A few details from Alma

 I haven't written in a few weeks, and that is mostly because I haven't had any grand insights.  There are a few notes I want to make, though, so I won't forget them.  

The Name Isabel

Going back to Alma 39:3 we have one of the few women mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon.  Her name is Isabel, and she is a harlot.  When I have read this in the past, I had noticed that the name sounded like Jezebel from Kings 16 in the Bible.  Now that I have studied Hebrew a bit, I realize that it isn't "like" the Biblical name, it "is" the same name.  In ancient Hebrew there weren't any vowels, and the glottal i and j were represented by the same consonant. I think it is a good guess that Isabel was a title rather than a personal name. Just as a person 50 years ago might have called a hooker a "Jezebel" that is what Mormon is doing here. He is also calling the reader's mind to the fact that just as the Biblical Jezebel led Ahab away from the true worship of Jehovah, Isabel was leading souls away from their religious duties. 

Lamanite Identity

When the Stripling Warriors form ranks around Helaman and commit themselves to fight for the Nephite cause, they take upon them the identity of Nephites,  (Alma 55:16) In the very next chapter, Ammoron, the brother of the Nephite dissenter, Amalickiah, proclaims "And behold now I am a bold Lamanite." (Alma 54:24) and goes on to state the Lamanite cause, "behold, this war hath been waged to avenge their wrongs, and to maintain and to obtain their rights to the government; and I close my epistle to Moroni." We are clearly not thinking of biological identities any more.  The Stripling Warriors were Lamanite by birth, and Ammoron, if he truly is the biological sibling of  Amalickiah, was Nephite by birth.  Each group chooses their identity to meet their own needs. It seems clear that the Stripling Warriors truly accepted the religion and culture of the Nephites, and considered the lands of the Nephites as their native country.  They were fighting to defend their families and their home. Ammoron was just looking to wield power and to make the Lamanites do his fighting for him. I am guessing in his letter Ammoron is just repeating to Moroni the same lines he has used to stir up the Lamanites to anger so they are willing to go to battle against the Nephites yet again. 

Does God Need Faith?

 This week we read Alma's and Amulek's masterful discourses on faith in Alma 32 and 33. According to Joseph Smith, faith is the first principle of the Gospel (Articles of Faith 4). The writer of Hebrews states, "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6).  Studying these passages, this week made me wonder, though, is faith a godly quality?  It is clear to see why it is important that God has charity and all the qualities associated with that, but does God need faith?

In one respect this discourse suggests not.  Amulek states, "...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." (Alma 32:21 see also v 18 and 34).  In other words, once you have knowledge, you no longer need faith.  God, since he has a perfect knowledge of things, does not have faith, only knowledge.

However, writer of Hebrews states that "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." (11:3) How could God create the world using faith if he can't have faith because he has a perfect knowledge?  We must be talking about two different definitions of the word "faith". 

If you google, "Does God have faith" you quickly discover I am not the only one to have ever asked this question.  There seems to be a longstanding debate among theologians as to whether God has faith or not. When I mentioned to my son that I was planning on writing about this topic, he suggested I reread the Lectures on Faith by Joseph Smith. I did, and it helped me clarify the source of the apparent contradiction. In the passage in Alma, he is talking specifically about faith in the word of God, "Now, we will compare the word unto a seed." (v. 28)  The whole allegory shows how to test if the word of God is good and true, for when it begins to grow, "It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good" (v. 28).  

The definition of faith found in both the Gospel of Hebrews and the Lectures on Faith is broader.  It is not just faith in the word of God but faith in general. The author of Hebrews says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Both this definition and Alma's definition mention hoping for things that are not seen, but the passage in Hebrews does not make a contrast between faith and knowledge. This distinction seems pretty minor, but in the Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith elaborates on it.

In Lecture 1, Joseph Smith replaces the word, "substance" in Hebrew 11:1 with the word "assurance".  I looked it up in the Greek, and that is a legitimate translation of the word.* Joseph Smith asserts that in its simplest form, faith is the motivating factor for all action.  Nobody, not even God, decides to do anything unless they have some reason to believe, some "assurance," that it will work. This concept is taken one step further in the case of Godly power.  Joseph Smith suggests that when God has belief or "faith" that something will happen, that faith actually makes it happen. The fact that God had faith that the world would be created resulted in it being created. This idea of faith is a broader idea than Alma's.  It is not faith in the word of God, or in the power of God to do something specific. It is the idea that no one does anything without expecting it to happen. For man, what they have faith in will happen if it is based on the word of God. For God, it will happen simply because God is all powerful and anything he believes will happen, happens.

So, back to my original question: does God need faith?  Yes and no. Does he need to have faith in anything or any power outside of himself? No. He just needs to have faith that something will happen, and then it does. Do we need to have faith? Absolutely.  We need to have faith in God's word, in his power, in his love for us, and in our potential through the atonement of Christ to be justified and sanctified in order to progress to become like him.  If we have that kind of faith, we will be able to do what we need to do to make it happen.

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  *another translation of the whole phrase in Greek is, "For faith is expecting things because of assurances, a proof of things without seeing them."