The Lectures on Faith

by Jr. Joseph Smith

1. Having shown in our previous lecture "faith itself—what it is," we shall proceed to show secondly the object on which it rests.

2. We here observe that God is the only supreme governor and independent being, in whom all fullness and perfection dwells; who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; without beginning of days or end of life; and that in him every good gift and every good principle dwell; and that he is the Father of lights; In him the principle of faith dwells independently, and he is the object in whom the faith of all other rational and accountable beings center, for life and salvation.

3. In order to present this part of the subject in a clear and conspicuous point of light, it is necessary to go back and show the evidences which mankind have had, and the foundation on which these evidences are, or were based, since the creation, to believe in the existence of a God.

4. We do not mean those evidences which are manifested by the works of creation, which we daily behold with our natural eyes: we are sensible that, after a revelation of Jesus Christ, the works of creation, throughout their vast forms and varieties, clearly exhibit his eternal power and Godhead. Romans 1:20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. But we mean those evidences by which the first thoughts were suggested to the mind of men that there was a God who created all things.

5. We shall now proceed to examine the situation of man at his first creation. Moses, the historian, has given us the following account of him in the first chap. of the book of Genesis, beginning with the 20th verse, and closing with the 30th. We copy from the New Translation:

6. And the Lord God said unto the Only Begotten, who was with him from the beginning, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and it was done.

7. And the Lord God said, Let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

8. So God created man in his own image, in the image of the Only Begotten created he him; male and female created I them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

9. And I, God, said unto man, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which shall be the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

10. Again, Genesis 2:15,16,17,19,20: And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God, commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, nevertheless, you may choose for yourself, for it is given unto you; but remember that I forbid it, for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.