Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual

Contents
Title Page
Introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual
Doctrine and Covenants Lessons
- The Restoration Proclamation
- Doctrine and Covenants 1
- Joseph Smith—History 1:1–26
- Doctrine and Covenants 2; Joseph Smith—History 1:27–65
- Doctrine and Covenants 3–5
- Doctrine and Covenants 6–9
- Doctrine and Covenants 10–11
- Doctrine and Covenants 12–17; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75
- Doctrine and Covenants 18
- Doctrine and Covenants 19
- Doctrine and Covenants 20–22
- Doctrine and Covenants 23–26
- Doctrine and Covenants 27–28
- Doctrine and Covenants 29
- Doctrine and Covenants 30–36
- Doctrine and Covenants 37–40
- Doctrine and Covenants 41–44
- Doctrine and Covenants 45
- Doctrine and Covenants 46–48
- Doctrine and Covenants 49–50
- Doctrine and Covenants 51–57
- Doctrine and Covenants 58–59
- Doctrine and Covenants 60–63
- Doctrine and Covenants 64–66
- Doctrine and Covenants 67–70
- Doctrine and Covenants 71–75
- Doctrine and Covenants 76
- Doctrine and Covenants 77–80
- Doctrine and Covenants 81–83
- Doctrine and Covenants 84
- Doctrine and Covenants 85–87
- Doctrine and Covenants 88
- Doctrine and Covenants 89–92
- Doctrine and Covenants 93
- Doctrine and Covenants 94–97
- Doctrine and Covenants 98–101
- Doctrine and Covenants 102–105
- Doctrine and Covenants 106–108
- Doctrine and Covenants 109–110
- Doctrine and Covenants 111–114
- Doctrine and Covenants 115–120
- Doctrine and Covenants 121–123
- Doctrine and Covenants 124
- Doctrine and Covenants 125–128
- Doctrine and Covenants 129–132
- Doctrine and Covenants 133–134
- Doctrine and Covenants 135–136
- Doctrine and Covenants 137–138
- The Articles of Faith and Official Declarations 1 and 2
- The Family: A Proclamation to the World
- The Living Christ
Life Preparation Lessons
- Doctrinal Mastery: Finding Answers to My Questions
- Scripture Study Skills
- For the Strength of Youth: Making Choices
- Building Self-Reliance
- Physical and Emotional Health
- Preparing for Future Education and Employment
- Succeeding in School
- Missionary Preparation
- Temple Preparation
- Teachings of Church Leaders
Appendix

Lesson 172—Scripture-Study Tools: Using Study Helps

“Lesson 172—Scripture-Study Tools: Using Study Helps,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual (2025)

“Scripture-Study Tools,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual

Lesson 172: Scripture-Study Skills

Scripture-Study Tools

Using study helps

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student marking scriptures

This lesson can help you enhance your personal scripture study and strengthen your relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through using scripture-study tools.

Student preparation: Invite students to come prepared to share tools that are available to help us in today’s world that were not available 50 years ago. Ask them to be prepared to explain what difference these tools make in our lives.

Possible Learning Activities

Tools

Consider displaying the following images (or other similar images) and inviting students to respond to the following questions.

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horse and plow

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tractor

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someone riding a horse

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airplane in flight

How have these tools influenced our abilities to travel and work?
What other tools have been developed over the years that have increased our abilities to do things?
How would life be different if we were not aware of these tools or how to use them?

Just as with travel and work, there are tools to help us study the scriptures and come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Brother Tad R. Callister, former Sunday School General President, shared the following:

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President Tad R. Callister

The current generation is discovering truths, insights, and additional confirmations unknown to many of its forefathers—not because the current generation is necessarily more righteous, nor because it has greater intellect, but because it has better tools. The most knowledgeable farmer with a horse and plow is no match for an equally proficient farmer with a high-tech tractor at his command. The mathematician with a slide rule is no challenge to his colleague with a high-speed computer. A Galileo with a hand-held telescope will never discover the universe like a Galileo with the most advanced telescope at his disposal. The Lord must expect much more of us in gospel scholarship than he did of previous generations, because we have so much more at our disposal. (Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement [2000], 21)

Ponder the following questions:

How aware are you of the scripture-study tools that can help you find answers to your questions and come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?
How well do you feel that you use them?

As you study this lesson, seek to better understand the scripture-study tools and how they can help you.

Define: Using scripture-study tools

Do the following to help students clearly understand what the scripture-study tools are.

Invite students to come up and write any scripture-study tools they know the Lord has provided to help us answer our questions and come closer to Him. Consider adding any of the following tools students do not mention.

Point to the various tools on the board and ask students what they are and where they can find them. If students are not familiar with any of them, consider using the following explanations and show students where they are.

Footnotes—Footnotes are referenced by small, lowercase letters in a verse that direct you to the bottom of the page where you will find additional scripture references or topics related to the verse. In the Gospel Library app, tapping the footnote will show the same information.
Topical Guide—This resource contains scriptures relating to various topics and references to other similar topics. It can be found at the end of the Latter-day Saint version of the Bible or in the Gospel Library app under Scriptures, then Study Helps.
Guide to the Scriptures—This resource contains brief, simple definitions of scripture terms along with a few scripture references related to each term. It can be found at the end of the Book of Mormon or in the Gospel Library app under Scriptures, then Study Helps.
Index to the Triple Combination—This index contains scripture references for different topics contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, Book of Mormon, and Pearl of Great Price. It can be found at the end of the triple combination or in the Gospel Library app under Scriptures, then Study Helps.
Maps and Church History Photographs—These resources can be found at the end of the triple combination or in the Gospel Library app under Scriptures, then Study Helps.

Model

To model using scripture-study tools as a class, do the following activity:

Think about what you know and what you would like to know about forgiveness.

Read Doctrine and Covenants 64:9–11, and look for truths about forgiveness.

What did you learn? What do these verses help you better understand about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?

Now invite students to share what tools they might use to deepen their understanding. As a student shares a tool, ask them how to use it, and invite all students to follow their direction. For example, they might look up scriptures found in the footnotes to these verses. They could also search “Jesus Christ” or “Redeem” in the Guide to the Scriptures, “Forgive” in the index to the Triple Combination, or “Atonement” in the Bible Dictionary.

Invite students to share what they learned and why it was meaningful to them.
How did these scripture-study tools help your study?

Practice

Invite students to come up and write on the board gospel topics or questions they or others they know want to know more about or have answered. Alternatively, you could use an anonymous polling tool to obtain their responses.

If students struggle to come up with ideas, consider writing the following topics on the board. Invite students to select one of these topics (or another topic of their choice) that they have questions about or that they feel studying about would bring them closer to Jesus Christ:

Forgiveness
Receiving revelation
Heavenly Father
Why we need Jesus Christ
Premortal existence
Spirit world
Final Judgment
Marriage and family
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ

Alternatively, students could role-play that a friend wants to know more about one of the topics above.

Using scripture-study tools, take several minutes to study this topic or question. Look for truths that are meaningful to you, answer your questions, or bring you closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

After sufficient time, consider inviting students to share in pairs or small groups what they learned and how they learned. Then invite students to respond to the following question to conclude class:

How might using these tools consistently in your personal scripture study influence your knowledge of and relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?

Additional Resources

How can studying the scriptures deeply bless my life?

President Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

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President Boyd K. Packer

The scriptures hold the keys to spiritual protection. They contain the doctrine and laws and ordinances that will bring each child of God to a testimony of Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer.

With years of preparation, there has been an enormous effort to produce the scriptures in every language, with footnotes and cross-references. We seek to make them available to all who wish to learn. They teach us where to go and what to do. They offer hope and knowledge.

Years ago, Elder S. Dilworth Young of the Seventy taught me a lesson about reading the scriptures. A stake was struggling with tensions and difficulties among the members, and counsel needed to be given.

I asked President Young, “What should I say?”

He answered simply, “Tell them to read the scriptures.”

I asked, “Which scriptures?”

He said, “It really doesn’t matter. Tell them to open up the Book of Mormon, for instance, and begin to read. Soon the feeling of peace and inspiration will come, and a solution will present itself.” (Boyd K. Packer, “The Key to Spiritual Protection,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2013, 26–27)

President Packer, speaking of the footnotes, Topical Guide, and other tools in the scriptures, taught the following:

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President Boyd K. Packer

With the passing of years, these scriptures will produce successive generations of faithful Christians who know the Lord Jesus Christ and are disposed to obey His will. …

… The revelations will be opened to them as to no other in the history of the world. … They will develop a gospel scholarship beyond that which their forebears could achieve. They will have the testimony that Jesus is the Christ and be competent to proclaim Him and to defend Him. …

These references from the four volumes of scripture constitute the most comprehensive compilation of scriptural information on the mission and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ that has ever been assembled in the history of the world. (Boyd K. Packer, “Scriptures,” in Conference Report, Oct. 1982, 75–76; or Ensign, Nov. 1982, 53)

What tools are available in the Latter-day Saint editions of the scriptures?

Consider reviewing “Scripture Study Tools” in the October 2006 Ensign to find more information on this question.

Supplemental Learning Activities

More practice with study tools

If students would benefit from learning more about how to use the study tools referenced in this lesson, consider inviting them to refer to “Using the New Scriptures” by President Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015), former President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the December 1985 Ensign. Place students in pairs and have one person in the pair study the section “Topical Guide” and the other the section “Footnotes.” After sufficient time, invite the two to teach one another what they learned and to ask each other a question that they can research using these tools. They can then help each other find answers.

Another idea could be to review content from “Study Aids in the Latter-day Saint Editions of the Scriptures.” Review the various activities and find those that are more focused on the Doctrine and Covenants or those that would help your students have more powerful scripture study.

One example of how to use this material would be to divide students into groups of five. Assign one person in each group each of the following headings in the lesson: “Footnotes,” “Topical Guide,” “Index to the Triple Combination,” “Bible Dictionary,” and “Church History Chronology, Maps, and Photographs.” They could study the material in their section and be prepared to teach their group about their assigned tool.