FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Detailed response to CES Letter, Testimony and Spiritual Witness
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| [[../Kinderhook Plates and Translator & Seer Claims Concerns & Questions|Kinderhook Plates and Translator/Seer Claims Concerns & Questions]] | A FAIR Analysis of:
[[../|Letter to a CES Director]] |
[[../Priesthood Restoration Concerns & Questions|Priesthood Restoration Concerns & Questions]] |
A FAIR Analysis of the online document Letter to a CES Director section "Testimony & Spiritual Witness Concerns & Questions"
And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24꞉32)
My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue. (Psalms 39꞉3)
What does a “burning in the bosom” mean? Does it need to be a feeling of caloric heat, like the burning produced by combustion? If that is the meaning, I have never had a burning in the bosom. Surely, the word “burning” in this scripture signifies a feeling of comfort and serenity. That is the witness many receive. That is the way revelation works.
—Dallin H. Oaks, "Teaching and Learning by the Spirit," Ensign (March 1997): 14.
- Response to section: "Every major religion has members who claim the same thing: God or God’s spirit bore witness to them"
- Response to section: "it would likewise be arrogant of a Latter-day Saint to deny their spiritual experiences and testimonies of the truthfulness of their own religion"
- Response to section: "If God’s method to revealing truth is through feelings, it’s a pretty ineffective method"
- Response to section: "Joseph Smith received a revelation, through the peep stone in his hat, to send Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery to Toronto, Canada for the sole purpose of selling the copyright of the Book of Mormon"
- Response to section: "I saw a testimony as more than just spiritual experiences and feelings. I saw that we had evidence and logic on our side based on the correlated narrative I was fed by the Church about its origins."
- Response to section: Paul H. Dunn
- Response to section: "a testimony is to be found in the bearing of it"
- Response to section: "how can they be sure of the reliability of this same exact process in telling them that Mormonism is true?"
- Response to section: "I felt the Spirit watching 'Saving Private Ryan' and the 'Schindler’s List'. Both R-rated and horribly violent movies. I also felt the Spirit watching 'Forrest Gump' and the 'Lion King'."
- Response to section: "Why did I feel the Spirit as I listened to the stories of apostates sharing how they discovered for themselves that Mormonism is not true?"