Faith requires Faith
Joseph F. McConkie
Alma 32:21 faith is not a perfect knowledge; you cannot exercise faith in a principle that is not true.
Abel offered a sacrifice of the firstlings of the flock – true principle – accepted
Cain offered a sacrifice of the fruit of the ground – false principle – not accepted.
If it’s not faith it’s a sin (TPJS p. 58). It’s not an issue of emotion; it’s an issue of law.
Those who don’t know the truth about God can still receive revelation because they were born with knowledge of the truth, the Light of Christ. They usually don’t pray to a gaseous entity but to a loving Father Who is like them.
There are many stories of people dying, going to heaven, writing a book and making money. When they get to heaven many important people including a great light meet them. They are instructed that they are to return to earth with a message of love. All people should love one another. This is a weak doctrine (love) and flies in the face of revealed word and the organization of Heaven. God doesn’t arbitrarily send people back to earth with a message of love or a weak doctrine. That message is already on earth.
1 Corinthians 3:9 God is the master builder
v 10 a master builder lays a foundation first
v 11 Jesus Christ is the foundation
v 12 what should man build on, we have a choice of material, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, kind of like the story of the 3 pigs.
V 13 every man’s work will be made manifest and his work will be tried to determine what kind of work he performed
V 14-15 after the test, the fire or burning, if he used cheap material, his works will burn, but we all make mistakes, and we’ll have to work with what is left and rebuild.
Moroni 10:3-5
1. You first have to read these things. Survey taken and the average convert only reads 9 pages of the Book of Mormon. A quick look will point out that the Book of Mormon is longer than 9 pages.
2. You must remember what you read.
3. Then ponder it in your heart (ask questions, listen for answers)
4. Ask God with a sincere heart, exercising faith
5. He will manifest the truth using the Holy Ghost
6. You will be able to discern (know) the truth
In order to learn the answer, you have to study, which means you must live the principles about which you are questioning. To get a testimony of tithing, you have to pay tithing. To know if the Book of Mormon is true, one must live according to the principles of the restored gospel. Read with the mindset that the book is true, the faith being tested is your faith in God, that He will answer your prayer. If someone approaches from the opposite side, meaning that the Book of Mormon is false, it is a sign that he lacks faith and doesn’t trust his heart and mind or doesn’t know how the tools work.
Reading the Book of Mormon with the intent to prove it is wrong is resisting the spirit. The promise is to prove that it is true. When we seek learning by the spirit we must use faith as one of our tools. This is foundational.
When we get a notion from the spirit, act upon it, otherwise we will spend our time rationalizing. We learn 1,000 times more by listening to the spirit versus book study and logic. By approaching the Book of Mormon using the spirit and faith, it removes the temptation to measure the gospel against the filter of science. This is what saying you must have faith to have faith means.
When you exercise faith that the Book of Mormon is true and faith that the Lord will manifest the truth to you because you have exercised obedience by following His promise, you submit your will to the Father. You do it His way!
J. Reuben Clark: I wonder how much I could learn and know if it wasn’t for my education.
Boyd K. Packer: A doctorate degree takes about 5 years to get over.
If your faith is perfectly aligned with the science of today, it will be out of alignment
with the science of tomorrow.
FAITH SUBSTITUTES
When Bruce R. McConkie prepared to write his Messiah series he called the head of Deseret Book and asked to have every book James E. Talmage read preparatory to writing Jesus The Christ. As he read all the works he came across a golden nugget of truth from a scholar and shared it with Marian G. Romney, who said let me tell you a story:
Once while researching I found a golden nugget like that and became very excited, so I shared my nugget with J. Reuben Clark. Elder Clark simply said: So what! Then he asked me how I respond when I read the same scholar articulate a false doctrine. I responded that I simply ignore him. To which he replied: so you don’t make it a big deal when it’s not true, why do you make it a big deal when it is true?
Then he added: All these great scholars had the same opportunity to join the church and perhaps if they knew you agreed with them, they might even change their position. You get excited because the Holy Ghost has revealed truth—he can’t hide his emotions when he hears deep doctrine or revealed truth. It’s not that important when Christian scholars get one right, all their information stems from the same source, it just means one of the doctrines wasn’t corrupted. The Holy Ghost is excited over the truth and not the source.
The source has never converted anyone. True conversion always stems from the Holy Ghost.
What an awesome analysis and application of this principle of growing faith like a seed into a thriving plant. I will never look at Alma 32 the same way. One thing confuses me, though. I’ve never heard of this idea of “weak doctrine.” Is this just meaning a doctrine that is obvious or undisputed by Christianity at large? Is a “weak doctrine” a doctrine that has been watered down or bastardized to the point of no longer exactly being true?
Weak doctrine is defined as doctrine that was not lost in the apostasy. All Christian denominations agree that faith, hope and charity are important. They agree we should follow the 10 Commandments, that we should treat our neighbor kindly and do service for the poor, but they do not agree on the Nature and Character of God. When Joseph Smith restored precious gospel truths, he restored deep doctrine, the kind of doctrine that the Holy Ghost loves to testify about.
Weak doctrine is what we agree on, deep doctrine is what differentiates us from our Christians friends. The success of our missionary program relies on teaching and testifying about deep doctrine, and it starts with the Book of Mormon and developing faith.
rph
Hey Big Brother, can you write an article on the “Nature and Character of God”, and one about “God loosing his Body”.