Principles and Doctrine

Hi friends,

I want to share what we were taught this week  which was the differences between principles and doctrines.

Principles

According to Richard G. Scott a principle is, "concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances".

When I think about what a principle is I think about the Sunday school classes we attend as adults. The gospel principles class is where we go to learn the basic fundamentals of the gospel. Some of the principles we learn about may be;

- Heavenly father
- The life of Jesus Christ and his role in our lives
- Repentance
- Prayer
- Baptism
- Service
- Obedience
- Honesty

There are many gospel principle, I know as we learn these principles of the gospel we will develop a good foundation for ourselves and our families. These are good blocks to build upon as we teach our children and as we try to become more Christ like.

Doctrine

Elder Boyd K. Packer taught; "from doctrine we learn principles of conduct, how to respond to problems of everyday living, even to failures, for they too are provided for in the doctrines."

I'm going to reference Sunday school once again, Gospel doctrine digs deeper into the gospel and teach us  many of the unchanging truths, eternal laws, and fundamental beliefs of the gospel. Some of these include;

- The Book of Mormon
- The great goodness of our God
- The Atonement and why it had to happen
- Plan of happiness
- How to achieve eternal life
- Why we need to come unto Christ

Some of the doctrines are hard for me to understand. I am not a "scriptorian" but I know as you and I do our part to learn the gospel doctrines our understanding will increase. Our minds will be opened with the help of the Holy Ghost and we will be able to comprehend things beyond our capacity.