How Do We Gain “A Perfect Brightness of Hope”?

 My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Ether 12-15 in a lesson titled “By Faith All Things Are Fulfilled.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

Ether’s prophecies to the Jaredites were “great and marvelous” (Ether 12:5). He “told them of all things, from the beginning of man” (Ether 13:2). He foresaw “the days of Christ” and the latter-day New Jerusalem (Ether 13:4). And he spoke of “hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God” (Ether 12:4). But the Jaredites rejected his words, for the same reason people often reject the prophecies of God’s servants today – “because they [see] them not” (Ether 12:5). It takes faith to believe in promises or warnings about things we can’t see, just as it took faith for Ether to prophesy of “great and marvelous things” to an unbelieving people. It took faith for Moroni to trust that the Lord could take his “weakness in writing” and turn it into strength (see Ether 12:23-27). It’s this kind of faith that makes us “sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God” (Ether 12:4). And it’s this kind of faith by which “all things are fulfilled” (Ether 12:3).

There are at least four important principles in this scripture block. Three of those principles come from Ether 12, one of the most powerful chapters on faith in Jesus Christ in the scriptures. The three principles that I will not be discussing are (1) Faith in Jesus Christ can lead to miracles (Ether 12), (2) Jesus Christ can turn my weakness into strength (Ether 12:23-29), and (3) Rejecting the Lord’s prophets puts me in spiritual danger (Ether 13:13-22; 14-15). I will be discussing the fourth principle, even “Jesus Christ gives us ‘a more excellent hope’” (Ether 12:1-9, 28, 32).

Moroni, who wrote Ether 12, provided profound insights about faith in Ether 12, but he also wrote about “hope for a better world” (Ether 12:2-5). Ether had several reasons for having such hope: (1) he had the Spirit of the Lord with him (verse 2), (2) he knew that all things are fulfilled through faith in Jesus Christ (verse 3), (3) he believed in God (verse 4), and (4) he knew that hope is an anchor that makes the souls of men sure and steadfast, helps them to do good works, and will lead them to glorify God (verse 4).

Moroni also tells us that for which we should hope. In Ether 12:4, he tells us that we should hope “for a better world” at the “right hand of God. In Moroni 7:41, he tells us that we should have hope “to be raised unto life eternal” that will happen “through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection.”

Moroni also mentions “a more excellent hope” in Ether 12:32. Hope comes from faith in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ taught that His Father has many mansions. However, we must have faith, hope, and charity to receive “an inheritance in the place which thou hast prepared” (Ether 12:32).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke about “A Perfect Brightness of Hope” in the April 2020 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He closed his remarks with the following words: 

I give thanks, my brothers and sisters, for all we have been given in this last and greatest of all dispensations, the dispensation of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The gifts and blessings that flow from that gospel mean everything to me – everything to me – everything – so in an effort to thank my Father in Heaven for them, I have “promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” May we press forward with love in our hearts, walking in the “brightness of hope” that lights the path of holy anticipation we have been on now for 200 years. I testify that the future is going to be as miracle-filled and bountifully blessed as the past has been. We have every reason to hope for blessings even greater than those we have already received because this is the work of Almighty God, this is the Church of continuing revelation, this is the gospel of Christ’s unlimited grace and benevolence. I bear witness to all of these truths and so much more in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.