Religious Education: According to R. Matthews: Religion is to tie back or to relate to. The root word of religion is the same as ligament. Religion ties you to God and Heaven and the sacred things. Not enough to say we believe but what we must focus on.

Teach as taught by angels to Joseph Smith. Seek to do is to do as the Savior did in 3 Nephi.

Show how all the prophets have a united testimony of Christ.

Religious education show bears same witness and spirit of book.

Book of Mormon title page tells us the spirit purpose of the Book of Mormon.

One Old Testament theme: covenant - being a covenant people. Why should God make covenants with people?

Different aspects of covenants in the Old Testament.

Boyd K. Packer: Stated that we study church history with the Doctrine and Covenants because it fill in the gaps. Put bones (history) together then adding the flesh (revelation).

Why covenants?

1. Establish relationships. Greatest blessing not individual effort but by gather of testimony. Joseph Smith saved as families not individual. Old Testament is about the family of Jacob.
2. Binds people to God. Amos 5:1,4-6, 14-15. Jeremiah 31:31-34. How many times does he say become be my people?
   Bind people together (Isaiah 58). Brigham Young said if we live our religion we would see eye to eye and the veil will become so thing we can see things as they are. We now see things as we are. � We want Zion to rise and shine that the glory of God may be manifest in her midst, that the nations of the earth, when they behold her, may be obliged to confess that she is the praise of the whole earth. We never intend to stop until this point is attained through the teaching and guidance of the Lord and our obedience to His laws. Then, when men say unto us, "you are not like us," we reply, "we know it; we do not want to be. We want to be like the Lord, we want to secure His favor and approbation and to live under His smile, and to acknowledge, as ancient Israel did on a certain occasion, "The Lord is our God, our judge, and our king, and He shall reign over us.". Journal of Discourses 11:346-7, John Taylor, 31 Mar 1867.
3. To set them apart. Exodus 19:5-6. Segula = Malachi. Latin = sealed ones. Power of covenant. God made with us predates this life. Ballard says that Israel is a group of souls, tested, tired and proven before the came. Deut. 32:7-9, where should I put the house of Israel. Leaven and redemptive function for Israel. Alma 13:1-6.
   • President Harold B. Lee:
   • Then note this next verse: "For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." (Deut. 32:9.)
   
   It would seem very clear, then, that those born to the lineage of Jacob, who was later to be called Israel, and his posterity, who were known as the children of Israel, were born into the most illustrious lineage of any of those who came upon the earth as mortal beings. All these rewards were seemingly promised, or foreordained, before the world was. Surely these matters must have been determined by the kind of lives we had lived in that premortal spirit world. Some may question these assumptions, but at the same time they will accept without any question the belief that each one of us will be judged when we leave this earth according to his or her deeds during our lives here in mortality. Isn't it just as reasonable to believe that what we have received here in this earth life was given to each of us according to the merits of our conduct before we came here?� From October 1973, Conference.
   
4. The covenant is way of doing things. It is not going against parents but going against something they agreed to do before we came here. People of the covenant have a redemptive role. Widsoe: plan intended for all men. We agreed to be Saviors for our self and all others. This became our work not just Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. This how we became Saviors on Mount Zion. Our duty is self-imposed. (Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, October 1934?)
5. Concept of temple � place of the covenant. Linked past present future. Doctrine and Covenants 124:36-39. There were Old Testament temples- sacrifices. What else will other know about temples nothing unless we teach them other sources therefore we have information in the Doctrine and Covenants. Doctrine and Covenants 132 also teaches eternal marriage was held anciently. Not different today then yesterday. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 308:
   "The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose. It was the design of the councils of heaven before the world was, that the principles and laws of the priesthood should be predicated upon the gathering of the people in every age of the world. Jesus did everything to gather the people, and they would not be gathered, and He therefore poured out curses upon them. Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundation of the world, in the priesthood, for the salvation of men, are not to be altered or changed. All must be saved on the same principles. It is for the same purpose that God gathers together His people in the last days, to build unto the Lord a house to prepare them for the ordinances and endowments, washings and anointing, etc. One of the ordinances of the house of the Lord is baptism for the dead. God decreed before the foundation of the world that the ordinance should be administered in a font prepared for that purpose in the house of the Lord. "This is only your opinion, sir," says the sectarian.* * * If a man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord."
   Main objective of all gatherings is to build temples or households of God. Thus when we break the covenants what does it mean? Scattering. Scattering and gatherings tied to covenant. Jeremiah 16:11-13. Why scattered.?
   A NEW WITNESS FOR THE ARTICLES OF FAITH, p. 515, by Bruce R. McConkie:
   �Why was Israel scattered? The answer is clear; it is plain; of it there is no doubt. Our Israelite forebears were scattered because they rejected the gospel, defiled the priesthood, forsook the church, and departed from the kingdom. They were scattered because they turned from the Lord, worshipped false gods, and walked in all the ways of the heathen nations. They were scattered because they forsook the Abrahamic covenant, trampled under their feet the holy ordinances, and rejected the Lord Jehovah, who is the Lord Jesus, of whom all their prophets testified. Israel was scattered for apostasy. The Lord in his wrath, because of their wickedness and rebellion, scattered them among the heathen in all the nations of the earth.�
   The reason for scattering to spread influences of Abraham. Nephites: 1 Nephi 17:36-8; 2 Nephi 10:20-2. Joseph F. Smith: scattering of Ephriam punishes and blessing other nation with the blood of Ephriam. Ephriam scattered most � gathered now. (Jan 1930, Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, January 1930).

6. Gathering Jerimiah 16:14-15 (Today fulfillment) �17; Jeremiah 32:37-42. v. 41 effort of God. Isaiah 27:12; Jeremiah 3:14-18 Conversion individual.
   Joseph Smith: awake out of sleep, crying to God mightily this covenant never been established with House of Israel and Judah. 2 part necessary. They rejected Christ. Joseph Smith in the Wentworth letter talks of this also. Restoration of the gospel=restoration of the covenant therefore Joseph Smith becomes a modern Abraham. Doctrine and Covenants 124:58, 132:30-32.
   What God promised to Abraham, God promised to Joseph Smith.
   Patriarchal blessing affirming of the covenant. Vital part-lineage and promises of lineage. Intermixture of blood but diminished blood. Literal descendant. Why do you ask missionaries to bring Patriarical blessings? Perspective? Ministerial commitment became affirms covenant and their call.
   Enduring covenants. 3 Nephi 5 end. Moroni sums up w. 21-26. Oath.
   In the Kirtland temple dedication prayer says put upon they serve. Test of covenants.

Russell M. Nelson: Under royal lineage our action be more in line. BYU speeches of the year, �Thanks for Covenants: 1986-. Reward for obedience to commandments is beyond mortal understanding.

The Shield of Faith by Boyd K. Packer, April 1995 General Conference.

Covenants by Boyd K. Packer April 1987 General Conferences.

Michele