Since the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830, its adherents have sought, found, and enjoyed publishing evidences in its support. What spiritual value do such evidences have? How do bits of knowledge contribute to an increase of faith? How do reason and revelation work together? What is evidence, and how is it related to faith? Without diminishing the essential power of the Holy Ghost in bearing testimony, and knowing that we cannot prove anything in absolute terms, I still speak favorably about the power of evidence. It is an important ingredient in Heavenly Father's plan of happiness.

Both Reason and Revelation

Basic to the discussion of evidence and faith is the relationship between reason and revelation. One of my favorite scriptures is Doctrine and Covenants 88:118, a text that is posted conspicuously on a plaque in the old stairwell between the third and fourth floors of the Harold B. Lee Library: "As all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith." We would do well to post this verse in our own libraries. This passage gives significant place to the role of scholarship in the restored church. It commands us to "seek" (which would include doing research) and to seek "diligently" (we must do it thoroughly and carefully); it obligates us to teach one another (to share our findings generously) and to draw out of "the best books" (which cautions us that some books will be better than others); and it tells us to do all this "even by study and also by faith" (in other words, both are required). Nothing is more fundamental for a Latter-day Saint scholar than to maintain a proper balance between the intellectual and spiritual pursuits of life.

Many church leaders and authors have written about study and faith, and everyone agrees that we should have both.¹ President Gordon B. Hinckley has said: "There is incumbent upon each of us… the responsibility to observe the commandment to study and to learn. … None of us can assume that we have learned enough."² Elder Neal A. Maxwell has affirmed: "If there is sometimes too little respect for the life of the mind, it is a localized condition and is not institutional in character."³ "The Lord sees no conflict between faith and learning in a broad curriculum. … The scriptures see faith and learning as mutually facilitating, not separate processes."⁴ Elder Boyd K. Packer has said: "Each of us must accommodate the mixture of reason and revelation in our lives. The gospel not only permits but requires it."⁵

The difficult problem is not whether to have both study and faith but how to get these two together and in what order of priority or in what type of combination. In attempting to describe or prescribe the proper coordination of study with faith, LDS thinkers have turned or may turn to various analogies, as we often must when we are confronted with our deepest intellectual or religious concepts. Each of these metaphors is potentially quite powerful. Some work better than others, but each may offer insight into the roles of scholarly evidence in nurturing or strengthening faith.

Some analogies emphasize that both study and faith are necessary. In the bicycle-built-for-two metaphor, the relationship between reason and revelation is likened to two riders on a tandem bicycle. When both riders pedal together, the bicycle (the search for truth) moves ahead more rapidly. Each rider must work, or the other must bear a heavy and perhaps exhausting burden; but only one (that is faith) can steer and determine where the bicycle will go, although the other (reason) can do some backseat driving.

In another metaphor, these two necessary elements are brought together as in a marriage, with "all the tension, adjustments, frustration, joys, and ecstasy one finds in a marriage between man and woman."⁶

Similarly, the apostle Paul used the human body as a strong metaphor to show the need for many parts in an organic whole. It would be unseemly for "the head [to say] to the feet, I have no need of you"; they are "many members, yet but one body" (1 Corinthians 12:20-21). As B. H. Roberts has cautioned, let us not have "the heart breathing defiance to the intellect."⁷ And one might equally add, let us also not have the intellect pounding submission to the heart.

Specific Ways Evidence Nurtures Faith

Although we should not expect to find a sign somewhere that says "Nephi slept here" or a drop of blood on the Mount of Olives that establishes the truth of Christ's ordeal in Gethsemane,⁸ the world has been told to expect circumstantial evidences of the truth. An 1842 editorial announcing some archaeological discoveries in Central America that was published in the Times and Seasons when Joseph Smith was editor boldly asserts: "We can not but think the Lord has a hand in bringing to pass his strange act, and proving the Book of Mormon true in the eyes of all the people. … It will be as it ever has been, the world will prove Joseph Smith a true prophet by circumstantial evidence, in experiments, as they did Moses and Elijah."⁹

Without overstating the value of these factors, evidence plays several specific roles in the cultivation of faith. Comments by General Authorities and personal experiences by many people are instructive and have affirmed various functions.

Elder John A. Widtsoe taught that evidence can remove honest doubt and give assurances that build faith. "After proper inquiries, using all the powers at our command," he said, "the weight of evidence is on one side or the other. Doubt is removed."¹⁰ "Doubt of the right kind—that is, honest questioning—leads to faith" and "opens the door to truth,"¹¹ for where there is doubt, faith cannot thrive. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith likewise affirmed that evidence, as convincing as in any court in the land, proves "beyond the possibility of doubt that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery spoke the truth."¹²

Over and over, I have found that solid research confirms the revelations of God. As Elder Maxwell has stated, "That a truth is given by God and then is confirmed through scholarship makes it no less true."¹³ President Hinckley has said that in a world prone to demand evidence, it is good that archaeology, anthropology, or historical research can "be helpful to some" and "confirmatory."¹⁴