Peter Tells How to Gain Salvation

Acts 2:37-40; If any man then living had a revealed knowledge of what men must do to be saved in the kingdom of God, it was Peter, the Lord's chief apostolic minister. And Peter did not say men are saved through Christ's atonement without more; he did not say it is sufficient to confess the Lord Jesus with the lips; he did not say that men are justified by faith alone without the works of righteousness; he did not say it is enough to go around doing good and living in harmony with a high standard of Christian ethics; he did not say that all roads lead to Rome, that the only baptism which counts is that of the Spirit, or any of the other ten thousand conflicting concepts now current in a confused and faltering Christendom.

Acts 2:37-40; But Peter, while and as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and thus pouring forth the mind and will of the Lord, taught that, based on the atonement, accountable men must:

Acts 2:37-40; 1. Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a faith in the revealed knowledge of the kind of beings he and his Father are;

Acts 2:37-40; 2. Repent of all their sins, signifying this by turning to righteousness;

Acts 2:37-40; 3. Be baptized by immersion in water under the hands of a legal administrator who has power from God to bind on earth and have it sealed eternally in the heavens;

Acts 2:37-40; 4. Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, also as conferred by one authorized by the Almighty so to act; and

Acts 2:37-40; 5. Endure to the end of one's mortal probation, thus keeping the commandments after baptism.

Acts 2:37-40; This plan of salvation is eternal in nature; it has been in force in all ages. It was first revealed to Adam and has been given anew in each gospel dispensation. (Moses 6:51-68; 3 Nephi 27:19-21; D&C 20:29; Fourth Article of Faith.) See Acts 18:24-28; Acts 19:1-7; 1 Peter 1:1-16; 1 Peter 3:18-22; 1 Peter 4:1-6; Hebrews 2:10-18.

Acts 2:38-39; 38-39. The same commission given to Peter, to invite men to come unto Christ and be saved by conformity to his gospel, has been conferred anew upon men in modern times. To his latter-day witnesses the Lord says: "I give unto you a commandment that ye go among this people, and say unto them, like unto mine apostle of old, whose name was Peter: Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus, who was on the earth, and is to come, the beginning and the end; Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, according to the holy commandment, for the remission of sins; And whoso doeth this shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of the hands of the elders of the church." (D&C 49:11-14.)

Acts 2:38; 38. The gift of the Holy Ghost] See Acts 10:46-48; Commentary I, pp. 752-755; 856-857.

Acts 2:39; 39. All men in all ages may receive the promised gift of the Holy Ghost by compliance with those laws upon which its receipt is predicated.

Acts 2:40; 40. This untoward generation] This rebellious generation which refuses to change its ungodly course. In somewhat the same vein, latter-day revelation speaks of "this unbelieving and stiffnecked generation." (D&C 5:8.)