President Wilford Woodruff noted: “The very first principle was faith in the Messiah; this was the first principle ever taught to man. When Adam, after being driven from the garden of Eden, went to Adam-ondi-Ahman to offer sacrifice, the angel of the Lord asked him why he did so. Adam replied that he did not know. … He was then told that the blood … should be spilt upon the altar as a type of the great and last sacrifice. … The first principle, then, ever taught to Father Adam was faith in the Messiah, who was to come in the meridian of time to lay down his life for the redemption of man” (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, 18).