Gospel Doctrine: Unto Every Nation

Unto Every Nation
By John Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 30]

Throughout his mortal ministry, Jesus taught only Israelites. [1] He once made an exception by going to the region of Lebanon, to the ancient Canaanite cities of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21). There approached him “a woman of Canaan,” [2] asking him to heal her daughter.

At first, the Savior ignored her (Matthew 15:23), but when she continued to call on him for help, he replied, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). In the end, seeing her great faith, the Lord acceded to her request. [3]

Jesus’ words are also reflected in Matthew 10:5-6, where he sent the twelve apostles to preach, instructing them, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus also spoke of his sheep when he declared, “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16).

The Savior later explained to the Nephites in the city of Bountiful that they and the “other [lost] tribes” were these “other sheep” (3 Nephi 15:17-24). He further explained that his Jewish apostles “understood me not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching. And they understood me not that I said they shall hear my voice; and they understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my voice — that I should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 15:22-23).

Teaching the Gentiles

Prior to his ascension to heaven, the Savior changed his instructions to the twelve, saying “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15; see also Matthew 28:19). [4] According to Luke 24:49, the Savior told the apostles “tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued [5] with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

Just prior to his ascension, he told them, “ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

Appearing to the disciples after his resurrection, Jesus said to them, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:21-22). This promised power of the Holy Ghost fell on the apostles on the day of Pentecost, as they were preaching to Jews who had gathered from many lands to Jerusalem (Acts 2).

Though Paul called himself “the apostle of the Gentiles,” [6] Acts 10 makes it clear that it was Peter who first brought the gospel message to non-Jews. [7] Cornelius, an officer in the Roman army, “feared God,” being what the Jews called a “god-fearer,” i.e., a non-Jew who worshipped the God of Israel. An angel appeared to him and bade him send messengers to Simon Peter, who was staying in Joppa, a port city to the south.

While the servants of Cornelius were en route, Peter fell asleep on the rooftop and dreamed that a voice from heaven had commanded him three times to eat the flesh of unclean animals. The first two times, Peter refused, saying “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.” The heavenly voice replied, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (Acts 10:9-16). Peter was unsure what this meant, but he soon learned that it was the Lord’s way of telling him that it was now the time to allow non-Jews to become Christians.

The Lord commanded the Israelites of Moses’ day to abstain from eating “unclean” animals and gave them lists of what was permitted and forbidden. In doing so, he explained the reason. “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing” (Deuteronomy 14:2-3). “I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean” (Leviticus 20:24-25; cf. 11:45-47).

From these passages, we learn that the Mosaic Law prohibiting the consumption of certain kinds of animal flesh was the Lord’s way of emphasizing to Israel that they should be separate from the other peoples of the earth. When Peter received the request to come to Cornelius’ house, he realized the meaning of the dream and knew that it was now time to fulfill Jesus’ commandment to “go into all the world.” He bapltized Cornelius and his household.

Some years later, the elders and apostles assembled at Jerusalem to discuss the matter of circumcision, specifically whether non-Jewish converts to the fledgling Church should also be required to be circumcised. [8] Paul and his missionary companions had been baptizing both Jews and non-Jews and did not require their Gentile converts to follow the requirements of the Law of Moses. Some of the elders disagreed with their practice and their objections are what prompted the conference in Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas explained how they understood the law in regard to non-Jews. [9] Then Peter explained how he was the first to bring non-Jews into the Church:

And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:7-9)

Modern Parallels

There are a number of modern parallels to the Lord’s commission to his ancient apostles. The most obvious parallel lies in the fact that the Lord said of the latter-day twelve apostles, “they are called to go into all the world to preach my gospel unto every creature” (D&C 18:28). Addressing four of the twelve (Orson Hyde, Luke and Lyman Johnson, William E. McLellin, and “all the faithful elders of my church”), he commanded, “Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, acting in the authority which I have given you, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (D&C 68:7-8). [10]

As with his ancient apostles, Christ intended to endow latter-day elders with divine power. In January 1831, he said to Joseph Smith, “Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high; And from thence, whosoever I will shall go forth among all nations, and it shall be told them what they shall do; for I have a great work laid up in store, for Israel shall be saved, and I will lead them whithersoever I will, and no power shall stay my hand ... and when men are endowed with power from on high and sent forth, all these things shall be gathered unto the bosom of the church” (D&C 38:32-33, 38).

The following month, the prophet Joseph received the following commandment: “hearken ye elders of my church, whom I have appointed: Ye are not sent forth to be taught, but to teach the children of men the things which I have put into your hands by the power of my Spirit; And ye are to be taught from on high. Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken” (D&C 43:15-16).

In June of 1833, the Lord instructed, “Yea, verily I say unto you, I gave unto you a commandment that you should build a house, in the which house I design to endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high; For this is the promise of the Father unto you; therefore I command you to tarry, even as mine apostles at Jerusalem” (D&C 95:8-9).

The Kirtland Temple was finished in the spring of 1836. Included in the dedicatory prayer is this request:

Let the anointing of thy ministers be sealed upon them with power from on high. Let it be fulfilled upon them, as upon those on the day of Pentecost; let the gift of tongues be poured out upon thy people, even cloven tongues as of fire, and the interpretation thereof. And let thy house be filled, as with a rushing mighty wind, with thy glory (D&C 109:35-37).

Christ appeared in the temple to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and accepted the house, adding, “Yea the hearts of thousands and tens of thousands shall greatly rejoice in consequence of the blessings which shall be poured out, and the endowment with which my servants have been endowed in this house. And the fame of this house shall spread to foreign lands; and this is the beginning of the blessing which shall be poured out upon the heads of my people” (D&C 110:9-10).

The endowment given to leaders of the Church in the Kirtland temple consisted of washing and anointing, following which the Holy Ghost fell upon the congregation and the temple, along with other divine visitors, as discussed in my supplement to New Testament lesson 28, on Pentecost. [11]

It is significant that the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to cross the ocean to preach in other lands left in 1837, [12] after receiving the “power from on high” in the Kirtland Temple, as the Lord required. This was the beginning of the Church’s practice of sending most missionaries to the temple prior to leaving for their labors in the Lord’s vineyard. In a similar manner, the apostles chosen by Christ in the meridian of time remained in and around Jerusalem (as he had instructed) and did not go abroad to preach the gospel until after they, too, had been “endued with power from on high.” [13]

Recognized from a Dream

There is one further parallel that should be noted here. The conversion of Cornelius and his baptism at the hand of Simon Peter has parallels in the latter-day opening of missionary work along the same Mediterranean Sea coast.

In 1886, Elder Jacob Spori took passage to Palestine to teach the gospel to a German Christian group called the Templars, who had set up a colony in the seacoast city of Haifa. Before leaving Turkey, Elder Spori dreamt that he was in Haifa, where he encountered a blacksmith with a short coal-black beard. As Spori passed the shop, the blacksmith came out to meet him. The elder learned that this man and his family would be prepared to receive him and his message.

Arriving in Haifa, Spori found the street he had seen in the dream and walked down it as in his dream. As he reached the blacksmith’s shop, the man he had seen in his dream dropped his hammer and came out and greeted him, saying that he recognized him from a dream he had had the previous night, in which he was told that the stranger would bring him a divine message. The blacksmith, Georg Johann Grau and his wife Madeleine Frey Grau, were baptized in the Mediterranean Sea on 29 August 1886. [14]

Both in the meridian of time and in modern times, the Church and its blessings were first taken to foreign residents living on the Mediterranean shore of Palestine. Caesarea Maritima, where Cornelius and his family were baptized, lies approximately halfway between Joppa and Haifa. Peter resided in Joppa at the time, and this was the last port of call for Jacob Spori’s ship before reaching and Haifa. [15]

[1] He did teach Samaritans on one occasion (John 4) and one of the ten lepers healed in Luke 17:11-19 was a Samaritan, but these people were a mixture of Israelites and the Cuthaeans brought into the area after the Assyrian captivity of Israel in 722 B.C.

[2] In Mark 7:26, we read that “The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation.” The people called Canaanites in the Old Testament and some other ancient texts were called Phoenicians by the Greeks. Under Joshua and other leaders, the Israelites occupied much of the land of Canaan, but not the territory called Lebanon, which remained in the hands of the Canaanites (Ahab’s wife Jezebel was from that region). Alexander the Great conquered Lebanon and, following his death, it fell into the hands of Seleucus, one of his generals, and the Seleucids reigned over the region until the coming of the Romans. Though some of the Canaanite people retained their mother tongue, most adopted the Greek language. Consequently, the woman was a Canaanite whose language was Greek.

[3] For the complete story see Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30.

[4] Christ gave the same instructions to the Nephite twelve (Mormon 9:22) and repeated it in a revelation intended for the latter-day apostles (D&C 18:27-28; 68:8).

[5] This is an archaic spelling of the word “endowed.”

[6] Romans 11:13; cf. Galatians 2:7-9; 1 Timothy 2:7; 2 Timothy 1:11. The term “apostle” derives from a Greek word meaning “to send.” This is why Jesus told the twelve, “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21). Hebrews 3:1 admonishes us to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.”

[7] Some might argue that the servant of Queen Candace, baptized by Philip, was the first Gentile convert, but a close reading of Acts 8:27-28 suggests that he was Jewish, for he “had come to Jerusalem for to worship” and was reading the book of Isaiah (Greek Esaias).

[8] In Judaism, conversion requires circumcision and baptism and, until the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, the offering of a sacrifice.

[9] The Jerusalem council issued a letter admonishing Gentile converts to abstain from fornication and the consumption of blood (Acts 15:22-31). In Judaism, it is believed that Gentiles must obey the laws given to Noah, which included the injunction about blood (Genesis 9:1-7), while the law of Moses is only for Israel.

[10] Note also verse 6, where he calls for “both the Gentiles and also the house of Israel” to repent.

[11] For more information, see John A. Tvedtnes, “Olive Oil: Symbol of the Holy Ghost,” in Stephen D. Ricks and John W. Welch (eds.), The Allegory of the Olive Tree: The Olive, the Bible, and Jacob 5 (Salt Lake City: Deseret and FARMS, 1994).

[12] Two of the apostles, Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, were called to open the English mission in June 1837.

[13] The expression “endowed with power from on high” was also used by the Lord in a revelation concerning the ultimate liberation of the land of Zion, in D&C 105:9-13.

[14] Georg and Madeleine Grau are buried in the old Templar cemetery in Haifa, where two Latter-day Saint missionaries, John Clark and Adolph Haag, are also buried. Haifa is the third-largest city in the modern state of Israel.

[15] There is a similar parallel in the account of Alma and Amulek in the Book of Mormon. Each had been visited by an angel and told to expect to meet the other, which came to pass and opened up the city of Ammonihah to the preaching of the gospel. See Alma 8:13-27.