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).