Savior’s Atonement is what makes our Fathers’ plan possible.”2
Moses was taught this great eternal truth by our Heavenly Father. “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).
For the realization of this purpose in the plan, Jesus Christ invites all to partake of the fruit of the gospel which is most sweet and desirable above any other fruit. (See 1 Nephi 8:11–12.) His invitation is to all. During Jesus Christ’s mortal life, His disciples preached the gospel only to fellow Jews. The Jews believed that being a literal descendant of Abraham meant acceptance and being chosen by God, so they considered others as “unclean” Gentiles. But the Saviour taught Peter in Acts 10 who is “accepted with him” (Acts 10:35). The gospel of Jesus Christ is universal in its promise and effect reaching out to all who ever live on earth. Here are some declarations of that truth from the scriptures:
“The Atonement … was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be” (Mosiah 4:7).
“And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, . . . all men are redeemed” (Mormon 9:13).
“Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? . . . Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and . . .
“All men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden” (2 Nephi 26:27–28).
I rejoice in the plainness of the Book of Mormon. In 2 Nephi 26:33, the Savior invited all the children of men to “come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.”
In expounding this scripture, President Dallin H. Oaks taught, “‘He inviteth them all’ we understand, ‘male and female’ we also understand ‘black and white,’ which means all races. But what about ‘bond and free’? Bond—the opposite of free—means more than slavery. It means being bound (in bondage) to anything from which it is difficult to escape. Bond includes those whose freedom is restricted by physical or emotional afflictions. Bond includes those who are addicted to some substance or practice. Bond surely refers to those who are imprisoned by sin—‘encircled about’ by what another teaching of the Book of Mormon calls ‘the chains of hell’. … Finally bond also includes those who are confined within the boundaries of other erroneous ideas. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that we preach to ‘liberate the captives.’”3
Today, throughout the world, in every nation we see the fulfillment of the promised manifestation of the Lord to “every nation, kindred, tongue, and people” (2 Nephi 26:13) through missionary efforts. Today the gospel of Jesus Christ is reaching the length and breadth of the world by means unimaginable, through social media and technology. The Lord provides a way for all His children to hear Him. In His covenant with Abraham, the Lord promised that through Him all families, or nations, of the earth would be blessed. (See Genesis 12:3, 22:18.) The Abrahamic covenant opens the door for God’s choicest blessing to all His children everywhere; “if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29, see also Abraham 2:10).
The Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 30:2 promises that all who receive and act upon the Lord’s invitation to “repent and believe in his Son” become the covenant people of the Lord. Therefore, neither riches nor lineage nor any other privileges of birth should make us believe that we are better than another. (See Alma 5:54, Jacob 3:9, Mosiah 23:7.)
The gospel is the only answer in a world full of fear. (See Luke 21:26) President Nelson has counseled that “we have the sacred responsibility to share the power and peace of Jesus Christ with all who will listen and who will let God prevail in their lives.”4
We live in the day foretold when righteousness is sent down out of heaven and truth out of the earth “to sweep the earth as with a flood” and to gather out the elect “from the four quarters of the earth” (Moses 7:62).
That “the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples. . . .
“And they shall go forth and none shall stay them” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:4–5).