October 9, 2011
This morning, I am trying to prepare a lesson for my thirteen year olds centered on the subject of “justification.” And I find myself awash in a barrage of religious language. AWASH. Not because of the lesson itself, which is pretty plain. But because I decided to do some looking into the origins of the term “justification,” a word I am not really all that conversant with. As it turns out—other than to say, “made right”— this simple collection of letters is as true an example of religious argot as exists in the mouth of man. In other words, in the realm of the language of religious opinion and scholarship, this word has a star position.
The concept that it represents is at the heart of a debate that evidently was the origional line of demarcation between the religions traditions of Catholicism and the protestant rebellion and reformation. It sums up this question: how is a man to be “saved?” And here, I have done a thing I really hate – used one obscure and charged word to define another. But I guess that’s because I have found myself sitting in the heart of the debate of existence: Is there a God? Does man have anything to do with Him? Does man need to be saved from something, really? From what? And how? And why?
So the debate is fat and messy and it seems that through the ages, men have filled in the gaps in their understanding with a whole lot of words. Some of those words became iconic. And “justification” is one of those.
Part of the problem with the debate is that much of it arises from the writings of Paul. I don’t think I would have liked Paul. I probably would have respected him, but I think he would have irritated the life out of me. Pair him with his King James translators (I do not recognize modern English translations, knowing what I know about English and the entire practice of translation) and you have a bunch of people who could not say in three words what it might be possible to obfuscate in fifty. I can’t stand reading him. I keep wanting to shout, “Just SHUT UP and SAY IT.”
I want to explain here my own answer to this debate. This is what I believe: based on what I have been taught in LDS doctrine, what I have read myself in the scriptures, and – just what I believe in my own head:
1. God is real. I don’t know what he looks like, but I do believe he looks like something. I mean Someone. He IS someone and we are made in his image.
2. We are real. We were the children of God before we were born into this learning ground of earth and mortality and earth-suited bodies.
3. The earth is part of our process, our spiritual evolution, if you will. We are children who are growing, learning, becoming. And this life is a crux of that growing. We are growing into SOMETHING. Thus, this life has a reason, a purpose, rules, a design. It’s like a huge, complex obstacle course full of sand traps and mountain peaks with grand views.
4. HOWEVER. The place where God dwells is – I don’t know how to say this but to use the word, “perfect.” A perfect system. Clean and gleaming, efficient and totally functional. And I think part of the built-in function of whatever that system is, it rejects things that don’t integrate. Doesn’t punish them. Just can’t accept them. A thing that doesn’t integrate would be called “flawed,” because it has in it – I dunno – lines of code or little bits of grit or something that won’t let it flow with the eternal the system.
5. By becoming mortal, we took our “perfect” little embryonic individual spiritual systems and each of us hooked up with a mortal crazy, as-yet-not-completely-written system (the brain and body). The operating system that came with the body is about as far from Christ-like as possible, being based in this first imperative: survive at all costs.
The body doesn’t care about compassion or eternity – it cares first about survival of self and species – and second, about feeling good. Like eating chocolate and driving fast and winning.
6. This mortal operating system is not compatible with the systems of eternity. And we understood that, when we took it on (which we individually chose to do, understanding that only through this process could we become grown up selves), we literally banished ourselves from “Heaven.” We could not again come where God dwells; we could no longer integrate with the Eternal systems.
7. So the point of mortal life is the re-writing of the mortal program. We spend our lifetime writing ourselves line by line, trying to turn a mortal program into a program that is compatible with the Eternal system. But there are parts of this code we cannot write ourselves – parts that have to be entered by our Creator. So, as the world was for the first however many million years, all the people who were born here were, as I said, forever self-banished from home. A tremendous risk to take. Because, no matter how well they wrote code, or how hard they tried to make it right, those Creator Only codes were missing. People could not make their systems “perfect” by themselves.
8. We had taken on this experience and risk on the strength of a promise. Christ said that he, too, would come here through birth. And that he, the creator of all things under the direction of his father – would come, would demonstrate the pattern, and would take the responsibility for all the “flaws.” That he would correct what would keep up from integrating through his own death and resurrection. (Please do not ask me to speculate on how all that worked, because I don’t have the faintest idea.)
9. He promised. Then he kept his promise. He was born. He showed us the basic patterns we need to address as we write our own code. And then he let them kill him. But he didn’t stay dead. He brought his body back to life and he re-walked the earth, and by doing that, somehow changed everything. And from that moment on, we were no longer banished – BY REASON OF THE INCOMPATIBILITY THAT MADE THE ETERNAL SYSTEMS REJECT US.
10. However. He did not take away from us the right and obligation to write ourselves. He didn’t, by this, usurp our right to choose. He did not reprogram our desires. He did not cure us of ourselves.
11. Therefore, because of what He did, no one “goes to hell.” The devil (another can of worms – but this is Christ’s brother – as we are his brothers and sisters and sometimes friends also – who hates him, and hates us and wants to see the entire system fail so that HE can be God instead) has no power to decide what we will be, or how we will fit into a system or not.
Because of what Christ did, the only hell available to most of us is the one we build for ourselves.
12. And I think, the last point in this list. All of this said, we are left with the job of writing our own code. We will decide how we react to what happens to us – the joys, the sorrows, the illnesses, the handicaps, the circumstances. WE decide whether we will be Corrie Tenbloom’s sister, or whether we will live our lives camped out in some brooding little corner of a dark bar.
Our usefulness in the eternities – and thus our ability to build and learn and love – will be entirely based on our own choices as we are here. Do our faces turn toward the light of love and service? Do we care more about the good of others than our own safety, security and ease? Can we say no to ourselves? All those kinds of things. Every day we choose. Every day, we program our brains. To usefulness and happiness – or inward, protecting the little self.
The way I said it to Guy this morning was this: We are born on the earth. Christ made it possible for us all to go home – ALL of us, saints and sinners – to go home, as we choose. We strap on a tool belt at the beginning of our lives and we spend our lives meeting one opportunity after another. We can gather tools at every turn. Or not. As we choose. When we die, the toolbelt goes with us. Those who have the tools are given joyful work to do. Those without – either have been kept from gathering tools by their circumstances – or may just be people who didn’t want to work in the first place and are happier without the dang tools. We get what we want. What we chose as we lived here. What we longed for. Except, you know, for stuff like sex and smoking and revenge – physical stuff that doesn’t work after this life. We don’t get those, even if we carry the longing and yearning with us forever. And that does sound a little like hell, huh? To want and never get?
So that’s my definition of justification. I have not used the words “grace,” or “saving” or “works.” It’s hard to say anything meaningful with words that have been beaten to death.
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are not approved of by any management except my own. This is how I see it. This is how I feel it. Based on things I’ve been taught, things I’ve read in the scriptures over and over and over, and things I’ve experienced.
December 28, 2008
I am a little surprised. As I’ve gone through the BoM this year, teaching Sunday School to my now fourteen year olds, I found stuff in there I’d swear I never saw before. There were things that leapt off the page at me, grabbed my imagination and my understanding and shook me a good one. Maybe it’s because of the year and some I’ve spent on Facebook, discussing with non Mormons and anti Mormons, but most significantly with people who have had different ways of seeing things than I have had, and who have pushed me to clarify my own personal stand (or take) on some things. Some of these were young, growing LDS, some admirable and some obnoxious, and others were serious scholars, historians, thinkers.
It has been an interesting time.
Before this experience, I hadn’t shared much energy with the questioners, wherever they come from. My own cousin and husband are born again, and the discussions we had with them when they stayed with us years ago were provoking and challenging. If you aren’t asked the questions, you may not ever find the answers yourself.
One of the most common arguments offered by the Christian non-LDS centers on the concept of faith and works. I almost find this a non-issue, and really wonder how they can get so het up about it, (het up is an understatement). The basic logic is, as I understand it, that only Christ can save us, and did through the atonement. No arguments there, unless we need to have a discussion about what the word “save” means. And maybe that’s the crux of it. But going on, LDS people believe you have to do good things and repent and try to get better in order to take advantage of that act of atonement, and somehow, there are non-LDS Christians who figure that kind of thinking is going to land us in hell (we’d have to have a discussion about what that means, too).
I have been through both the entire New Testament and BoM with a fine tooth comb in the last two years, and I have found so much scripture that lays the whole thing out with perfect clarity, but it seems some of the scriptures even in the New Testament are not to be taken seriously. How you tell which ones are serious and which are not, I am not sure.
I was thinking about this yesterday, as I was reading the end of Moroni, the last chapters of the last book in the collection put together by Mormon. At this point, Mormon is dead. His son, who is now alone in a world pretty much gone mad, is hiding in a cave, finishing the abridgement and compilations of the records his father had spent a lifetime protecting and summarizing. Moroni writes his good-byes to the world several times, only to find that the next day dawns and he is still alive. They haven’t found him yet. They haven’t killed him yet.
Each time this realization comes to him, he seems to sigh and find another small record to add here at the end. First, he finishes the book his father has not lived to finish. Then he abridges the records of the Jaredites. Finally, he starts his own short book, jotting down some basic and essential ordinances of the Nephite church—the sacrament ritual, the baptism ritual, other priesthood rites.
In the part I read today, the last three chapters, he includes two letters sent to him fairly recently by his now dead father, and then he finishes with his own parting chapter. And it is in these three chapters that I felt so strongly the meaning of faith, that I found, in small but compelling flashes, the underlying sense of our mortal lives. These scriptures are not as plain as many others; not as blunt as the evidently despised-by-some-non-LDS-Christians scriptures of the New Testament. But if you read them all at once, all together, the picture begins to take shape in your heart.
Mormon’s letters are full of sorrow, making the brutality of the Lamanite armies as they feed the bodies of captured Nephite men to the wives and children of the men. But he notes that this, as ugly and unthinkable as it is, is not worse than the behavior of the Nephite armies, whose treatment of young female Lamanite prisoners is unspeakably brutal and depraved, involving torture and cannibalism—all taken as “tokens of bravery.” This is where the word “abomination” is used. I’ve heard of it being used as a pejorative in the stupidest, least appropriate applications—in little Facebook debates between Christian people, calling each other names.
Idiots. That word is so deeply horrifying, so dark and brutal—people who use it in little spitting contests ought to be afraid that their acid little tongues will just fall out of their heads, that they will be respected by heaven in absolutely inverse proportion to the accuracy with which they have used this gut wrenching horror of a word.
Mormon speaks of even the men he is leading into battle, noting that they are eager for bloodshed, that all love has left them.
And here is where he repeats a theme I had not really understood before this reading: that there is a source of light, power and truth, and when we face it, remember it, take it seriously, and leave ourselves open to receive it, all of the power, the strength, the deep gifts of the spirit—healing, wisdom, teaching, the speaking and understanding of languages, awareness of spiritual presences—are available to us. But when we turn away from that source, we no longer can receive these things. Just the way a satellite dish, aimed at the target source, can receive transmissions—images, words, information, maybe even power to operate things. But lose the location of the source, just move the dish three inches to the left, and it will no longer be in position to receive any of these things. And when it cannot receive, the thing is dead, of no significance.
It’s such a simple principle: as long as the people remembered God, they could draw on his dispensations of strength, intelligence, power. But when they forgot him, their receivers shut down. They only operate when the remembrance is there. Otherwise, the portals are closed: the dish has been moved. Nothing will be received. And when a man is that dark, he is capable of being carried away to any terrible thing.
In Chapter 8, Mormon outlines a logical and organic progression of spiritual maturity:
22 For behold that all little children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are without the law. For the power of redemption cometh on all them that haveno law; wherefore, he that is not condemned, or he that is under no condemnation, cannot repent; and unto such baptism availeth nothing—
23 But it is mockery before God, denying the mercies of Christ, and the power of his Holy Spirit, and putting trust in dead works.
24 Behold, my son, this thing ought not to be; for repentance is unto them that are under condemnation and under the curse of a broken law.
25 And the first fruits of repentance is baptism ; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins;
26 And the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God.
If you can stick with the line of reasoning here, the conclusion has to be that the law is reason-able. And that one thing leads naturally to another – a domino structure of law that becomes attitude and choice that drives behavior.
It’s in Chapter 9 that Mormon describes the final state of his people, their bestial, brutal state—they exist only in the moment, and they feel only their hate and their single-minded lust for revenge and the satiation of their hatred. It is the flip side of the process described in chapter 8—the progress from the choice of lawlessness and anger to self-justification, offence and outrage—all passions that shut off any hope of reception of light – into hatred, choice setting up passion which leads to behavior to the point where all choices have already been made.
Verse 18 through 21:
18 O the depravity of my people! They are without order and without mercy. Behold, I am but a man, and I have but the strength of a man, and I cannot any longer enforce my commands.
19 And they have become strong in their perversion; and they are alike brutal, sparing none, neither old nor young; and they delight in everything save that which is good; and the suffering of our women and our children upon all the face of this land doth exceed everything; yea, tongue cannot tell, neither can it be written.
20 And now, my son, I dwell no longer upon this horrible scene. Behold, thou knowest the wickedness of this people; thou knowest that they are without principle, and past feeling; and their wickedness doth exceed that of the Lamanites.
21 Behold, my son, I cannot recommend them unto God lest he should smite me.
Verse 23: And if they perish it will be like unto the Jaredites, because of the wilfulness of their hearts, [my emphasis] seeking for blood and revenge.
In Chapter ten, Moroni’s last bit of writing, he brings it all together:
. . . I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things . . . ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.
7 And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.
That last bit – he worketh “according to the faith of the children of men. That’s the whole thing.
In the context of this discussion and my own belief: God is a fact. His power is a fact. The atonement of Christ is a fact. But our being “saved” is NOT a fact. Even God cannot “save” us, even though the atonement saves all men from spiritual and physical death. The saving I’m talking about here is this: that a man should be restored to his perfect, pure and powerful self, a son of the living God, with all of the power and privileges and gifts that attend such a being, that he dwells in “heaven” with God with dignity, forgiven his faults and flaws and mistakes, even his wrong-doing.
God can save us from death, but he cannot do what I’ve just outlined above. There is only one person who can save a man thus, and that person is the man himself. Through Christ, the man may choose to be restored. God will not force us to face the source of light. It has to be our personal choice. Without Christ, of course, our personal choices wouldn’t get us anywhere, but IN Christ, BECAUSE of the sacrifice of Christ, we are in a position to choose what we will be, either to face and receive the light and live, or to turn away from the light and be nothing.
Moroni then outlines some of the “gifts” that are available to a man through the power of Christ. And he ends with this:
18 And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that every good gift cometh of Christ.
19 And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that all these gifts of which I have spoken, which are spiritual, never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand, only according to the unbelief of the children of men.
20 Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.
21 And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope.
22 And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity.
23 And Christ truly said unto our fathers: If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me.
24 And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth—that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief.
25 And wo be unto the children of men if this be the case; for there shall be none that doeth good among you, no not one. For if there be one among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God.
26 And wo unto them who shall do these things away and die, for they die in their sins, and they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God; and I speak it according to the words of Christ; and I lie not.
I’m trying so hard to explain what I saw in all of this. Again, he takes us through the organic process of spiritual growth: Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.
When he says you can in no wise be saved, when he says that gifts will disappear because of unbelief, he is NOT talking about punishment for unbelief. He is saying that when you do NOT tune the dish to the source of the transmission, it cannot receive. If there is no faith, there will be no saving, because FAITH IS THE CHOICE. When we choose to obey the whisperings of the spirit, the law as set forth in the scripture, when we choose to desire to heal, to bless, to feed, to comfort, to do no harm, THAT is our faith. Our choice IS the faith. And chosing that way is the saving choice. It allows us to receive. In Christ, that choice is what “saves” us.
Everything that God has to offer is free to us through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But if we do not choose to use that gift, if we train ourselves to choose the dark over the light, we can receive nothing he has to give. It’s all our choice in the end. The Atonement has been made. We may accept it or not. That is our agency. We decide our own fate.
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Okay – I love reading the scriptures. And I love teaching Sunday School to my 13 year olds. Both of them. No – really, sometimes I have as many as five, and last week, I got to combine classes and I had, like, twelve. It was WONDERFUL!!!!
So, I read the chapters for the lesson, and I mark as I read – because stuff jumps out at you, you know? Wonderful stuff, exciting connections, answers to questions – all fuel for thought. And then sometimes, I go back and summarize, because I don’t want to lose those flashes. Of course, this is just me writing. It’s not scripture or revelation – just junk that intrigues me.
Alma 17-22: All this cool stuff about Ammon, and how you actual repent, and gratitude for grace – just generally peeks at how things work. I think this is why some of these stories are told: first of all, they’re great stories, but second – they expose patterns. Lovely patterns. ALSO: ONE FREE EPIPHANY (in bold italics somewhere down there).
——= O =——
(I’m one behind on lesson in the manual. Or two. Typical of me.)
I will tell you that, if you could only take two “books” of scripture with you to some desert island to use for generations to come, I’d chose Mosiah and Alma – the most powerful, doctrinally essential books (as part of scripture) I’ve ever read. And one of the gospels, of course. Maybe Luke. So that would be three.
Right off the bat in chapter 17 of Alma, we are given the formula for the responsible, mature, thoughtful member of the church: Mosiah’s sons were men of sound understanding, which was because –
1) they had searched the scriptures diligently that they might know the word of God. (But this is not all)
2) they had given themselves to much prayer and fasting
THEREFORE:
3) they had the spirit of prophecy and the spirit of revelation and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.
—-So, we little members of the church, in our stressful little lives of self realization, we think we should “know” things simply because we are willing to be “active” in the church, to read scriptures at least once a week in class – or maybe for a big fifteen minutes each day?
And I wonder why I have had so little of spiritual experience? Human beings do as much as they are willing to do, call that their best, and are disappointed when they don’t get the whole piñata showered down on them automatically. Well, just too sad for us.
And even though these guys had achieved that level of spirituality, the Lord frankly tells them that they’ll be suffering afflictions. Bad things happening to good people.
Chapter 17: 14 – the most wonderful description of Lamanites as flat-out pirates.
GRACE ALERT: 17: 15 – …the curse of God had fallen upon them because of the traditions of their fathers; notwithstanding the promises of the Lord were extended unto them on the conditions of repentance.
(Here I say, as a prelude to my meditations on the word “belief” that certainly, anyone who believes something, really believes it, is going to change themselves because of that. To call “repentance” part of “works” is to call believing a work, also.)
I love how, around verse 28, in the story of the scattering of the sheep, the servants more or less give up and sit on the ground, weeping, the moment the Bad Guys scatter the flock, while Ammon says, ” Ummm – guys? Is it just me, or did it occur to the rest of you that maybe you could actually run after the sheep and bring them back?”
Again – I’m holding up a mirror to myself.
Chapter 18:
In the story of Ammon and Lamoni, we see the pattern of repentance:
Step 1) verse 4 – Lamoni began to fear exceedingly, with fear lest he had done wrong in slaying his servants.
–Ah, so he has experienced a paradigm shift, and in moving his PoV, has begun to doubt himself, and suspect that there might be another way of seeing what had just a moment ago seemed plain and normal to him. Step one requires being shaken loose from your point of view to the point of distress or fear or at least the suspicion that you should be ashamed of something.
Also, he is astonished by the faithfulness of Ammon, out there fixin’ up the horses as directed, even after all the drama. Astonishment is another wedge between you and what you thought was reality.
Step 2: verse 11 – Lamoni is now floating, unstuck between Points of View – and, being impressed by Ammon’s character, now actively desires to understand him.
Step 3: verse 18 – Lamoni makes a direct and active inquiry – asking a question, an honest question that wants a real answer (as opposed to a set-up question designed to trip up the other person and support your former position and comfort). Willingness to hear.
Step 4: verse 21 – more than just wanting an answer, he is now willing to give anything for the information. This is the equivalent of leaning way forward, putting yourself very much off-balance, reaching hard for something – why? Because you really want it. Want it more than you want to keep what you have. verse 23: more than simply willing, he is willing to give all he has.
Step 5: the humiliation of humility. He is the king, but is humbling himself to admit that he does NOT already know everything. That the truth is not limited to his past understanding.
“I do not know what that meaneth,” he says. “I do not know the heavens.”
And thus, Lamoni has opened wide his soul and is ready to learn, to be changed, to be filled with the spirit – an amazing process.
Still in Chapter 18: 32-35– man in the beginning was created after the image of God – we are called in this passage the children of men, but we are created by God’s hand from the beginning. A portion of the Holy Spirit dwells in Ammon because of his calling that gives him knowledge and power ACCORDING to Ammon’s faith and desires, which are in God.
What I love about this is that Ammon, in his teaching, is not busily telling Lamoni he is WRONG, but instead builds on the things Lamoni already has that are pointing in the right direction: “Is that the Great Spirit,” Lamoni asks, remembering what he has been taught by his own father. “Yes,” Ammon assures him. “That is God.”
Late in this chapter, again, in teaching the basics of the gospel – Ammon, as so many had before him, rehearses the exodus of Lehi. How many times has the Lord showed us that pattern – to look back and see how we, ourselves, and we, our people, and we, our ancestors, have been delivered – lead away, lead to – a better life?
We talk about the pioneers at this time of the year, but not really in this way, not in the Sader sort of way, an epic God-led migration, something to be ritually remembered, something to merit the eternal and regular gratitude of a people.
Chapter 19: verse 13
Lamoni, after lying like death for two days and two nights, rises and says: I have seen my Redeemer; and he shall come forth, and be born of a woman, and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name.
NOW —THIS is where I began to have my little epiphany about belief as it relates to grace. Our protestant friends say that we are saved by our belief, not by our works. I say we are saved by Christ’s atonement itself, and not by our belief in it. But here, we are at cross purposes, since “saved” is never well defined, and could mean anything from “rescued from a helpless doom” to exalted (I do not see much clarity in the discussions I have had over a lifetime with my protestant friends in that regard and tend to prefer the word “redeemed” as in – we were in hock, and he bought us and now is our legitimate owner).
What I don’t understand is their anxiousness to separate obedience, repentance and complicity with the gospel in our day-to-day choices – as if those things have no place whatsoever in our growth and eventual eternal fate.
So I started thinking about the word “belief.” And I spent some time looking at its etymology. The word itself is Old English, coming from the High German, which I knew already, having read some things, like Beowulf and the Lord’s prayer, written in the most ancient of English forms.
Conventional wisdom has the word coming from Old High German, and assumes that, in its naissance, the word came from be-loved or be-desired, in function as in besmitten, or besotted, bewitched, belabored, bedazzled, befriended.
O.E. belyfan, gelyfan (W.Saxon) “believe,” from P.Gmc. *ga-laubjan “hold dear, love,” from PIE base *leubh- “to like, desire” (see love).[note that the “b” sound here at the beginning of the word is also rendered by a “Y” sound, indicated by the “g”, as in the west Saxon dialect]
BUT – this language is so old, and ours is so changed from it. The understanding of the original forms of any word in any language come from readings and translations – often there are many, and there are debates about the meaning of words, passages, whole works. So I am challenging that assumption about the second part of the word, belief, and wonder if, instead, it comes from the word for “live” rather than the one for “love.”
“libban” is the OE form associated with our present “to live.” But if you take into account the consonant shifts that happened way back, those “b” sounds shift to the fricative “f,” way back in the 4th to 5th century.
So it is possible that the word “belief” mean actually be-lived. And when Lamoni, as had so many before him, said, “I have seen my Redeemer; and he shall come forth, and be born of a woman, and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name,” what he might well be saying is not “those who hope on his name,” or who simply “accept Christ as true authority and Godliness” – a passive and emotional sort of restructuring of thought and expectation, in my view.
Perhaps what he is saying is that Christ’s redemption is for all those whose VERY LIVES, in their changing from works of sin to works of glory, service, love, selflessness and obedience, are their badge of true conversion, and their claim on his sacrifice. Which means that, after the grace of the atonement, the only way to prove you believe in Christ is to be-live his word. Which is another way of saying, faith, without works, is dead, indeed. Or even a step back – he who does not do good works, does not, in point of fact, believe.
I’d be interested to know what word in the very most original biblical source material (what language?) was the cognate for the early modern English form of believe?
Chapter 19: v. 32 The scariest thing about mortal life:
Ammon goes about teaching with power and authority – and “as many as heard his words believed, and were converted unto the Lord. But there were many among them who would not hear his words.”
Or: “There are none so blind as them that will not see.” Be careful of the word “will.” It is far more potent in ancient use than it is now. I “will” it to be so means that something is going to happen just because you will it to happen. It has been said that the only person who can actually use that word is God, himself.
One final word of GRACE:
Chapter 22, v. 14:
And since man had fallen, he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth, and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory…
Lamoni’s father responds: “I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy.” and further, prays, “Oh, God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee.”
And isn’t that the deal? It’s not just “accepting” Christ (which I still think is about the most arrogant thing I’ve ever heard). It’s selling all you have to know him. And how do you know him? Most of us have to shadow him, moving as he would move, choosing what he would move, taking his motivations as our own. A tough thing to take on with as little as we actually do know about his physical life. To be like him, though, is as close as we’re going to come to understanding him on this earth, unless we are as “lucky” as Lamoni and his wife. I’m not sure I’m up to that kind of crash course. And even while we try to be like him, we must never make the mistake of extrapolating from our life to his –
A tough thing, indeed.
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