(The following is not formal church doctrine, rather it is one person's perspective. It makes a lot of sense to me and helped me to understand not only the difference between faith and hope, but also the relationship between the two)
Answer:
What a great question. Perhaps a good starting point is to turn to what Mormon taught his son, Moroni , about faith and hope. In Moroni 7:40-44 we read: “And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?
And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.
And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.
If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.”
In verse 40 it appears that hope has to precede faith. Then as you continue reading it says that “without faith there cannot be any hope”—which puts faith before hope. After puzzling over this one for some time it dawned on me that just as there are different levels or degrees of faith (see Alma 32), there are at least two levels of hope. So the formula would look something like this: “Hope-Faith-Hope.”
Let’s see if we can find an example to clarify what Mormon seems to be teaching. How can you have faith in God or life after death, or anything else unless you know they exist? So when you first learn about something desirable (i.e. eternal marriage), you “hope” it isn’t just a “pie-in-the-sky” idea that someone has thought up just to make us feel good.
That “hope” generates a desire in you to know if it is a true principle. Now you begin to study, ponder, meditate, pray, reason, and plant the seed of desire (again see Alma 32). The testimony begins to build within you. You can feel your faith increasing—something that you cannot generate yourself and those who have never paid the price can never understand. You know that the doctrine of eternal marriage is a reality and something you desire more than anything else (when it comes time to marry).
Now you find the man of your dreams and start talking about marriage. You have this growing faith that marriage can not only be “heaven on earth” but also that it can endure beyond the grave. So you take the steps necessary to prepare for a temple marriage (i.e. stay morally clean, keep your courtship on a celestial level, be active in the Church, study the scriptures, etc.). On your blessed and happy day, you kneel across the altar from each other in the temple full of faith that what you are doing and the simple words that are spoken will insure your relationship will not end at death. Now you are fired by the presence of the Spirit confirming to you that if you will continue to keep the covenants you made in the temple you are assured of an eternal relationship. That hope of eternal marriage grows brighter and brighter until eventually you have an absolute knowledge that you will be together forever. Until that time, your “hope” is carrying you through the tough times, enabling you to find happiness in the midst of the turmoil of life, and insuring that your faith has not been in vain.
Now a short re-cap of what I have written. Just as your knowledge of and desire for eternal marriage begins by being exposed to the doctrine, your hope may be very small at first because your knowledge of the doctrine is small. As you continue to learn and ponder and pray about it, that sparks the beginning of what will develop into faith. Just as faith isn’t a perfect knowledge at first, so your understanding isn’t perfect at first. The more you live, study, ponder, and pray, the stronger your faith becomes. That faith becomes powerful enough to enable you and your boyfriend to avoid the temptations that Satan constantly puts in your pathway to be immoral or at least inappropriately intimate before marriage. You both decide (based on the growing strength of your faith) that you will postpone being intimate until you are authorized by God.
Then the day is set for your marriage. That “tingling” feeling that you both experience isn’t just the anticipation of God-approved intimacy but a hope that this will be the beginning of an eternal relationship. You go to the temple and kneel at the altar. You have seen temple marriages fail before and wonder what happened since they seemed to be so much in love when they got married. Your determination is that the “D” word will never be mentioned or become an option in your marriage.
You exit the temple full of the Spirit, firm in the faith that what you have done has God’s approval, and fired with hope that you can live “happily ever after” in this life and gain eternal life in the world to come. Trials and problems arise (which is all part of the divine plan to prepare us for Godhood) but given the faith that you made the right choice of a mate before you married, and fired with the hope that you can not only survive but thrive in overcoming these challenges, you meet and overcome one obstacle after another. The more you meet the challenges of life together, the stronger your bond and love for each other becomes. Almost without notice you see your hope that your marriage can and will endure throughout eternity increase. Then one day after many years of struggling and conquering, you both receive a revelation that your hoped- for assurance of an eternal marriage is no longer in question but is a literal reality that has been “sealed upon you by the Holy Spirit of Promise.” Now all you have to do is valiantly endure to the end and your hope of eternal life will be a reality.
I hope this hasn’t been confusing. It took me some time of really working it through in my mind before it became crystal clear. So if my placing of the words has caused you not to understand, I apologize and hope that what I have written will at least point you in the right direction and give you a starting place to understand the wonderful hope-faith-hope formula for eternal life.
Bro. Bott (ldskyr.blogspot.com)
What a great question. Perhaps a good starting point is to turn to what Mormon taught his son, Moroni , about faith and hope. In Moroni 7:40-44 we read: “And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?
And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.
And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.
If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.”
In verse 40 it appears that hope has to precede faith. Then as you continue reading it says that “without faith there cannot be any hope”—which puts faith before hope. After puzzling over this one for some time it dawned on me that just as there are different levels or degrees of faith (see Alma 32), there are at least two levels of hope. So the formula would look something like this: “Hope-Faith-Hope.”
Let’s see if we can find an example to clarify what Mormon seems to be teaching. How can you have faith in God or life after death, or anything else unless you know they exist? So when you first learn about something desirable (i.e. eternal marriage), you “hope” it isn’t just a “pie-in-the-sky” idea that someone has thought up just to make us feel good.
That “hope” generates a desire in you to know if it is a true principle. Now you begin to study, ponder, meditate, pray, reason, and plant the seed of desire (again see Alma 32). The testimony begins to build within you. You can feel your faith increasing—something that you cannot generate yourself and those who have never paid the price can never understand. You know that the doctrine of eternal marriage is a reality and something you desire more than anything else (when it comes time to marry).
Now you find the man of your dreams and start talking about marriage. You have this growing faith that marriage can not only be “heaven on earth” but also that it can endure beyond the grave. So you take the steps necessary to prepare for a temple marriage (i.e. stay morally clean, keep your courtship on a celestial level, be active in the Church, study the scriptures, etc.). On your blessed and happy day, you kneel across the altar from each other in the temple full of faith that what you are doing and the simple words that are spoken will insure your relationship will not end at death. Now you are fired by the presence of the Spirit confirming to you that if you will continue to keep the covenants you made in the temple you are assured of an eternal relationship. That hope of eternal marriage grows brighter and brighter until eventually you have an absolute knowledge that you will be together forever. Until that time, your “hope” is carrying you through the tough times, enabling you to find happiness in the midst of the turmoil of life, and insuring that your faith has not been in vain.
Now a short re-cap of what I have written. Just as your knowledge of and desire for eternal marriage begins by being exposed to the doctrine, your hope may be very small at first because your knowledge of the doctrine is small. As you continue to learn and ponder and pray about it, that sparks the beginning of what will develop into faith. Just as faith isn’t a perfect knowledge at first, so your understanding isn’t perfect at first. The more you live, study, ponder, and pray, the stronger your faith becomes. That faith becomes powerful enough to enable you and your boyfriend to avoid the temptations that Satan constantly puts in your pathway to be immoral or at least inappropriately intimate before marriage. You both decide (based on the growing strength of your faith) that you will postpone being intimate until you are authorized by God.
Then the day is set for your marriage. That “tingling” feeling that you both experience isn’t just the anticipation of God-approved intimacy but a hope that this will be the beginning of an eternal relationship. You go to the temple and kneel at the altar. You have seen temple marriages fail before and wonder what happened since they seemed to be so much in love when they got married. Your determination is that the “D” word will never be mentioned or become an option in your marriage.
You exit the temple full of the Spirit, firm in the faith that what you have done has God’s approval, and fired with hope that you can live “happily ever after” in this life and gain eternal life in the world to come. Trials and problems arise (which is all part of the divine plan to prepare us for Godhood) but given the faith that you made the right choice of a mate before you married, and fired with the hope that you can not only survive but thrive in overcoming these challenges, you meet and overcome one obstacle after another. The more you meet the challenges of life together, the stronger your bond and love for each other becomes. Almost without notice you see your hope that your marriage can and will endure throughout eternity increase. Then one day after many years of struggling and conquering, you both receive a revelation that your hoped- for assurance of an eternal marriage is no longer in question but is a literal reality that has been “sealed upon you by the Holy Spirit of Promise.” Now all you have to do is valiantly endure to the end and your hope of eternal life will be a reality.
I hope this hasn’t been confusing. It took me some time of really working it through in my mind before it became crystal clear. So if my placing of the words has caused you not to understand, I apologize and hope that what I have written will at least point you in the right direction and give you a starting place to understand the wonderful hope-faith-hope formula for eternal life.
Bro. Bott (ldskyr.blogspot.com)
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