Through the resurrection of Christ, resurrection shall come to every mortal born to the earth, each in his own due time, thus redemption from the Fall will be universal. Through obedience to the commandments of Christ's Gospel, an exaltation in the Kingdom of God may be also attained by every mortal.

These are the glorious and eternal truths which this Easter Time brings vividly and with consolation to our troubled minds and fearsome hearts.

While the Disciples did not understand Christ's resurrection till after the event, yet the record, read in the light of the full plan, is perfectly clear.

Centuries before, the Psalmist gave us in outline, the horrors of body and mind of a crucifixion and foretold the actual outcry of Christ on the cross, as in the very extreme of mortal agony and of hopeless despair, he exclaimed: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"  Ps. 22:1  Matt. 27:46  Mark 15:34

Jesus, himself, predicted his death and resurrection time and again as he went about his mission.

At the time of the Second Passover, Jesus, preaching to the multitude, said: "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation"  John 5:28-29

Mark tells us that at Caesarea Philippi, "he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly"  Mark 8:31-32 Matthew makes essentially the same record of that occasion  Matt. 16:21 Speaking to the Disciples shortly thereafter, Jesus gave them the same message  Luke 9:22

Matthew tells us that following the Third Passover, while they still abode in Galilee, Jesus again declared his resurrection  Matt. 17:22-23 and Mark adds, "But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him"  Mark 9:31-32 while Luke tells us that they understood not, "and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not"  Luke 9:43-45

While the Disciples, so told time and time again, "perceived it not," the people and the scribes and chief priests and all the rest knew about it, or he spoke "openly."

In the temple precincts on the third day of the final week, as the last hours were pressing upon him with their infinite responsibility, Jesus prayed: "Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." An answering voice from heaven declared: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again"—some hearing thought it thundered, others that an angel spoke  John 12:27-29 Only Jesus understood. So, as he awaited the coming of Judas and the soldiers, in that agony of infinite, anxious, fearful responsibility which all but overpowered him, he cried out: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt"  Matt. 26:39

But he made many less direct declarations regarding his resurrection, as the one at the Last Supper where he told his Disciples that after he left, the Father would send the Comforter, the Holy Ghost  John 14:18,26

Jesus left no room for doubt that he was to be slain and then resurrected, yet it was hid from the Disciples.

The resurrection of Christ has been challenged from the very hour he stepped forth from the tomb in the early morning of that day of days, nineteen and a half centuries ago.

Recalling those predictions of his resurrection which he made openly, the chief priests and Pharisees, after Christ's burial, besought Pilate to place guards at the tomb, "lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch"  Matt. 27:62-66

But the eternal plan of God was not to be frustrated. In the early morning hours, before it was light, an angel with a countenance like lightning, descended from heaven, rolled back and sat upon the stone with which the chief priests and Pharisees had sealed the sepulchre. "And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men." Recovering from their stupor, they hastened to the city, "and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done," who gave the keepers "large money" to hold their tongues as to the real events, and to spread the lie that "the disciples came by night, and stole him away while they slept"  Matt. 28:1-4,11-13

From that hour of that morning till now, Satan has persuaded heretics to deny the Christ and his resurrection.

As the watch went to report to their masters, Mary Magdalene (who had already been to the empty tomb "when it was yet dark", and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, with some women from Galilee, had, at sunrise, fearfully entered the empty sepulchre, where two angels stood beside them, clothed in white, shining garments. One spoke to them, saying: "Why seek ye the living among the dead? Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is not here, but is risen . . . go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you"  Matt. 28:1,5-7  Mark 16:1-7  Luke 24:1-6  John 20:1

The reports of the women seemed to the disciples as idle tales, and believed not  Luke 24:11

Thus was announced to the Disciples and his followers the resurrection of the risen Christ. Complete was the vicarious atonement of the Son of God for the Fall of Adam.

On that same day of the resurrection, the risen Christ appeared to Mary  Mark 16:9  John 20:11-18 to the women at the tomb  Matt. 28:9-10 to Peter  Luke 24:34  1 Cor. 15:5 to the two Disciples journeying to Emmaus  Luke 24:13-35 and in that evening to all the Disciples except Thomas  John 20:19-25 a week later to all the Disciples including Thomas  Mark 16:14-19  John 20:26-29 later still on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, to Peter and those who had also gone fishing  John 21:1-23 and afterward to some five hundred of the brethren at once  1 Cor. 15:6 and to James  1 Cor. 15:7 then to the living Disciples at a mountain in Galilee by appointment by the Christ  Luke 24:36-52 and lastly to the Disciples at the ascension  Acts 1:1-9

Thus was the resurrection currently witnessed by the Apostles and other followers of Jesus, the Carpenter of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Christ.

This Church of ours accepts all the foregoing as the literal facts pertaining to the resurrection; none is symbolism, none is allegory. These things are the warp and the woof of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. They admit of no questioning, amongst us they are not questioned. That they are true is our testimony to the world.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts Jesus, the Christ, at his own estimate when he proclaimed his Godhood to the Jews on the temple grounds at Jerusalem: "Before Abraham was, I am"  John 8:58 when he petitioned in the great intercessory prayer: "O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was"  John 17:5

In modern revelation, Jesus, the Christ, has over and over again declared himself in the same language.

This is the Jesus, the Christ, to which we of this Church yield full and complete allegiance, unmarred by rationalizing, by any derogation as to his divine personality, his work among men, his vicarious sacrifice for their sins, his membership in the Holy Trinity.

Final peace will come into this bloody world only when Jesus and his teachings shall rule the world.

The great mission of this Church is to proclaim Christ and him crucified and his Gospel  1 Cor. 2:2 This should be the message that all Christendom declares.

That Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the Son of God, the First Fruits of the Resurrection  1 Cor. 15:23 the Redeemer of the World, a member of the Trinity, is testimony which I humbly give, in his name. Amen.