What is the difference between believing in something, and knowing something? There are many everyday answers, but below is my understanding of the answer to that question in the context of the gospel. (This is woefully incomplete; books could, and have, been written on the subject. I guess I should put the same qualifier on all my posts, but this is a mutable blog, or internet diary, not a carved-in-stone edifice, and I should not need to apologize for having faith or opinions.)
In my opinion, faith is as far as we can reach on our own in God's direction. It is like leaning over the edge of a railing by a bottomless precipice, and hoping a hand will come out of the darkness and take ours. When that hand touches ours, we go from believing to knowing. It takes effort to believe: "Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29). So much for the faith-or-works disupute. Faith IS works!
We believe by hearing the word from somewhere: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). We have a reason to believe, but we do not yet have a certain knowledge. Even knowing a thing through the five senses is usually not enough to change behavior. (Today is Thanksgiving; people everywhere in America and elsewhere are going to demonstrate this principle at the dinner table.) The accounts of some people's rebellious and irrational responses to miracles is a great evidence for the validity of the scriptures. Their own five senses teach them that they have VERY good reasons to change their behavior. But the children of Israel see signs and wonders, and build a golden calf, or crucify the Savior. Laman and Lemuel see an angel, feel their bodies shocked by the power of God, and hear the voice of the Lord himself, and they murmur and rebel, and even become violent against Lehi and Nephi.
"And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily" (3Ne. 7:18). Miracles do not necessarily change behavior. To know for certain, and keep sinning, heaps even greater condemnation on us; for God to give us knowledge we cannot live up to is to damn us (Alma 32:19; D&C 82:3). Knowledge and the ability to live up to it must be in a person simultaneously. If the discrepancy between them becomes too large, disaster results. Part of the blessing of this life is that we can receive knowledge (slightly, "line upon line") sooner than we have the ability to live up to it, and learn from our mistakes rather than be condemned by them; this is because we are operating largely off from faith instead of knowledge, and especially because we are covered by the Atonement, which affords us the chance to repent when our knowledge exceeds our behavior. This is good when we are aimed in an UPWARD direction via repentance. In the case of those in open rebellion, however, light and knowledge are stripped away (Alma 12:11), probably to protect them from added culpability, but also as a negative consequence of deliberate and grievous sin.
Wilford Woodruff said this of Oliver Cowdery, March 3rd, 1889: "I have seen Oliver Cowdery when it seemed as though the earth trembled under his feet. I never heard a man bear a stronger testimony than he did when under the influence of the Spirit. But the moment he left the kingdom of God, that moment his power fell like lightning from heaven. He was shorn of his strength, like Samson in the lap of Delilah. He lost the power and testimony which he had enjoyed, and he never recovered it again in its fullness while in the flesh, although he died in the Church. It does not pay a man to sin or to do wrong." (The Deseret Weekly News, Vol. 38, p. 391.) Knowledge is a potentially dangerous thing to us; humility is like the balance pole of an acrobat that stabilizes his walk across the tightrope of mortality.
In the Lord's plan, knowledge, and the capacity to live up to it, arrive simultaneously. Mosiah 5:2 says, "And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." They reached out to God in faith; He reached back to them by changing their hearts and confirming their faith, etching knowledge and certainty into souls and overshadowing doubt.
They believed first, and then were given a certain knowledge of the Savior and the plan of salvation described by King Benjamin, because their hearts were changed. Rather than see, hear, taste, touch, or smell something, they experienced an invisible inward change. Revelation and rebirth were part of the same package. This pattern is attested to by Jesus himself when visiting the Nephites:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost. And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one. And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things" (3Ne. 11:34-36).
First we believe in God and repent. Then we are born of God, visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, like the people in Mosiah 5:2. That is when we go from believing to knowing; when the Holy Ghost changes our hearts to the point where our behavior and desires are more compatible with such knowledge. Knowledge begets responsibility, and culpability when actions do not conform to it. Satan tried to destroy Adam and Eve by giving them more knowledge than they had the ability to live up to. They gained a sense of modesty or shame at nakedness from eating the fruit, but Satan's proposed solution was inadequate—their fig leaf aprons left them immodestly dressed. The Lord gave them tunics that covered everything modestly, i.e. the ability to live up to their new level of understanding. The same model holds true with other forms of knowledge. Those who seek signs will be destroyed by them, because their knowledge will exceed their behavior. In D&C 63:7-9, the Lord explains, "And he that seeketh signs shall see signs, but not unto salvation. Verily, I say unto you, there are those among you who seek signs, and there have been such even from the beginning; But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe."
Rebirth removes doubt in a more indelible way than physical forces detected by our five sense, and it also gives us the capacity to live up to the new knowledge by changing our natures. Doing what we know is right becomes natural to us, rather than a burden.
In my opinion, faith is as far as we can reach on our own in God's direction. It is like leaning over the edge of a railing by a bottomless precipice, and hoping a hand will come out of the darkness and take ours. When that hand touches ours, we go from believing to knowing. It takes effort to believe: "Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6:29). So much for the faith-or-works disupute. Faith IS works!
We believe by hearing the word from somewhere: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). We have a reason to believe, but we do not yet have a certain knowledge. Even knowing a thing through the five senses is usually not enough to change behavior. (Today is Thanksgiving; people everywhere in America and elsewhere are going to demonstrate this principle at the dinner table.) The accounts of some people's rebellious and irrational responses to miracles is a great evidence for the validity of the scriptures. Their own five senses teach them that they have VERY good reasons to change their behavior. But the children of Israel see signs and wonders, and build a golden calf, or crucify the Savior. Laman and Lemuel see an angel, feel their bodies shocked by the power of God, and hear the voice of the Lord himself, and they murmur and rebel, and even become violent against Lehi and Nephi.
"And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily" (3Ne. 7:18). Miracles do not necessarily change behavior. To know for certain, and keep sinning, heaps even greater condemnation on us; for God to give us knowledge we cannot live up to is to damn us (Alma 32:19; D&C 82:3). Knowledge and the ability to live up to it must be in a person simultaneously. If the discrepancy between them becomes too large, disaster results. Part of the blessing of this life is that we can receive knowledge (slightly, "line upon line") sooner than we have the ability to live up to it, and learn from our mistakes rather than be condemned by them; this is because we are operating largely off from faith instead of knowledge, and especially because we are covered by the Atonement, which affords us the chance to repent when our knowledge exceeds our behavior. This is good when we are aimed in an UPWARD direction via repentance. In the case of those in open rebellion, however, light and knowledge are stripped away (Alma 12:11), probably to protect them from added culpability, but also as a negative consequence of deliberate and grievous sin.
Wilford Woodruff said this of Oliver Cowdery, March 3rd, 1889: "I have seen Oliver Cowdery when it seemed as though the earth trembled under his feet. I never heard a man bear a stronger testimony than he did when under the influence of the Spirit. But the moment he left the kingdom of God, that moment his power fell like lightning from heaven. He was shorn of his strength, like Samson in the lap of Delilah. He lost the power and testimony which he had enjoyed, and he never recovered it again in its fullness while in the flesh, although he died in the Church. It does not pay a man to sin or to do wrong." (The Deseret Weekly News, Vol. 38, p. 391.) Knowledge is a potentially dangerous thing to us; humility is like the balance pole of an acrobat that stabilizes his walk across the tightrope of mortality.
In the Lord's plan, knowledge, and the capacity to live up to it, arrive simultaneously. Mosiah 5:2 says, "And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." They reached out to God in faith; He reached back to them by changing their hearts and confirming their faith, etching knowledge and certainty into souls and overshadowing doubt.
They believed first, and then were given a certain knowledge of the Savior and the plan of salvation described by King Benjamin, because their hearts were changed. Rather than see, hear, taste, touch, or smell something, they experienced an invisible inward change. Revelation and rebirth were part of the same package. This pattern is attested to by Jesus himself when visiting the Nephites:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost. And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one. And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things" (3Ne. 11:34-36).
First we believe in God and repent. Then we are born of God, visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, like the people in Mosiah 5:2. That is when we go from believing to knowing; when the Holy Ghost changes our hearts to the point where our behavior and desires are more compatible with such knowledge. Knowledge begets responsibility, and culpability when actions do not conform to it. Satan tried to destroy Adam and Eve by giving them more knowledge than they had the ability to live up to. They gained a sense of modesty or shame at nakedness from eating the fruit, but Satan's proposed solution was inadequate—their fig leaf aprons left them immodestly dressed. The Lord gave them tunics that covered everything modestly, i.e. the ability to live up to their new level of understanding. The same model holds true with other forms of knowledge. Those who seek signs will be destroyed by them, because their knowledge will exceed their behavior. In D&C 63:7-9, the Lord explains, "And he that seeketh signs shall see signs, but not unto salvation. Verily, I say unto you, there are those among you who seek signs, and there have been such even from the beginning; But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe."
Rebirth removes doubt in a more indelible way than physical forces detected by our five sense, and it also gives us the capacity to live up to the new knowledge by changing our natures. Doing what we know is right becomes natural to us, rather than a burden.
