QUOTES FOR CLASSES JAN 19-26, 2022
FOUNDATIONS OF THE RESTORATION
WED/THURS 3:30-4:20 (AT THE INSTITUTE)
TUESDAY 7PM (AT THE INSTITUTE)
Evaluating Historical Sources
Watch this video:
Questions for Evaluating Sources
1. What are the qualifications, intentions, and possible biases of the author?
President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency taught that we should “be cautious about the motivation of the one who provides information. … Our personal decisions should be based on information from sources that are qualified on the subject and free from selfish motivations” (Dallin H. Oaks, “Truth and the Plan,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2018, 25).
2. How closely connected is the author to the events being described?
When a source addresses something from Church history, ask yourself how far removed the source is from the event it is discussing. Stories based on second- or thirdhand accounts are often less reliable.
3. Does the author intentionally ignore available evidence in order to mislead?
Some authors deliberately omit important facts and ignore critical evidence to support their particular point of view.
4. Are the teachings and events addressed in this source presented in the proper context of their time, place, and circumstance?
Some teachings and historical events can become confusing when they are taken out of the context of their time and place. Historical context also includes other events happening at the time (such as wars, economic crises, and social and political movements) and the culture and demographics of a given time and setting.
5. Are the teachings and events supported by additional reliable sources?
Support from other reliable sources helps establish the accuracy of doctrine and historical events.
How do I get my own revelation?
President Russell M. Nelson and invite students to read it silently, looking for additional ways they can invite revelation.
Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 132). …
I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation. …
Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work. (Russell M. Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2018, 95)
Elder Scott Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayer
He is our perfect Father. He loves us beyond our capacity to understand. He knows what is best for us. He sees the end from the beginning. He wants us to act to gain needed experience:
When He answers yes, it is to give us confidence.
When He answers no, it is to prevent error.
When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth. We are expected to assume accountability by acting on a decision that is consistent with His teachings without prior confirmation. We are not to sit passively waiting or to murmur because the Lord has not spoken. We are to act.
Most often what we have chosen to do is right. He will confirm the correctness of our choices His way. That confirmation generally comes through packets of help found along the way. We discover them by being spiritually sensitive. They are like notes from a loving Father as evidence of His approval. If, in trust, we begin something which is not right, He will let us know before we have gone too far. We sense that help by recognizing troubled or uneasy feelings. October 1989
JESUS CHRIST AND THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL
TUESDAYS 6PM (AT THE INSTITUTE)
THURSDAYS 7PM (ZOOM)
What did Christ suffer in order to complete the Atonement?
O Savior Thou Who Wearest A Crown Hymn 197
1. O Savior, thou who wearest
A crown of piercing thorn,
The pain thou meekly bearest,
Weigh’d down by grief and scorn.
The soldiers mock and flail thee;
For drink they give thee gall;
Upon the cross they nail thee
To die, O King of all.
2. No creature is so lowly,
No sinner so depraved,
But feels thy presence holy
And thru thy love is saved.
Tho craven friends betray thee,
They feel thy love’s embrace;
The very foes who slay thee
Have access to thy grace.
3. Thy sacrifice transcended
The mortal law’s demand;
Thy mercy is extended
To ev’ry time and land.
No more can Satan harm us,
Tho long the fight may be,
Nor fear of death alarm us;
We live, O Lord, thru thee.
4. What praises can we offer
To thank thee, Lord most high?
In our place thou didst suffer;
In our place thou didst die,
By heaven’s plan appointed,
To ransom us, our King.
O Jesus, the anointed,
To thee our love we bring!
Elder McConkie
“We do not know, we cannot tell, no mortal mind can conceive the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane.
“We know He sweat great gouts [large drops] of blood from every pore as He drained the dregs of that bitter cup His Father had given Him.
“We know He suffered, both body and spirit, more than it is possible for man to suffer, except it be unto death. …
“We know that He lay prostrate upon the ground as the pains and agonies of an infinite burden caused Him to tremble and would that He might not drink the bitter cup” (“The Purifying Power of Gethsemane,” Ensign, Apr. 2011, 57).
Why was Christ willing to suffer so much for us?
Is the Atonement only for sin?
Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
“When the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! …
“The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement. (See Alma 7:11–12; Isa. 53:3–5; Matt. 8:17.) …
“… His suffering—as it were, enormity multiplied by infinity—evoked His later soul-cry on the cross, and it was a cry of forsakenness. (See Matt. 27:46.)” (“Willing to Submit,” Ensign, May 1985, 72–73).
“When the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! …
“The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement. (See Alma 7:11–12; Isa. 53:3–5; Matt. 8:17.) …
“… His suffering—as it were, enormity multiplied by infinity—evoked His later soul-cry on the cross, and it was a cry of forsakenness. (See Matt. 27:46.)” (“Willing to Submit,” Ensign, May 1985, 72–73).
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
“The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, ‘No one understands. No one knows.’ No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, succor … and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power” (“The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality,” Ensign, Apr. 2012, 47).
Mosiah 3:19
Mosiah 24:10–15
Alma 31:24–25, 31–33, 38
Ether 12:27
“The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, ‘No one understands. No one knows.’ No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, succor … and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power” (“The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality,” Ensign, Apr. 2012, 47).
Grace=The enabling power made available to us because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 12:7–10Mosiah 3:19
Mosiah 24:10–15
Alma 31:24–25, 31–33, 38
Ether 12:27
Why is it important for us to understand that we have access to Jesus Christ’s enabling power?
Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
“There is an imperative need for each of us to strengthen our understanding of the significance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ so that it will become an unshakable foundation upon which to build our lives. …
“I energetically encourage you to establish a personal study plan to better understand and appreciate the incomparable, eternal, infinite consequences of Jesus Christ’s perfect fulfillment of His divinely appointed calling as our Savior and Redeemer” (“He Lives! All Glory to His Name!” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 77).
OLD TESTAMENT
Book of Remembrance?
President Spencer W. Kimball
Those who keep a book of remembrance are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives. Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an inventory of these blessings for our posterity. April 1978
Baptism & the Gift of the Holy Ghost
Elder David A. Bednar
“We begin the process of being born again through exercising faith in Christ, repenting of our sins, and being baptized by immersion for the remission of sins” (“Ye Must Be Born Again,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 21).
President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency: President Henry B. Eyring “Reception of the Holy Ghost is the cleansing agent as the Atonement purifies you. … “… And when he is your companion, you can have confidence that the Atonement is working in your life” (“Come Unto Christ” [Brigham Young University fireside, Oct. 29, 1989], 4; speeches.byu.edu).