The Power of Faith - Hebrews 11:1-6

11:1-2 - Chapter 11 is incredibly deep, heavy, and powerful and I’m very busy at work tonight so let’s see how much we can get through tonight. Chapter 10 ends with Paul comparing the saints to those of perdition who “draw back” in the faith, meaning that they forsake it at some point and give up the commandments. He clarifies for the rest of us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The KJV says “substance” instead of “assurance” but the JST makes the change so I just went with that. Perdition might imply that there is a level of “faith” or “knowledge” that we have to obtain before the consequences of our obedience or disobedience is significant. If there is a point where you can go too far in sinning against the Holy Ghost, just how much do you have to obey in order for have the same level of “far” on the other end of the extreme. If you can know so much and still choose against the gospel, can you know so little and still have mighty works from God in your life? The IM quotes David A. Bednar as referring to Alma’s definition saying, “Alma declared that faith is not a perfect knowledge; rather, if we have faith, we ‘hope for things which are not seen (but) are true. Additionally, we learn in the Lectures on Faith that faith is… ‘the principle of action in all intelligent beings.’” I know for me when I was learning about the concept of “Perdition” it almost seemed like you became a “son of perdition” by accident, like if you had a testimony of the gospel but then chose to break the commandments, even once, then you were done, there was no repentance for you. And as someone who has done that, it was a very scary prospect for me. But Paul’s definition here takes away the “accidental” feeling of perdition and empowers us to take charge of our own spirituality. Paul indicates that we don’t have to have a perfect knowledge to have faith work for us, we can just be hopeful, or as they say in the Book of Mormon, we just have to want to want to believe. The term “evidence” here is interesting though. It’s asking us to look at life and the world with eyes that see past the physical, tangible world. The article on this chapter gives a great Neal A. Maxwell quote saying, “Faith brings with it the expanding ‘evidence of things not seen.’ Some mortals dismiss this real, spiritual evidence because ‘the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him… because they are spiritually discerned.’ But this provincialism on the part of others should not deprive the rest of us of energizing evidence.” There are a lot of things that I know or that make my world work that are deductions, or that I derive based on my observations. For instance, I see big fluffy clouds in the sky, but the fluff is only on the top. The part of the cloud closest to us is flat. It’s like one of those pictures of a cat sitting on a glass table. You can see the cat’s physical prominence above the table, but the bottom of the cat is flat. We might be able to see the glass table, but if we didn’t, just the shape of the bottom of the cat should alert us that there is some sort of pressure that is distorting the natural shape of a cat’s underside. There’s a lot of life that is like that. I like to do little social experiments just based on people I talk to and things that I think about that are interesting. A lot of the conclusions that I come to involve some aspect of an “invisible” element that is obviously a part of the situation, but that doesn’t have a physical equivalent in the tangible world. This includes emotions, feelings, etc. Thoughts aren’t able to be grasped by human hands, but they are real, so telling me that spiritual things are not able to be real because they can’t be seen or touched or examined is a non-starter. 11:3 - An interesting aspect of “faith” is that something so abstract and “invisible” contains so much power that “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.” I always imagined “faith” as being a little kid clasping their hands begging God for a new bike, but I’m beginning to see through this chapter that when we believe in God enough to keep his commandments, the power that flows to us because of our belief and obedience is enough to change lives, to change the world. The IM quotes Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin as noting, “Truly understood and properly practiced, faith is one of the grand and glorious powers of eternity. It is a force powerful beyond our comprehension… Through faith, waters are parted, the sick healed, the wicked silenced, and salvation made possible. Our faith is the foundation upon which all our spiritual lives rest. It should be the most important resource of our lives.” As Paul starts going through numerous examples of people who experienced miracles and felt the majesty of faith, we can see just how powerful faith is if we allow it to work in our lives. 11:4 - Interestingly, the first person mentioned by Paul is Abel, as in Adam’s boy. Verse 4 is really interesting because Paul says that when Abel offered the proper sacrifice that pissed his brother off so much, “he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts,” and also after he was so brutally and famously murdered by his brother, “and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” This is a really interesting statement and there are a couple of different ways that we can look at it. First, I remember reading somewhere in the D&C, I don’t know where though, saying that Enoch was ordained to the priesthood by Abel which meant to me that Abel was several hundred years old when he was killed. I always imagined that he was a teenager, but according to that apparently not. Anyway, if Abel lived such a long time, then it stands to reason that there must be some information about him that had been recorded and disseminated throughout human history. And Paul might have had access to it seeing as how they had a lot more scriptures back then than we do now, and Paul’s position as a Pharisee might have allowed him access to those records where he might have learned things about Abel that we just don’t have now. The second thing we can take from this statement is explained by a quote from Joseph Smith read in the article where he asks, “How doth he yet speak? Why he magnified the priesthood which was conferred upon him, and died a righteous man, and therefore has become an angel of God by receiving his body from the dead, holding still the keys of his dispensation; and was sent down from heaven unto Paul to minister consoling words, and to commit unto him a knowledge of the mysteries of godliness. And if this was not the case, I would ask, how did Paul know so much about Abel, and why should he talk about his speaking after he was dead? Hence, that he spoke after he was dead must be by being sent down out of heaven to administer.” At first I thought this was just some guy speculating but that it came from Joseph Smith lends a bit more credibility. And if we think about it, Joseph Smith was ministered to by many scriptural characters, including Paul, so if anyone would be able to speculate on just how Paul knew so much about Abel, then it would be the man who was also taught and ministered to by those who had passed from this mortality. I’m not saying what I think one way or the other, it’s just really interesting to consider the possibilities here. 11:5-6 – Next up is Enoch, who was “the seventh from Adam” that led his people to be so righteous that the whole city was translated. Interestingly, Paul says that, like Abel, Enoch “had this testimony, that he pleased God.” This is another instance that begs the question, how did he know that? My answer is “personal revelation,” and the article quotes Neal A. Maxwell as sharing, “some of us fail to overcome our passions and thereby fail to please God. We are too busy pleasing ourselves. In contrast, meek Enoch reached a point in his discipleship, wrote Paul, when he received a testimony that he pleased God. Ponder that. One can come to that point where one knows that he or she pleases God.” Paul continues that “without faith it is impossible to please (God).” This is a confusing statement for me because surely God can be pleased with us when we do things that don’t have to do with the spiritual. This raises a couple of points. First, perhaps the whole message here is that there is nothing that is devoid of spirituality. From the biggest event in our lives to the smallest, most mundane repeated action that we do every day, everything is spiritual. Kind of like how Jesus said that everything was created spiritually before it was created physically, maybe this is the same thing. The second interesting point here, is that the rest of the verse spells out for us how we can make God pleased with us. For the rest of verse 6, faith is when we “cometh to God (and) believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The IM quotes Joseph Smith’s excellent work “Lectures on Faith” as teaching, “three things are necessary in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation. First, the idea that he actually exists. Secondly, a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes. Thirdly, an actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is according to his will.” What is important to note here is that we don’t need an extensive gospel library or archives of devotionals to know about God. All we need is a desire to do what He says and then line upon line he will reveal himself to us. That’s how it all happens actually. We can show intent by studying the scriptures but it will profit us little if God is not walking us through them hand in hand. But the beautiful part of it is, He wants to do that, it’s all He wants to do, teach us the gospel and help us grow spiritually. The word “rewarder” used here in verse 6 is changed to “revealer” in the JST. Neal A. Maxwell is quoted in the article as noting, “the use of the word revealer fits with the context… God revealed His mind to Enoch. How else could Enoch have known for certain that he pleased God? The different rendering is of theological and salvational importance. It confirms the pattern of an omniscient and living God who is a revealer to the faithful. Some have sincere faith in the existence of a God but not necessarily in a revealing and omniscient God.”