In Ether 12:39; Moroni declares that he has seen Jesus and that he would commend all men everywhere to seek Him out. In 1 Cor. 15:6; The Savior was seen and witnessed by 500 of the brethren. In D & C 6:37; the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the wounds he received during His Crucifiction and commanded them to be faithful and keep His commandments. In each of these accounts the Lord revealed Himself only to the believing, never to the wicked, and each of these witnesses received His holy spirit and testimony, and were commanded to witness of the Lord and keep His commandments.
The author of the gospel of Acts is Luke the Evangelist, based on the fact that the book of Luke was written for Theophilus, which is also stated that Acts was written to Theophilus (deductive reasoning). It was written to record and certify to those who had witnessed the events, and also for those who were not privileged to know of them at the time they occurred and that the membership might be certain in their knowledge of the gospel.
The doctrine of the resurrection was central to the preaching of the gospel of Christ because without the doctrine the faith of all believers was vain. One of the centerpieces of the life of the Savior was his death and resurrection and without both it profited no one to exercise faith in the Lord.
The relationship between Christ’s death and resurrection is central to the judgment of humanity. A central part of the gospel is that these events happened, so mankind could return and be judged, according to the gospel, and without the two, the salvation of man fails, without the cross there is no return, and with it we may be judged fairly and return to heaven.
The Savior promised his followers that He would send them the Comforter or Holy Spirit prior to his Ascencion.
We can be modern witnesses of Christ through bearing our own testimony of Him, and also through following His example. An apostle was chosen first from those who were constant and steadfast, someone who was true to the gospel, and they then beseeched the Lord in prayer to know which individual it should be. The Apostles then voted on the one they felt was the right choice and majority vote chose. The Bible Dictionary gives additional information that an apostle should be part of a council of twelve, and be a special witness of Jesus Christ before the whole world.
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