Saturday, January 6, 2024

John A. Widtsoe on Faith and Baptism

  

Faith. (Heb. 11:1; Alma 32:31; Moroni 7:40; Romans 8:24, 25; Matt. 7:17.) Faith is the first and fundamental law or principle of progress. Faith is a certainty of knowledge. It is the highest form of knowledge, since it employs in its establishment every power of man. Knowledge tested and tried is then the beginning of faith. For that reason “it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.” (D. & C. 131:6.)

 

The extent of a person’s faith depends on the amount of his knowledge. The more knowledge he gathers, the more extensive becomes his field of faith. The degree of faith possessed by any man depends not upon the extent of his knowledge, but upon the certainty of the truth of his knowledge. Thus a man of great knowledge may have weak faith, while one of limited information may have strong faith.

 

Faith pertains to living beings and therefore it active, growing, ever increasing. No man has a fulness of faith. Living faith leads its possessor to works corresponding to his knowledge. “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead.” (James 2:17.)

 

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Baptism. (John 3:5; D. & C. 112:29.) The third law and the first ordinance of the Gospel, derived from the two preceding ones, requires the candidate to enter into agreement with God, to accept the plan and to conform to its requirements. The physical sign of this agreement is the ordinance of baptism.

 

All ordinances of the Church are symbolic. Man believes in a world of symbols. Language itself is but a series of symbols of that which we sense and think. L-O-V-E is but a poor symbol of the most beautiful thing in the world.

 

Baptism is, first, a physical witness of the faith and repentance of the candidate. Second, it is, as it were, the signature of the covenant to accept, and to obey the plan of salvation. Third, the mode of baptism, by immersion, is an acceptance of the leadership of Jesus the Christ, for the temporary burial in the water symbolizes the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, and becomes also a promise of man’s resurrection from the grave. Fourth, baptism has a cleansing effect. As water is a cleansing agent, so baptism, with all that has preceded it, will prevent the pats errors of the candidate from standing in a way of his future progress. He may have to pay the physical price for his errors, but they will not henceforth handicap him in his battle for celestial glory. Fifth, baptism is the authorized mode of entrance into the Church of Christ. (John A. Widtsoe, Program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: The Deseret News Press, 1937], 213-15)