The Substance of Faith
Faith is a substance. Alma talked about " having faith” (Alma 32:21). Moroni said "faith is things " (Ether 12:6). Paul said, "faith is a substance … an evidence ” (Heb. 11:1). We often describe the deceptively simple principle of faith with words like belief, confidence, action, trust, and hope. And it is all of those. An element that is less commonly discussed is the substantive nature of faith . “Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Joseph Smith said, “From this we learn that faith is the assurance which men have of the existence of things which they have not seen.” Well, Brother Joseph, what are these ‘things’ that we hope for but can’t see? If we were to pose the interrogative to Ether, he would probably quote himself and say the ‘things’ are “a better world, yeah, even a place at the right hand of God” (Ether 12:4). So faith, then, is the substantive assurance that we will have ete...