Talk given by Chauncey Riddle
23 October 1990,
at Weber State College Institute, Ogden, Utah
Suppose with me for a moment. Let’s pretend that you have acquired a passion for Granny Smith apples. You buy and keep them on hand whenever you can, and enjoy them every day while the supply lasts. You become so fond of the fruit that you decide to plant a Granny Smith apple tree. A fast trip to the nursery, a quick hole dug, and the tree is on its way. Then you settle down to wait.
The next spring the little Granny Smith tree puts forth leaves and grows apace, but no blossoms. Ah, but the tree is just a young thing you sigh, and wait till next spring. But the next spring there are again many leaves and much growth, but no blossoms. You decree patience and settle down to tend the tree and wait another year. You wait another year, and another, and another—what on earth could be wrong?
At this point you demand knowledge. You search for someone who will tell you what to do. You don’t want to fool around any more. You demand an expert witness who will help you to solve your problem.
You first encounter Neighbor One. One is a very smart fellow; he reads all kinds of things all the time. He tells you that he has read that cutting the bark of the tree all the way around the tree will scare it into producing blossoms the next year. “What! Kill my tree!” you explode. Neighbor one says all he knows is that he read it in a book and suggests you go read the book for yourself.
Dissatisfied, you pin down Neighbor Two. “I’m desperate,” you say. “What can I do to get my Granny Smith tree to blossom?” Neighbor Two says that it is easy. Last year he watched Neighbor Three go out to his apple tree one fine spring day and cut the bark all the way around the trunk of the tree. This spring the tree is loaded with blossoms for the first time.
By now the idea of girdling the tree isn’t quite as new and alarming. But you are properly concerned. Is it possible that the girdling of the tree followed by the blossoming this year was pure coincidence? Thanking Two you seek out Neighbor Three with your problem.
It turns out that Neighbor Three loves plants and trees and has been pursuing horticultural expertise for half a century. His yard shows it; it is a veritable Garden of Eden. He receives your query with a smile and takes you out to his yard.
Says he, “To get an apple tree to blossom sooner than normal, you must girdle the tree in the spring between the time of leafing out and before the hot weather comes. I have used this technique on hundreds of trees with positive results, and have never lost a tree in the process. Come look at these apple trees and you can see the scars of my therapeutic girdling. It really works.” Then he takes you to one of his new trees and coaches you while you girdle his tree so that it will blossom next spring.
Now you are assured. You hasten home, girdle your own tree and sit back with grateful anticipation for a tree full of blossoms in one more year. And it does work. You enjoy your Granny Smith apples ever after.
What these three good neighbors illustrate is three kinds or degrees of knowledge. Let us examine each of these kinds.
Neighbor One gave you a witness based on understanding. He had strong associations in his mind about the way the phloem and the zylem work in the cambium layer of the bark of a tree and understood that interrupting the flow process would produce the desired result. This was book learning. It turned out to be true, but you were not sufficiently assured by it. You demanded a better kind of testimony before you would act. Neighbor One’s kind of knowledge is called by the word wissen in German, and is the root of our English word “witness.” The corresponding word in Spanish is saber; in French it is savoir. This is the kind of knowledge all of us get out of history books or from reading scientific explanations of things unfamiliar to us.
Neighbor Two gave you a witness based on a second kind of knowledge. He had actually seen the process performed. Had he seen the process without understanding it, even seeing would not have helped, for he could have supposed as you first did that girdling was an attempt to kill the tree. But Neighbor Two was an eye-witness to something that worked. His testimony to you brought the problem out of the realm of the theoretical to the arena of actual and personal experience. The German word for this kind of knowledge is kennen or erkennen; in Spanish it is conocer, in French it is conaitre. This is the kind of knowledge we all get as we travel or as we go to the zoo or inspect a factory. It is better than mere understanding of what one is seeing. Without understanding, seeing is essentially blind.
Neighbor Three bore the strongest witness of the three. He not only had understanding of trees and had seen what he was talking about, he had actually performed the operation in question successfully and many times. This kind of knowledge, the ability to do, is called konnen in German, as in “Ich kann Deutsch:” I know how to speak German. When you find someone who understands a matter, is personally acquainted with what he is talking about, and has learned how to control the thing in question to produce desired results when necessary, you have someone who really knows what he is talking about. He bears a strong testimony.
A person can have a testimony of anything, any subject matter, and can have it in any of the three kinds or degrees we have mentioned. If you want knowledge of the usefulness of a new medicine or of what will make your garden grow, or of how to extract oil from shale efficiently, you would do well to use these three kinds of knowing. But you will quickly discover that you know best only when you can do, when you can control the thing you are studying. Thoughtful and intelligent persons seek out and construct a testimony of what is important to them. They search for the knowledge and assurance that they are not being fooled, that they can rely on the information they have.
A testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can also come in these same kinds and degrees. Let us explore the evidences and experiences which make for these three kinds of knowledge, of testimony.
The first kind of knowledge, understanding can come by any of the standard ways in which we humans know things, and each of these can be an important piece of information to bolster our testimony of the Restored Gospel, the Restored Church, and the Savior. You may gain understanding by the testimony of others. If you know intelligent, reliable people who say that they know the gospel is true, that should strengthen you.
If you learn the gospel message and see how the scriptures give a consistent account of it in all ages, that consistency begins to satisfy the desire in you to be reasonable. As you see the beauty of the gospel system and how there is an answer for everything which we need to know at this time, your reason is further assured.
If empirical evidence is your demand, it is furnished. The Book of Mormon is a solid piece of such empirical evidence. It exists; you can pick up a copy in your hand. The question is, of course, how did it come to be? Books don’t grow on trees. All of them are written by people. So who wrote the book? Joseph Smith’s contemporaries, friend and foe alike, agreed that he could not have written it. If not he, then who did write it? The search of all the enemies of the church is to find another author. But they have looked in vain. No other hypotheses fits the known historic facts to this day except the explanation offered by Joseph himself: He translated it by the gift and power of God from ancient plates, but did not author it. The Book of Mormon is solid empirical evidence for a testimony of the Restored Gospel because it is the only explanation which fits the known historic facts.
Suppose you insist on statistical evidence. You want to see the Restored Gospel correlated with something very beneficial in a contrast which assures that the correlation did not occur by chance. To satisfy this demand you might look at health statistics. It is noteworthy that persons who live the gospel standards are markedly more healthy than the general population. While not an overwhelming piece of evidence in itself, it nevertheless is an evidence and fills a place in one’s scheme of things.
If you demand pragmatic evidence that the Restored Gospel is true, you may just look at the lives of recent converts. The gospel changes their lives. As they accept and live the teachings, they become different persons, uplifted and enlightened, more hopeful, more helpful, more cheerful, nicer to be around. The Restored Gospel works. It lifts and ennobles lives, and therefore is good.
Each of these five kinds of evidence; authoritarian, rational, empirical, statistically empirical and pragmatic give a person understanding that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ might be true. I say “might be” because not one of them or the collection of them is solid, sufficient evidence. All of these things are circumstantial evidence. They are what the scriptures call signs. Included in this category is archaeological evidence like the tree of life stolen from Central America and the corroboration of other documents (like the Dead Sea scrolls), mention of the stick of Ephraim in the Old Testament, and many other such evidences like the archaeological evidence found on the shores of the Indian Ocean in Oman that match the Book of Mormon description of the land Bountiful where Nephi and his brothers built the ship that carried to the Promised Land. One would rightfully be very uneasy in believing that the Restored Gospel could be true if one had no such signs or circumstantial evidence.
The second kind of knowledge is conocer knowledge, or that which we personally have experienced. The message of the Restored Gospel is delivered with the promise that is we pray in faith, in the name of Jesus Christ, we may receive a divine spiritual assurance that the gospel is true, that the Restored Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ, and that Joseph Smith was his prophet. This knowledge cannot be a physical or earthly thing. It must be from out of this world, from a recognizably divine source, to suffice. It exists only when we do pray in faith and in the name of Jesus Christ about the gospel and do actually receive some kind of answer, a personal and spiritual answer, which speaks to our heart and mind in a way that no earthly, physical or human source can.
The very point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that to do good we must receive help from him, from outside this mortal sphere. Getting an answer from outside of this mortal sphere is thus the only sufficient basis for knowing that the Restored Gospel is true. If there is nothing outside of the mortal sphere, the gospel could not be true. If we receive a message from outside that sphere, then we are assured that the general hypothesis might be true. And if the witness we receive from that source is that the Restored Gospel is true, then and only then do we begin to have a solid base of evidence of the truthfulness of the gospel.
The first kind of knowledge, the sandy foundation, is knowledge about the gospel. The second kind of knowledge, receiving an answer from God, is building our house upon the rock. Now we have real assurance that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. This is knowledge of the gospel, for the message is beginning to work in our lives. What is says is true in our own experience. But our knowledge could yet be more sure. We must now add the third kind of knowledge.
The third kind of knowledge, the surest kind, comes only from doing. It is the knowledge that one possesses who has used an idea or technique over and over again with good results. As applied to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this sure knowledge is only obtained by those who live the gospel and do the works consistently, over some period of time. It is the voice of faithful experience.
Whenever the power of God comes to a person to give that person personal knowledge of the second kind, a divine witness that the gospel is true, another kind of message always accompanies that attestation of truth: there is always an instruction to do something. That something to do is a moral obligation. It is what the Lord requires of those who come to learn wisdom at his hand. He is not primarily a God of truth, though he certainly is a God of truth. He primarily a God of wisdom. Wisdom is doing what is right, the most intelligent thing to do. Our God wants us to become wise, as he is. Therefore, he never speaks to us without instructing us to do something wise.
The very point of being mortal is to have the opportunity to choose between good and evil. Good is righteousness, God’s wisdom. Evil is anything else. Human beings profit from mortality only as they choose and do good when instructed as to how to be wise by God. One can gain a testimony that the gospel is true without being wise, without doing whatever it is that God says to do. But one cannot be wise without a testimony. For only through receiving a testimony can one also receive those instructions which lead to the kind of wisdom which makes possible a place in the kingdom of God.
As a person receives instruction from God along with the assurance that the gospel is true, certain kinds of actions are commended by that divine influence. One is guided from time to time to be more kindly, to be more generous, to pray and fast for others, to share one’s food with the hungry and one’s clothing with those who have none. One is told to believe only that which is attested to from above, and to do only that which can be done in love. One is told to eschew all pride, anger, covetousness, hypocrisy and greed. One is told to seek to perfect one’s soul rather that to seek wealth. One is told to marry and raise a family in the nurture of the Lord rather than to fall into the ways of the world. One is called to serve missions, to witness of Jesus Christ, to share the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to strengthen those who have covenanted with Christ. Through faithful obedience and heartfelt sacrifice the servant of Christ does His will and knows of the doctrine. He knows the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true because it works, because there is divine testimony and guidance, and because following that divine guidance leads to the works of love, which are good. There can be no surer knowledge that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.
Looking back over all of this we now see that a testimony of Jesus Christ and his Restored Gospel consists of all three kinds of knowledge. It consists of understanding, sandy as such a foundation might be. It consists of personal knowledge through the revelation of God’s voice as received from another world. This personal revelation is the rock of testimony. It brings sure knowledge. This rock is solid enough and broad enough that each of us may build our house on it. That rock will never leave us wanting when the winds and waves of time and temptation come to try all things. But only as we build our house upon that rock do we really profit from having a foundation, a testimony. The house we build with our good deeds becomes the habitation for ourselves and our posterity in eternity. By godly means we may build a godly house on the rock of Christ himself. All other works will be washed away when the time of reckoning comes.
The reason for having a testimony is the reason that God gives each person a testimony if they honestly seek it: so that we can do God’s good works and be a bastion of love and blessing to all those we know, both in time and in eternity.
Thinking back over all of this, let us now review the laws and principles of testimony that relate to what has already been said.
Principle 1: Testimonies of the work of Jesus Christ come in many degrees. Some persons claim testimonies even without any basis to do so. Such testimonies are not helpful to anyone. Some persons do have circumstantial evidence that the gospel is true and have the beginnings of a real testimony. Others have better knowledge because they know by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ. Those who know best are those whose lives have been filled with doing good and godly works of compassion under God’s direction. Then they really know and their testimony is almost as powerful as human testimony can be. What they then know surely is God’s goodness, which is a greater testimony even than knowing that he lives. The final and climactic knowledge of Christ is that which comes to his faithful servants when he comes to one of them, embraces him or her, and says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
Principle 2. God gives mortals a sure testimony of his work not only so that they can know the truth, but more so that they can live as he does and come and dwell with him. Some human beings want to know the truth, but are not particularly interested in doing what God says. God seldom gives such persons a testimony.
Even the manifestation of the truth of the gospel is temporary if the person does not do the good works. To do the good works is to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus. Not to do them is to know of Christ but to be ashamed of him. Mercifully, many who are ashamed of him come to forget that he once spoke to them. The memory of his speaking to them fades or is pushed away, and they are left to flounder in misery with those who know not Christ. But they are different. They have had their opportunity to know and do good.
Principle 3. No one is or can be saved until they obtain a testimony. Only in Christ can any man be saved. We are saved by Christ only after all we can do. What we can do is receive wisdom, gifts and power from God and by those means do good in the earth. But the wisdom, gifts and power come only to those who accept and depend upon a testimony. But a testimony by itself saves no one.
Principle 4. All lasting testimonies of God are created by the possessor. If a person wants a testimony, he or she must seek evidence. When the evidence is found, it must be carefully marshalled until it is sufficient to depend on. A person may have all the materials for a testimony, yet not want to put them together. Thus Laman and Lemuel had no testimony even though they had received many marvelous signs and manifestations. They did not want a testimony, apparently because they did not want to do the good works of God.
Thus, a person who does not want a testimony will not be bothered by one until it is too late. It is too late when the time of repentance is in the past. Even after it is too late, every human being will construct a testimony, for each will eventually have such overwhelming evidence that God lives and loves that every tongue will confess the same. Many will then have to admit that they really knew this all along.
Principle 5. Bearing a testimony of what we understand about the gospel is the weakest and least helpful testimony. This testimony is sand to us and to anyone who receives it. Sand makes a good back fill, but surely is no foundation for a house of good works.
Principles 6. Bearing a testimony of our spiritual experiences is a strong and valid witness. This kind of testimony encourages others to seek to be founded on the rock, to know for sure for themselves.
Principle 7. Bearing a testimony by our good works (not by speaking about them, but simply by doing them) is the strongest testimony we can bear that God truly lives and is good. To speak of them is a sort of bragging and leads to pride. It may entice others to seek the power of God so they can bear similar testimony rather than for the correct reason of wanting to bless others.
Principle 8. Bearing a sure testimony of personal spiritual experience coupled with the silent testimony of good deeds done as obedience to God provides the greatest help to others. This is the maximum that any human being can do to assist another to be saved. No human being can save anyone else. But doing this will be the greatest of all helps.
Principle 9. A person can construct a testimony of anything. People build and bear testimonies about foods that taste good, medicines that work, friends that are true, books that are insightful, experiences that are breathtaking. But only one testimony is a foundation upon which salvation can come, the testimony of Jesus Christ and his New and Everlasting Covenant.
Principle 10. The most intelligent way to live is first to seek and build a testimony of Jesus Christ, then to build a house of good works on that foundation. Many of us seem content to wait until we have had our fun or until we are at the end of our lives to find the rock. But then it is sometimes too late to build a house on it.
In conclusion, I bear to you my testimony that Jesus Christ lives, that his work is sweet, and that his burden is light. I have learned that if we do not try to please the world, but only try to please him, we will be able to please him and at the same time do everything in this world which he appoints as our mission. He is a good master. He has the words and the power of life. Of this I bear solemn witness, in the beloved name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Creating a Testimony Handout
- Testimony is:
- Knowledge that we have.
- Witness we bear of the knowledge we have.
- Traditional ways of knowing:
- Authoritarianism
- Rationalism
- Empiricism
- Statistical Empiricism
- Pragmatism
- Mysticism
- Scepticism
- Fabrication
- Scholarship
- Science
All of the traditional methods of knowing focus primarily on truth. But none of the traditional methods can guarantee truth. At the best they afford ability.
- There is another, almost forgotten way of knowing: It is the knowledge of good and evil. Good is righteousness. Evil is anything else. (Moses 4:3–13)
- Difference between focus on truth and the focus on righteousness.
Salary:
- Truth: Did I get paid all to which I am entitled?
- Righteousness: Did I give everything to my work that I should have?
Football:
- Truth: Will we win the game?
- Righteousness: Will we play honorably?
Money:
- Truth: Will this stock go up and make me a lot of money?
- Righteousness: Should I support this business?
Salvation:
- Truth: Will I be saved?
- Righteousness: Can I help someone to be saved?
- Note: An enquirer after truth is likely to be selfish.
- There is no way to get at righteousness through truth.
The best way to get at truth is through righteousness. - Righteousness is a personal relationship with God. It begins with the light of Christ, develops through receiving the witness of the Holy Spirit, and is fulfilled through the ordinances of the New and Everlasting Covenant.
- He who ignores good and evil rejects righteousness, and therefore rejects God.
- He who cultivates the knowledge of good and evil until he can discern each clearly will then be able to tell the good spirit from the evil spirit. (The evil spirit will sometimes tell the truth, but never will commend righteousness.)
- He who can tell the good spirit treasures the witness of Christ given by the Holy Ghost.
- He who treasures the witness of Christ comes unto Christ and makes covenants with Him, with Father, and with the Holy Ghost.
- He who loves righteousness does the works of Christ, which is to build a house upon the rock of revelation.
- He who has built his house upon the rock is entitled to know all things. Nothing can be kept from him.
- He who pretends no knowledge of good and evil is left out of all eternal things until he can get the fundamentals straight, and get on the path of righteousness.
- The tests of truth given in the scriptures only work for one who already has sorted out good from evil: Alma 32:28, Moroni 7:16–17
- Conclusion: Anyone who wants a testimony can surely build one if he or she will begin at the right place, with careful attention to good and evil. This is a matter of the heart. Only through the heart can a person surely learn real truth and have a sure testimony of the truth of the important things about mortality. Testimony is a matter of heart and mind, and only when both are satisfied in the actual work of righteousness with the flesh will a person have the surest testimony.
- The surest testimony comes when the Savior comes to a person, embraces him or her, and says: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
- May everyone who desires to have this surest of all testimonies gain it, soon.