Tuesday, February 18, 2020

The Witness of God the Holy Spirit


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: