President N. Eldon Tanner explained: ’The scriptures give us evidence of the reality and personality of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. In order to believe in God it is necessary for us to understand his nature and attributes. Our faith in him must be based on true principles. Faith will avail us nothing if it is based on a false premise. For example, some of the early American colonists in dealing with the Indians gave them gunpowder to plant with the promise that they could raise a crop of gunpowder. In explicit faith the Indians planted the gunpowder, but of course they harvested nothing from their efforts because their faith was based on falsehood.“ (CR, April 1978, p. 20.)”
“Which Are True”
Alma defines faith as the “hope for things which are not seen” and adds the very important qualification “which are true.” Faith cannot successfully be exercised in falsehoods or untruths. Gods of wood and stone, gods created by the hands of men, cannot dispense the blessings of heaven. Nor is such power found in gods created in the minds of men and crafted by the witchery of words. Sincerity is commendable.
Zeal is to be appreciated. But saving faith can be exercised only in that which is true. Some would like to suppose that these gods born of men share in heaven’s powers if worshipped with sufficient sincerity or pursued with zeal. Such is not the case. Miscalculated longitudes and latitudes, though coupled with sincerity and zeal. will not bring to the safety of its home port the ship lost at sea.
“If Ye Have Faith”
Joshua charged the children of Israel to “fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth” (Joshua 24:14). One can hardly imagine his having directed the Lord’s hosts to “fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and error,” or to serve him in “truth and hypocrisy.” The formula for heaven’s blessings is, and ever must be, that we worship in sincerity and in truth. Thus the Lord’s people in the last days have been charged to serve him “in righteousness and in truth unto the end” (D&C 76:5).
Illustrating this doctrine, Joseph Smith taught that is was through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ that Abel offered an animal sacrifice that was acceptable to God. “Cain,” however, “offered of the fruit of the ground, and was not accepted, because he could not do it in faith, he could have no faith, or could not exercise faith contrary to the plan of heaven,” which required the ritual to be a type of the shedding of Christ’s blood, the Prophet declared. (Teachings, p. 58.)