In an effort to provide tools to help in your third hour Sunday home directed Gospel study, 
we’ve put together a list of scriptures and prophetic teachings on basic Gospel principles that will build a long lasting Foundation.
When were the essential principles of the Gospel decided upon?
D&C 130:20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated –
And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is
predicated.
D&C 128:5 You may think this order of things to be very particular; but let me tell you that it is only to answer the will of God, by conforming to the ordinance and preparation that the Lord ordained and prepared before the foundation of the world, … (see v. 22)
D&C 132:5 For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world.
And will I appoint unto you, saith the Lord, except it be by law, even as I and my Father
ordained unto you, before the world was? (see v. 28)
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 220 The great Jehovah contemplated the whole of the events connected with the earth, pertaining to the plan of salvation, before it rolled into existence, … He knew the plan of salvation and pointed it out; … He ordered all things according to the council of His own will; …
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 308 Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundations 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.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 324 If men would acquire salvation, they have got to be subject, before they leave this world, to certain rules and principles, which were fixed by an unalterable decree before the world was.
(Also see D&C 76:12-13, D&C 121:32; Eph. 2:10, 1 Cor. 2:7, TPJS 367)
Is the Gospel, its ordinances and laws, changeable?
Ps 89:34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Eccl 3:14 I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it …
Matt 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Jude 3 … ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints.
1 Cor 11:2 … keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
Morm 8:22 For the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled.
D&C 3:2 For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight … (see Alma 7:20)
D&C 29:34 Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at anytime have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men;
Lectures on Faith 3:21 But it is equally as necessary that men should have the idea that he is a God who changes not, in order to have faith in him, … for without the idea of unchangeableness in the character of the Deity, doubt would take the place of faith. But with the idea that He changes not, faith lays hold upon the excellencies in His character with unshaken confidence, believing He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever, and that His course is one eternal round. (see v. 15 & 22)
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 91 The order of the House of God has been and ever will be the same, even after Christ comes, and after the termination of the thousand years it will be the same;
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 181 A key: Every principle proceeding from God is eternal and any principle which is not eternal if of the devil.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 264 The Gospel has always been the same; the ordinances to fulfill its requirements the same.
Is it necessary to live all of the laws and receive all of the ordinances?
Matt 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: …
James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
1 Ne 3:7 … the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. (see 17:3 & D&C 5:34)
D&C 35:12 And there are none that doeth good except those who are ready to receive the fulness of my gospel, …
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 255-56 Happiness [comes by] keeping all the commandments of God.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 308 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.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 331 “Can we not be saved without going through with all those ordinances?” I would answer, No, not the fulness of salvation.
Are there different requirements for exaltation in different eras?
Morm 9:8 Behold I say unto you, he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them.
For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no
variableness neither shadow of changing?
v19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; …
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg59-60 all that were ever saved, were saved through the power of this great plan of redemption, as much as before the coming of Christ as since; if not, God has had different plans in operation to bring men back to dwell with Himself; and this we cannot believe.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg168 He set the ordinances to be the same forever and ever, and set Adam to watch over them to reveal them from heaven to man. …
It signifies then, that the ordinances must be kept in the very way God has appointed;
otherwise their Priesthood will prove a cursing instead of a blessing. (see Heb 7:12)
If Church presidents seem to conflict on matters of doctrine – who takes precedence?
Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
v8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Rom 16:17 Mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrines which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Jude 3 … ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints.
Mosiah 18:19 And he commanded them that they should teach nothing save it were the things which he had taught, and which had been spoken by the mouth of the holy prophets.
D&C 52:9 … saying none other things than that which the prophets and apostles have written … (see v. 36)
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 368 … if any man preach any other gospel than that which I have preached he shall be cursed.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg 214 How, it may be asked, was this known to be a bad angel? by his contradicting a former revelation.