Lesson 12 of 12, Dec 27
Inviting all: the Light of the World
From Gospel Foundations, Inviting All to Receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ; Preach My Gospel, chapters 1, 9, and 10
Anything with a plus sign opens for more: the full verse text, the history behind it, and what a Catholic or Protestant friend would actually say back.
Follow up
Last time the invitation was to pick one attribute and one action and repeat it three times before Christmas.
Every attribute this class has studied points toward the same final question: what do you do with what you now know? Today is the last lesson, and it is about exactly that.
The unanswered question
If every church shares Jesus, what exactly are we inviting people to?
Every Christian church, in some form, shares Jesus. So after eleven lessons spent naming real differences, one honest question remains: if a friend already goes to church, already believes in Christ, already reads a Bible, what exactly are you inviting them to that they do not already have?
Hold the question. The scriptures answer it next.
Scriptures
Read in class. Someone reads it aloud; then we ask what it means for someone sitting here.
- D&C 4
- D&C 18:10–16
- 1 Peter 3:15
D&C 4 was not written as a sermon to the world. Joseph Smith's father had traveled to see his son during the hardest stretch of the Book of Mormon's translation and asked what the Lord had for him to do. This revelation is the answer to that one question, and it happens to be the passage missionaries have memorized ever since (D&C 4:1–3).
The worth of souls is great in the sight of God (D&C 18:10). Verses 15–16 escalate from there: if bringing even one soul to Christ brings great joy, what would more bring? The value of one person is settled before any talk of numbers begins.
And Peter tells believers to be ready always to give an answer, but with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15). The Greek word behind "answer," apologia, means a reasoned defense, offered humbly, not a debate to be won.
Sent to you this week
Open any of these for the text and a note on why it is on the list.
- Jesus does not command His disciples to become light; He states, as a fact, that they already are.
- The Great Commission, given by the resurrected Christ, contains three actions in sequence: teach, baptize, then continue teaching.
- Mark's version of the same commission drops the specifics of nations and adds a different word: every creature.
- Ammon's psalm of thanksgiving after fourteen years of missionary work among people who had hated and imprisoned him.
- This verse explains the motive behind Ammon's mission before Alma 26 shows the result.
- Mormon lists two specific practices, not natural talent, as the source of the sons of Mosiah's spiritual power: diligent scripture study and much prayer and fasting.
- Paul writes this as a Roman citizen about to preach in the empire's capital, where his message would be seen as strange and even dangerous by the culture around him.
- Mormon, writing centuries after the events he's recording, pauses to identify himself in his own words: a disciple, called to declare Christ's word.
- Christ specifies exactly what the light His disciples are to hold up actually is: not their own personality or achievements, but Him, specifically the things they have seen Him do.
- Jesus makes this claim about Himself directly, using the same light of the world language later applied to His disciples in Matthew 5:14.
- Written roughly seven centuries before Christ's birth, this prophecy names a coming child using titles that go well beyond an ordinary human ruler: The mighty God, The everlasting Father.
- The Lord frames warning others not as an optional act of generosity but as an obligation that follows automatically from having been warned yourself.
- This verse, written while the Saints were compiling a record of the persecution they had suffered, gives a specific reason for sharing the gospel that is different from correcting error or winning an argument: many people are kept from the truth for one simple reason, they don't know where to find it.
- Part of Alma's baptismal covenant language at the Waters of Mormon, and still quoted today as core covenant language.
What we believe
The answer to today's question
If every church shares Jesus, what exactly are we inviting people to?
Not a better church. The restored one: God's authority, a Father with a body, a chosen mortality, an open heaven, an open canon, covenant renewal, ordinances for the dead, and a plan that ends in becoming like Him. Sharing that is invitation, not argument.
- Every member has a covenant obligation to share (D&C 88:81).
- The worth of souls is great (D&C 18:10–16).
- Sharing is invitation, not argument; testimony, not proof.
- We have something no one else has: a restored Church, authority, an open heaven, and a plan that ends in exaltation.
The revelation that started as an answer to one worried father
D&C 4 is memorized by more missionaries than almost any other passage in the Doctrine and Covenants, and most who memorize it never learn where it came from. In February 1829, Joseph Smith's father traveled to Harmony, Pennsylvania, to see his son during one of the hardest stretches of the Book of Mormon's translation, and he asked, in effect, what can I do to help? The revelation Joseph received in answer became section 4. When it was later copied into the Church's earliest revelation record, someone added a heading that has survived in the Church's own historical archives: "A Revelation to Joseph the Father of the Seer, he desired to know what the Lord had for him to do, and this is what he received as follows." The Lord did not answer with a chore on the farm. He answered with an invitation to embark in the service of God.
What happened next makes the story land harder. Returning home to Palmyra, Joseph Smith Sr. shared what his son was doing with a young schoolteacher boarding in his house, a man he barely knew named Oliver Cowdery. Cowdery wrestled with it overnight, believed it, and within days was on his way to Harmony to become the primary scribe for the rest of the Book of Mormon's translation. A father's answer to "what can I do" changed the entire trajectory of the Restoration.
Words worth defining
Testimony. A personal, felt conviction of gospel truth, distinct from a proof; something shared, not argued.
Apologia. The Greek word behind "answer" in 1 Peter 3:15, meaning a reasoned defense given when asked, offered with meekness rather than aggression.
The worth of souls. D&C 18:10's phrase for the value scripture assigns to a single person, treated as immeasurable before any talk of numbers of converts follows.
Invitation. Preach My Gospel's preferred word over persuasion or argument: sharing something valuable and letting a person choose, rather than pressuring a decision.
Why it matters
Walk the whole arc in five minutes, one sentence per week. Restoration and authority. A Father with a body. A chosen mortality and a fortunate Fall. Exaltation. Gethsemane and enabling grace. Covenant baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. An open heaven. An open canon. Covenant renewal. Ordinances for the dead and eternal families. Becoming like Him.
Watch a short clip: Missionaries of Jesus Christ, Now You Know (about three minutes)
What you have was not free. It cost Joseph Smith His life, cost early converts their homes and communities, and was restored through specific, named events with dates and places attached, the whole arc this class has spent eleven weeks tracing. Keeping something that costly entirely to yourself is not humility. It is closer to burying what was given.
Walking the whole arc in one breath
Restoration and authority, from a name, a date, and a place (Lesson 1). A Father with a body, resembling the children He intends to exalt (Lesson 2). A chosen premortal life and a fortunate Fall (Lesson 3). Mortality, a spirit world, and kingdoms of glory ending in exaltation (Lesson 4). Gethsemane and grace that both saves and changes (Lesson 5). Baptism as a covenant with someone holding real authority (Lesson 6). A God who still speaks, tested by a pattern anyone can practice (Lesson 7). An open canon, proven by an actual second book anyone can read (Lesson 8). A weekly covenant renewed at a sacrament table (Lesson 9). A mechanism for God's justice and a sealing for His love (Lesson 10). Becoming, attribute by attribute, toward a destination most of Christianity stopped naming (Lesson 11).
Twelve Sundays, one continuous argument: not that other Christians have nothing true, but that one Church has all of it, restored with names and dates attached.
The honest tension: invitation without pressure
Missionary work has a real history of getting this wrong, and it is worth naming rather than pretending it never happens. Well-meaning members and missionaries have, at times, confused urgency with pressure, treated a friend's hesitation as a problem to be overcome rather than a choice to be respected, or made someone feel that the relationship itself was conditioned on saying yes. Preach My Gospel's own emphasis on invitation rather than persuasion exists specifically to correct that instinct.
Peter's own instruction sets the standard: meekness and fear, not certainty weaponized. An invitation a person can freely decline, and still be loved exactly the same afterward, is the only kind that actually matches what this whole class has taught about agency, going back to Lesson 3's insistence that opposition and real choice are what make the plan work at all. Sharing something is not the same as insisting on the outcome.
In their own words
The revelation given to a worried father who only wanted to help:
"Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men."Doctrine and Covenants 4:1
The heading later added to that same revelation in the Church's earliest records:
"A Revelation to Joseph the Father of the Seer, he desired to know what the Lord had for him to do."Heading added to D&C 4 in Revelation Book 1, copied by John Whitmer
And Peter's instruction for how to actually do this:
"Be ready always to give an answer... with meekness and fear."1 Peter 3:15
Across the Christian world
Each column is that tradition's own answer, from its own sources.
Catholic
The Great Commission belongs to the whole Church; evangelization is every Catholic's task.
Catechism 849–856
Protestant
The Great Commission is central; sharing the gospel is every believer's duty.
Matthew 28:19–20
Restored
The same commission, with a restored message: authority, ordinances, and a plan that ends in exaltation.
D&C 4; 18:10–16; 88:81
What the Restoration adds: Every Christian church takes the Great Commission seriously. The difference is what we are inviting people to. Not a better church; the restored one.
A Catholic friend takes the Great Commission seriously as a task for the whole Church, carried out through the sacraments and evangelization. A Protestant friend, especially in Evangelical traditions, may make personal witnessing and sharing a testimony of faith in Christ central to daily discipleship.
Where we differ from both: the invitation is not to Christianity in general, which both already have. It is to a restored Church with a specific, traceable claim: authority given by name, an open heaven, an open canon, and a plan that ends in becoming like the Father who gave it.
The Catholic view, and what a friend would say back
The Catechism describes evangelization as a task belonging to the whole Church, carried out through the sacraments, the Church's teaching authority, and the ordinary witness of a Catholic life (paragraphs 849–856). A Catholic missionary's invitation is generally to sacramental life within the existing Church, not to a separate church claiming new authority.
The strongest thing a Catholic friend will say: We already believe and preach everything essential about Jesus Christ. What could your Church possibly be inviting me to that mine does not already have?
A fair answer: agree warmly that shared belief in Christ, His divinity, His Atonement, His Resurrection, is real common ground, not something to minimize. Then be specific about what is different, using the class's own arc: a living prophet receiving revelation today, ordinances performed by authority restored through named heavenly messengers, and a plan that continues past this life through work for the dead and eternal sealing. The invitation is not "believe in Jesus"; it is "here is what was restored."
The Protestant view, and what a friend would say back
Many Evangelical and Protestant traditions place personal evangelism, sharing a testimony of salvation through faith in Christ, at the center of Christian discipleship, following the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19–20). The goal is usually a personal decision for Christ, understood as sufficient for salvation on its own.
The strongest thing a Protestant friend will say: I already have a personal relationship with Jesus and share my faith regularly. Your invitation sounds like it's asking me to add rules and organization to something that scripture says is simple: believe and be saved.
A fair answer: point back to Lesson 6's doctrine of Christ, faith, repentance, baptism by immersion by one with authority, the gift of the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end, and note that this is not an addition to simple faith but Christ's own description of it (3 Nephi 11:32–39). The invitation is not to complicate a simple gospel. It is to receive the same gospel with the ordinances and authority the earliest Church had and later lost.
What the sources say, in their own words
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 849: "The missionary mandate... belongs to the very nature of the Church."
Doctrine and Covenants 4:2–3: "See that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength... if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work."
1 Peter 3:15: "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."
Testify, invite, share it
Consider picking one person this week and sharing one thing from this class with them, in your own words, before New Year's.
How great shall be your joy with one soul (D&C 18:16). That promise was not written for professional missionaries only. It was written for a worried father who only wanted to help.
What was restored here cost real people everything they had. Sharing it is not about winning an argument or fixing someone else's church. It is one sentence, offered honestly, to someone you actually love: this is what I found, and here is why it matters to me.
If a friend pushes on this
The natural pushback: "Are you saying my church, and my faith, aren't enough?" Do not let the conversation become a verdict on their faith. Try: "I'm not saying what you have is wrong. I'm saying I found something specific that changed how I understand God, authority, and where I'm headed, and I wanted you to know about it because I care about you, not because I need you to agree." That keeps the invitation exactly what Peter describes: an answer given with meekness, not a case argued to a verdict.
Will you pick one person and share one thing from this class with them before New Year's?
The promise: "How great shall be your joy" (D&C 18:16).
Watch and study this week
Short clips, two to four minutes
Full talks and reading
Five quick questions
D&C 4:2 says to serve God with all your…
According to D&C 18:16, how great will your joy be if you bring one soul to Christ?
1 Peter 3:15 says to be ready always to give what?
What situation prompted the revelation now known as D&C 4?
What Greek word lies behind "answer" in 1 Peter 3:15?