Mosiah 1

“Were It Not for These Plates”

What impact could the scriptures have in maintaining faith in Jesus Christ throughout your life? King Benjamin taught his sons the important role of scriptures to their faith. This lesson can help you increase your desire to study the scriptures.

Encouraging a habit of daily scripture study. Few things will have a more powerful and long-lasting influence for good in the lives of students than helping them learn to love the scriptures and study them on a daily basis. One way to do this is to invite students to set a reading goal and make a personal plan to study each day.

Student preparation: Invite students to do their personal scripture study and ponder how it affects them, especially their feelings and trust in Jesus Christ.

Possible Learning Activity

What is essential to our faith in Jesus Christ?

Consider holding up a copy of the Book of Mormon and other scriptures and then removing them as you ask the following:

• What would our lives be like without the Book of Mormon or other scriptures?

To help you think about this question, you may want to watch the video “Scriptures Legacy,” available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org, from time code 0:00 to 5:36.

Invite students to share their thoughts. Consider repeating the question from the video, referring to those who sacrificed for scriptures: “What did they know about the importance of scriptures that we also need to know?”

Ponder the following questions or answer them in your study journal:

If students write their answers in their study journal, it may be helpful for them to refer back to their answers later in the lesson or later in the year.

• How do you feel about the scriptures? Why?

• If you were to continue with your current scripture study habits for the next several years, how do you think it would affect you?

• If you do not currently have a habit of studying the scriptures, what would you need to understand or feel to start studying them?

Continue to think about these questions as you study this lesson. You will read counsel from King Benjamin to his sons about the scriptures. Seek to learn through the Holy Ghost how the scriptures can bless your life.

Counsel from King Benjamin

King Benjamin’s father, Mosiah, was warned by the Lord that his people should leave their homeland. When they obeyed, they discovered the people of Zarahemla (see Omni 1:12–19). These two groups of people came together under Mosiah, who was appointed king, and eventually Benjamin became king after his father. It can be helpful to know more about King Benjamin before you study what he taught his sons.

Read Words of Mormon 1:12–18 and Mosiah 1:1, looking for the difficulties King Benjamin faced and ways he impresses you.

• What did you find?

  Allow students to share various thoughts and ideas.

• Why might you want to listen to counsel from King Benjamin?

Read Mosiah 1:2–7, looking for what King Benjamin taught his sons about the scriptures. It may be helpful to know that “mysteries of God are spiritual truths known only by revelation” (Guide to the Scriptures, “Mysteries of God,” scriptures.ChurchofJesusChrist.org). If you would like to see a video portraying some of King Benjamin’s words, watch “Scriptures Legacy,” available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org, from time code 5:40 to 6:20.

• What did you learn from King Benjamin about the scriptures?

Write on the board what students share. If they do not share principles like the following, consider adding them.

These are some of the principles we can learn from King Benjamin:

• If we do not study the scriptures consistently and diligently, we can gradually lose our faith.

• We will profit by searching the scriptures diligently.

• Why do you think we can gradually lose our faith if we do not study the scriptures?

The Lord has promised to bless us in many ways as we read the scriptures. Study a few of the following passages and find some of these blessings:

• Joshua 1:8

• Psalm 119:105

• Luke 24:27–32

• 1 Nephi 1:12

• 1 Nephi 15:24

• 2 Nephi 32:3

• Jacob 2:8

• Alma 17:2

• Helaman 15:7–8

• Doctrine and Covenants 11:21–22

Invite students to share what they found.

• Which of these blessings do you most desire in your life?

• How will these blessings increase our faith in the Lord and His gospel?

Scriptures and our faith

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

The central purpose of all scripture is to fill our souls with faith in God the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ—faith that They exist; faith in the Father’s plan for our immortality and eternal life; faith in the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which animates this plan of happiness; faith to make the gospel of Jesus Christ our way of life; and faith to come to know “the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent” (John 17:3). (D. Todd Christofferson, “The Blessing of Scripture,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 34)

Think of how you might help students deepen their understanding of the principles above. You could help students do this by having them complete one or more of the following activities:

1. Write the scripture references to two or three verses that have had a strong effect on you and your testimony, especially of Jesus Christ or Heavenly Father. How did these scriptures help you? How might your life be different if you had never read those verses?

2. Study your scriptures for five minutes. Look for any truths that may help you stay faithful to the Lord and His gospel. Pay attention to any feelings that may also help. Write about your experience.

3. Text or talk to someone you think is extremely faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask that person what role the scriptures play in helping him or her remain faithful.

4. Watch one of the following videos, looking for examples of how scripture study can bless our lives and increase our faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. All videos are available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

   • “The Blessings of Scripture” (3:03)

   • “An Invitation to Study the Book of Mormon” from time codes 6:17 to 9:00

   • “What Scriptures Mean to Me” (5:03)

Invite several students to share their thoughts or experiences. Hearing insights and testimonies from peers can be a powerful experience. Consider sharing your own thoughts and testimony as well.

Your personal scripture study

Ponder your scripture study. In what ways is your faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ growing as you diligently study the word of God? Is there anything you feel the Lord would want you to do to improve your study? Consider writing any goals you may have in your study journal.

It may be effective to ask if any students are willing to share their study goals.

Commentary and Background Information

How can scriptures strengthen and sustain our faith?

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

Faith comes by the witness of the Holy Spirit to our souls, Spirit to spirit, as we hear or read the word of God. And faith matures as we continue to feast upon the word.

Scriptural accounts of the faith of others serve to strengthen our own. …

Because they expound the doctrine of Christ, the scriptures are accompanied by the Holy Spirit, whose role it is to bear witness of the Father and the Son (see 3 Nephi 11:32). Therefore, being in the scriptures is one way we receive the Holy Ghost. Of course, scripture is given through the Holy Ghost in the first place (see 2 Peter 1:21; D&C 20:26–27; 68:4), and that same Spirit can attest its truth to you and me. Study the scriptures carefully, deliberately. Ponder and pray over them. Scriptures are revelation, and they will bring added revelation. (D. Todd Christofferson, “The Blessing of Scripture,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 35)

What if I am struggling to study the scriptures?

In a Church magazine, a youth wrote, “I’m struggling to study the scriptures. Why is it so important to study them?” To see prophetic quotes and responses from other youth that may help, read the “Questions and Answers” section of the New Era, December 2016, pages 42–43.

Supplemental Learning Activities

Alternate beginning to the lesson

Consider inviting students to imagine they are going on a long trip in the wild. Have them name three things they feel they would need to survive and why. Then compare our lives to a journey of spiritual survival and invite students to share three things they feel help us gain and maintain faith in Jesus Christ and why. Explain that one of the great tools the Lord has given us to spiritually survive is the scriptures, and invite students to ponder the self-evaluation questions at the beginning of the lesson above.

The example of the people of Zarahemla

To illustrate King Benjamin’s teachings, invite students to consider the example of the people of Zarahemla. King Mosiah (King Benjamin’s father) followed the Lord’s inspiration and led his people out of their homeland until they discovered the people of Zarahemla. Both groups had much in common: they had descended from people who left Jerusalem at a similar time and traveled to the Americas. However, Lehi and his family brought scriptures with them, while the ancestors of the people of Zarahemla did not. Invite students to read Omni 1:14–17 to see how a lack of scriptures affected the people of Zarahemla.

A class list of powerful scriptures

After identifying the principles in the lesson above, students could make a list of scriptures that help strengthen their faith. Each student could write a verse or two on a piece of paper, which could be taped to a wall or the board. Or the teacher could combine all the students’ answers in a long list. Students could then find some favorite verses of their classmates and read them.

Motivational notes

At the end of the lesson, each student could write a note to encourage other students to read their scriptures. Notes could include principles students learned from this lesson and blessings they have experienced in their own lives.