3 Nephi 11

Great crowds of people gathered together around the temple in Bountiful where they witnessed in wonder the changes to the landscape around them. They talked about Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of signs that attended his death. While they were conversing a voice came to them as if it were from heaven. The voice was soft, but penetrating. Though they couldn’t understand it, or see its source, the voice caused their hearts to burn. The voice came a second time but was still beyond their comprehension.

The third time that the voice came to them the people opened their hearts to hear it and raised their eyes to heaven, because that was where the voice was coming from. This time they did understand it.

“Look, this is my beloved Son,” said the voice, “who has glorified my name and with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”

With their eyes raised to heaven they saw a man descending towards them clothed in a white robe. He came down and stood in their midst. Everyone turned their eyes to him in silence, not knowing what it meant. They thought he was an angel who had appeared before them.

He stretched out his hand and spoke. “I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets have foretold would come into the world. I am the light and the life of the world. I have drunk from the bitter cup which God the Father has given to me. I have glorified God the Father by taking upon myself the sins of the world. I have suffered the will of God the Father in all things since the beginning of the world.”

When Jesus Christ spoke these words the whole crowd fell to the ground, because they remembered the prophecies saying that Jesus Christ would show himself to them after his ascension into heaven.

“Rise up and come to me,” said Jesus Christ, “so that you can put your hands into the wound on my side and feel the holes of the nails in my hands and feet. You will then know that I am the God of Israel and the God of the whole earth who has been killed for the sins of the world.”

The crowd rose and did as Jesus Christ had asked. One by one they put their hands into his side and felt the imprints from the nails, until they had all witnessed this miracle for themselves with their eyes and with their hands. Afterwards they all knew, with certainty, that this was Jesus Christ whom the prophets had said would come.

After the people had witnessed the truth for themselves, they all cried out with one voice saying, “Hosanna! Blessed is the name of God most high.” They all fell at the feet of Jesus Christ and worshipped him.

Jesus Christ called out to Nephi and commanded him to come forward. Nephi arose and came to Jesus Christ where he bowed down and kissed his feet.

“Rise up,” Jesus Christ said to Nephi. When Nephi had arisen, Jesus Christ said to him, “I give you the power to baptize these people when I ascend again to heaven.”

Jesus Christ then called eleven others forward, and conveyed to them the same power that he had given to Nephi. “In the following way you will baptize your people, and there must be no arguments among you in this regard. Whoever repents of his sins and wants to be baptized in my name must go down and stand in the water when you baptize them. These are the words that you must say, ‘By the authority given to me by Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.’ Then you must immerse them in the water and then bring them back out. Only in this manner may you baptize in my name because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one. I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The Father and I are one.

“From this point forward there must be no arguments among you regarding baptism or doctrine, as there have been in the past. He who shows the spirit of conflict is not of me, but of the devil, who is the father of all conflict. It is the devil who stirs up the hearts of men to fight against one another with anger. My doctrine does not include anger and conflict between people. My doctrine calls for the abandonment of such things.

“My doctrine has been given to me by God the Father who commands that all men, everywhere repent their sins and believe in me. Whoever believes in me and is baptized will be saved, and will inherit the kingdom of God. Whoever doesn’t believe in me and isn’t baptized will be damned. This is my doctrine as has been given by God the Father. Whoever believes in me also believes in God the Father, and in God the Holy Ghost, for God the Father, the Holy Ghost, and I are one.

“This is my doctrine. Whoever builds on this, builds on my rock, and the gates of hell will have no power over them. Anyone who declares more or less than this, and claims it as my doctrine is an agent of evil. Such a person does not build on my rock, but on sand. For them the gates of hell stand wide open to receive them when the floods come and the winds beat down upon them. Go out then among the people and declare the words that I have spoken across the broad extent of the earth.”