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

Old Testament Lesson 12: "Fruitful in the Land of My Affliction"

By Ted L. Gibbons

January 17, 2018 02:17 PM MST

The story of Joseph makes me think about what it really means to be free. During the early years of Joseph’s life, while he was experiencing the viciousness of murderous brothers and the solitude of slavery and the pain of imprisonment, his brothers were (1) committing murder (Genesis 34), (2) committing immoral acts (Genesis 35, 38), (3) plotting murder (Genesis 37), and (4) lying to their father (Genesis 37). Which of all the sons of Jacob was most free? There are some lessons to be learned here. Part of the answer to this question comes as we consider who bows to whom and who sits on a throne and who lives with decades of guilt and remorse.

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 11: "How Can I Do This Great Wickedness?"

By Ted L. Gibbons

January 16, 2018 06:43 PM MST

If I were teaching this lesson, I might begin by pouring water into several different shaped containers and asking class members to comment on what we can learn from that activity about the qualities of water. Someone will probably say that water takes the shape of its environment. If you then ask for words that describe water, you might get words like these: flimsy, unsound, mercurial, capricious, changeable, wobbly, fickle, erratic, unreliable, undependable, vacillating, untrustworthy, variable, mutable, impermanent, unsteady, uncertain, transitory, ephemeral, inconsistent, precarious, and unstable. I am amazed at how many words the English language has to describe this rather undesirable characteristic. But this lesson will require us to think about them because we are going to talk about three people who were much like water (one was even compared to water), and one young man who was as unlike water as it is possible to be.

7 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 10: "Birthright Blessings; Marriage in the Covenant"

By Ted L. Gibbons

January 11, 2018 06:18 PM MST

Introduction

8 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 9: "God Will Provide Himself a Lamb"

By Ted L. Gibbons

January 10, 2018 08:59 PM MST

Author’s Note: Once again, I feel a need to explain the purpose of these lessons. They are not designed to take the place of the Gospel Doctrine Manual nor of your Sunday experience in a Gospel Doctrine class. My hope is that they will provide additional insights and increased understanding and that those who use them will have a greater love for the scriptures. —T. L. G.

7 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 8: "Living Righteously in a Wicked World"

By Ted L. Gibbons

December 15, 2017 09:26 PM MST

Life is a test. Richard G. Scott said:

6 Min Read

Lesson Helps

Old Testament Lesson 7: "The Abrahamic Covenant"

By Ted L. Gibbons

December 15, 2017 09:15 PM MST

I have been interested in a statement made about Abraham by Moses in Genesis 24:

4 Min Read