Lesson 12: “Fruitful in the Land of My Affliction” – Scriptures and Quotes

Reading 1 – Genesis 39:21-23

Reading 2 – 1 Peter 4:12-13

Elder Richard G. Scott has said, "While you are passing through [your trials], the pain and difficulty that comes from being enlarged will continue. If all matters were immediately resolved at your first petition, you could not grow. Your Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son love you perfectly. They would not require you to experience a moment more of difficulty than is absolutely needed for your personal benefit or for that of those you love." (Richard G. Scott, "Trust in the Lord," Ensign, Nov. 1995, 1

Romans 8:28

Reading 3 – Genesis 41:1-16

Genesis 41:25

Reading 4 – Genesis 41:37-43

Reading 5 – Genesis 42:5-8

Reading 6 – Genesis 42:17-24

Genesis 42:36-38

Reading 7 – Genesis 44:18, 30-34

Reading 8 – Genesis 45:1-15

Reading 9 – Elder Dallin H. Oaks has written:  The issue for us is trusting God enough to trust also His timing. If we can truly believe he has our welfare at heart, may we not let his plans unfold as he thinks best? The same is true with the second coming and with all those matters wherein our faith needs to include faith in the Lord's timing for us personally, not just in His overall plans and purposes. (Dallin H. Oaks: Even As I Am, p. 93)

Elder Mark E. Peterson has written that Asenath was not of the forbidden Egyptian blood, but, was, in fact, a Semite, and that marriage by Joseph to her was lawful.  The true religion was not in Egypt, except in the person of Joseph, so he taught Asenath the true gospel.  (Joseph of Egypt, pp37-38)

Lesson 10: Birthright Blessings; Marriage in the Covenant – Scriptures and Quotes

Reading 1 – Genesis 24:3-9

Reading 2 - Elder Bruce R. McConkie has written:  "Celestial marriage is a holy and an eternal ordinance; as an order of the priesthood, it has the name the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. Adam was the first one on this earth to enter into this type of union, and it has been the Lord's order in all ages when the fulness of the gospel has been on earth. Its importance in the plan of salvation and exaltation cannot be overestimated. The most important things that any member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ever does in this world are: 1. To marry the right person, in the right place, by the right authority; and 2. To keep the covenant made in connection with this holy and perfect order of matrimony -- thus assuring the obedient persons of an inheritance of exaltation in the celestial kingdom." (Mormon Doctrine, p118)

Elder Bruce R. McConkie also wrote: "Those portions of it (the Abrahamic covenant) which pertain to personal exaltation and eternal increase are renewed with each member of the house of Israel who enters the order of celestial marriage; through that order the participating parties become inheritors of all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." (Mormon Doctrine, p13)

Reading 3: Genesis 24:12-14

Reading 4: Genesis 24:15-20

Genesis 24:57-58

Reading 5 – Genesis 25:22-23

Reading 6 - Genesis 25:29-34

Reading 7 – Brother R. Val Johnson has said, “The birthright given anciently to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is also yours. Your patriarchal blessing identifies your lineage in the house of Israel and describes many of the blessings and responsibilities you will receive if you live worthy of your birthright.” (R. Val Johnson, “You Have a Birthright,” New Era, Nov 2005, 9)

Elder H. Ross Workman asks, “Why should you be interested in this birthright, Esau being long dead? Because God has offered the birthright to you. Through temple ordinances every man and woman can receive the birthright blessing.” (Elder H. Ross Workman, “Devotional,” Oct. 28, 2008, BYU-Hawaii)

Reading 8 – Genesis 28:3-4

Genesis 28:11-17

Reading 9 - Elder Marion G. Romney said of this dream: “Jacob realized that the covenants he made with the Lord … were the rungs on the ladder that he himself would have to climb in order to obtain the promised blessings—blessings that would entitle him to enter heaven and associate with the Lord” (“Temples—The Gates to Heaven,” Ensign, Mar. 1971, 16).

Abraham: Living Righteously in a Wicked World - Scriptures and Quotes

President Gordon B. Hinckley said, "The traditional family is under heavy attack. I do not know that things were worse in the times of Sodom and Gomorrah. … We see similar conditions today. They prevail all across the world. I think our Father must weep as He looks down upon His wayward sons and daughters." (“Standing Strong and Immovable,” Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, 10 Jan. 2004, 20, quoted by Elder Richard G. Scott, “How to Live Well amid Increasing Evil,” Liahona, May 2004, 100–102)

Reading 1 – Doctrine and Covenants 101:1-5

Reading 2 – Doctrine and Covenants 132:29-32

Doctrine and Covenants 132:37

Reading 3 – Luke 17:28-32

Reading 4 – Doctrine and Covenants 133:10-15

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, " It is possible that Lot’s wife looked back with resentment toward the Lord for what He was asking her to leave behind. We certainly know that Laman and Lemuel were resentful when Lehi and his family were commanded to leave Jerusalem. So it isn’t just that she looked back; she looked back longingly. In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future. That, apparently, was at least part of her sin." (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Remember Lot’s Wife," devotional address at Brigham Young University, 13 January 2009.)

Joseph Smith said: "After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.150).

Reading 5 – Genesis 13:6-7

Reading 6 – Genesis 13:8-9

Reading 7 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell has written "We see generosity of spirit in the life of Abraham when he and Lot, who was his nephew, found their cattle grazing on the same land. There was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's cattle and of Lot's cattle. It is Abraham who took the initiative and said unto Lot, 'Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.' (Genesis 13:7-9.) The complete, genuine willingness of Abraham to adjust to whatever Lot's decision was is the mark of a generosity of spirit of that remarkable patriarch." (That My Family Should Partake, pp92-93)

Genesis 13:12-13

Reading 8 – Genesis 14:22-23

Genesis 14:18-20

Reading 9: President Spencer W. Kimball said: “Our world is now much the same as it was in the days of the Nephite prophet who said: ‘… if it were not for the prayers of the righteous … ye would even now be visited with utter destruction. …’ (Al. 10:22.) Of course, there are many many upright and faithful who live all the commandments and whose lives and prayers keep the world from destruction” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1971, 7; or Ensign,  June 1971, 16).

Genesis 19:15-17

Genesis 19:24-26

Lesson 6: “Noah … Prepared an Ark to the Saving of His House” – Scriptures and Quotes

Moses 7:42

Reading 1 - Joseph Smith said: "Then to Noah, who is Gabriel: he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood; he was called of God to this office, and was the father of all living in this day, and to him was given the dominion. These men held keys first on earth, and then in heaven." (TPJS p157)

Reading 2 - Moses 8:20-22

Moses 8:28

Reading 3 - Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote: The coming of the flood of Noah, and with it the 'end of the world' for the carnal civilization of that day, is a perfect type of the coming of the Lord, and the end of the world for the wicked of the latter-days. In both days all the normal activities of life continue until Deity intervenes to stay the mounting mass of iniquity. (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:667)

Moses 9:26

The ultimate purpose of the adversary is to “disrupt, disturb, and destroy the home and the family” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Father and the Family”)

Moses 7:33

Reading 4 – 3 Nephi 9:2

Reading 5 – Hugh Nibley wrote, “There comes a time when the general defilement of a society becomes so great that the rising generation is put under undue pressure and cannot be said to have a fair choice between the way of light and the way of darkness. When such a point is reached the cup of iniquity is full, and the established order that has passed the point of no return and neither can nor will change its ways must be removed physically and forcibly if necessary from the earth, whether by war, plague, famine, or upheavals of nature (Mormon 2:13-15)” (Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol.6, Part.5, Ch.11, p.140).

Matthew 24:38-39

Reading 6 - President Ezra Taft Benson said, “The revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1987, 61; or Ensign, Nov. 1987, 49).

Reading 7 - Elder W. Don Ladd taught: “When it starts raining, it is too late to begin building the ark. … We … need to listen to the Lord’s spokesmen. We need to calmly continue to move ahead and prepare for what will surely come. We need not panic or fear, for if we are prepared, spiritually and temporally, we and our families will survive any flood. Our arks will float on a sea of faith if our works have been steadily and surely preparing for the future” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 37; or Ensign, Nov. 1994, 29).

Reading 8 - President Spencer W. Kimball explained that when Noah built the ark, “there was no evidence of rain and flood. … His warnings were considered irrational. … How foolish to build an ark on dry ground with the sun shining and life moving forward as usual! But time ran out. The ark was finished. The floods came. The disobedient and rebellious were drowned. The miracle of the ark followed the faith manifested in its building” (Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 5–6).

Genesis 7:11-24

Genesis 8:20

Reading 9 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote:  "When we are urged to put upon the altar of the Lord the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit . . . we are following the ancient counsel: 'to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams' . . . . Outward rituals can become near-empty ends in themselves. What we are actually placing on the altar to be consumed is the animal and carnal of our old selves. The need for that sacrifice has not been done away." (Not My Will, But Thine, p99)

Reading 10 – Genesis 11-1-9

Hugh Nibley wrote:  "An investigation of the oldest temples...concludes that those high structures were also 'gigantic altars,' built both to attract the attention of the powers above...and to provide 'the stairways which the god, in answer to these prayers, used in order to descend to the earth. . . . He comes bringing a renewal of life in all its forms.' From the first, it would seem, men built altars in the hopes of establishing contact with heaven, and built high towers for the same purpose (see Genesis 11:4)." (Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, 4:360)

Matthew 7:13-14

Lesson 4: “Because of My Transgression My Eyes Are Opened” – Scriptures and Quotes

Moses 2:28

Moses 3:17

Reading 1 – Moses 4:6-12

Reading 2 - Elder Dallin H. Oaks has said: “It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality. Her act, whatever its nature, was formally a transgression but eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same. …

“… We celebrate Eve’s act and honor her wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall. … Elder Joseph Fielding Smith said: ‘I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of a sin. … This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin.’ …

“This suggested contrast between a sin and a transgression reminds us of the careful wording in the second article of faith: “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression” (italics added). It also echoes a familiar distinction in the law. Some acts, like murder, are crimes because they are inherently wrong. Other acts, like operating without a license, are crimes only because they are legally prohibited. Under these distinctions, the act that produced the Fall was not a sin—inherently wrong—but a transgression—wrong because it was formally prohibited. These words are not always used to denote something different, but this distinction seems meaningful in the circumstances of the Fall” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1993, 98; or Ensign, Nov. 1993, 73).

Reading 3 - Elder John A. Widtsoe wrote: "One thing must be kept in mind: The fall was not a sin in the usually accepted sense of that word. It was a necessary act in a series of acts by which ultimately all men will win an eternal possession of their earth-bodies. In the gospel sense, the fall of Adam brought life, not death, into man's eternal existence." (Evidences & Reconciliations, p73)

Because of the Fall, Adam and Eve would experience mortal death, but the door to Eternal Life would be opened because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Reading 4 - President Marion G. Romney said:  "I do not look upon Adam's action as a sin. I think it was a deliberate act of free agency. He chose to do that which had to be done to further the purposes of God" (CR,  Apr 1953)

Reading 5 – Moses 4:13-31

Reading 6 - Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:  "Except for the fall, the earth would not be peopled; we would still be in the pre-existence living as spirits, and that agency and those trials we now possess would not be. There would be no redemption from death, no immortality, no eternal life, no salvation of any sort. The purposes of God would thus be frustrated and come to naught." (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, p85)

2 Nephi 2:15-16

Reading 7 - President Harold B. Lee wrote:  "Next to life itself, free agency is God's greatest gift to mankind, providing thereby the greatest opportunity for the children of God to advance in this second estate of mortality. A prophet-leader on this continent explained this to his son as recorded in an ancient scripture: that to bring about these, the Lord's eternal purposes, there must be opposites, an enticement by the good on the one hand and by the evil on the other." (Stand Ye In Holy Places, p235)

Moses 6:48

Moses 6:55

Reading 8 - President Spencer W. Kimball wrote:  "If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective.

    "Is there not wisdom in his giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?

   "If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.

    "If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls." (Faith Precedes the Miracle, p97)

Moses 6:49

Genesis 3:17-19

Moses 4:28

Moses 6:56

Reading 9 - Elder Sterling W. Sill said:  "In denying our own responsibility, we frequently blame Satan for much of the misery that we are bringing upon ourselves. Satan has no power over us except as we give it to him. And temptations without imply desires within; and rather than say, 'How powerfully the devil tempts,' we might say, 'How strongly I am inclined.' God never forces us to do right, and Satan has no power to force us to do wrong. As someone has said, 'God always votes for us and Satan always votes against us, and then we are asked to vote to break the tie.' It is how we vote that gives our lives their significance." (CR, Apr 1970)

Moses 5:10

2 Nephi 2:23, 25

Moses 5:11

Reading 10 – Abraham 3:24-16

Alma 22:14

Reading 11 – Moses 6:51-54

Reading 12 - President Ezra Taft Benson said: “The plan of redemption must start with the account of the fall of Adam. In the words of Moroni, ‘By Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, … and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man’ (Mormon 9:12). Just as a man does not really desire food until he is hungry, so he does not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ. No one adequately and properly knows why he needs Christ until he understands and accepts the doctrine of the Fall and its effect upon all mankind” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1987, 106; or Ensign, May 1987, 85).

1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Helaman 14:15-18

Reading 13 – Moses 5:5-9

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “Whatever God requires is right, … although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 256).

2 Nephi 9:10

Lesson 2: “Thou Wast Chosen Before Thou Wast Born” – Scriptures and Quotes

Old Testament: Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, (2001), 5–8

Joseph Smith said: "I commenced the translation of some of the characters or hieroglyphics, and much to our joy found that one of the rolls contained the writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph of Egypt" (HC, 2:236). The Prophet translated the Book of Abraham from these rolls.

Reading 1 – Abraham 3:22-23

Reading 2 – Doctrine and Covenants 138:53-56

Reading 3: Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:  "There were many meetings, conferences, councils and schooling sessions held among the Gods and their spirit offspring in pre-existence. Among other things, at these various assemblages, plans were made for the creation and peopling of this earth and for the redemption and salvation of the offspring of Deity." (Mormon Doctrine, p163)

Alma 13:1-4

Reading 4: President Ezra Taft Benson taught: “God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the second coming of the Lord. Some individuals will fall away; but the kingdom of God will remain intact to welcome the return of its head—even Jesus Christ. While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, when the Lord cleansed the earth by flood, there is a major difference this time. It is that God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly. …

“… Make no mistake about it—you are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 104–5).

Reading 5 – Abraham 3:24-28

Reading 6 – Moses 4:1-4

Reading 7 - Elder James E. Talmage explains what was at stake in this great Council:  "We have heretofore shown that the entire human race existed as spirit-beings in the primeval world, and that for the purpose of making possible to them the experiences of mortality this earth was created. They were endowed with the powers of agency or choice while yet but spirits; and the divine plan provided that they be free-born in the flesh, heirs to the inalienable birthright of liberty to choose and to act for themselves in mortality. It is undeniably essential to the eternal progression of God's children that they be subjected to the influences of both good and evil, that they be tried and tested and proved withal, 'to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them .' Free agency is an indispensable element of such a test." (Jesus the Christ, p17)

Reading 8 - Elder Neal A. Maxwell wrote:  "If the Lord were to show His power as some expect power to be used-which is virtually unthinkable-mortals would experience, among other things, prompt punishment rather than divine long-suffering. God would then stop all human suffering and silence all opposition to His work. In countless ways He would control the adverse effects of agency merely to prove that He was all-powerful. But He would not be all-loving for in effect He would have derailed His plan of happiness! The enforced cooperation would not produce illuminated individuality but an indistinguishable 'compound in one' (2 Nephi 2:11). We would then be back to that proposal of enforced 'salvation' rejected so long ago (Moses 4:1)." (Not My Will, But Thine, p91)

Reading 9 - Sister Elaine Cannon wrote:  "This grand adventure of choosing well is at every stage worth the battle. We are here to learn what the Savior learned. God is the author of the format, and he is the master teacher. He will not deny us our right to learn for ourselves those lessons that will prove us herewith, that will mark our development. This development includes how we deal with what happens to us, how we feel about life and God, and how much we learn that is of value to us now and in the eternities.

    "Life is a very special kind of schooling. It is a training ground for our next estate. When we become converted to - not just convinced of that truth and idea, our trials and tribulations will be more meaningful to us." (Adversity, p25)

The Atonement

Last week, we finished the final lesson in the Doctrine and Covenants lesson manual. Next week, we will begin the new year's study of the Old Testament.

This week, we will have a lesson on The Atonement.

Reading 1 - Articles of Faith 3

[The Atonement of Christ] is the very root of Christian doctrine. You may know much about the gospel as it branches out from there, but if you only know the branches and those branches do not touch that root, if they have been cut free from that truth, there will be no life nor substance nor redemption in them. Boyd K. Packer, “The Mediator,” Ensign, May 1977, 54

Reading 2 – Elder Bruce R. McConkie said: Now the greatest and most important single thing there is in all eternity—the thing that transcends all others since the time of the creation of man and of the worlds—is the fact of the atoning sacrifice of Christ the Lord. He came into the world to live and to die—to live the perfect life and be the pattern, the similitude, the prototype for all men, and to crown his ministry in death, in the working out of the infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice. And by virtue of this atonement, all things pertaining to life and immortality, to existence, to glory and salvation, to honor and rewards hereafter, all things are given full force and efficacy and virtue. The Atonement is the central thing in the whole gospel system. Bruce R. McConkie, “Behold the Condescension of God,” New Era, Dec. 1984, 35    

I need thee every hour,

In joy or pain,

Come quickly and abide,

Or life is vain.

“I Need Thee Every Hour,” Hymns no. 98, Salt Lake City, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985

Reading 3 - Mosiah 3:19

C.S. Lewis captured the nature of our mortal tendency to oppose God when he wrote, “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.”

Reading 4 - Elder Merrill J. Bateman said: "For many years I thought of the Savior's experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt 'our infirmities,' "[bore] our griefs . . . carried our sorrows . . . [and] was bruised for our iniquities.' The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us."  Merrill J. Bateman, “A Pattern for All,” Ensign, Nov 2005, 74

Reading 5 - John 21:4-7

Reading 6 – John 21-15-17

Reading 7 – Alma 7:11-12

Reading 8 – Mosiah 27:36-37

Reading 9 – President Gordon B. Hinkley said: [Jesus Christ’s] Atonement is the greatest event in human history. There is nothing to compare with it. It is the most fundamental part of our Father’s plan for the happiness of His children. (Gordon B. Hinckley, “Inspirational Thoughts,” Ensign, Sept 2007, 4–8)