Doctrinal Mastery Review 18
Apply Doctrinal Mastery Passages
One of the purposes of doctrinal mastery is to help you learn how to apply the doctrine taught in the doctrinal mastery passages to real-life situations. This lesson will give you opportunities to practice applying some of the New Testament doctrinal mastery passages to your life.
Student preparation: Invite students to ask two or three friends or family members to share with them one New Testament passage that they wish every youth in the world would study and apply in their lives. Invite the students to write down the references their friends and family share and then be prepared to share those references in class.
Possible Learning Activities
Doctrinal mastery passages
A doctrinal mastery passage lesson may need to be taught in place of this review lesson. Refer to the pacing schedule provided by the area or region director or coordinator to ensure that each doctrinal mastery passage lesson will be taught while seminary is in session.
An alternative to the following soccer analogy is to place 150 small pieces of paper in a dish. Write “doctrinal mastery” on one of the papers. Invite a few students to pull one paper out the dish and see if it is the “doctrinal mastery” paper.
Imagine 150 of the world’s best athletes trying out to be the goalkeeper on an elite soccer team. Can you imagine how difficult it would be for the coaches to select just one athlete?
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What criteria do you think the coaches might use to narrow down who is chosen?
The New Testament contains almost 8,000 verses. Only 53 of these verses (about 1 out of every 150 verses) are included within the 24 New Testament doctrinal mastery passages. Imagine the challenge of selecting which passages out of the entire New Testament should be studied as doctrinal mastery passages.
Invite students who completed the student preparation activity to write on the board the references that friends or family members chose. Point out that there is a lot of diversity in the passages written on the board and that many different passages are valuable for youth to study and apply. Then ask the following question.
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If you were asked to help select doctrinal mastery passages, what criteria would you use to determine which passages you chose?
Choose two of the following doctrinal mastery passages that you may not be as familiar with. Read the entire passage in your scriptures, and determine reasons you think those passages may have been chosen as doctrinal mastery passages for youth around the world to focus on.
New Testament Doctrinal Mastery: 1 Corinthians–Revelation
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“Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” | |
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“Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” | |
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“As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” | |
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In the Resurrection, there are three degrees of glory. | |
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“In the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ.” | |
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The Church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.” | |
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“The day of Christ … shall not come, except there come a falling away first.” | |
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“The holy scriptures … are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” | |
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Heavenly Father is “the Father of spirits.” | |
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“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” | |
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“Faith, if it hath not works, is dead.” | |
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“The gospel [was] preached also to them that are dead.” | |
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“And the dead were judged … according to their works.” |
Consider asking students to move around the room and share one of the passages they selected with a few other students. Invite them to seek out students who chose different passages than they did.
Your relationship with God
One reason doctrinal mastery passages were selected is because they contain truths that can strengthen your relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
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What is one doctrinal mastery passage that has helped you to strengthen your relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? How has it helped you?
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What truths do you learn about Them from this passage?
As students share, also consider sharing personal answers to the previous questions.
Applying passages
One of the purposes of doctrinal mastery is to help you apply truths found in the doctrinal mastery passages to situations you face in your life now and in the future. For example, the doctrine taught in 1 Peter 4:6 that the gospel is preached to the dead in the spirit world could help comfort a friend who has lost a loved one or could encourage you to do temple and family history work for your ancestors.
For the following activity, consider asking students to work in pairs. One student can create a present-day scenario and the other a future scenario. After giving students sufficient time, invite them to take turns sharing their scenarios with their partner. Then invite students to share which passages they think best apply to their partner’s scenario before revealing the passage they chose to apply to their own scenario and explaining why they chose what they did.
Alternatively, a few students could share their scenarios with the entire class. The class could then share which passages they feel best apply to the scenario before the student reveals the passage they chose and why.
Present-day application
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What is a real situation youth face today that could be addressed by one of the doctrinal mastery passages listed on the chart? You could write about your own circumstances, the circumstances of someone you know, or the circumstances of youth in general.
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Which of these doctrinal mastery passages best applies to the situation you wrote about? How do truths in that passage apply to the situation?
Future application
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What is a situation you could experience when you are older in which one of the doctrinal mastery passages could help you or guide you?
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Which of these doctrinal mastery passages best applies to that situation? How do truths in that passage apply to the situation?
Invite students to select one passage and record in their study journal how they will apply the truths it teaches in their lives.