Faith, a lesson
We had one of the best Gospel Doctrine teachers I've ever known, a few years ago, the kind who knows his scriptures backwards and forwards, and is prepared for any question. He doesn't live here anymore, and his departure was a loss to the ward.
He traveled for work, so they called a second teacher to alternate. (I found later that this trade-off is now standard, with two teachers routinely called, but this was the first circumstance where I had known that to be the case.) Less often, that teacher was out of town, and if they were both gone the same weekend, I was the designated substitute.
Our George Albert Smith lesson Sunday quoted Alma 32 and I thought about Don. Verses 26-29 (and continuing) liken the word to a seed:
26 Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.
So I had a phone call from Don--the course of study was the Book of Mormon--saying that he will not be in town, neither will Rich, and could I teach on Sunday?
Sure, what's the lesson?
We're in Alma, it's lesson #such-and-such, you can look it up online, don't have to worry about getting the physical manual in hand, I'm not in town anyway to be able to bring it.
I found the right list at lds.org, looked up the lesson number, and...you guessed it, Alma 32, faith likened to a seed and leading to gaining firm knowledge. I muttered to myself a wondering if he skipped town on purpose, and wondered what I was going to do. The class, at least some of them, would look for a discussion of Don's oft-stated position on faith being so much more--knowledge doesn't mean faith is 'left behind' if the perspective is that faith is the power and principle on which God himself works--anyone think God's knowledge is in any way incomplete?--and I had never read the Lectures on Faith.
What was I going to do? And I was intrigued by the point and wanted to learn more, myself. I would have been one of those eagerly awaiting an in-depth discussion. A discussion I was not prepared to be the 'director of' rather than the 'listener to.'
Well, there are only two things you can do in a situation like this. Try to find the resources you need, and pray. We had had a copy of the Lectures on Faith, slim little paperback, once upon a time, and we couldn't find it now. Another member of the ward often talked about the Lectures on Faith, so I asked him--his wife couldn't find his either, but he had a summary which he offered. Fall back on part two of preparation: pray. A lot. Ponder, read, worry; pray.
I woke up on whatever-morning (Thursday?) with a clear outline in my mind, which didn't waver or leave me, as to how to proceed. I needed a blackboard, chalk, and a priesthood holder.
I started by asking my son Jonathan to list the ways in which we know things, as he was taught in his Theory of Knowledge class. Basically, by our senses (physical experience), by our minds (intellectual comprehension), and by inspiration (spiritual experience). Then I stated that we were going to focus on the spiritual, but all these things tie in together. We were going to use priesthood as an example of how we progress spiritually.
"Brother Dickson," I asked, "what is your priesthood?" (He was the oldest member of the ward.)
"I'm a high priest."
"What was your first office in the priesthood?"
"I was ordained a deacon when I was twelve."
I drew a small circle on the board. "Then what?" Teacher, priest; then the Melchizedek priesthood, elder, seventy, high priest, as I drew a series of concentric circles on the board, each one bigger than the last. "Did you stop being a deacon?"
"No."
"You are still a deacon?" Yes. "Still hold the Aaronic priesthood, even though you now also hold the Melchizedek priesthood?" Yes, because every office you were once ordained to is contained within what is added to you.
I explained that so it is with faith. I drew a new little circle--that represented the first stirrings of testimony, of feeling the witness of the Holy Ghost that this message is true, that your Father in Heaven is real and has a plan for you. Another circle--someone said a witness of the Book of Mormon. Circle--baptism and confirmation. More circles, more examples from the class. Like the rings of a tree, marking each year's growth, so we build up experience and thus certainty, and acting upon them we increase in power and understanding. Eventually you reach the level of the power of creation, the keys of all things.
I ended with an addition to the various definitions of faith: Faith is the knowledge of the power of God.
That is true at the first level, that first little circle, to know that there is a God. It's true at the level of righteously sharing in that power and knowing how to make use of it, the largest circle, where someday we will be like him in full.
(Here is the section from the seven Lectures on Faith)
He traveled for work, so they called a second teacher to alternate. (I found later that this trade-off is now standard, with two teachers routinely called, but this was the first circumstance where I had known that to be the case.) Less often, that teacher was out of town, and if they were both gone the same weekend, I was the designated substitute.
Our George Albert Smith lesson Sunday quoted Alma 32 and I thought about Don. Verses 26-29 (and continuing) liken the word to a seed:
26 Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.
27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than adesire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.
28 Now, we will compare the word unto a aseed. Now, if ye give place, that a bseed may be planted in your cheart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your dunbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to eenlighten my funderstanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.
29 Now behold, would not this increase your faith? I say unto you, Yea; nevertheless it hath not grown up to a perfect knowledge.
Alma differentiates between faith and knowledge, and says once you truly know, you have moved to a level more sure than faith. He describes the process of coming to knowledge by acting on faith. This is a favorite section of scripture for many, many people. It offers the promise that if all you have to start with is a desire to believe, God will answer and help you.
Don hated it, because he felt that too often we just stopped there. He told us often that faith was a far deeper, broader concept than most of us recognized; he often quoted the Lectures On Faith by Joseph Smith that "faith is the power by which the worlds are made."
So I had a phone call from Don--the course of study was the Book of Mormon--saying that he will not be in town, neither will Rich, and could I teach on Sunday?
Sure, what's the lesson?
We're in Alma, it's lesson #such-and-such, you can look it up online, don't have to worry about getting the physical manual in hand, I'm not in town anyway to be able to bring it.
I found the right list at lds.org, looked up the lesson number, and...you guessed it, Alma 32, faith likened to a seed and leading to gaining firm knowledge. I muttered to myself a wondering if he skipped town on purpose, and wondered what I was going to do. The class, at least some of them, would look for a discussion of Don's oft-stated position on faith being so much more--knowledge doesn't mean faith is 'left behind' if the perspective is that faith is the power and principle on which God himself works--anyone think God's knowledge is in any way incomplete?--and I had never read the Lectures on Faith.
What was I going to do? And I was intrigued by the point and wanted to learn more, myself. I would have been one of those eagerly awaiting an in-depth discussion. A discussion I was not prepared to be the 'director of' rather than the 'listener to.'
Well, there are only two things you can do in a situation like this. Try to find the resources you need, and pray. We had had a copy of the Lectures on Faith, slim little paperback, once upon a time, and we couldn't find it now. Another member of the ward often talked about the Lectures on Faith, so I asked him--his wife couldn't find his either, but he had a summary which he offered. Fall back on part two of preparation: pray. A lot. Ponder, read, worry; pray.
I woke up on whatever-morning (Thursday?) with a clear outline in my mind, which didn't waver or leave me, as to how to proceed. I needed a blackboard, chalk, and a priesthood holder.
I started by asking my son Jonathan to list the ways in which we know things, as he was taught in his Theory of Knowledge class. Basically, by our senses (physical experience), by our minds (intellectual comprehension), and by inspiration (spiritual experience). Then I stated that we were going to focus on the spiritual, but all these things tie in together. We were going to use priesthood as an example of how we progress spiritually.
"Brother Dickson," I asked, "what is your priesthood?" (He was the oldest member of the ward.)
"I'm a high priest."
"What was your first office in the priesthood?"
"I was ordained a deacon when I was twelve."
I drew a small circle on the board. "Then what?" Teacher, priest; then the Melchizedek priesthood, elder, seventy, high priest, as I drew a series of concentric circles on the board, each one bigger than the last. "Did you stop being a deacon?"
"No."
"You are still a deacon?" Yes. "Still hold the Aaronic priesthood, even though you now also hold the Melchizedek priesthood?" Yes, because every office you were once ordained to is contained within what is added to you.
I explained that so it is with faith. I drew a new little circle--that represented the first stirrings of testimony, of feeling the witness of the Holy Ghost that this message is true, that your Father in Heaven is real and has a plan for you. Another circle--someone said a witness of the Book of Mormon. Circle--baptism and confirmation. More circles, more examples from the class. Like the rings of a tree, marking each year's growth, so we build up experience and thus certainty, and acting upon them we increase in power and understanding. Eventually you reach the level of the power of creation, the keys of all things.
I ended with an addition to the various definitions of faith: Faith is the knowledge of the power of God.
That is true at the first level, that first little circle, to know that there is a God. It's true at the level of righteously sharing in that power and knowing how to make use of it, the largest circle, where someday we will be like him in full.
(Here is the section from the seven Lectures on Faith)
From Lecture the First:
13. As we receive by faith all temporal blessings that we do receive, so we in like manner receive by faith all spiritual blessings that we do receive. But faith is not only the principle of action, but of power also, in all intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth. Thus says the author of the epistle to the Hebrews (11:3):
14. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
15. By this we understand that the principle of power which existed in the bosom of God, by which the worlds were framed, was faith; and that it is by reason of this principle of power existing in the Deity, that all created things exist; so that all things in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, exist by reason of faith as it existed in HIM.
16. Had it not been for the principle of faith the worlds would never have been framed, neither would man have been formed of the dust. It is the principle by which Jehovah works, and through which he exercises power over all temporal as well as eternal things. Take this principle or attribute—for it is an attribute—from the Deity, and he would cease to exist.
17. Who cannot see, that if God framed the worlds by faith, that it is by faith that he exercises power over them, and that faith is the principle of power? And if the principle of power, it must be so in man as well as in the Deity? This is the testimony of all the sacred writers, and the lesson which they have been endeavouring to teach to man.
And your not-quite-a-metaphor was, of course, inspired. I found myself thinking Oh cool!
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