Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel FDREL 250

Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel FDREL 250

Neal A. Maxwell Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “Unto the Rising Generation” -- a talk given in the Friday evening leadership meeting associated with April 1984 general conference. We are here tonight to talk about the central concerns of the Kingdom, including the rising generation of Church members and the need for their full conversion.

Neal A. Maxwell Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “Unto the Rising Generation” -- a talk given in the Friday evening leadership meeting associated with April 1984 general conference. We have long heard, and believed, that the Lord has reserved special spirits to come forth in the last days of the last dispensation. The Church’s rising generation of young men and women are a part of that vanguard. Reserved by the Lord for this time, they must now be preserved by parents and prepared for their special moment in human history! They have been held back to come forth at this time, but now they need to be pushed forward to meet their rendezvous.

Neal A. Maxwell Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “Unto the Rising Generation” -- a talk given in the Friday evening leadership meeting associated with April 1984 general conference. The first thing to be said is also the most obvious: if we wish to help the youth of the Church, the best thing we can do is to help their parents. This is why the challenges of activating more of our adults and preparing more of our youth are so tightly intertwined. Said one way, if parents sneeze, their children may get pneumonia! Hence, the best medicine is always preventive medicine.

Neal A. Maxwell Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “Unto the Rising Generation” -- a talk given in the Friday evening leadership meeting associated with April 1984 general conference. The first thing to be said is also the most obvious: if we wish to help the youth of the Church, the best thing we can do is to help their parents. This is why the challenges of activating more of our adults and preparing more of our youth are so tightly intertwined. Said one way, if parents sneeze, their children may get pneumonia! Hence, the best medicine is always preventive medicine.

Neal A. Maxwell Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “Unto the Rising Generation” -- a talk given in the Friday evening leadership meeting associated with April 1984 general conference. Furthermore, this rising generation is the first generation to be reared in a time when society’s other institutions, previously supportive of certain moral standards, have been largely neutralized, or worse, secularized. This rising generation, shorn of such external support systems, must therefore believe “because of the word”—and behave because they believe! (See Alma 32: 13– 14. ) [Ensign, April 1985]

In the general conference that President Gordon B. Hinckley was sustatined as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he made this statement:

Now, my brethren and sisters, the time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a season to be strong. It is a time to move forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission. (“This Is the Work of the Master, ” Ensign, May 1995, p. 71).

Ten years later while giving an account of his stewardship to the Church, he began by repeating the above statement (see “Opening Remarks, ” Ensign, May 2005, p. 4). He concluded that report by saying: “I now repeat what I said 10 years ago, let us ‘stand a little taller, … lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ’ ”

What is the millennial mission of the Church? We are given insight into the millennial mission of the Church from Moroni. In 1842, Joseph Smith wrote the following:

“On the evening on the 21 st of September, A. D. 1823, while I was praying unto God, and endeavoring to exercise faith in the precious promises of Scripture, on a sudden a light like that of day, only of a far purer and more glorious appearance and brightness, burst into the room indeed the first sight was as though the house was filled with consuming fire; the appearance produced a shock that affected the whole body; in a moment a personage stood before me surrounded with a glory yet greater than that with which I was already surrounded.

“This messenger proclaimed himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to be fulfilled, that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was speedily to commence; that the time was at hand for the Gospel in all its fullness to be preached in power, unto all nations that a people might be prepared for the Millennial reign. I was informed that I was chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring about some of His purposes in this glorious dispensation. " (History of the Church, Vol. 4: p. 536)

“This messenger proclaimed himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to be fulfilled, that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was speedily to commence; that the time was at hand for the Gospel in all its fullness to be preached in power, unto all nations that a people might be prepared for the Millennial reign. I was informed that I was chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring about some of His purposes in this glorious dispensation. " (History of the Church, Vol. 4: p. 536)

“This messenger proclaimed himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to be fulfilled, that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was speedily to commence; that the time was at hand for the Gospel in all its fullness to be preached in power, unto all nations that a people might be prepared for the Millennial reign. I was informed that I was chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring about some of His purposes in this glorious dispensation. " (History of the Church, Vol. 4: p. 536)

“This messenger proclaimed himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to be fulfilled, that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was speedily to commence; that the time was at hand for the Gospel in all its fullness to be preached in power, unto all nations that a people might be prepared for the Millennial reign. I was informed that I was chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring about some of His purposes in this glorious dispensation. " (History of the Church, Vol. 4: p. 536)

David A. Bednar Quorum of the Twelve Apostles We live in a truly distinctive dispensation. A gospel dispensation is a period of time in which the necessary priesthood authority, ordinances, and doctrinal knowledge are found on the earth to implement the Father’s plan of salvation for His children. Essential to the establishment of a dispensation is an authorized servant of God, a dispensation head, who holds and exercises the authority and keys of the holy priesthood.

David A. Bednar Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Gospel dispensations were established through Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, and others. In every dispensation gospel truths are revealed anew–or dispensed–so the people of that period are not entirely dependent upon past dispensations for knowledge of Heavenly Father’s plan. Apostasy from the truth occurred in each previous dispensation. However, the work of salvation that was commenced but not completed in those earlier eras continues into the final dispensation. The Prophet Joseph Smith explained that for this reason, the rolling forward of the latter-day glory, even the dispensation of the fulness of times, is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age;

David A. Bednar Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . . . it is a theme upon which prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live; and fired with heavenly and joyful anticipations they have sung and written and prophesied of this our day. (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 186) In this greatest and last of all gospel dispensations, “a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time. And not only this, but those things which have never been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and the prudent, shall be revealed … in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times” (D&C

David A. Bednar Quorum of the Twelve Apostles The Prophet Joseph further expounded: All the ordinances and duties that ever have been required by the Priesthood, under the directions and commandments of the Almighty in any of the dispensations, shall be had in the last dispensation …, bringing to pass the restoration spoken of by the mouth of all the Holy Prophets. (Teachings: Joseph Smith, 511) As the Apostle Paul declared, “In the dispensation of the fulness of times [God will] gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1: 10). [From, “To Sweep the Earth as With a Flood, ” given at Campus Education Week at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah August 19, 2014]