January 1985
1. Human beings have two parts or aspects:
- a. Outer: The physical body, which deals with earth and nature, other humans, human artifacts.
- b. Inner: Thoughts, feelings and desires; the good, the holy, the beautiful; the bad, the evil, the ugly.
Import: Each realm is very important: to neglect either is to fail as a human being.
2. There are two kinds of human knowledge (belief) which correspond to the two aspects of man.
| Public, physical knowledge, guided by: | Inner, personal knowledge, derived from: |
| Authority: What learned people say. | What happens when I yield to what is holy to me. |
| Reason: Ideas which are self-consistent. | What happens when I yield to what is evil to me. |
| Observation: What I personally sense. | What happens when I yield to my self-desires. |
| Pragmatics: What works in the realm of sense. | What happens when I just let things happen. |
3. When one has proved to be a responsible person and thinker in the everyday world, one is better prepared to make judgments in relation to the truth or falsity of religious hypotheses.
Problem: Are the Restored Gospel, Church and Priesthood of Jesus Christ true? Does the holy in my life assure me of the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel, and does the Holy Spirit guide and comfort me as I attempt to live it?
4. I can gather two kinds of knowledge to test that possibility. Examples:
| Public, physical knowledge: | Inner, personal knowledge: |
| Authority: Hearing the testimonies of reliable, trustworthy persons whom I know. | Prayer: expressions of gratitude, requests and answers. |
| Reason: completeness and consistency of the understanding of human life in the Restored Gospel. | Promptings: Faith and its results. |
| Observation: The existence of the Book of Mormon. The order and complexity of the universe. | Insight: Interpretations and understandings. |
| Pragmatics: Fulfilling of prophecy. Success of the believers; consequences of sin. | Gifts of the Spirit: Warnings, powers, blessings. |
- Import: Public knowledge can never force one to believe the Restored Gospel. Example: Laman and Lemuel.
- Since the Restored Gospel is essentially about inner things, only inner knowledge can establish its truthfulness.
- Import: Inner knowledge comes only as I experiment with inner things. I experiment only as I desire to do so. Therefore I gain the evidence that makes a testimony possible only as I desire to do so.
5. Question: Can I talk myself into a testimony? Answer: Can I talk myself into believing I have eaten when I have not? As I can test and prove things in physical knowledge, I can test and prove things in inner knowledge if I am willing to perform the necessary test and to make careful accounting of the results.
6. Physical, public evidence can greatly strengthen inner, personal knowledge of the truth of the Restored Gospel. Inner, personal knowledge can be likened to the warp of woven cloth. Public knowledge becomes the woof which when tightly woven into a strong warp, adds strength and substance to a testimony.
7. Qualities of testimony: Strong: Base for great faith and sacrifice. Weak: Cannot stand opposition. Sure: Sufficient evidence to surmount reasonable doubt: Daily contact with the enlarging and beneficent power of the Holy Spirit (Alma’s test). Unsure: Not enough experiments performed (faith) to be sure of the dependability of God. Present: Cooperation with the Holy Spirit today. Past: Memory of sure cooperation with the Holy Spirit, but no present cooperation.
8. Summary and Conclusions:
- a. The essence of testimony is present, inner experience with the Holy Spirit. Public, physical knowledge about the Restored Gospel is helpful but only when tightly woven into daily cooperation with the Holy Spirit.
- b. Inner experience, evidence, comes only through faith (after initial witness of the Holy Spirit). Doing!
- c. If a person hungers and thirsts after righteousness, he or she will perform the inner experiments necessary to gain a sure testimony of the Restored Gospel. Lacking that desire, no one can gain sure and lasting evidence.
- d. A testimony is always an inner, personal, non-transferable thing, a selected summary of the inner experiments of the person. Witness may be born, but the evidence cannot be transferred.
- e. Any person who has a sure testimony of the workings of the Holy Spirit through the laws and ordinances of the Restored Gospel can also endure to a sure knowledge of the Son and of the Father, if he or she so desires in faith.