The Gospel Is a Standard to the Nations
Doctrine and Covenants 45:9
9 And even so I have sent mine everlasting covenant into the world, to be a light to the world, and to be a standard for my people, and for the Gentiles to seek to it, and to be a messenger before my face to prepare the way before me.
President Harold B. Lee said:
“. . . I will now undertake to outline briefly the wondrously conceived plan upon obedience to which the salvation of every soul depends in his journey through mortality to his ultimate destiny—a return to that God who gave him life. This is that way by which the Lord will keep His promise to have power over His Saints and to reign in their midst.
“This plan is identified by name, and the overarching purpose is clearly set forth in an announcement to the Church in the beginning of this gospel dispensation.
“More than a century ago the Lord declared:
“‘And even so I have sent mine everlasting covenant into the world, to be a light to the world, and to be a standard for my people, and for the Gentiles to seek to it, and to be a messenger before my face to prepare the way before me’ (D&C 45:9).
“This plan, then, was to be as a covenant, which implied a contract to be participated in by more than one person. It was to be a standard for the Lord’s elect and for all the world to benefit by it. Its purpose was to serve the needs of all men and to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord.
“The participants in the formulation of this plan in the premortal world were all the spirit children of our Heavenly Father. Our oldest scriptures, from the writings of the ancient prophets Abraham and Jeremiah, affirm also that God, or Elohim, was there; His Firstborn Son, Jehovah; Abraham, Jeremiah, and many others of great stature were there.
“All the organized intelligences before the earth was formed, who had become spirits, were there, including many great and noble ones whose performance and conduct in that premortal sphere qualified them to become rulers and leaders in carrying out this eternal plan.”
(Stand Ye in Holy Places [1974], 233–34.)
