3 Nephi 11:7.

[100] P. of G.P. Joseph Smith 2:17.

CHAPTER 5.

EARTHLY ADVENT OF THE CHRIST PREDICTED.

The coming of Christ to earth to tabernacle in the flesh was no
unexpected or unheralded event. For centuries prior to the great
occurrence the Jews had professed to be looking for the advent of their
King; and, in the appointed ceremonials of worship as in private
devotions, the coming of the promised Messiah was prominent as a matter
of the supplication of Israel to Jehovah. True, there was much diversity
in lay opinion and in rabbinical exposition as to the time and manner of
His appearing; but the certainty thereof was fundamentally established
in the beliefs and hopes of the Hebrew nation.

The records known to us as the books of the Old Testament, together with
other inspired writings once regarded as authentic but excluded from
later compilations as not strictly canonical, were current among the
Hebrews at and long before the time of Christ's birth. These scriptures
had their beginning in the proclamation of the law through Moses,[101]
who wrote the same, and delivered the writing into the official custody
of the priests with an express command that it be read in the assemblies
of the people at stated times. To these earlier writings were added the
utterances of divinely commissioned prophets, the records of appointed
historians, and the songs of inspired poets, as the centuries passed; so
that at the time of our Lord's ministry the Jews possessed a great
accumulation of writings accepted and revered by them as
authoritative.[102] These records are rich in prediction and promise
respecting the earthly advent of the Messiah, as are other scriptures to
which the Israel of old had not access.

Adam, the patriarch of the race, rejoiced in the assurance of the
Savior's appointed ministry, through the acceptance of which, he, the
transgressor, might gain redemption. Brief mention of the plan of
salvation, the author of which is Jesus Christ, appears in the promise
given of God following the fall--that though the devil, represented by
the serpent in Eden, should have power to bruise the heel of Adam's
posterity, through the seed of the woman should come the power to bruise
the adversary's head.[103] It is significant that this assurance of
eventual victory over sin and its inevitable effect, death, both of
which were introduced to earth through Satan the arch-enemy of mankind,
was to be realized throu