Acts 1-5 - Come Follow Me with Sam

 Welcome!

I love the acts of the apostles because it shows what people do when they receive Christ.

This particular reading focuses specifically on what the new Church of Christ immediately did. It is similar to Mosiah 18 in that we can use this to test churches that claim to be the Church of Christ and see how close they come.


The actions and attitudes of the primitive Church of Christ in the dispensation of the gospel of grace

  • The Apostles were immediately focused on the second coming of Christ. The very last question they asked Christ before the Ascension was when his second coming was. The very last closing part of the Ascension was the angels of God confirming the promise of His second coming. In his words at Pentecost, Peter quoted Joel who spoke of the last days. In the second discourse recorded, Peter spoke of preparing for the times of the restitution of all things. The goal of the church from the beginning was to prepare such that they were ready for a Second Coming of Christ.
  • They looked to keep quorum by calling and replacing a new apostle, Matthias. Even before Pentecost, they called a new apostle.
  • They had a marvelous sign at Pentecost, a rushing of the spirit, and great conversion of people. I was listening to a pastor who is learning about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, and he seemed a little taken aback that we believed gifts of the spirit, especially the gift of tongues, was something available before Pentecost. The Spirit has worked with men in all ages (it seems there was special circumstances during the earthly ministry of the Savior but I don't know enough to get into that) and I would like to say that all the gifts of the spirit and all the baptisms everywhere, does not take at all away from the miracle of Pentecost. In fact, it enhances it. It means that the order of God truly was established as given anciently as it would be in the future as well.

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