“These Things Go Forth from the Jews in Purity Unto the Gentiles”
The gospel message-the knowledge that Christ atoned for the sins of the world, that he died, was buried, rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven-this proclamation went forth unto the known world of the first century a.d. through the power of human testimony. Faith came by hearing, and hearing through the word of God, an oral word preached by legal administrators of the Lord Jesus Christ (see Romans 10:13-17; Teachings, p. 148). Most scripture has been, is now, and will continue to be both oral and unrecorded. Because of the limitations of the human memory, however, as well as the desire to preserve the sacred words of the Lord and his authorized servants, written scriptural records have been kept from the beginning of time (Moses 6:5-6, 46). When the Gospels and the Epistles first went forth among the Gentiles during the years following the ascension of the Savior, they went forth in purity-untouched, untampered with, undimmed by heresy or misrepresentation.
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