Topical Scriptural Concordance/Fulness of the Gospel

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Scriptures on the Fulness of the Gospel

Summary: Below is a concordance of every mention in scripture to the "fulness of the Gospel". We advise the reader to explore each occurrence following the approach to scripture outlined in this article. Each listing contains either a brief summary or a direct quotation (or both) of what is in those verses.

Scriptures in the Book of Mormon:

• 1 Nephi 10:14 – “And after the house of Israel should be scattered they should be gathered together again; or, in fine, after the Gentiles had received the fulness of the Gospel, the natural branches of the olive tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, should be grafted in, or come to the knowledge of the true Messiah, their Lord and Redeemer.”
• 1 Nephi 13:24 – The Bible contains the fullness of the Gospel of the Lord. After the formation of the great and abominable Church (which comes after the revelation of the Bible), many plain and precious parts as well as important covenants are taken away from either the Bible, the Gospel, or both.
• 1 Nephi 15:13-14 – The fullness of the Gospel will go unto the Gentiles and then unto the remnant of the seed of Nephi. The remnant will have "the very poinsts of [Christ's] doctrine".
• 3 Nephi 15:16-18, 20-24 – Christ explains how people in Jerusalem didn't understand the meaning of several of his sayings. These may be among the "plain and precious" things that are missing from other Christian faiths but present in the Restored Church as part of the fulness of the Gospel.
• 3 Nephi 16:7, 10, 12 – If and when the Gentiles reject the fullness of the Gospel, it will then be given unto the Jews. This suggests that the fullness of the Gospel has already been revealed.
• 3 Nephi 20:28, 30 – The fullness of the Gospel will be preached unto the house of Israel
• 3 Nephi 16, 20, 21 – These chapters contain quotations of Micah 4 and 5 by the Savior. The first person pronoun "I" is used in 3 Nephi instead of "he" as in Micah. The passages contain the common theme of a remnant of Jacob (Israel) overcoming the Gentiles.
• 3 Nephi 24-25 – Christ quotes Malachi 3 and 4. Certain differences are present that may be significant and pertinent to the question of the fulness of the Gospel.
• 3 Nephi 11-26 – These chapters are all those containing Christ's personal ministry to the Nephites. These chapters are crucial for understanding what the "fulness of the Gospel" means to Christ.
• 3 Nephi 27:13–22 – Jesus defines "the gospel" as the following:

1. Christ came into the world to do the Father's will.

2. The Father sent Christ to be crucified.

3. Because of Christ's atonement, all men will be judged by him according to their works (as opposed to not receiving a judgment at all and being cast out of God's presence by default; 2 Nephi 9꞉8-9).

4. Those who repent and are baptized shall be filled (with the Holy Ghost, see 3 Nephi 12꞉6), and

5. if they continue in faith by enduring to the end they will be justified (declared "not guilty") by Christ before the Father, but

6. if they don't endure they will be subject to the justice of God and cast out of his presence.

7. The Father's words will all be fulfilled.

8. Because no unclean thing can enter the Father's heavenly kingdom, only those who rely in faith on the atonement of Christ, repent, and are faithful to the end can be saved. People repent by

9. Doing everything we see Christ do.

• 3 Nephi 28:6-10 – Christ gives the clearest indication in the Book of Mormon that both he and the father have resurrected bodies of flesh and bone. This is a revolutionary doctrine considering Joseph Smith's religious environment.
• Ether 3:6-16 – The premotal Christ shows himself to the brother of Jared in spirit body form. That Christ had a "spirit body" prior to coming to the earth would be a revolutionary doctrine considering Joseph Smith's religious environment.
• Moroni 7:20–39 – Moroni asks the crucial question of how we can truly know what is good and what is evil. He replies that God, knowing all things from the beginning, sent angels and prophets to declare the coming of Jesus. There were many ways that good things came unto the children of men through prophets and angels. All good things come from Christ. As the children of men have faith in Christ and repent, they will cleave unto every good thing.

All these scriptures suggest that the fullness of the Gospel will be revealed prior to taking it to the Jews or House of Israel. This preaching to the Jews will happen before the Second Coming.

If one wishes to read these in the order they were translated, one should remember that most evidence indicates that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery started with Mosiah, went all the way to Moroni, went all the way back to 1 Nephi, and then finished with Words of Mormon.

Scriptures in the Doctrine & Covenants (organized by date of receipt/delivery):

• Doctrine & Covenants 10:60-62, 67-70 (Parts as early as summer 1828 but most of it likely received April 1829) – 60-62 inform us that Christ must bring the light the points of his doctrine so that the branch of the house of Jacob (the remnant Nephites and Lamanites) will have his Gospel. He does this to establish his gospel and lay down contention. 67-70 read: "Behold, this is my doctrine—whosoever repenteth and cometh unto me, the same is my church. Whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me; therefore he is not of my church. And now, behold, whosoever is of my church, and endureth of my church to the end, him will I establish upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. And now, remember the words of him who is the life and light of the world, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Amen."
• Doctrine & Covenants 14:10 (June 1829) – Jesus Christ must bring forth the fullness of his Gospel from the Gentiles unto the house of Israel
• Doctrine & Covenants 20:9 (early summer 1829 - a little after April 6, 1830) – The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Doctrine & Covenants 27:5 (August 1830) – The Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ
• Doctrine & Covenants 35:12, 17 (December 7, 1830) – God has sent forth the fullness of the Gospel unto the then-current generation through Joseph Smith.
• Doctrine & Covenants 39:6, 11, 18 (January 5, 1831) –The gospel of Jesus Christ is repentance, baptism by water, and baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Lord has prepared a work for James Covel: to preach the fullness of his gospel, which he has sent forth in these last days. If people repent and receive the fullness of the Gospel, and become sanctified, the Lord will stay his hand in judgment.
• Doctrine & Covenants 42:12, 15 (February 9 and 23, 1831) – The Bible (?) and the Book of Mormon contain the fullness of the gospel, but the fullness of the scriptures has not yet been given.
• Doctrine & Covenants 45:28-30 (March 7, 1831) – “And when the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my gospel; But they receive it not; for they perceive not the light, and they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men. And in that generation shall the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
• Doctrine & Covenants 66:2 (October 29,1831) – William McClellan is blessed for receiving the fullness of the gospel which is sent forth unto the children of men.
• Doctrine & Covenants 1:23 (November 1, 1831) – God established the Church to bring forth and preach the fullness of the Gospel.
• Doctrine & Covenants 133:57 (November 3, 1831) – The Lord sent forth the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, his everlasting covenant, that men might be made partakers of the glories which were to be revealed.
• Doctrine & Covenants 76:12-14, 40-70 (February 16,1832) – The first verses read as follows: “By the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God––Even those things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were ordained of the Father, through his Only Begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, even from the beginning; Of whom we bear record; and the record which we bear is the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw and with whom we conversed in the heavenly vision." The rest of the verses give a definition to the Gospel and the qualifications of those that reach the highest heavenly reward of living with God in the Celestial Kingdom.
• Doctrine & Covenants 90:11 (March 8,1833) – Every man shall hear the fullness of the Gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ.
• Doctrine & Covenants 109:65 (March 27,1836) – Joseph Smith prays for the remnants of Jacob to be converted from their wild and savage condition to the fulness of the everlasting gospel.
• Doctrine & Covenants 112:30 (July 23, 1837) – The Twelve and the First Presidency are given power of the priethood for th elast days and for the last time. In the last days and last time will occur the dispensation of the fulness of times.
• Doctrine & Covenants 118:4 (July 8, 1838) – The Twelve are commanded to depart over the great waters to promulgate the fullness of the Lord’s Gospel.
• Doctrine & Covenants 121: 31 (March 20, 1839) – All things will be revealed in the last days in which will occur the dispensation of the fulness of times. These will include things that have never been revealed since the world began.
• Joseph Smith–History 1:34 (Around June 1839) – Joseph Smith reports Moroni telling him that the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the everlasting Gospel as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants of the Americas
• Doctrine & Covenants 124:41 (January 19, 1841) – God deigns (thinks worthy/acceptable/grantable) to reveal to his church things which have been kept hidden from the world since before the world's beginning. These things pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times.
• Doctrine & Covenants 128:18-20 (September 6, 1842) – In a letter, Joseph Smith describes the dispensation of the fulness of times as "a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories". These dispensations include those as far back as Adam to the present time. "And not only this," says Joseph, "but those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times." In verse 20, Joseph declares the names of several angels who have delivered into his hands the different keys of the dispensation of the fulness of times.
• Doctrine & Covenants 135:3 (June 27, 1844) – John Taylor proclaims after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith that Joseph Smith has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel. The everlasting gospel is contained in the Book of Mormon.
• Doctrine & Covenants 138:47-48 (October 3, 1918) – Joseph Fielding Smith sees the prophet Elijah in vision who "was to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers" (Malachi 4:6; 3 Nephi 25:6). This planting foreshadows "the great work to be done in the temples of the Lord in the dispensation of the fulness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the sealing of the children to their parents, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming."

Basically all of these scriptures, with the exception of Doctrine & Covenants 76, describe the Book of Mormon as containing fulness of the everlasting gospel to be taken to others. D&C 76 describes either the vision of the three degrees of glory or Jesus Christ or both as the fulness of the everlasting gospel. Doctrine & Covenants 42:12 is a little ambiguous about whether the Bible contains the fulness of the everlasting Gospel.

Scriptures in the Pearl of Great Price:

• Article of Faith 1:3 – "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."
• Article of Faith 1:4 – "We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Further Reading:

• Millet, Robert L. "Plain and precious things, loss of and restoration of." In Book of Mormon Reference Companion, ed. Dennis L. Largey, 636–42. Salt Lake City, Deseret Book Company, 2003. Here, Robert Millet gives perhaps the best rundown of doctrines lost from the Bible and thus the Gospel and plain and precious truths restored by the Book of Mormon. Each of these become candidates for adding to the deficient body of doctrines in Joseph Smith's contemporary religious environment to become the "fulness of the Gospel". Millet lists the following as doctrines lost from the Bible through either "(10 the removal of texts or portions of texts from biblical records, (2) the corruption of texts through translation and transmission, and (3) the corruption of the meaning of biblical texts through faulty interpretation":

1. The nature of God the Father—that he is an exalted Man of HOliness, a corporeal being.

2. The truth that God the Father and Jesus Christ are two seperate and distinct beings

3. Christ's eternal Gosple, the knowledge that Christian prophets have declared Christian doctrines and administered Christian ordinances since the days of Adam, and that the ancient prophets in the Old Testament were acquainted with the plan of salvation and of the redemptive role of Jesus Christ.

4. The infinite and eternal nature of Christ's atonement

5. The premortal existence of men and women

6. The knowledge that all men and women are literally children of God, spirit sons and daughters of the same Eternal Father.

7. The truth that men and women have within them the capacity, through the transforming powers of Jesus Christ and by the proper exercise of their moral agency, to become even as God is

8. The truth that God has a plan, a great plan of happiness, a system of salvation in place whereby his children may advance and progress in light and truth

9. The postmortal spirit world

10. The kingdoms of glory hereafter

11. The necessity of priesthood authority and saving ordinances

12. The importance of the Church of Jesus Christ.

As candidates for doctrines that the Book of Mormon restores, Millet offers the following:

1. The gospel of Jesus Christ, including the doctrines of salvation, did not originate in the first century Christian church but rather were known from the beginning.

2. The Lord God would come to earth as Jesus of Nazareth, and he would be scourged and crucified of men

3. Jesus Christ, though separate and distinct from God the Father, will serve in the role of both Father and Son

4. The fall of Adam and Eve was as much a part of the foreordained plan of salvation as the atonement of Christ. The Book of Mormon also teaches that if there had been no fall, Adam and Eve would have remained in the Garden of Eden forever in their innocent, paradisiacal, childless, and non-progressing condition.

5. Unless fallen men and women put off the natural man and put on Christ, they remain without God in the world. At the same time, men and women are not depraved creatures and therefore have the capacity, because of the Atonement, to choose good or vil, captivity and death, or liberty and eternal life.

6. The suffering of the Lord Jesus during the hours of Atonement caused blood to come from every pore.

7. The people of Israel are scattered whenever they reject the truth Messiah and his gospel . They are gathered when they receive the Lord, his gospel, the "very points of doctrine," and come into his church. The Book of Mormon affirms that the gathering is first spiritual, to the Lord, and secondly temporal, to the lands of their inheritance.

8. The Lord has a plan for his chosen people, the house of Israel, and that patience, love, and tender regard for them are endless and eternal. Further, the restoration of the gospel in the last days is in reality a restoration of the Abrahamic covenant and a significant part of the realization of God's promise to Abraham.

9. All mortals lived before they came into mortality, and men are foreordained to receive the Holy Priesthood (2 Nephi 2:17-18; Alma 13)

10. One must have proper authority to officiate in the ordinances of the Church of Jesus Christ, and those ordinances are required for exaltation

11. Jesus Christ visited "other sheep" on the American continent and elsewhere after his resurrection from the dead.

12. God is indeed the same yesterday, today, and forever, and he reveals himself through prophets to all nations, if they seek him earnestly.

• Welch, John W. "The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount: The Differences." In Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple & the Sermon on the Mount, 125–50. Provo, UT: FARMS, 1999. This book chapter lays out important differences in the Sermon at the Temple at Bountiful from the Savior's Sermon on the Mount in Jerusalem. These differences may be significant.