I was reading through Moses chapter 6 recently and when I got to the end of verse 61, I noticed something familiar. Toward the end of the verse are the 6 attributes of God as described in Lecture 4 of the Lectures on Faith.
Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment.
Moses 6:61
Compare with the 6 attributes of God from Lecture 4:
- Knowledge
- Faith or Power
- Justice
- Judgement
- Mercy
- Truth
What stands out is that this developmental gap between Moses and the Lectures quietly exposes a function of the Holy Spirit that is often assumed but rarely stated with precision.
The Book of Moses emerges from Joseph Smith’s earliest revelatory period, (1830-1831) a time when theology is presented narratively rather than analytically. God is known by encounter, by voice, by covenant, and by transformation.
There is no attempt to catalog divine qualities. Instead, those qualities are imparted as men enter into relationship with God. Adam, Enoch, and their people do not study attributes; they acquire them through obedience, repentance, and reception of the Spirit.
By the time of the Lectures on Faith, (1834-1835) the question has shifted. The concern is no longer how God transforms humanity, but how faith itself operates. Lecture 4 does not attempt to list everything God is.
It isolates the attributes that must be trusted if faith is to function at all. These are not exhaustive qualities of God’s being. They are the minimum conditions for relational confidence.
This is where the Holy Spirit becomes decisive.
The Spirit does not merely inform man about God’s attributes. It reproduces them. As a person comes to know God’s character, attributes, and perfections, those same qualities begin to take shape within the believer through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Faith bears fruit not because one assents to correct propositions, but because the Spirit is actively conforming the believer to the God in whom that faith is placed.
Seen this way, Lecture 4 is not abstract theology.
It is a diagnostic threshold. If these attributes are absent, faith cannot live. If they are present, faith grows because the Spirit is already at work, making the believer increasingly like the God they trust.
What Moses presents as lived transformation, the Lectures articulate as theological necessity. They are not competing visions. They are different lenses on the same divine process.
The Holy Spirit both reveals who God is and imparts what God is like, so that faith is not merely belief about God, but participation in His life.
