Alma 32:21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
Alma had a lot to say about faith and knowledge and comparing the gospel to a seed, and frankly, I'm not sure I fully understand him. In verse 21, he says that "faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things," a point that he reiterates in verse 26, but he also makes some points that seem to contradict each other when it comes to trying the word.
In verses 33 and 34, he suggests that our knowledge can become perfect after a simple experiment:
33 And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good.
34 And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant; and this because you know, for ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and your mind doth begin to expand.
Yet, even then, he still says that our knowledge isn't perfect:
35 O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good; and now behold, after ye have tasted this light is your knowledge perfect?
36 Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither must ye lay aside your faith, for ye have only exercised your faith to plant the seed that ye might try the experiment to know if the seed was good.
So, faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things, and even after we've tried experiments and gained a perfect knowledge (at least in some things), we still need to not lay aside our faith.
Maybe it's just too late at night and my brain is too tired to fully understand this, but it seems to me that perfect, 100% certain knowledge is hard to come by and that a certain element of faith will always be required. We can conduct experiments, and we can gain some perfect knowledge from those experiments, but there's still going to be a lot of stuff that we have to take on faith.
Alma 32:21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
The trouble is, since faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things, we can't always have a perfect knowledge of what's true or not. That's kind of what I was talking about last night. We can have faith, and we can certainly feel sure and act as though we're sure, but unless we have a perfect knowledge, we can't know for certain whether that the thing we have faith in is true. Without that perfect knowledge, we have to admit that there's a possibility that we're wrong.
That's where the faith comes in. God often asks us to walk by faith, even without a perfect knowledge. He asks us to act with confidence, even when we're uncertain. When we walk by faith, miracles can happen, The thing is, without a certain knowledge, we can't be sure what's going to happen, and maybe that's what gives God the opportunity to surprise us.
Look, I'm not going to pretend I fully understand the concepts of faith and knowledge. In fact, I think it would be arrogant to claim to have a perfect understanding of any subject. We think we know things, but how much do we actually know? I think God allows there to be gaps in our knowledge, partly because there's too much knowledge to be gained in one lifetime, and partly so we can learn to trust in Him and have faith in Him, even when our knowledge isn't perfect.
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