Lectures on Faith 2: 5-12

Intro | Preface
Lecture 1: 1 |  2-9 | 10-11 | 12-17 | 18-24
Lecture 2: 1-4

Looking at "the evidences by which the first thoughts were suggested to the minds of men that there was a God who created all things" (p. 4), we'll continue into where Joseph Smith suggested we look:

"We shall now proceed to examine the situation of man at his first creation. Moses, the historian, has given us the following account of him in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, beginning with the 20th verse, and closing with the 30th. We copy from the new translation:"

Note: If you try to go to Genesis 1: 20-30 in the King James Version, you won't find what Joseph's talking about. By "new translation," he means the Joseph Smith Translation, or Inspired Version of the Bible. I want to take a moment to interrupt and discuss this Version, which we don't currently have in our LDS Standard Works. At least, not completely.

After the Book of Mormon's translation, Joseph was able to turn his attention to the Bible. After all, near the end of his translation1, Joseph found evidence that the Bible had been tampered with: both directly by Nephi's angelic guide (1 Nephi 13) and indirectly by Nephi quoting Isaiah differently than normal (1 Nephi 20-21, 2 Nephi 12-24). In fact, even the angelic visitor directing Joseph to the golden plates quoted Malachi "with a little variation from the way it reads in our Bibles" (JS-H 1: 36), so the idea that the Bible was "infallible" and unchangeable had already been rubbed out of Joseph's paradigm.

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1) That is, if he translated Mormon's abridgment first, from the Book of Lehi (now lost) down to Moroni, then the Words of Mormon, then 1 Nephi through Omni. There's some debate as to what order Joseph actually translated them all, but if you look at the questions he asked and the answers he received (just as in later D&C sections during Biblical study), the above order of translation would bring up the questions he asked in roughly the same order he asked them. That's beyond this post, though, so this is just in passing.
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As he continued, and after receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism (which baptism was after seeing the Father, the Son, various angels and visions, and translating the majority of the Book of Mormon, by the way), he then reports that, "Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of" (ibid, p. 74). So, he began to have the meaning of the scriptures revealed to him through Intelligence beyond his own. This would give him an ideal vantage point to correct the Bible where clerical error or worse had tampered with it.

Joseph did a lot of correcting. All the footnotes and appendices we have in our Standard Works, and even the version published by the Community of Christ (formerly the RLDS church) don't technically contain them all, because Joseph continued making adjustments, corrections, and clarifications in his speeches and lectures. Many of these can be found in the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Joseph Smith Papers. And they do make a lot of sense when you use them with the Bible.

This leads some people to wonder "Well, why don't we just have the Inspired Version as the version we publish in our Standard Works?" Personally, I don't know. That would be really nice to have available right in the text, rather than being required to read the tiny footnotes and/or flip to somewhere in the index to find the corrections. Maybe the LDS church will get on that one of these days. I know others are.

Either way, this seemed to be an important topic for Joseph: that people correctly understand what the scriptures are saying. And the Lectures on Faith were expressly given (as the preface outlined) for discussing and unfolding "the important doctrine of salvation" (p. 2). This also seems like an important goal. Therefore, if understanding the doctrine of salvation is so important to get right, using the best source material to teach about this doctrine must be equally important. And Joseph here uses the New Translation (the Inspired Version) throughout all these Lectures; this is just the first time he points it out. Must be important, then. Certainly important enough that Joseph warned "except the church receive the fulness of the scriptures, that they would yet fail" (Far West Report, p. 16; also TPJS, p. 9).

Having said that, we continue now with the new translation--in this case, the Book of Moses:

"And the Lord God said unto the Only Begotten, who was with him from the beginning, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and it was done.

"And the Lord God said, Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of the Only Begotten created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (p. 6-8)

At first glance, this seems really repetitive: They say they'll do something, they do something, then they say they did the thing. However, those who've been through the temple (at any time; they haven't changed this) will recognize the same cadence and pattern appears in all Divine actions throughout the Endowment presentation. Something is directed to be done; those who are directed go and do the thing directed; after it's done, they return and essentially say "it is finished." Apparently, it's the same pattern as God gave originally to Moses. It's always interesting to see the temple ceremonies leak through the scriptures, hidden in plain sight for those who recognize the Hand of God. I wonder what else is hidden in there . . .

Actually, here's something: "In the image of the Only Begotten created he him; male and female created he them." What does this mean? How can one being create two very different beings in the image of His own singular being?

Technically speaking, the word used for God in the Bible is "Eloheim," another word temple-goers will recognize. Eloheim, Joseph taught, should be a plural noun in Hebrew, while Eloi would be the singular (as Christ is said to have called during the crucifixion). In fact, Eloheim is the only word in the Hebrew language where the prefix -heim doesn't refer to something in the plural; all other words with -heim are plural in Hebrew. (See TPJS 369-376 for Joseph's original discourse on this topic). Another thing about the Hebrew language is its nouns are either masculine or feminine, and there are no gender-neutral nouns (or if there are, they're a relatively modern innovation, as this article on gender studies points out). A group of people, for example, is described with a feminine noun if it is all women, or with a masculine noun if there is at least one man in it. I don't know why that is, but that's the way it is. Therefore, the Eloheim/the Gods have at least one Male among them, perhaps more, but that doesn't mean the Gods are solely Male. Technically, if the Gods are able to make both men and women in Their own image, there must be at least one Female among them, perhaps more. There's a lot of details hidden here, perhaps more we don't recognize yet; but a few are poking through the haze, just vague enough to get us hardheaded humans to pray and ask God about them. Maybe that's their purpose . . .

Continuing with the Lecture, "And the Lord God said unto man, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." (p. 9) This isn't just referring to the Garden of Eden, notice; this is all seed-bearing herbs, and every fruit-bearing tree, to be used for sustenance. We can tell it's not solely for the Garden of Eden, because that's introduced in Moses' next chapter:

"Again, [Moses 3]:15-17,19-20: And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it; nevertheless, you may choose for yourself, for it is given unto you; but remember that I forbid it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.

"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and commanded that they should be brought unto Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.

"From the foregoing we learn man's situation at his first creation; the knowledge with which he was endowed, and the high and exalted station in which he was placed—lord, or governor of all things on earth, and at the same time enjoying communion and intercourse with his Maker, without a vail to separate between." (p. 10-12)

So mankind, through Adam, didn't start off with Faith (believing something that couldn't be seen, and acting in conformity with that belief). It began with Knowledge, which "implies more than faith." (Lecture 7: 18) He spoke with God, he talked with God, received the Knowledge necessary to name every living thing on the planet, and knew whom he was responsible to, or who was giving him directions and commandments. It wasn't on Faith for him like it is for us. He Knew. And we'll get into why that's important in the next posts.

Lectures on Faith 2: 1-4

Intro | Preface
Lecture 1: 1 |  2-9 | 10-11 | 12-17 | 18-24

Now I'll move on to lecture 2:

"Having shown in our previous lecture 'faith itself--what it is,' we shall proceed to show, secondly, the object on which it rests.

"We here observe that God is the only supreme governor and independent being in whom all fullness dwell; who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; without beginning of days or end of life; and that in him every good gift and every good principle dwell; and that he is the Father of Lights; in him the principle of faith dwells independently, and he is the object in whom the faith of all other rational and accountable beings center for life and salvation." (Para. 1-2)

This is a lot of "givens" (if you don't remember that term from geometry or debate class, it essentially means "a basic, foundational condition"). I wanted to go over each title and attribute of God listed here, to see if there's more to learn about God here.

-The only supreme governor-
Perhaps, even if there are other governors, He is the only supreme one? The head Governor of governors, King of kings, and Lord of lords? (That would imply, as Abraham 3:22-4: 1 suggests, that there are other gods that work in harmony with our Father in Heaven, and are even among those who are proving us here on Earth . . . but that's another topic.)

-The only . . . independent being in whom all fullness dwell-
All other beings depend on His fullness to exist, as King Benjamin noted: "[He] has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another" (Mosiah 2: 21). He is the only one who acts independent of an external Power supporting Him. This also applies in an eternal sense; even if we receive the fullness He promises (see, e.g. D&C 93), we receive it from Him, and cannot say it is our fullness. The close we look at our lives, the more we realize we must rely upon Him.

-Who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient-
The usual definition of omnipotent is "unlimited power to do anything," or "ability to do whatever one desires to do." Technically, this is true of God--He has power to do anything that is possible to do--but the Book of Mormon teaches something more about this. Multiple times, the writers of the Book of Mormon explain how, if God changed in any way from what and who He is (which is within His power to do), "God would cease to be God" (Alma 42: 13, among others). So, while God has power to do all things, He also knows which things are best to do, or not do, for our highest good. Joseph gets back to this topic later in the Lectures.

Omnipresent, when referring to God, usually means "everywhere at once." However, we're warned against the traditional Trinitarian definition, where He is somehow everywhere and nowhere, topping a topless throne, completely unknowable yet intimately known by everything and everyone. Such a "being" (if it is one) would be utterly incomprehensible. Yet Christ taught "this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God" (John 17: 3, emphasis mine), so such unknowable somethingness wouldn't lead to life eternal. However, another definition of "Omnipresent" can be found in D&C 88: 1-13, which makes much more sense. For sake of space, I'll leave the link here for you to peruse, but it is a great definition and study source.

Omniscient, thankfully, is much simpler to understand. It means "knows everything." Since Christ literally is "the Spirit of Truth," and since "truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come" (D&C 93: 9, 24), the notion that God knows all things is plain to see.

-Without beginning of days or end of life-
At its most basic, this can mean "has no beginning and no end." Joseph taught this same thing, and also taught that our spirits are co-eternal with Him (TPJS, pg. 353). A question for further study, though: Does Without mean "Lacking," or does Without mean "Outside of" (as in, outside of time)? Could it mean both?

-In Him the principle of faith dwells independently-
As mentioned in the last Lecture, we rest our faith in Him, because He is the only one capable of saving us. Lectures 3 and 4 specify why we're able to rely on Him so perfectly. But, being perfect, God does not need to rely on others for His faith.

-The object in whom the faith of all other rational and accountable beings center for life and salvation-
Again, we'll come back to this topic as the Lectures continue, and a little more in this Lecture.

"In order to present this part of the subject [the object on which saving Faith rests] in a clear and conspicuous point of light, it is necessary to go back and show the evidences which mankind have had, and the foundation on which these evidences are, or were based, since the creation, to believe in the existence of a God." (Para. 3)

So, to better explain how we need to have faith in God, we need to look at the evidence given to our ancestors throughout history, and at the foundation of that evidence; we need to see why our ancestors believed in God's existence.

"We do not mean those evidences which are manifested by the works of creation, which we daily behold with our natural eyes [so, the physical things we see every day, from the tadpoles to the mountains]: we are sensible, that after a revelation of Jesus Christ, the works of creation, throughout their vast forms and varieties, clearly exhibit his eternal power and Godhead. Romans 1:20: 'For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: even his eternal power and Godhead.' " (Para. 4)

This phrase matches a lot of what Joseph taught and revealed; how gazing into heaven for 5 minutes can teach a man more than anything that's been written on the subject (TPJS, p. 324), how all things testify of Christ (Alma 30: 44, Moses 6: 63), and how anyone who becomes better acquainted with God's hand in the scriptures becomes able to see His hand in everything around them (TPJS, p. 56). While those are important to study and look into, Joseph is trying to go even deeper:

"But we mean those evidences by which the first thoughts were suggested to the minds of men that there was a God who created all things." (Para. 4)

The first thoughts in the minds of humanity. Back to the very beginning. What allowed the first people on Earth to believe there was a God? What gave them this necessary beginning baseline? Logically speaking, Genesis would be the starting point for such research.

Joseph uses a lot out of Genesis, though, so I'll continue on that topic in the next post (or posts).