Online Teaching

Online Teachings of Mormonism

The importance of beginning with the basics

Chances are if you have heard about Mormons, you have heard false reports that Mormons practice polygamy, or Mormons have strange, secret temple rituals, or wear funny underwear.  Maybe your only impression of Mormons is seeing the clean-shaven, well dressed Mormon missionaries, or perhaps when you think about Mormons you envision some impossibly perfect family where no one ever drinks, smokes, or swears.  Misconceptions or misunderstandings about what Mormons believe and practice distorts the deep significance of their beliefs and practices.

For Mormons, the most important doctrines and practices are the simple everyday ones that affect most of their daily life, while outsiders are only interested in those beliefs they consider to be strange or weird.  Reading about temples, and eternal marriage, and so on, without understanding Mormon beliefs about Jesus Christ and His atonement or the purpose of life is like building a house starting with the top.  This impossible structure would just crumble every time you tried to place something on it until the whole thing was simply a scattered pile of debris.  This is what critics of Mormonism try to do.  They begin with the top of the building and try to force Mormon beliefs to fit into their own understanding of religion.  Of course, when they do this, the result looks absurd like a crumbling building crammed onto the wrong foundation.

Whether building a house or studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a person must lay a foundation in order to make sense of the rest.  This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the Corinthians:

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able (1 Corinthians 3:1-2).

Babies start off with milk, because they cannot digest meat yet.  A person studying the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ must begin with the basics in order to understand the more advance topics like temples and eternal progression.

The purpose of the self-guided lessons

The following lessons are designed to give you a guided tour of Mormon beliefs beginning with the most basic and fundamental doctrines of the Restored Gospel.  It is important to start with these basics, even if you feel you already understand them, or if you find them too simple.

If you begin these lessons you are under absolutely no obligation to meet with missionaries or members of the Mormon Church. However, we encourage you to consider ultimately meeting with the missionaries or attending Mormon worship services, since no interactive lesson could replace talking to real people about their beliefs or asking them questions.  We also encourage you to follow them one lesson at a time and to not proceed until you feel you have understood what has been taught.  Links are provided to external sites for extra help understanding a particular topic.  This service is absolutely free.

This material has not been written, reviewed, or endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we assume all responsibility for its content; however it is being written by faithful members of the Mormon Church who have been missionaries in the past, and it is a good representation of Church’s teaching.

Lessons

Introduction to Self-Guided Lessons

Lesson 1: There is a God

Lesson 2: The Plan of Salvation

Lesson 4- The Gospel of Jesus Christ: What does Jesus expect of us?