Here is a
quick quiz to critics of “Mormonism” and the LDS understanding of a testimony.
Who wrote the following?
The witness
of God the Holy Spirit
If our Christian assurance rests primarily on
the finished work of God the Son, who died for our sins, and secondarily on the
word of God the Father, who promises salvation to those who trust in Christ
crucified, its third ground is the witness—both internal and external—of God the Holy Spirit.
Consider his
inward witness first. The wisdom of mistrusting our feelings has already been
mentioned. Because they fluctuate, they are an unreliable guide to our
spiritual state. Yet feelings have a
place in our Christian assurance—not the fickle flutters of a shallow emotion,
but the steady increase of a deepening
conviction. Of this the New Testament speaks. It is the work of the
indwelling Spirit. We sometimes over-emphasize his work of pricking our
conscience and convicting us of sin. He certainly does this. But it is also his
gracious work to pacify our consciences,
calm our fears, and counter out doubts with his gentle reassurance.
Paul alludes twice in his Letter to the
Romans to this inward work of the Spirit. In Romans 5:5 he writes that ‘God has
poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us’,
and in Romans 8:16 that ‘the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we
are God’s children’, especially when he prompts us to cry ‘Abba, Father’ (verse
15). Do we sometimes become profoundly
aware that God has set his love upon us, that the old tension and friction between
him and us has given place to reconciliation, and that his arms enfold and
uphold us? It is the witness of the Spirit Do we sense in prayer that we are in
right relationship with God, that his smile is upon us, that he is our Father
and we are his children? Again, it is the witness of the Spirit. He ports God’s
love into our hearts and he makes God’s fatherhood a reality to us. Sometimes
his witness is quiet and undemonstrative. At other times, as Christian people
in different ages and cultures have testified, it can become an overwhelming
experience of his presence and mercy.
I know some
will think it is a LDS Church leader; some might think it is a LDS manual for
missionaries or investigators; perhaps you think it comes from FAIRMormon or
another LDS apologetics group. Well, no, sorry. It comes from a work of a well
respected Protestant scholar and theologian:
John Stott, Christian Basics: A Handbook of Beginnings,
Beliefs and Behaviour (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1991), 32-33,
emphasis added.
For many similar quotes about the internal witness of the Spirit from Protestant works, see:
Protestant Fideism Part 2: The "Testimonies" of Evangelical Anti-Mormons: Nothing but Subjective Feelings
Two Evangelical Protestant Scholars Sounding Very "Mormon" on the Spirit and Knowledge of the Canon
Two Evangelical Protestant Scholars Sounding Very "Mormon" on the Spirit and Knowledge of the Canon