Day Six

For devotional today, two of our students shared what they learned in the stake priesthood meeting on Sunday. Then we marked Matthew 25:40 and Luke 24:36-39 in our scriptures for scripture mastery.

Our lesson was an introduction to the New Testament (found on page 8 of the Student Study Guide for home study students.) We talked about the word "testament" which means "covenant" and circled the words "new" and "everlasting" in Doctrine and Covenants 22:1 to emphasize the truth that the gospel covenants we have today are new and everlasting. We talked about what happened historically between the Old and New Testaments. We looked at Map 8 in the Bible which shows the Roman Empire.

The books of the New Testament are arranged by type of book rather than in chronological order. "The Gospels" are from Matthew to John. "The Acts of the Apostles" comes next-- that's just the book of Acts. "The Pauline Epistles" are the books of Romans through Hebrews. "The General Epistles" are the books of James through Jude. And last, there is the book of Revelation which is sometimes referred to as "The Apocalypse." I found it interesting to learn that "apocalypse" means "revealed" or "uncovered."

Then we read some quotes that talk about the blessings of truly studying and reading the New Testament. President James E. Faust said, "Let us study, learn, and live the hard doctrines the Savior taught, that our Christlike behavior may move us up to a much higher spiritual attainment." I hope we can follow this counsel in seminary this year.