The doctrine taught in the articles of faith is divided into sections. The first four are basic doctrinal truths. The next two teach the organization. The next three outline resources we have to help us on our journey. The next three teach us principles missionary work. The last one provides general principles for conducting our personal lives.
It seems to me that there is a progression of doctrine as we move through the articles of faith.
A church that no longer teaches true doctrine is like a cell phone with the battery removed—it no longer serves any purpose.
Each article of faith provides unique doctrines for our gospel understanding.
She said memorizing the Articles of Faith would mean nothing more than a lot of words unless we understood the doctrines and principles contained in them. She encouraged us to study the gospel doctrine taught in each of the Articles of Faith
We learn from the first article of faith that the Godhead is three personages: God the Father, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Ghost.
The second article teaches us that we are responsible for our own actions on earth.
The third gives a vision of the Savior’s mission for the salvation of Father in Heaven’s children.
The fourth teaches the importance of basic principles and ordinances.
The teachings and concepts of true doctrine are found in the gospel of our Lord and Savior. False teachings come from Satan, the father of all lies.
Doctrine is to the Church like a battery is to a cell phone. When you remove the battery from your cell phone, it becomes useless. A church in which true doctrine is no longer taught is similarly useless. It cannot guide us back to our Heavenly Father and our eternal home.
Ours is not the only church in which true doctrine is taught. Ours is the church with the fullest measure of true doctrine and the only one in which the authority to perform saving ordinances has been entrusted.
After we start to understand the basic doctrine of Christ, the fifth and sixth articles of faith teach us about the organization and order of the priesthood.
What a glorious day it was for Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in May 1829 when they went into the woods to pray about the doctrine of baptism for the remission of sins that they had read about while translating the Book of Mormon. There were many teachings about baptism being taught by different churches in the early 1800s, and Joseph and Oliver knew they could not all be true. They wanted to know about the correct manner of baptism and also who had the authority to baptize.
In answer to their petitions to the Lord, a messenger from heaven, John the Baptist, appeared to them. He placed his hands on their heads and conferred upon them the authority to baptize with these words: “Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron” (D&C 13:1).
What a marvelous day in the history of the world! The priesthood was restored to the earth.
The next three articles of faith—seven, eight, and nine—outline resources available to instruct us in our mortal journey. …
The ninth article of faith teaches us that God has revealed, does reveal, and will reveal in the future many great and important truths to His prophets, seers, and revelators. We learn that in addition to listening to the still, small voice of the Spirit and reading the scriptures, another source of guidance is our Church leaders, who are chosen, called, and set apart to bless our lives through the lessons they teach.
The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth articles of faith instruct us on how to conduct missionary work and share the gospel in a world of many nations and various laws. …
The thirteenth article of faith provides special insight into how we should conduct our lives and present ourselves. It reads: “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”
You young men—I encourage you to use your bright minds to study and learn the Articles of Faith and the doctrines they teach. They are among the most important and certainly the most concise statements of doctrine in the Church. If you will use them as a guide to direct your studies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will find yourself prepared to declare your witness of the restored truth to the world. You will be able to declare in simple, straightforward, and profound ways the core beliefs you hold dear as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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