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This month, we are talking about the three things that we're supposed to be learning from the scriptures. We learn about, number one, Jesus Christ; two, doctrine, meaning eternal truth; and three, principles, which are things we can do that help keep us in line with the doctrines and learn to be more like Jesus. This week, we are focusing especially on doctrine. What is it? How can you find it? And why is it so important? I am Cindy Young, and this is Primarily Scripture Welcome back, guys. I am traveling, and I just could not get the Wi-Fi to cooperate, so I apologize there is no video this week. And I don't have my typical setup with me, so I am just crossing my fingers that the sound quality is good for you guys. But if you hear any weird background noises, I apologize in advance. Today, we are zeroing in on doctrine. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said this: "A gospel doctrine is a truth, a truth of salvation revealed by a loving Heavenly Father. Gospel doctrines are eternal, do not change, and pertain to the eternal progression and exaltation of Heavenly Father's sons and daughters. The core doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ are relatively few in number." Okay, did you get all that? That was all Elder Bednar. So to be considered a doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, something must be true and always true, not just true in some circumstances. Also, it must relate to our eternal progression and salvation. So let's try it out.

Here's a truth: 1:45

people need oxygen to survive. Would that be considered gospel doctrine? Well, let's check our two qualifiers to see if it is doctrine. Number one, is it always true? Well, yes, as far as our understanding goes at this point in mortality, people need oxygen to survive. We just do. That is true. And as a church, we do accept all truth as part of the gospel. There's one big picture that includes all truth, including what might be called scientific truth and eternal truth. And if you want more information on that specifically, you can go to the Gospel Library app, Topics and Questions, Religion and Science. I highly recommend that everybody reads that! So yes, people need oxygen. That is true. All right, now let's check our second qualifier to see if this is doctrine. Does the topic of people needing oxygen relate to our eternal progression and exaltation? Mm, No, not really. This doesn't have anything to do with how we're getting back to Heavenly Father. It's a truth that God used when he was creating us and the Earth. But because it doesn't relate to our eternal progression, we would not consider this truth to be gospel doctrine. Now, remember that Elder Bednar said,"The core doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ are relatively few in number." Well, I did a search on the church website, and I found a list of core doctrines, and this comes from an old seminary manual. And even though the manual is from several years ago, remember that doctrine doesn't change, so this list is still relevant. I will put the link in the show notes, but here is the list. Okay? Number one, the Godhead. Number two, plan of salvation. Three, the atonement of Jesus Christ. Four, dispensation, apostasy, and restoration. Five, prophets and revelation. Six, priesthood and priesthood keys. Seven, ordinances and covenants. Eight, marriage and family. Nine, commandments. And that's it. There are nine categories of doctrine. Now, Elder Bednar warns that, um, doctrine and principles can overlap, for instance, commandments could be part of the plan of salvation. The Atonement is part of the plan of salvation. Prophets and revelation relate to dispensations and apostasy. So they're kind of interrelated and all connected. But this is a good starting point. And if you click on the link in the show notes, you can get the full breakdown of each of these doctrines as it was presented in the seminary manual. But why do we need to know them? Elder Bednar explained this, and I love, love how simple this explanation is. He said, "Gospel doctrines answer the question of why." Isn't that fantastic? Let's get into that a little deeper. We need to understand doctrine because it is the why behind everything we do in the church. And we need to understand the why behind everything else we do in the world, so of course we would want to understand the why of the gospel. For instance, the rule to not play in the street. Why? Because cars drive through, and you could get hurt. Or don't touch the hot stove. Why? Because your fingers will get burned. Little children don't understand the world yet, so it seems strange to them that they couldn't stand in certain places or can't touch certain things."Well, why can I touch this, but I can't touch that?" Until they understand, the rules might seem completely arbitrary, without any clear reason. The same goes for living the gospel and keeping the commandments. Every principle of the gospel, those things that we can do, faith, repentance, obedience, tithing, Word of Wisdom, all of these principles don't make sense until we understand the why behind them, and the why is the doctrine. Here's how Elder Bednar explained it. He said, "For example, the doctrine of the plan of happiness answers the questions of why we are here on earth, and why marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God, and why the family is central to the creator's plan. The doctrine of the Godhead helps us to understand why we are to become perfect, even as our Father in heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ, are perfect. The doctrine of the Atonement explains why Jesus Christ is our mediator and advocate with the Father." I love this so much. It makes such perfect sense in my head that the doctrine is the why, and then the principles and those other things, those are gonna be what we do and how we do them. And so doctrine is the most important thing that you can learn when you study the scriptures. And I know that I've said that Jesus Christ is the most important thing to find, and I still stand by that, because the doctrine of Jesus Christ is the most important of all the doctrines to understand. Everything else is directly related to and relies on Jesus Christ. Without him, none of this would mean anything, and that's how God designed it. Now, how does this relate to scripture study? Well, we are looking for doctrine in the scriptures because doctrine doesn't just appear out of nowhere. It's not just something we made up. Remember that Elder Bednar said doctrine is "a truth of salvation revealed by a loving Heavenly Father." Those revelations were recorded in the scriptures by ancient prophets, and as we gain more understanding of them, our modern prophets have explained them and clarified them for us. So as you read the scriptures, look for the doctrine. Often it's hiding in there, and it might take some significant effort to find it. Let's look at the reading this week and see what doctrine we can find. This week we are in 2 Kings, chapters two through seven. So open with me to 2 Kings, chapter two, and we'll start in verse eight and then also eleven through fourteen. And these verses are on my worksheet this week. This is where the prophet Elijah and his assistant Elisha are traveling together. Now, the names sound super similar to each other, but we've got to keep them straight. Elijah with a J is the prophet, and Elisha is, like, his assistant.

And it says this: 8:10

"Elijah took his mantle," that's his coat, "and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground." Doesn't this remind you of Moses crossing the Red Sea? Elijah just did the same thing across the river. To verse 11, "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, 'My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.' And he saw him no more." Isn't that amazing that Elijah was taken up to heaven? Now, what does Elisha do?"He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan." So now Elisha has the mantle."And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, 'Where is the Lord God of Elijah?' And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over." So Elijah used his priesthood authority as the prophet to part the water of the Jordan River. But then he was translated, which means he was taken to heaven without dying, so cool, and a chariot of fire came and picked him up. But then his coat, it was called a mantle, fell to the ground, and Elisha picked it up, and then he parted the River Jordan. In order to understand this story fully, you need to understand the symbolism here, and my worksheet helps you to walk through it. The mantle is a symbol of the calling and authority to be the prophet, and when it fell to Elisha, literally this time it fell from heaven, that was symbolizing that the calling of the prophet now fell to Elisha. So what doctrine now can we learn from this story? If you go ahead and look at my worksheet, the first study activity discusses the symbolism, but the second activity is all about the doctrine. And here are four different things we might learn from the story, but only two of them are doctrine. Can you spot them? To figure out which ones are doctrine and which ones are just part of the story, we're going to ask ourselves two questions.

Number one: 10:32

Is this always true?'Cause remember, doctrine is 100% always, always true.

And number two: 10:38

Does this relate to our eternal salvation? Meaning, is this necessary to help us get back to live with Heavenly Father again? Okay, so let's look at these four statements. Which ones are doctrine?

Number one: 10:50

Prophets don't die, they're taken to heaven. Is that always true? Hmm, no, it's not. It is sometimes true, like in this story, but it is not always true, so that cannot be doctrine. Number two, the calling of prophet changes from one man to another based on who God has called. Is that always true? Yes, that is always true. And is this something that helps us in our eternal progression? Yes, it is. In Amos chapter three verse seven it says,"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets." God works through prophets, and he is the only one who chooses who is next in line to be the prophet. So this is doctrine, and we just learned it from this story. Number three, you must wear a special coat to be prophet. Is that true? No, that is not true. Remember that the mantle in this story was a symbol of the calling and authority of prophet. There is no such thing as a special prophet coat. All right, number four, prophets have authority to perform miracles. Is that always true? Yes, that is always true. And does that relate to our salvation? Yes, it does. The truth about what it means to be a prophet and the priesthood keys that the prophet holds, that is a vitally important part of the doctrine of prophets. Does this mean that only prophets can perform miracles? No, of course not. There are other ways that priesthood authority can be used and that miracles can happen. But prophets absolutely always have the authority to perform miracles. This is doctrine. So do you see how we kind of had to dig into the story to find the doctrine? But it is worth it to do that digging because doctrine is our why, which means that understanding the doctrine will help you to have your own testimony. Instead of just trusting that some random guy can do miracles, we've learned that it is through the authority of the prophet and the priesthood that both Elijah and Elisha parted the Jordan River. And instead of a random bystander being the next prophet, we understand that the calling came from God for Elisha to be the next prophet. Prophets teach and testify of Jesus Christ, and when they perform miracles, it is to show us God's power and help us to rely on Jesus Christ even more. There are several awesome, awesome miracles that Elisha performs in this week's reading. So be sure you go back and read those stories in 2 Kings. And as you do, spend a few minutes connecting those stories to the fundamental doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are the why of the gospel, which means they're also the why of scripture study. So don't skip this step! I am Cindy Young. Thank you so much for being here with me today as we talked about doctrine. Join me next week and we will talk about principles right here on Primarily Scripture. Bye, guys. Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget, you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website primarilyscripture.com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time