The Prophets Knew of Christ

One of the great contributions that latter-day scripture makes to our understanding of the role of Jesus Christ is that the prophets knew and testified of Him well before He ever came to earth.  From the Bible that fact is not as clear, and this is why people ask the question about how anyone who lived before Christ could be saved if they never knew about Him.  But in the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, we see that Adam, Enoch, and Noah all knew about the coming of the Savior.  The Lord gave this invitation to Adam: “Believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men” (Moses 6:52).  So from the very beginning, Adam knew of Jesus Christ who would come and that He would be the means of salvation for the children of men.  He preached that “the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt,” and he knew that Christ would come “in the meridian of time” (Moses 6:54, 57).  The next major prophet Enoch likewise knew of the coming of a Savior.  The Lord revealed to Him: “I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me shall never fall” (Moses 7:53).  He even had a vision in which he “beheld the Son of Man lifted up on the cross” and he prayed to the Father in the name of Christ, saying, “I ask thee, O Lord, in the name of thine Only Begotten, even Jesus Christ, that thou wilt have mercy upon Noah and his seed” (Moses 7:50, 55).  Clearly Enoch knew of the Savior and understood His role as the one who would atone for the sins of the world.  Likewise his great-grandson Noah knew and taught of the Savior.  He preached to the people of his day: “Believe and repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost” (Moses 8:24).  Those are exactly the principles of the gospel that we teach in our day—faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, and the reception of the Holy Ghost.  The foundation of the gospel has not changed since our very first fathers were on the earth; there will never be another way but through Jesus Christ. 

                While the Pearl of Great Price shows that from the time of Adam through Noah the prophets understood the role and coming of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon gives many evidences that prophets from Abraham until the coming of the Savior likewise knew of Him.  Nephi taught that “Abraham saw of his coming, and was filled with gladness and did rejoice” (Helaman 8:16).  Other non-Biblical prophets before the time of Jeremiah likewise knew of him: Zenos taught “that redemption cometh through the Son of God” and Zenock and Neum taught about his future crucifixion (Alma 34:7, 1 Nephi 19:10).  Isaiah “verily saw [the] Redeemer,” and Jeremiah and Ezias likewise “testified these things” (2 Nephi 11:2, Helaman 8:19-20).  And then of course Lehi, Nephi, Jacob, Omni, King Benjamin, Alma, Alma the Younger, Ammon, Aaron, Helaman, his son Nephi, and many other prophets in the Book of Mormon testified of the Savior before the time that He came upon the earth.  Christianity did not start in 30 AD when Christ starting preaching and organizing His apostles, for if a Christian is one who believes in Christ then there have been many throughout all ages.  The first real Christian was Adam, and every true prophet since has taught that “salvation cometh to none such except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Mosiah 3:12).