GPC25: Fasting, Gospel Principles Comments and Resources
FAQ
updated: 7/25/19

Gospel Principles FAQ

Sorry to say the Gospel Principles list is gone, too many complaints about being unable to unsubscribe and not one person said anything when I quit posting a few years ago. The Gospel Principles Comments and Resources Files that I started the week with are still on my website. They contain scriptures and other resources to help you get more out of the Gospel Principles manual. I hope they brings you a better understanding of the Gospel and closer to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.

The primary sources for the lessons is the Gospel Principles manual and the scriptures. I used take a chapter from the Gospel Principles manual each week and broke it up into concepts. Depending on how long the chapter is, determines how many messages there will be in a week. It can run 4-7 concepts in a week, but usually is between 5 or 6, one sent per day, some days none if the chapter is short. I included scriptures that the manual references but does not quote if they were not excessively long (I.e. a whole chapter or close to it, I tried to keep it under 15 verses per scripture reference). I've done a lot of clean up on the files, spelling, formatting and so on, if you see any errors please let me know. In 2008 I put all the https://scottsworld.info/gp/index.html Gospel Principles Commentary files up on my website in HTML format so they are available to anyone when ever they might need them. Occasionally I would get requests from teachers who are on different schedules from the list. I also found two of the MSGP files were missing and fixed that.. Unfortunatly in 2019 with the change from lds.org to churchofjesuschrist.org the Church IT dept made major changes to the site and made it impossible to like directly to verses in the new online scripture pages. I had to spend weeks removing all the thousands of broken scripture links in all my files..

If you do not have the Gospel Principles manual, I very highly recommend getting it for anyone wishing to study the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 2009 it was revised, it's used for personal study and for the Gospel Principles class during Sunday School.   It is an overview of the basic gospel principles of The Church.I feel that since the Church uses it as the manual for the Gospel Essentials Sunday School class (new members Sunday School class), as part of the foundation of the Missionary's daily study and has included it's contents on the Church's official Website in several forms   Gospel Principles, Sunday School, It is also in the LDS APP, in 2019 I don't see how any member with a smart phone does not have it. The manual should be available from any LDS book store, Deseret Book or Church Distribution. You can order it from Church Distribution by credit or debit card by calling 1-800-537-5971 in the (United States and Canada), 1-801-240-3800 if you live in the Salt Lake area. Monday - Friday 8 AM - 5 PM mountain time, except for holidays. The Gospel Principles Manual is Item # 06195000, the large print version is # 06195081 $3.00 each.You can also order it as well as church magazines, student manuals, scriptures, the books listed below and many other items from Church Distribution much cheaper than you can get them from the book stores. The website is <https://store.churchofjesuschrist.orgGospel Principles (new edition), Gospel Principles Epub I couldn't get the link to work maybe it only works for mobile users.

The basis of the Comments and Resources post at the beginning of every week comes from the Missionary Gospel Study Program dated 1982 I received when I was a missionary in 1983-84 and another I've obtained dated 1988. The Missionary Study Program included these sections; Scripture Reading, Personal and Companion Study by Topic and District Study by Topic. The comments and Resources come from the Personal and Companion Study which is structured around the Gospel Principles manual. The comments on the topic are usually from one of the prophets or apostles. Where I could find the quote online I have linked to the article so you could read the whole article. Mainly these were Ensign articles after 1971 which are available here Ensign Past Issues. The Church has all the later Magazines online as part of the Study tools Gospel Library.

Over the years the Missionary Study program has changed many times and I do not know exactly what it currently is, but do know Preach My Gospel currently serves at the Missionary Discussions and I think also Study Guide. You can download it and current manuals from Church Publications PDF Format Some are even available as MP3's, PDA formats, and more at Gospel Library. In 1982 our study consisted of 1 hour of personal study in the morning and one hour daily companion study (one half topical and one half discussions) before we left to go out. This seems to be pretty consistent though the years, what we studied has varied. In 1982 we had scripture and Study by Topic which followed the Gospel Principles manual.We read the scriptures in this order; Book of Mormon, NT, D&C, BofM, selections from the OT in one year. Note we read the Book of Mormon twice a year. In the 1988 version they read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes every day, and could spend the other 30 minutes reading the other standard works or study by topic from the manual. That was the "Optional Study Schedule", which if followed you read the other three standard works in one year and covered the 52 topics which were sections from the Discussions in order. It doesn't mention 1 hour companion or any district study which I find curious. It does say if you read at least 3 pages a day from the NT, D&C, PofGP, and selections from the OT (in the schedule) you would read all three standard works in a year. If you want to read the Book of Mormon in 1 year you need to read about 1 1/2 pages a day, if you read it twice a year that would be 3 pages a day. Maybe that will be my next project to put up the scripture reading schedule on my website; Scott's world. Though most of us don't seem to have time to dedicate an hour a day to gospel study.

The last two weeks of the lesson cycle you will receive this FAQ, The Articles of Faith, The Family: A Proclamation to the World and the rest of the Missionary Gospel Study Program topics of which there were 52 in 1982. There was one for each week and there are only 47 chapters in the Gospel Principles manual so there are 5 more topics; Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, Testimony, Citizenship, and Zion. These are not lessons from the GP manual but are basis for the Comments and Resources post at the beginning of each week. I have expanded the Comments and Resources posts from the 1988 Missionary Gospel Study Program manual. It doesn't follow the Gospel Principles manual in order like the 1982 version but is in alphabetical topical order and doesn't have a lesson for all the chapters in the Gospel Principles Manual so some of the Comments and Resources posts will be longer than others, also some of them were the same, and it also has a few more lessons that are not in the Gospel Principles manual or my original 1982 MGSP manual. They cover very good topics; Apostasy, Courtesy, Example, Humility, Patience, and Resurrection. After I have posted all MGSP topics the list will start over with Chapter 1 of the Gospel Principles manual. The date this starts moves as it takes a little less than one year to cover the lessons.

These are the books sited in the Missionary Gospel Study Program I had as Additional Resources. They used to be the Missionary Reference Library but I see they have now changed the books in the set.. Some are available on church distribution, a couple aren't, I choose the available cheaper version between Church Distribution and Deseret Book.
These are the original books: Gospel Principles
Jesus the Christ - James E. Talmage
A Marvelous Work and A Wonder - Legrand Richards
Truth Restored - Gordon B. Hinckley
Our Search for Happiness - M. Russell Ballard
The Articles of Faith - James E. Talmage; apparently only available as hard back now. If you don't have it I recommend getting it now before it isn't available any more.

These are the only books I know of that have been approved by the first presidency in addition to study and class manuals published by the Church.They are available as a paperback set from Deseret Book 4972285 $15 or you can purchase nicer versions individually. Church Distribution also has it 37032000 Missionary Reference Library. $12.00   Note that Jesus The Christ is the only book left from the original set.
(Missionary Reference Library) Jesus the Christ by Elder James E. Talmage
Our Search for Happiness by Elder M. Russell Ballard
True to the Faith
Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

I highly recommend having those books in addition to having the LDS editions of the Standard Works of Scripture Scriptures from Church DistributionThey are available online at scriptures.ChurchofJesusChrist.org:  (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price), also: Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, Guide to the Scriptures

Beyond those I recommend having the Institute of Religion study manuals, of which there are several covering the books of Scripture and other topics. Church Distribution now has the Seminary and Institute Student Manuals on CD" available. They are .PDF files and states it requires Adobe Reader version 6 to display correctly. Version 6 was the last version for Windows 98, Version 9 of Adobe Acrobat reader is the latest version for XP systems. It is a cheep way to have all the manuals if you don't mind reading them on the computer. 50316000 Seminary and Institute Student Manuals.

I also recommend these books 35448000 "Our Heritage; A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" 33411000 Truth Restored. The Teachings of the Prophet.., Discourses of President... series, and books written by the Prophet and Apostles, such as 80080000 The Miracle of Forgiveness - Spencer W. Kimball, etc. I view those as the basic books of any gospel study library.

The beginnings of the Gospel Principles lessons was November 15, 1998 when I started posting it to the Liahona Singles list (long since gone) and a few people I knew online which I emailed blind copy. I had started the posts to try to improve the tone (apostates and anti..) of that list and also to help me refresh my knowledge of the gospel since I had not been very active for the previous few years. Things did not work out on the Liahona list and I quit the list a few months later. By then I had started blind copy e-mailing the lessons to interested individuals as well (primarily friends and family). I decided to start promoting them so I made mention of it on my Website https://scottsworld.info/gp.htm (note this is a new domain/URL 2007, 2019 was removed) and picked up a few more people who e-mailed me asking to be put on my list. This grew to about 25 people eventually. In June 1999 or so I received an offer by Ryan Marchant to host the list on his site; LDSweb.org (since gone) after I had posted links to some my web pages and the list on his site. On July 31, 1999 it became an official read only list and grew quite rapidly the first couple of months, but membership slowed down quite a bit after that. In February 2000 I started a back up list on Onelist (which changed to eGroups late 2000, and changed to YahooGroups in beginning in 2001..) which became the only list when LDSweb.org server crashed and went away.. It does have a message archive and some other features the LDSweb list didn't but also has some drawbacks such as Yahoo supports their list by posting advertising in them at the bottom. You can minimize the adds by setting your Yahoo Groups account to the traditional setting (see the links at the bottom of any message from the list). Also having it on Yahoo doesn't expose the list to as many people as LDSweb did because they only had a few lists and a targeted audience and membership has been falling since. There are many thousands of lists on Yahoo groups on any conceivable subject and unless you were specificly looking for Gospel Principles you probably wouldn't find it, maybe not even then. They have removed all my lists from Yahoo groups now in 2019, I checked. :-(

I received a suggestion that I start a Discussion list to go along with the Gospel Principles list. I decided it was a good suggestion and started looking around for a host for the list since the software at LDSweb.org was only for read only/announcement type lists. After some research I settled on eGroups.com (became YahooGroups) and started the Gospel Principles Discussion list in October of 1999. This list is for Discussion of the Gospel Principle Lessons and related things. Before it's started some members sent me comments which would be great to share with the rest of the list, but I did not feel fit in with my goal to keep the GP list as a read only list. If you go to the Website for the list you can do a variety of things, but most importantly you can manage your subscription. From there you can subscribe, unsubscribe, and change the delivery options of the list. The default is individual messages but they can be delivered as a digest or can be set that will not receive mail but can read the messages on the Website. The last option is good for those who don't want to receive more mail but would like to belong to the community. You can only access the other features of the community by becoming a subscriber. The same applies to the YahooGroups Gospel Principles list. The number of posts to Discussion list is usually a few a month. It could use some people interested in a Gospel Discussion. It has been so slow at times that I've threatened to close the list, finally did. There seems to be quite a few Gospel Essentials teachers subscribed to it so it should be a great list to ask questions.

Read the Gospel Principles Manual online. Gospel Principles manual

As you receive the lessons I ask you pray about each of the topics, pray that you will receive a testimony of the doctrines of the church and the Holy Spirit to be with you to testify of the truth of all things which are true. The leaders of the church have encouraged us to have our own light and not rely on the testimony of others. I believe this is very important as the world becomes more and more ungodly. I encourage you to read the scriptures on at least a weekly basis. Through prayer and scripture study we have been told we will receive the knowledge to become like our Heavenly Father.

James 1:5-6;
  5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
  6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Please, also read Joseph Smith - History 1:11-20(in the PofGP) Moroni 10:4-6
  "4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things
6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.."

This promise is not only for the Book of Mormon but as verses 5 and 6 says "by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things".."whatsoever thing is good, just and true". Put it to test.

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Moroni 10:4-5
  "4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
  5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

My other list and websites LDS Singles List Home Page    <https://ldssingles.scottsworld.info/>
Visit The Plan of Salvation   <https://salvation.scottsworld.info/theplans.htm>
Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon pages <https://salvation.scottsworld.info/qabommf.htm>
About Scott Scheibe <https://scottsworld.info/dscott.htm>
[Title Page of the Book of Mormon <https://salvation.scottsworld.info/bomtitle.htm>] [Bible Prophecies of the Book of Mormon <https://salvation.scottsworld.info/biblebom.htm>]
[Which is the True Church? <https://salvation.scottsworld.info/which.htm>]
[The Bible is the Only word of God? <https://salvation.scottsworld.info/bible.htm>]
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index page Gospel Principles Comments and Resources -------------------------------------------------------------
Moroni 10:4-5
  "4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
  5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

Read the Gospel Principles on the Web at www.ChurchofJesusChrist.org
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