Ted L. Gibbons

Old Testament Lesson 48: "The Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord"

By Ted L. Gibbons

June 21, 2018 03:33 PM MDT

Author’s Note: With this lesson, we come to the end of the Old Testament Manual. A time or two we have strapped on the aqualung and gone deep, but most of the time we have floated serenely on the surface of this marvelous reservoir of knowledge, experience, and power. Forty-eight lessons are hardly enough time and space to do justice to a book of this depth and complexity. I hope you will not assume that you have now studied the Old Testament. You have studied the parts of the Old Testament that the Gospel Doctrine Manual emphasizes, and (in these lessons) brief segments that I have highlighted. The Old Testament is worth revisiting many times in your life. As we study it with hearts opened and prepared to receive the lessons the Lord has taught us there, we will gain a broader understanding and greater depth of spiritual knowledge.

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 47: "Let Us Rise Up and Build"

By Ted L. Gibbons

June 18, 2018 07:37 PM MDT

I have always enjoyed pointing out to my students verses in the scriptures that are about them. Last week as my New Testament students studied John 17, I suggested that certain verses in this great prayer were about them:

5 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 46: "A Kingdom Which Shall Never Be Destroyed"

By Ted L. Gibbons

June 13, 2018 06:54 PM MDT

When I was young and silly, my parents used to take me to southern Utah to visit relatives almost every summer. We would spend a week or two in Kanab and I would devote hours each day to roaming the red hills and canyons in the area with my cousins. One of the activities in which we sometimes engaged was rock rolling. We would climb the K-hill, a small table-top mountain northeast of town and roll rocks down the side. It was awesome to see the largest boulders we could move crashing down the hillside, gathering momentum and speed, dislodging other great rocks and debris which joined the mad cascade to the bottom. There were times when it seemed as if the whole mountain was moving.

5 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 45: "If I Perish, I Perish"

By Ted L. Gibbons

June 11, 2018 02:59 PM MDT

In the scriptures and in modern life we occasionally encounter people whose commitment to principle is so remarkable that they cannot be coerced, frightened, or bribed into doing something they believe is wrong. For example:

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 44: "Everything Shall Live Whither the River Cometh"

By Ted L. Gibbons

June 07, 2018 02:27 PM MDT

Temples are popping up like dandelions in an untended lawn. We have the joy of living when only the most remote and economically deprived of people cannot make arrangements to visit a temple.

7 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 43: "The Shepherd of Israel"

By Ted L. Gibbons

June 04, 2018 08:42 PM MDT

Historical Note: Ezekiel was a “priest of the family of Zadok, and one of the captives carried away by Nebuchadnezzar along with Jehoiachin. He settled at Tel Abib on the Chebar, and prophesied [in Babylon] during a period of 22 years, 592-470 B.C.” (see Bible Dictionary: Ezekiel).

4 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 42: "I Will Write It In Their Hearts"

By Ted L. Gibbons

June 01, 2018 02:09 PM MDT

A great deal has been said and written by Church leaders about the need to get the gospel deeper into the hearts of the people. I believe that modern Israel is as righteous as Israel has ever been, but listening to 10 hours of conference through the years has convinced me that we can do better. We seem to know a lot of the questions about the gospel, and many of the answers, but some of us may have missed the power of real conversion. Benjamin’s people, generally faithful members, heard their king speak and experienced a mighty change of heart. You may remember what Abinadi said to the priests of Noah:

3 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 41: "I Have Made Thee This Day an Iron Pillar"

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 29, 2018 04:39 PM MDT

Jeremiah was an extraordinary prophet. Called to work with people though rampant apostasy and bitter opposition, he never faltered and rarely flinched throughout his ministry. His life and writings are exceptional treasures and worth a great investment of time and reflection. And the verses will require time and reflection because Jeremiah is distanced from us by language, idiom, circumstance, and translation. But your knowledge of the plan of salvation and the unchangeableness of God will sustain you. Pay a price and the results will be spectacular.

10 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 40: "Enlarge the Place of Thy Tent"

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 24, 2018 03:36 PM MDT

When I served in the U.S. Army, I had the opportunity on a number of occasions to assist in erecting tents. Aside from the personal tents used by soldiers for their own shelter, administrative tents came in three sizes: GP (General Purpose) Small, GP Medium, and GP Large. I do not remember the dimensions of these tents, but I have the impression that there was room under a GP Large for St. Peter’s Basilica.

5 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 39: "How Beautiful Upon the Mountains"

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 22, 2018 04:47 PM MDT

I asked my institute students if they had beautiful feet. They thought I had gone mad, of course, but the question was asked in perfect seriousness. Isaiah’s poetic imagery about the messengers of the Atonement includes the moving assurance that those who carry such a message have beautiful feet. In Isaiah’s time, messages were always carried by runners, and he described those privileged to carry the most meaningful of messages as having beautiful feet.

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 38: "Beside Me There Is No Savior"

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 17, 2018 08:37 PM MDT

A lovely young lady sat in my office a while ago. Her life, which had begun with joy, service, and obedience, had descended through successive layers of iniquity and decadence to a place where blackness enveloped her, and she was miserable. Like Lehi of old, she beheld herself (see 1 Nephi 8:7). Like the prodigal son, she had spent too much time with the pigs and had come to herself (see Luke 15:17). She did not like what she saw in her mirror each morning and came at last to the one unfailing source of help. She came to my office seeking the Savior, because she had finally realized that there was nowhere else to go.

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 37: "Thou Hast Done Wonderful Things"

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 15, 2018 08:36 PM MDT

What is the best thing anyone ever did for you? Have you experienced an act of service or sacrifice so stunning that you could not stop speaking of it? Have you ever used the word “wonderful” to describe such goodness?

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 36: "The Glory of Zion Will Be a Defense"

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 14, 2018 02:52 PM MDT

This amazing thing happens in 1st Nephi:

7 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 35: God Reveals His Secrets to His Prophets

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 07, 2018 06:47 PM MDT

I was presenting a missionary discussion to a family in my mission field many years ago. The parents were polite but distant. The daughter, however—a young lady about 18 or 19—was enthralled. The idea of a living prophet aroused in her a remarkable enthusiasm, and she had many questions. I was delighted to answer them. I explained that David O. McKay was a prophet in the same way that Jeremiah and Isaiah and Moses were prophets, and that the Lord revealed his will to his children through his living prophets as he had done in ancient times.

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 34: "I Will Betroth Thee Unto Me in Righteousness"

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 05, 2018 01:00 PM MDT

Elder Ronald E. Poelman of the Seventy spoke of the message of Hosea:

2 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 33: "Sharing the Gospel with the World"

By Ted L. Gibbons

May 01, 2018 04:00 PM MDT

I have sent seven sons and one daughter on missions. My last son just got his call to the Indiana Indianapolis Mission, Spanish speaking. The world is changing, isn’t it? All my missionaries but one have been to Spanish speaking missions. I wonder what mission call would be the hardest. Are there places that now have no missionaries that would present particular difficulties?

7 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 32: "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth"

By Ted L. Gibbons

April 30, 2018 06:48 PM MDT

In the play and movie "A Man for All Seasons," Sir Thomas More was confined in prison because he refused to sign an oath with which he did not agree. While he was there, his daughter Margaret was allowed to come and visit him to try and convince him to sign so that he could be set free. The following dialog is from their discussion about this matter:

8 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 31: "Happy is the Man that Findeth Wisdom"

By Ted L. Gibbons

April 19, 2018 08:06 PM MDT

Author's note: I feel a need to say once again that it is not my intent to show you a better or even a different way to teach these lessons. The manual is the product of inspiration, correlation, and prophets. The lessons as prepared and presented there are the expression of the Church with regard to teaching these materials. I have a quiet but continuous fear that these lessons I am writing will pull some of you away from the place you ought to be.

7 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Book of Mormon Lesson 29: “Give Ear to My Words"

By Ted L. Gibbons

April 20, 2016 09:05 AM MDT

We need missionaries to match our message. We need missionaries who really know and love the Book of Mormon, who have a burning testimony of its divinity, and who by the Spirit can challenge their investigators to read and ponder its pages, knowing with complete assurance that the Lord will manifest the truth of the Book of Mormon to them by the power of the Holy Ghost. (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.204)

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Book Of Mormon Lesson 28: “The Word Is In Christ Unto Salvation”

By Ted L. Gibbons

April 20, 2016 08:12 AM MDT

"[I mean only to] say what so many have said before: that if Joseph Smith or anyone else, for that matter created the Book of Mormon out of whole cloth, that to me is a far greater miracle than the proposition that he translated the book from ancient records with an endowment of divine power to do so.

9 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Book of Mormon Lesson 27: “All Things Denote There Is a God”

By Ted L. Gibbons

April 19, 2016 09:00 AM MDT

When Korihor had his first-hand experience with the power of God he tried to explain to Alma why he had attacked the truth. According to his statement in Alma 30:53, this is the path he followed:

8 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Book of Mormon Lesson 26: “Converted Unto the Lord”

By Ted L. Gibbons

April 14, 2016 04:00 AM MDT

“Not everything in life is . . . black and white, but it seems that the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and its keystone role in our belief is exactly that. Either Joseph Smith was the prophet he said he was, who, after seeing the Father and the Son, later beheld the angel Moroni, repeatedly heard counsel from his lips, eventually receiving at his hands a set of ancient gold plates which he then translated according to the gift and power of God or else he did not. And if he did not… he is not entitled to retain even the reputation of New England folk hero or well-meaning young man or writer of remarkable fiction. No, and he is not entitled to be considered a fine teacher or a quintessential American prophet or the center of great wisdom literature. If he lied about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, he is certainly none of these” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "A Standard unto My People," delivered at the CES Book of Mormon Symposium, 9 August 1994, BYU Marriott Center).

11 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Book of Mormon Lesson 25: "They Taught With Power and Authority of God"

By Ted L. Gibbons

March 31, 2016 09:25 AM MDT

“I have read a fair number of books in my day and hope to read a few more. I am not a scholar but once thought I was going to be. I had the beginnings of some reasonably good training at some pretty good schools. All of that has changed now, but I believe I still have an eye for a penetrating line of prose and I think I can recognize profundity in print when I see it. I say again, the Book of Mormon stands preeminent in my intellectual and spiritual life, the classic of classics, a reaffirmation of the Holy Bible, a voice from the dust, a witness for Christ, the word of the Lord unto salvation” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "A Standard unto My People," given at CES Annual Book of Mormon Symposium, 9 August 1994, BYU Marriott Center).

14 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Book of Mormon Lesson 24: “Give Us Strength According To Our Faith In Christ”

By Ted L. Gibbons

March 30, 2016 09:45 AM MDT

You must understand that these lessons are not designed to replace the experience you should have in your ward or branch Gospel Doctrine class. I am hopeful that they will expand your understanding of the scriptures and, if you are teaching, your ability to open the scriptures to the minds and hearts of your students. But if would be awful if anyone were to neglect that classroom experience in favor of these lessons.

11 Min Read