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The Articles of Faith

What this text is, and how this page treats it. The Articles of Faith are thirteen declarative statements of belief — a modern creedal summary held in the same corpus as this wiki (the Pearl of Great Price). They are not narrative, not prophecy, and not a discourse with a setting; each article opens “We believe…” or “We claim…” and states a doctrine as settled. This page therefore reports each article as the credal statement it is — never re-arguing it — and does one analytical job: it maps each article’s themes to the pages where the Book of Mormon corpus teaches the same doctrine, and where the diction genuinely overlaps it registers the link. Most of the overlaps here are thematic and are cross-linked, not registered; three clear enough to ground are registered — one as ⚖️ interpretive, two as textual —, and several articles yield no distinctive textual connection at all — which is the honest and expected result for a creed that compresses doctrine into a sentence. External history of the document (when, why, or to whom it was written) is out of scope; only the text’s internal claims are treated.

Thirteen short affirmations. They open on the Godhead and the atonement, lay out the gospel’s first principles and ordinances in a fixed order, affirm priesthood authority and spiritual gifts, name the Bible and the Book of Mormon as the word of God, look forward to the gathering of Israel and a New Jerusalem “upon the American continent”, and close on civic obedience and a catalogue of personal virtue drawn, by the text’s own admission, from “the admonition of Paul”. Where these credal lines touch the Book of Mormon’s own teaching — the doctrine of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the charity-hymn of Mormon — this page draws the lines and grades each by how far the text itself will carry it.

The thirteen articles, and where they touch the corpus

The Godhead, the fall, and the atonement (Articles 1–3)

The first three articles state the corpus’s own central doctrines in compressed form. Article 1 affirms belief “in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost” (Articles of Faith 1:1) — the same three-named unity the doctrine-of-Christ chapters close on (the “doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God,” 2 Nephi 31:21) and that the risen Lord repeats at Bountiful (“the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one”, 3 Nephi 11:27). The Godhead doctrine is hosted on Messiah and The Doctrine of Christ; Article 1 names it but adds no distinctive phrase, so it is cross-linked here, not registered.

Article 2 — “that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression” (Articles of Faith 1:2) — states the corpus’s agency-and-accountability doctrine, taught most fully in Lehi’s discourse on opposition and freedom (“they are free to choose liberty and eternal life… or to choose captivity and death,” 2 Nephi 2:27) and in Mormon’s teaching that little children are “alive in Christ” (Moroni 8:12) and “need no repentance” (Moroni 8:11). The doctrines match, but no distinctive multi-word string is shared; the link is thematic and is cross-linked, not registered.

Article 3 — salvation “through the Atonement of Christ… by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 1:3) — is the grace-and-obedience frame the Atonement page treats (cf. “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do”, 2 Nephi 25:23). Thematic; cross-linked, not registered.

The first principles and ordinances (Article 4)

Article 4 is the article that maps most directly onto a named Book-of-Mormon doctrine. It fixes an order:

Articles of Faith 1:4: “We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

That four-step sequence — faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost — is the ordo the corpus calls “the doctrine of Christ” (2 Nephi 31:21) — the risen Lord’s own idiom for it at Bountiful is “my doctrine” (3 Nephi 11:32) — laid out by Nephi at the close of his record and again by the risen Lord at Bountiful. The correspondence is real, and it is registered below as an interpretation — because what the two texts share is the sequence, not a distinctive phrase, and because the fourth step is framed differently on each side (the corpus names the gift of the Holy Ghost as a “baptism of fire”, where Article 4 names its conferral by “Laying on of hands” (Articles of Faith 1:4)).

⚖️ Interpretation — weigh this. Article 4 can be read as a numbered restatement of the Book of Mormon’s doctrine of Christ. The evidence is the shared ordo. 2 Nephi 31:17 compresses the same steps: “the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost” — with faith placed first across the discourse (“relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save”, 2 Nephi 31:19) and the sequence repeated in Christ’s own voice at 3 Nephi 11:32–37. Two differences are reported as textual facts, not smoothed over: (1) the shared words — “remission of sins”, “baptism” — are common corpus idiom, not a distinctive shared string, so the link rests on the matching order, not on phrasing; and (2) Article 4 confers the Holy Ghost by “Laying on of hands” (Articles of Faith 1:4), a step the doctrine-of-Christ chapters never name — there the third gift is “the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 31:13), with no hands mentioned. That the article is a deliberate summary of the corpus’s doctrine is the reading, offered to weigh; what the texts supply is the same four elements in the same order. The Book-of-Mormon side is hosted in full on The Doctrine of Christ.

Authority, church order, and spiritual gifts (Articles 5–7)

Article 5 — a man “must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof” (Articles of Faith 1:5) — states the authority-to-officiate principle the corpus dramatizes in Alma the elder’s baptisms (“having authority from the Almighty God,” Mosiah 18:13) and its converse at Limhi’s people, who could not be baptized because “there was none in the land that had authority from God” (Mosiah 21:33). Thematic; the authority chain is hosted on The Church of God and cross-linked, not registered — no distinctive phrase is shared.

Article 6 (“the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists,” Articles of Faith 1:6) and Article 7 (“the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues,” Articles of Faith 1:7) catalogue church offices and spiritual gifts. The corpus’s own list of gifts is Moroni’s in Moroni 10:8–17 (a passage the wiki tracks against 1 Corinthians 12 as a hosted corpus book). Article 7’s list and Moroni’s overlap in content — “tongues” and “healing” appear on both; Moroni’s list carries prophecy as a verb (“that he may prophesy”) and renders the last gift as “the interpretation of languages and of divers kinds of tongues” — but the two are independent enumerations, not a quotation of one by the other; the honest reading is a shared catalogue of gifts, not a textual connection, so it is noted here and cross-linked to Faith, Hope, and Charity / Moroni, not registered.

The word of God: Bible and Book of Mormon (Article 8)

Articles of Faith 1:8: “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”

Article 8 is the one place a creed names a text in this corpus by title — “the Book of Mormon.” Under the wiki’s naming convention, a record whose far end a text explicitly names would carry asserted_by: "source". But no record is registered on Article 8, and the reason is the wiki’s first non-negotiable rule: a connection must cite an exact verse “Book :” on both ends. Article 8 names the Book of Mormon as a whole — it points at no verse — so there is no second endpoint to pair it with, and it cannot be a connection. The corpus’s own self-witness that it is scripture (e.g. “if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ,” 2 Nephi 33:10) lives on its home pages; Article 8’s affirmation is reported here as a credal fact and cross-linked, not registered. (The named-source rule would apply if a verse-to-verse link were ever grounded; here the naming has no verse to attach to.)

Continuing revelation (Article 9)

Article 9 — “all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and… that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God” (Articles of Faith 1:9) — is the open-canon principle. The corpus argues it directly in the Lord’s rebuke, recorded by Nephi, of those who say “we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible” (2 Nephi 29:6). Thematic and doctrinally exact, but no distinctive shared string; cross-linked, not registered.

The gathering, Zion, and the millennial hope (Article 10)

Articles of Faith 1:10: “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.”

Article 10 packs four latter-day expectations into one sentence. Three of them — the gathering of Israel, Christ’s personal reign, and the renewed earth — are large corpus themes (the gathering is treated on The Covenant of Israel; the millennial reign appears at 1 Nephi 22:24–26) but share no distinctive phrase with the article, so they are cross-linked, not registered. The fourth — “Zion (the New Jerusalem)” (Articles of Faith 1:10) — does share the corpus’s own proper title, and is registered:

[Textual] — a shared title. The verifiable contact between Article 10 and the corpus’s New-Jerusalem material is the proper name “New Jerusalem” (and the build-upon-the-land frame around it) — a title, not a distinctive turn of phrase, so the record is on the title and nothing larger:

  • Articles of Faith 1:10: “that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent”
  • Ether 13:6: “that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph”

One difference is reported as a textual fact: Article 10 locates the city on “the American continent”, where the corpus says “upon this land” (Ether 13:4, 6, 8) and “in this land” (3 Nephi 20:22). The Book of Mormon never uses the words “American continent”; whether “this land” is that continent is an external, real-world geographic question outside this wiki’s scope, exactly as with Nahom. What is textual is the shared title and the shared build-upon-the-land frame. The capitalized title “New Jerusalem” stands across the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price at the verses catalogued on The New Jerusalem (3 Nephi 20:22; 21:23–24; Ether 13:3, 4, 6, 10) and at Moses 7:62 (“it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem”; the hosted Revelation carries the lowercase form, “new Jerusalem,” at Revelation 3:12 and 21:2; Ether 13:5 likewise reads lowercase “new Jerusalem”) — Article 10 adds one more. The Moses 7:62 near-end is registered on Enoch and the City of Zion (); the Ether 13 ↔ 3 Nephi 20:22 pairing on The New Jerusalem (). Note that Article 10, like Moses 7:62, pairs “Zion” with “New Jerusalem” in one breath — the two texts share that doubled title, and the reading that all these passages describe one city is carried on those home pages, not asserted in this record.

Religious liberty and civic obedience (Articles 11–12)

Article 11 claims “the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege” (Articles of Faith 1:11); Article 12 affirms “being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law” (Articles of Faith 1:12). These civic-liberty statements have no close doctrinal parallel in the Book of Mormon corpus, whose political material runs the other way — toward the hazards of kingship (Mosiah 29’s argument against kings; Kings and Judges) and freedom of belief under the law established by Mosiah (“there was a law that men should be judged according to their crimes. Nevertheless, there was no law against a man’s belief”, Alma 30:11; “no law against a man’s belief” also at Alma 30:7). The nearest genuine touch is Alma 30’s protection of belief, which resonates with Article 11’s liberty of conscience — but the framing and diction differ entirely, so this is noted as a thematic resonance, not registered. An honest “no textual connection” is the right result for these two articles.

The catalogue of virtue, and “the admonition of Paul” (Article 13)

Articles of Faith 1:13: “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”

Article 13 is the one credal line that cites its own source: “we follow the admonition of Paul” (Articles of Faith 1:13). The believe-hope-endure clause that follows is Pauline diction — and the same Pauline diction is the closing quartet of Mormon’s charity-hymn in Moroni 7:45. That gives a genuine, verifiable overlap between two texts inside this corpus:

[Textual] — shared phrasing.

  • Articles of Faith 1:13: “We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things”
  • Moroni 7:45: “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things”

This page reports verbal correspondence with the King James text as textual fact, including where the correspondence follows the KJV’s English translation. What that correspondence implies about the origin of the Book of Mormon text — in any direction — is an external question outside this wiki’s scope.

The shared distinctive diction is the believe / hope / endure + “all things” triad. It must be framed exactly: both passages track the same admonition — Article 13 names it (“the admonition of Paul”); Moroni 7:45 matches the KJV of 1 Corinthians 13:7 (“Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things”) verbatim and gives no account of it; the origin of the shared diction is outside this wiki’s scope. Mormon tracks it verbatim (that verbatim tracking is registered separately as , Moroni 7:45 ↔ 1 Corinthians 13:7, on Faith, Hope, and Charity). Article 13 paraphrases it into a first-person creed, drops “beareth,” splits the last clause into “have endured many things” + “hope to be able to endure all things”, and — unlike Mormon — names its source (“the admonition of Paul”). This is why the record’s asserted_by is “wiki,” not “source”: Article 13 names Paul (its external source), but it does not name Moroni (the far end of this record), so the pairing of the two corpus passages is the wiki’s observation, not the text’s own claim. The connection is legal and wanted — neither endpoint is the comparandum (1 Corinthians), both are corpus books — and it surfaces, honestly, two corpus texts independently echoing the same admonition. Article 13’s closing “anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy” is a second Pauline echo (Philippians 4:8) with no in-corpus far end; it is reported as diction only and not registered.

The virtue-list itself (“honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous,” Articles of Faith 1:13) maps thematically onto Alma’s charge at Alma 7:23–24 (“humble… submissive and gentle… full of patience… faith, hope, and charity”) — the same register of personal virtue — but the two lists share no distinctive string, so that resonance is cross-linked to Faith, Hope, and Charity, not registered.

What maps, and what doesn’t

Of the thirteen articles, three carry a registered connection to the Book of Mormon corpus: Article 4 (the first-principles ordo, ⚖️ interpretive), Article 10 (the shared title “New Jerusalem,” textual), and Article 13 (the Pauline believe-hope-endure triad shared with Mormon, textual). The rest divide into two honest classes. Several state a doctrine the corpus teaches in full but with no distinctive shared phrasing — the Godhead (1), agency and accountability (2), the atonement (3), officiating authority (5), church offices and spiritual gifts (6–7), the word-of-God witness (8), continuing revelation (9), and the gathering / millennial hope (10’s other three clauses) — and these are cross-linked to their home pages rather than registered. Two more — religious liberty and civic obedience (11–12) — have no close doctrinal parallel in a corpus whose political material runs the other way, and are recorded here as an honest absence. A creed that compresses doctrine into single sentences is expected to yield exactly this pattern: real doctrinal agreement everywhere, registrable textual contact in only a few places.

Key references

The Doctrine of Christ · The New Jerusalem · Enoch and the City of Zion · Faith, Hope, and Charity · The Covenant of Israel · The Church of God · Messiah · Kings and Judges · Index · Connections

Sources

The Pearl of Great Price (Articles of Faith 1) and the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 31; 3 Nephi 11; Ether 13; Moroni 7). All quotes are drawn verbatim from the frozen source text, each cited to its exact verse. Of the New-Testament passages named in the Article 13 note, 1 Corinthians 13:7 is quoted there and its Moroni 7:45 overlap is registered on Faith, Hope, and Charity; Philippians 4:8 is cited by name only — no in-corpus far-end verse is claimed for it here.

Every quote on this page is taken verbatim from the source text (Articles of Faith 1; 2 Nephi 31; 3 Nephi 11; Ether 13; Moroni 7), each checked character-for-character against the frozen source. This page registers exactly three connection records — the first-principles ordo (⚖️ interpretive, Articles of Faith 1:4 ↔ 2 Nephi 31:17), the shared title “New Jerusalem” (textual, Articles of Faith 1:10 ↔ Ether 13:6), and the Pauline believe-hope-endure triad (textual, Articles of Faith 1:13 ↔ Moroni 7:45) — and none of the three carries a distinctive shared string beyond what its record states. Article 8 names “the Book of Mormon” but points at no verse, so it grounds no connection. Articles 11–12 have no close corpus parallel and are recorded as an honest absence. External history of the document, and the real-world geography of “the American continent”, are out of scope; only the text’s internal claims are treated.