Background

The simple answer is yes. The more complicated conversation is in how God exercises faith. I hope to use scripture, the Lectures on Faith, and some insightful commentary around the first lecture to discuss how His faith could be applied.¹

Lectures on Faith

Latter-Day Saint history has a unique interaction with a set of philosophical notes on faith that were developed by early leaders of our church. For a long time, many would say that Joseph Smith was the author. That type of phrasing has since disappeared with better research. Even those that are ardent fans of the Lectures on Faith explain that its authorship is complicated. Noel B. Reynolds is one that has done research in this area and does not believe that Joseph is an author. This podcast² does a great job providing his ideas behind Sydney Rigdon being the author. Noel’s arguments about authorship convince me. I am also persuaded by the argument that Joseph was involved in their publication and development. They can be mined for truths to help us reason, but they are not scripture, revelations from Joseph Smith, or his direct teachings.

If God exercises faith, is it different than man’s?

The first lecture has some clear quotes about God, faith, and us.

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” (11:3). By this we understand that the principles of power which existed in the bosom of God, by which he framed the worlds, was faith; and that it is by reason of this principles 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. 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. Who cannot see that if God framed the worlds by faith, it is by faith that he exercises power over them, and faith is the principle of power? And if it is the principle of power in the Deity, it must be so in man as well? This is the testimony of all the sacred writer and the lessons which they have been endeavoring to teach to man.

So we see that faith is the principle of power which existed in the bosom of God and that it is an attribute of Deity that would cause him to cease to exist if He did not hold it. Finally, that faith or the principle of power in Diety is so in man as well and that all the sacred writers have tried to teach [this] to man.

It seems clear that God wants us to grow in our faith and that we have a long way to have the ability to frame worlds. However, it also seems clear that we as his intelligent offspring are working on the same Godlike faith. We may have less, but we are working on the same principle. We don’t have some stripped down version of faith in mortality. We have access to the same potential faith of God. We are here to learn how to develop and wield this faith.

How does faith interact with time?

The BYU Religous Studies Center has a set of talks about the Lectures on Faith. The first article titled, “What Faith is” by Dennis F Rasmussen is stirring for its directness on what faith is and how it relates to time. I believe that Dennis is using the phrase intelligent beings to group man and God. He is explaining what eternal faith entails. What faith is for man and God.

Faith is wrapped up in having a future

I see in these quotes a vision of the phrasing, ‘all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord’ in D&C 130:7.

All the world is immersed in time, but only intelligent beings understand this, and they alone can hope.

…

Because we are intelligent beings who possess faith as well as hope, the things we seek in the future can affect our present plans.

…

If ever we begin to think more about past deeds than about future deeds, then progress has ceased to beckon us. But though we look to the future, we live in the present, which is the time for action, the day, as scripture says, in which our labors are to be performed (see Alma 34:32–33).

Notice how the third quote describes a context for faith that requires the use of the past and future to give us correct action in the present. We should have the ‘things for [our] glory’ continually before us. Our current decisions require faith in an unseen or hypothetical future. One that has yet to see the action of faith bring it forth.

Faith shapes the future

As God’s intelligent offspring we can use faith to shape the future with Him. Faith involves choices among actions. We can exercise this type of faith. The faith that has future purposes continually before us to help us make today’s choices that will shape God’s and our future.

When God gave man dominion over the earth, he did so because man, as an intelligent being, had the power to act by faith, and thus to act like God. Man’s task, within the sphere of his stewardship, is to continue the work of creation by the principle of faith, shaping the future in accordance with this principle.

…

The future is a realm of ends, but some of them exclude each other. An action that will achieve one end, such as traveling, excludes another, that of staying home instead. In facing the future, then, faith is always confronted with choices. It must seek one end or another, but it cannot seek all ends. And even though it sets for itself as its highest end the achievement of happiness, faith must still choose among various particular actions.

Faith is unknown until the action

Now, Dennis puts forth an even stronger statement about faith. The faith that all intelligent beings have. He says that faith is unknowable until it is acted out. It is hidden and unused. God wants us to develop this attribute as his children. It seems that He may understand our potential to ‘walk in faith’ but that He does not know until we do ‘walk in faith.’

Because faith is the principle of action, its presence will only be disclosed in some action. It shows itself in the deed. Imagine a very young boy at play. You can see by looking that he is small, that his hair is brown, that his eyes are blue. But can even the keenest eye tell by looking whether or not he can walk? No, because an ability or power cannot be seen or discovered in advance of the action in which it displays itself. So, too, faith is revealed in the action that it calls forth. Prior to that action, faith, like ability, remains hidden and unused. It exists as a capacity, as a potential action. It is there-it can be used or put to work-but that will require action.

Faith is different from Omniscience; it is Omnipotence.

After his thorough description of faith, he makes a powerful statement about faith and the future.

As a single example of the kind of commitment made by this inward activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, think of the act of promising. Only intelligent beings, beings capable of faith, can make a promise. But what is a promise? A promise is more than a spoken utterance and more than a written agreement, though these external things may manifest it. First and foremost, a promise is a self-chosen act of will that remains fixed and unchanging over a span of time reaching into the future. Some promises, such as legal contracts, have a specified period of duration. Other promises, such as those we call sacred covenants, have no temporal limit. They reach out into the future forever. How much faith and hope does it take to make and then to keep such covenants?

So we see that faith allows God and us to make a promise or a self-chosen act of will that covers a span of time reaching into the future. We talk of faith that can move mountains. That faith is amazing. However, there is a faith that can move the future. God wants us to have that faith. That God has made such promises of faith, we all believe. Seeing God’s faith in this way also allows Alma 32:21 and Hebrews 11:1 to describe God’s faith as well.

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.

…

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

God has the attributes of omniscience and faith. However, if misunderstood, omniscience appears to limit His attribute of faith. Can we allow Faith for us and God to be as scripture defines? To not have a perfect knowledge of things and be the evidence of [future] things not [yet] seen. It is His self-chosen act of will that reaches into the future and it remains unchanging. It is His and our faith that brings the future to pass.

How does God exercise faith?

It appears that He exercises faith as we do. He seeks things in the future that affect [His] present plans and can make a promise or self-chosen act of will to shape the future. The key is that He wants us to exercise this same faith and that neither He nor us can see or discover [our faith] in advance of the action in which it displays itself. He has sent us here to shape the future with him. We can exercise faith as He does.

---

1. I have an additional post on God’s faith since this post was written. See Does God have faith? ↩︎

2. The LDS perspectives podcast has a beautiful assortment of audio that I highly recommend - http://www.ldsperspectives.com/episodes/bytitle/. ↩︎

• lds
• openness
• faith
• attributes
• time