Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Faith

Faith – Spencer Glancy

The fourth Article of Faith states that “We believe the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ…” [1] Faith is the center of our religion. In fact it is the center of all religion. In Alma chapter 32 it says, “And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” [2] Faith however, does not always have to be in religion. You can have faith in anything such as people, things, and future events. We all have faith that someone is there for us, something will work properly for us, and that things will work out for us. Even though we have no absolute evidence based on observation that it actually exists or will happen with 100% surety, we believe in it if we have faith. This is why faith is the foundation of religion. People believing in a supreme divine power that created all things have faith because they cannot see this power. Belief in a life after this one and that death is not the end of our thoughts. Faith is hope for the future.

Faith vs. Hope

Often it seems that the words faith and hope are synonymic and completely interchangeable. But do the statements “I have faith that God lives” and “I hope that God lives” really mean the same thing? Faith is defined as “confidence or trust in a person or thing.” [3] Hope is defined as “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.” [3] So saying “I have faith that God lives” is like saying “I trust that God lives.” Saying “I hope that God lives” is like saying “I want God to live.” Both of these statements have different meanings and also different reasons for saying them, and we must have both in order to understand our purpose here on this earth.

How does one decide on whether or not to believe God lives? Well we all have hope. I do not think there is one person who hopes that they will be unhappy in the future. Or who hopes that death is the end and that there is no purpose for this life. We all want to be happy in this life. And through experience and learning we can understand how to become happy. Most people have found that religion is a way of enforcing that hope that we have to be happy and gives us an understanding of what it takes to do so. We realize that we want God to exist because He will help us find eternal joy. Now how do we learn to trust that God lives? Through the scriptures and revelations from prophets we are given guidance and knowledge. With this knowledge we are able to see evidence that God does indeed exist and once we understand that then we must understand that His teachings are true, even though we cannot see Him. We begin to have faith. By observing the world around us we begin to trust that God exists. We can see the clear difference between hope and faith in this scripture from chapter 13 of Alma. “Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.” [4] Hope is what gives us the desire to have faith so that we can be happy. Faith encourages our hope through evidence that the things we hope for will come to pass. It is a never-ending cycle of faith and hope. And the love of God, or charity, is the bridge between the two.

Faith is an action word

Faith, hope, and charity are the three key elements of the Gospel. We cannot receive the ultimate blessing of eternal happiness unless we perform every act with those principles in mind. Without charity our hope cannot increase our faith and our faith cannot give us hope. When we start getting a desire to believe in the gospel it is because we want to feel God’s love in our own lives because it brings us joy. Then when we increase our faith we receive a desire to show God’s love others. Then we get a taste of that happiness and our hope becomes stronger and the cycle begins anew. “And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.” This cycle is what keeps out of the infamous “pride cycle” that occurs so many times in the Book of Mormon and in our own lives. By hope we receive charity and increase our faith. And by faith we become charitable and by faith we receive hope. Faith is an action word.

To say that we have faith in Christ should be the same as saying, “we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” [5] Faith is shown by obedience to the commandments of God, as James wrote, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” [6]

[1] 4th Article of Faith

[2] Alma 32:21

[3 ]"faith." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 22 Sep. 2008.

[4] Alma 13:29

[5] 2 Nephi 25:23, 26

[6] James 2:17

9 comments:

Amanda S. said...

I especially like your treatment of the difference between faith and hope—this was, I think, a strong and insightful doctrinal explanation. It feels like you roundly discuss faith and hope but sort of shortchange charity—how is it related?

Cynthia Hallen said...

Your posting reminds me of Elder Uchtdorf's conference talk on "Hope." You tie in the other concepts to discuss the triad of faith, hope, and charity. But sometimes it seems that you have more than one focus for the organization of the paper. Could you choose one focus and develop that thoroughly?

BoM Baller said...

The subtitles bring another element. It was good to get a view of faith from all angles.

Christie Beck said...

I liked how you pointed out that faith is synonymous with trust. God trusts, or has faith in, us so we should work toward acting similarly toward Him.

Jamie said...

I really like how you differentiated the definitions of both faith and hope. Although they are different, they are both necessary. All of us, including myself, need to work at increasing both our faith and hope in our Lord, Jesus Christ! I really enjoyed your essay!

Valene said...

I love your blog. I think my favorite part was when you explained the difference between hope and faith. I love how you used the definition that faith is “confidence or trust in a person or thing.” It really makes me think if I really have faith, or is it just hope?

Kevinsa said...

I really enjoyed your post. Faith and hope are definitely not the same thing and you were effective in making the difference between the two.

Hi'ilei Barrows said...

good comparison between faith and hope. i never thought of it that way because faith and hope are always linked together.

D-Weezy said...

Your blog really made the difference of hope and faith clear. I always used to get them mixed up but you set me straight. HA. Thanks for your words and for your clarity.