Without repentance salvation is impossible. The Savior followed the ringing call of His forerunner with the command: "Repent ye and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). So also taught the Apostles of old, that God "commandeth all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). And in the present dispensation the word of God has come through the Prophet Joseph Smith:
"And we know that all men must repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and worship the Father in his name, and endure in faith on his name to the end, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God." (D&C 20:29).
Against the awful danger of procrastination, whereby the ability to repent may be forfeited, the Book of Mormon solemnly warns:
"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors, . . . For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance, even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you." (Book of Mormon, Alma 34:32, 35).
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ARISE AND WASH AWAY THY SINS
The Only Way
WE believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Articles of Faith, 4).
"Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Such was the eager, anguished, almost despairing cry of the humbled multitude who, at the first Pentecost following the crucifixion of Christ, were brought to a realization of their awful guilt through the inspired utterances of Peter, the presiding Apostle.