Who, in all Christendom, has not wondered what it must have been like to have walked the dusty roads of Galilee and the crowded streets of Jerusalem with Jesus?

Elder Hugh W. Pinnock of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Sunday School general president said the 1991 Gospel Doctrine course, through the pages of the New Testament, will help guide members on a spiritual journey to reacquaint them with the Savior's remarkable life and teachings."This will be an exciting year, a year devoted to studying the life of Jesus and other items and events found in the New Testament," said Elder Pinnock. "We will have the opportunity to magnify and explore our feelings about Jesus, to gain a deeper appreciation of His pure teachings."

Elder Pinnock said the text for this year's course of study is the New Testament itself and other related scriptures. Although teachers have a manual consisting of one page per lesson, the aim of the Sunday School is to have teachers and students delve deeply into the scriptures. Elder Pinnock said there is power in teaching and learning directly from the scriptures, particularly when under the direction of the Spirit.

Charles E. Mitchener, executive secretary to the Sunday School general board, expressed a concern that too many people - including many Latter-day Saints - pass too lightly over the importance of the New Testament.

"If we do not have a thorough knowledge of the teachings of the New Testament, there is a void in our understanding of the scriptures, including the Book of Mormon," Elder Cuthbert said. "I see the New Testament as the open door to missionary work because people who know the New Testament can accept the Book of Mormon. If we do not know the New Testament ourselves, we cannot use its teachings in sharing the gospel with others."

Beverly O. Roe, a member of the Sunday School general board, said, "President Ezra Taft Benson has told members to continue reading the Bible, along with the Book of Mormon. We must not neglect our study of the New Testament. To have a deep appreciation of the Savior's pure teachings, we need to study all the scriptures as we focus upon the New Testament this year.

"Joseph Smith set a wonderful example for us. He taught extensively from the New Testament, even though he translated the Book of Mormon himself and used its great truths often in his teaching and writing. He frequently asked members of the Church to turn to the New Testament.

"The New Testament helps us appreciate all scriptures because of its clarity and because it focuses so much on the life of Jesus. I think many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to become more comfortable with the Bible - the Old and the New Testaments."

Elder Pinnock said, "Other churches have the Bible and yet need additional scripture for full understanding. Much of the mystery has been removed for us. Where members of other churches have not found answers, we have revelations through modern scriptures and our prophets who give us a better understanding of the Bible."

Elder H. Verlan Anderson, a member of the Seventy and a counselor in the Sunday School general Presidency, said, "The Book of Mormon, which we regard as another testament of Jesus Christ, introduces us to Jesus before His birth. No other book did it quite as well in the pre-Christian era as the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon people talked about Him and they knew of Him and of His glory.

"The Savior spent only a few days with the Book of Mormon people in the New World. He spent a lifetime with the people of the Old World. The New Testament tells of the life of the Savior, the living Jesus of Nazareth who walked and talked among the people of His own day. It gives us a more complete account of the Savior's life and ministry than any other collection of scripture or book known to man. It gives us a more mature and a deeper understanding of the gospel of Jesus in action."

Elder Pinnock said he believes Church members recognize the importance of devoting a year to the study of the New Testament in Sunday School. "I hope all Latter-day Saints will gain a deeper appreciation of the Savior's pure teachings," he said.

"We have come to a time when we must, as someone said, `re-establish the divinity of Jesus Christ.' We may soon be the only ones who believe in the divinity of the Bible. I met with a group of other Christian leaders. Each testified that the Bible is a wonderful book, perhaps the greatest book in the world, but many felt it is not divine. One of the leading Bible scholars in America totally disregarded the divinity of the New Testament to the extent that he said he felt it was written about the third or fourth century, long after the Savior's ministry or that of His apostles."

Elder Pinnock reflected that a study of the New Testament is a study of the Church in the days of the Savior and his apostles. "In a way, we're studying our own early-day history," he said. "We're actually reading about how our brothers and sisters were 2,000 years ago, about the Church of yesterday. As we study the New Testament, we will realize we have the same challenges today as the saints had back then. There's rarely a lesson in which you can't compare today's Church with yesterday's Church.

"The New Testament, for example, is the first place where we learn about the calling of the original 12 apostles. It's where we learn about 70 elders who went forth as missionaries. It's the first place where Jesus ever referred to the Church. It is where the three degrees of glory and baptism for the dead are mentioned initially."

Elder Anderson added, "The New Testament shows that some of those wonderful people of the Church in Jesus' day made mistakes just as we do today. It tells us about the denial of Peter; about the concern that the mother of James and John had in wanting her sons to be first in the kingdom, to sit on the Savior's right and left hand.

"The New Testament reminds us of the importance of the temple by telling us that Jesus often spent time there and considered it such a sacred place."

Elder Pinnock said, "We call it the New Testament, but this is really a record of our past. Studying it allows us to visit that past.

"We've not stated a theme in so many words, but if we were to give our Gospel Doctrine class a theme it would be, `Focus upon Christ.' That phrase and another, `Come unto Christ,' have become the center in many of our writings and talks. They cannot be emphasized too much. I pray that this year's Gospel Doctrine classes will help our members draw unto Him and achieve that important and sacred goal."