Doctrinal Mastery Review 24

Understand and Explain

young man studying scriptures

Doctrinal mastery can help you understand and explain the Savior’s doctrine in your own words. This lesson will give you an opportunity to deepen your understanding of and explain truths found in various doctrinal mastery passages from the Book of Mormon.

Learn more about your students. Look for opportunities to get to know students. Observation and sincere questions can lead you to learn more about what is important to a student. As you understand more about your students, the Holy Ghost can help you focus your teaching on their needs.

Student preparation: Consider inviting students to prayerfully choose a Book of Mormon doctrinal mastery passage to study what they would like to understand better. Ask them to discuss the passage with a family member, close friend, or Church leader and to come prepared to share what they learn about the passage from their discussion.

Possible Learning Activities

A doctrinal mastery passage lesson may need to be taught in place of this review lesson. Refer to the pacing schedule provided by the area or region director or coordinator to ensure that each doctrinal mastery passage lesson will be taught while seminary is in session.

Asking questions

Consider inviting students to find someone in the class who they may not know well. Invite them to spend a couple minutes asking questions to help them get to know one another. If useful, give them examples of questions they might ask, such as “What do you like to do?” and “What are some of your favorite subjects in school?”

Think of someone you know well.

• How did you get to know them?

• What role did asking questions play in your ability to come to know them?

• How would your relationship be different if you had never asked any questions?

Just as it is important to ask questions to get to know someone in person, it is also essential to ask questions as you study the scriptures to come to better know and understand Jesus Christ through them.

President Russell M. Nelson taught, “Achieving scriptural guidance is aided by posing pertinent questions” (“Living by Scriptural Guidance,” Ensign, Nov. 2000, 18).

Asking questions about doctrinal mastery passages can help us better understand them and more fully invite the Lord’s guidance into our lives.

Consider displaying the last 12 Book of Mormon doctrinal mastery scripture references or showing students where they can locate them in the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document (2023). If desired, use all 24 Book of Mormon doctrinal mastery passages for this review, or select just a few, depending on the needs of the class.

Consider doing the following activity as a class using one of the doctrinal mastery passages. Then invite students to repeat the activity using a different doctrinal mastery passage of their choice. Students could work in groups, in pairs, or individually, depending on their needs and preferences.

Choose one of the doctrinal mastery passages that you would like to better understand and read it carefully. Identify at least two questions you could ask about the passage to better understand it and write them down. For example, as you read 3 Nephi 27:20 you might ask, “What does it mean to be sanctified?” Or as you read Moroni 10:3–5 you might ask, “What does it mean to ask ‘with real intent’?”

Search for answers to the questions you thought of; use scripture-study tools such as Guide to the Scriptures, Topical Guide, or even general conference talks. You could use other scripture-study strategies you know, such as studying the surrounding verses to better understand the context of the passage.

To help students engage with one another, consider asking them to write the doctrinal mastery passage they chose and their questions on a piece of paper with their name on it. Invite students to exchange their papers with another student. Alternatively, invite students to pass their papers to the front so the papers can be shuffled and randomly distributed to other students. Ask students to record answers to the questions on the sheet given to them. After sufficient time, invite students to return the papers to the students whose names are on them.

Give students time to ponder the answers other students wrote and, if useful, to search for additional answers in the scriptures, through prayer, and so on.

Remember, you may not find answers to all of your questions as you study. But as you continue to exercise faith in the Lord, He will help you know the truth of what you seek.

Invite several students to share the doctrinal mastery passage they chose, some of the questions they wrote, and the answers they or their classmates discovered. Additionally, consider asking what the passage helped them understand about the Savior or His gospel.

If time permits (or on a different day), consider inviting students to repeat the activity using another doctrinal mastery passage.

Encourage students to continue asking questions about the scriptures and seeking answers.