Teaching Date: January 7

The Old Testament.

I know. Of the millions of ways I could have started this post, that was one of the least exciting. If you are like the average person–even the average Christian person–the idea of really digging into the Old Testament (or the “OT,” as we called it in my ‘hood growing up) is about as exciting as a lead balloon. (This is, of course, not true of the average Jewish person, as the OT is their only book of scripture.)

Most people are surprised when they hear that the OT (or the “Old Testament,” as we called it in the mission field) is my favorite of the Standard Works, both to study and to teach. For some of the reasons why, be sure to catch this week’s podcast, but let’s just say that, like the Israelites, I like things not to come too easily.

Now that we’ve talked enough about the Old Testament, let’s totally not discuss that in this week’s lesson, but instead spend all of our time in the Pearl of Great Price, Moses chapter 1.

Haha. Of course, that’s slightly misleading. The book of Moses was revealed to Joseph Smith as he was translating the book of Genesis, and so, from an LDS perspective, this chapter is where the Bible originally began.

In the Book of Moses, it is only after telling us about his experience of meeting God and the devil, and seeing marvelous visions, that Moses goes into detail about what those revelations actually were. If you imagine how you might feel coming into a movie after the first 10 minutes, and if you further imagine finding out the movie consists largely of a flashback that starts a minute or so in, then it might be easier to understand why so many people struggle to connect to this ancient work of scripture.

What might life have been like if those who believe the Old Testament is scripture (a group which includes most Christians, Jews, and Muslims, among others) had had, from the beginning, all of the truths revealed to Moses just in this first chapter? Here is a partial list of the things the world would know:

• • Moses (and, by extension, each person) is a child of God
  • The Only Begotten of the Father is our Savior
  • Satan is a real being who strives to lead us into wickedness and misery
  • God did not set the earth into motion, like a mighty cosmic clockmaker, and then walk away to do other things with his time. We are his purpose, and our righteousness adds to his glory.

Nephi must have been truly saddened when he saw all of the “plain and most precious” things that would be stricken and altered over the centuries from the records of Israel and her prophets.

These are some of my notes as I begin recording our podcast. Check back each week as I share with you here those things that inspired my lesson or that I didn’t have time to cover in the audio.

A final note: If you’ve ever dreaded every fourth year of Gospel Doctrine, I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you’ve decided to join me on this journey of discovery–discovery of one of the greatest works of any kind ever created by man: the Old Testament.