Articles of Faith – What Do Mormons Believe?

Fourth Article of Faith

We believe in the first principles of the gospel, which are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, second, repentance, third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sin, fourth, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

This article of faith is a very important one as it involves the most basic actions that we do to follow Christ. Having faith in Christ gives us a starting point and a drive to continue. Our failures and weakness can be remedied by repentance with faith. After repentance, we can be baptized to complete the process. Finally, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost seals the covenant we have made with God in baptism. That covenant includes the promise of having God’s spirit to be with us which will guide us throughout our lives.

This process is repeated thoughout our lives, with baptism renewed through the sacrament, in order to improves our lives and become more like God.

See: Fundamentals of the Gospel

The Third Article of Faith

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the central tenet of our faith. The word ‘atonement’ or ‘at-one-ment’ was done to bring us to be “at one” with God. In other words, we can be reconciled with God through the atonement. The reason we are estranged from Him in the first place is because of our mortality. Because we are mortal, we will all die because our bodies are imperfect. Not only that, our spirits are imperfect. No matter what we do, on our own, we cannot remove past disobedience from our heart. These imperfections of body and spirit bring on physical and spiritual death. Physical death is a separation from our body and spiritual death is a separation from God.

Through the atonement, our bodies will be made perfect after this life, that much is guaranteed to us. In order to perfect our spirits, we must accept the terms and conditions set by Jesus Christ. The atonement was accomplished by Jesus Christ by His suffering for our sins in Gethsemane and on the cross and through His resurrection.

13 Articles of Faith

Recently we received a question about the quote underneath the title “What Do Mormons Believe?” The quote reads “”We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men.” -Joseph Smith”

This quote is from the 13^th Article of Faith. The Articles of Faith were written in 1842 by Joseph Smith at the request of John Wentworth who was the editor of the Chicago Democrat. Mr. Wentworth asked Joseph Smith for information about Mormonism. Joseph Smith sent a letter that gave a history of the church and 13 fundamental doctrines of Mormonism, known as the Articles of Faith.

Click to read the 13 Articles of Faith Continue reading 13 Articles of Faith

Question Box: Gifts of the Spirit

Q. Do Mormons Believe in Spiritual Warfare and the Gifts of the Spirit?

Thanks for your questions. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘Spiritual Warfare’, though. Sorry. If you’d like to resubmit a question and clarify, that would be great.

We do believe in spiritual gifts. Joseph Smith was once asked about the beliefs and history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He wrote them a letter and at the end included a list of some of our basic beliefs. These are now called the Thirteen Articles of Faith. The seventh states our belief in spiritual gifts.

“We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.” (Article of Faith 7)

The Second Article of Faith

We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

In line with divine justice, all men and women must be held accountable for their personal actions, and not the actions of other individuals, including Adam. That isn’t to say we are not affected by the actions of others. People are indeed blessed or made to suffer, to certain degrees, by the actions of others. Our standing before God, however, is independent of outside forces and is based on what we have done with our circumstances. The spirit of God withdraws when we turn away from Him and our access to the atonement is cut off. Without the atonement, we cannot progress toward God. That is a natural consequence of our actions, and such consequences were ones that God wished for us to avoid.