“The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.”
| “Do Not Fear”
Scripture Study
LDS Quotes on Scripture Study
“In this Church there is an enormous amount of room — and scriptural commandment — for studying and learning, for comparing and considering, for discussion and awaiting further revelation. We all learn “line upon line, precept upon precept”, with the goal being authentic religious faith informing genuine Christlike living.”
“Someone once asked me, ‘Don’t you think the commandments should be rewritten?’ The answer was, ‘No, they should be reread.'”
“Latter-day Saints view the words of the Prophet and Apostles as the words of God, yet canonized scripture still stands on a higher plane. Canonization of a revelation or vision validates its authority, prominence, and doctrinal power.”
| “Doctrine and Covenants Section 110: From Vision to Canonization” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, August 2010), 154.
“This appeal to all people must involve many languages and the work of skilled translators. The King James Version of the Bible, for example, was produced by 50 English scholars who accomplished their work in seven years, translating at the rate of one page per day. Expert translators today do well if they can also translate scripture at the rate of one page per day.
“In contrast, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon at the rate of about 10 pages per day, completing the task in about 85 days! (Many of us feel good if we can read the book in that time.)”
| "A Testimony of the Book of Mormon," Conference October 1999
“Search the scriptures—search the revelations which we publish, and ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to manifest the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to His glory nothing doubting, He will answer you by the power of His Holy Spirit. You will then know for yourselves and not for another. You will not then be dependent on man for the knowledge of God; nor will there be any room for speculation. No; for when men receive their instruction from Him that made them, they know how He will save them”
| Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 11–12
“There are a great many branches of education: some go to college to learn languages, some to study law, some to study physic [sic], and some to study astronomy, and various other branches of science. … But our favourite study is that branch which particularly belongs to the Elders of Israel—namely, theology. Every Elder should become a profound theologian—should understand this branch better than all the world.”
| Journal of Discourses, 6:317.
“Before we can write the gospel in our own book of life we must learn the gospel as it is written in the books of scripture. The Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants [and the Pearl of Great Price]—each of them individually and all of them collectively—contain the fulness of the everlasting gospel.”
| “Holy Writ: Published Anew,” regional representatives seminar, April 2, 1982
No, it is not without a recognition of life’s tempests but fully and directly because of them that I testify of God’s love and the Savior’s power to calm the storm. Always remember in that biblical story that He was out there on the water also, that He faced the worst of it right along with the newest and youngest and most fearful. Only one who has fought against those ominous waves is justified in telling us – as well as the sea – to “be still.” (D&C 101:16) Only one who has taken the full brunt of such adversity could ever be justified in telling us in such times to “be of good cheer.” (John 16:33; D&C 68:6) Such counsel is not a jaunty pep talk about the power of positive thinking, though positive thinking is much needed in the world. No, Christ knows better than all others that the trials of life can be very deep and we are not shallow people if we struggle with them. But even as the Lord avoids sugary rhetoric, He rebukes faithlessness and He deplores pessimism. He expects us to believe!
| “An High Priest of Good Things to Come,” Ensign, November 1999, p. 36
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”