Thursday, January 12, 2023

Thom Hobson: Both the LDS and Reformed Traditions Appeal to the Testimony of the Spirit as the Ultimate Truth of God's Truth

Thom Hobson, a Protestant and critic of the Church, wrote the following:

 

For many Latter-day Saints, the testimony of the Holy Ghost in their hearts overrules any amount of evidence one might share with them to persuade them to change their belief. Moroni 10:4 in the Book of Mormon says that if we ask god whether the book’s message is true, “he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.” Likewise, the Protestant Westminster Confession of Faith (1:5) says that “our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority [of the Bible] is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.” Both traditions teach that the testimony of the Spirit is the ultimate confirmation of God’s truth. (Thom Hobson, The Historical Jesus and the Historical Joseph Smith [Nashville, Tenn.: Elm Hill, 2019], 5, emphasis added)

 

Hobson, of course, tries to claim that the Protestant appeal to the Holy Spirit is backed up by the facts, and (falsely) that the LDS claims are not. And even then, he is forced at times to admit things like the following:

 

. . . there are some parts of our canonical Gospels that require faith beyond what history can establish . . . (Ibid., 19)

 

Further Reading:

 

Personal Divine Revelation and the Knowledge the Bible is the Word of God and/or one is "Saved" in the Protestant Traditions