A Foundation of Faith

The world we live in is a fantastic place, but can sometimes be overwhelming. We have all kinds of things that make our day different. Cars first were made in the late 19th century, and first mass produced in 1909 with the Model-T Ford. Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first powered airplanes, first in 1903, then with passengers in 1908. In 1915 the United States entered WWI and many technological advancements were made. We moved from carbourated engines to internal combustion. We soon used planes for mass transportation, delivering mail and packages, and importing and exporting goods. We developed satellite communication, cathode-ray televisions, then computers. In 1969, NASA flew a mission to the moon, and succeeded, the greatest technological achievement of an era, and all of these happened in one generation. The man or woman born in 1900 lived to see a man placed on the moon. Now we have cars that drive themselves, we have drones, we have aircraft carriers! We have an International Space Station. How cool is that?!

While all this goes on, old ways of doing things like carriages, slide rules—more recently VCRs and cassette tapes—fell out of fashion as we discovered and invented and innovated. Society began to change. Old ways of doing things were frowned upon. Just as technology and innovation has changed the world in the last century, the people have as well—for better and for worse. We have achieved great things, it is true. But in some cases, have we forgotten our "God who gave [us] life?" Alma 40:11  Is there such a thing as 'modern faith', or has it become one of these 'old ways'? Are Christians—or believers of any religion—out of touch? 

No! To say, "Have faith!" is not a cop-out, it's not an excuse, nor does it convey weakness. I say the opposite! Faith is perhaps of greater importance now than ever before! We need more faith than ever! The technology we have is wonderful, but remember that all it does is tell us things that we already know. The reminders I set on my iPad don't tell me anything new; they only tell me things I have forgotten. With my device I can instantly communicate with anyone in the world at the touch of a screen! Where does God fit in?

God doesn't need an iPad to talk to me, He has created each of us with a way to communicate—wirelessly too! "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Genesis 1:27  All technology has done is solidify the fact God's "thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9, KJV God, after all the science on the Earth, has methods that are both mind-bogglingly intricate—and yet equally simple. "For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Malachi 3:6, KJV  Bottom line? God is simply better than we are. And it's not a bad thing.

So what place does faith have in society today? "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 It is a foundation, a solid rock we must build on. For example, one day I hope to marry and have children. I know that God wants me to marry and have children. But before I was born, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and started the Gulf War. Then when I was 8, someone flew a couple of planes into the World Trade Center. When I was 10 the U.S. invaded the Middle East, again. Twelve years later we're still there fighting insurrections and terrorist wannabes, and in the meantime here in the good 'ol United States of America (a world superpower, no less) we have marathons being bombed, school shootings weekly if not daily, religious discrimination, prisons are overcrowded, THC seems to be the flavor of the day, public education is going downhill fast, people are getting killed because of their ethnicity or their sexual orientation, police officers are being hunted and murdered, race riots, traditional values of morality are waning, and those who attempt to preserve them are railed as bigots and prejudiced (and some are), college debt is at an all time high, droughts and wildfires and hurricanes and tornadoes are off the charts in size and in damage, we have untold and almost across-the-board political corruption—all without mention of similar if not worse things happening overseas and no end in sight. 

To be frank, it's more than a little disconcerting for any twenty-something college student. Why on Earth would my generation ever want to raise children in our world? I feel sometimes like I've been set up for failure by the generation before me. But the world wasn't perfect then either. For them it was water fluoridation, missile crises, fear of a military draft, the ever-present nuclear threat from the USSR, Cuba, China, and North Korea. It was Communism, the Vietnam and Korean Wars, and moral disintegration. And yet they did it. Why did they do it, and why now should I?

It's built on faith. Let's go to a well-known Bible story. Daniel 3 tells of three young men, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They are Hebrews, but have been captured and taken to Babylon. Their names have been changed to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. After some time, King Nebuchadnezzar (we'll just stick to 'the King') came up with a law that dictated the worship of idols periodically throughout the day. Music would play at certain intervals, and when the people heard it, they would fall down and worship the idols he had set up. The king's decreed punishment for disobedience? "...if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" (Daniel 3:15, KJV) Sounds like overkill, but the law is the law, right? 

Yeah nope.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego weren't going to have it! This is their response in Daniel 3:16-18: "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up". This is true faith. Applied faith. It's great that they know enough to not worship false idols and to know that God has power to deliver them, but to realize, understand, and accept that they might just die anyway—that God might allow them to be killed? Now we can see true colors, true faith. They have the perspective. This is the God of Israel, the God that preserved Joseph in Egypt, the God of their fathers, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! They knew who He was, and were willing to trust Him with whatever might come their way. 

Another example, shorter this time, from the New Testament. Jesus Christ is in the Garden of Gethsemane, taking upon Himself the sins of the world, past, present, and future. This comes from the gospel of Matthew: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt", and again a few verses later, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." (Matthew 26:39, 42).  The Son of the Living God had just offered the most worthy prayer ever given; He prayed to His Father and asked if it had to be this way, if there wasn't some other way. He knew God, but those time there was not another way, and He did it anyway.

The outcomes of the two stories are different. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were spared, and the Messiah was crucified by the world he was trying to save...and yet God triumphs, because on the third day, Christ rose again from the tomb, breaking the chains of death and hell. The purposes of God were still accomplished, but in His time. 

Christ now beckons to us. "Be not faithless, but believing." (John 20:27) Have a little faith, He says. In some cases, we might need to square our shoulders and drink the bitter cup. But when you do, know that you stand, yolked with Christ. "The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" (D&C 122:8)

And so we press on, though at times the world is falling apart. If we need to fight, let's fight. But remember "He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be astill, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." (Psalms 46:9-11)

 So I still plan to go to college, marry, have children and raise a family. I plan on putting in the sweat, blood, and tears that will inevitably come, but I plan on being happy too, as the Lord told the prophet Enos "Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole." (Enos 1:8)

Submitted By: Elder Boyd Haskell