Jacob includes in his record some direct quotations from his interview with Sherem. Sherem came in as though he were a member of the Church and addressed the prophet of God as "Brother Jacob." He accused Jacob of going around preaching the "gospel," which is the doctrine of Christ.
Sherem's use of the word, "gospel," is interesting. The original writings of Moses state that the "gospel" was preached "from the beginning."2 Yet our present Old Testament does not mention the word "gospel" even once. However, it is used frequently in the translation of the New Testament. The fact that Sherem was using the word gospel in the fifth century B.C.indicates that the people were very familiar with this particular term in Old Testament times.
The Book of Mormon mentions the gospel thirty times prior to the coming of Christ. The modern word, "gospel" comes from the Anglo-Saxon -- godspel-- which means "good tidings" of the God-story. It is from the Latin version of the word, gospel, that our term evangelism comes. An evangelist is one who proclaims the good tidings of the gospel, or the good news of the mission of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation. Sherem was right on target when he used the word "gospel, or the doctrine of Christ" to describe what Jacob was teaching.
Sherem then accused Jacob of perverting the right way of God by distracting the people from keeping the law of Moses and getting them to worship a being who is supposed to come to the earth several hundreds of years hence. In brazen arrogance Sherem rebuked Jacob as the head of the Nephite Church, and said the doctrine of Christ was nothing short of blasphemy. Sherem said no man can know of such things because no man can tell of things to come.