What If Your LDS Testimony is Wrong?

John 4

If you were to ask a Latter-day Saint, "Why do you believe what you believe?" Many, if not most of them, would say, "Because I've received a testimony, a supernatural spiritual confirmation from God that tells me that what I believe is actually true." For a lot of Latter-day Saints, this testimony is so powerful that it can eclipse other concerns they have about their faith. If God himself confirms that the content of their belief is true, that the Book of Mormon really is a true book, that the modern prophets really are prophets sent from God, well then all of the difficulties and all of the questions have an answer, even if that answer hasn't been revealed yet.

For the record, I agree with this in principle. If God really does reveal something to be true, then that's true, even if we haven't fleshed out all the difficulties yet. Now, obviously, I am not a Latter-day Saint. So, what do I do with these testimonies? How can I say something is false when someone knows by personal revelation that it's true? Well, first, here's one problem. I have a conviction that what I believe is true. You could call it a testimony. We don't use that kind of language, but I have a spiritual confirmation and conviction that what I believe about the Bible, about who God is, that that's accurate.

I've spoken to a good number of fundamentalist Mormons who still practice polygamy, who say that they have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, and that the modern mainline LDS church is in apostasy because they've abandoned the practice of plural marriage. I have Muslim friends who appeal to their supernatural experiences to confirm the truthfulness of their beliefs. So, the question is, which testimony is true? And here's the problem. Everyone has a subjective experience that seems to confirm what they currently believe. Are we really meant to feel something, experience something, and then let that experience become an untouchable, irrefutable truth?

Consider what First John 4 says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." So John prepares people to encounter spirits that aren't from God. What are we supposed to do when we encounter a spirit? Are we supposed to just believe it? No. John provides us with tests to know whether or not a spirit actually is sent from God. First, by this, you know, the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

Deuteronomy 13 · 2 Thessalonians 2

This is the spirit of the antichrist. Now, this was in response to a very particular error that John was dealing with. It was an error that said that Jesus didn't actually come in the flesh. He wasn't actually human. He just appeared human. Kind of like a ghost or an apparition. So John says, if you have an encounter with his spirit and the spirit tells you that Jesus only seemed human. He didn't actually come in the flesh, well, that's not a true spirit. That's not really from God. That is a false spirit and you shouldn't listen. The second test that he gives comes a few verses later and is a lot more general.

He says, "They are from the world. Therefore, they speak from the world and the world listens to them." We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. These spirits are from the world and they deceive the world. But whoever knows God listens to us, that is to the apostles. Then he says, "By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." So he speaks more generally here. If a spirit comes and it brings a teaching that is contrary to what the apostles have taught, don't listen to it.

It's a false teaching. It is the spirit of error. As far back as Old Testament times, God was preparing his people to have supernatural encounters that weren't from him. Deuteronomy 13 warns the people, saying, "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them," you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. So, a supposed prophet could show up with some sign or wonder, something miraculous, something supernatural, and then tell the people, "Hey, come after this other god." God tells his people, "Don't listen to him.

He is a false prophet, a deceiver." The point is this, supernatural experiences do not automatically indicate truth. One of the most terrifying verses and examples of this is found in 2 Thessalonians 2. In that text, Paul says, "The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." And here's the crazy line. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

How do we know if our experiences aren't a strong delusion sent by God because we refused to love the truth? My LDS friends often speak about the importance of a second or third witness to the truth. Well, let me just encourage you. You have a testimony. You have one witness to the truth, but do you have a second? Does an evaluation of truth claims hold up to what God has revealed through the prophets and apostles in the Bible? Are self-professing prophets leading people after other gods? People will often tell me, "Yeah, but I feel good. I'm at peace. I'm encouraged to obedience." If you look at the fruit of the spirit, it's good fruit.

If it was a demon, it wouldn't make me feel at peace. It wouldn't make me want to obey God. Doesn't that mean that this is good fruit and that this spiritual experience, this testimony really is true? Let me push back gently on that in two ways. First, and I think we'd all acknowledge this, sin can confuse our feelings in a number of ways, and it does so often. The Bible actually cautions us about relying on our feelings and experiences to determine truth because of the effects of sin. The heart is deceitful above all else, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? In the days of Noah, the Bible says that the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Sin has a real effect on our heart, our emotions, our feelings, our experiences. And because our feelings have been so tainted by the effects of sin, we shouldn't wholesale rely on those feelings to be an accurate determiner of truth. People feel good about wrong things all the time. Our souls and our hearts need guidance and wisdom. The second reason we shouldn't just rely on good feelings and experiences is because Satan is a master deceiver. Let me just ask you, if an evil spirit came to you and made you feel like absolute garbage, like you had no peace and just had evil inside of you welling up, well, who would listen to that?

Who would follow after that spirit? It is far more compelling if a spirit makes you feel good about something that's false. This is what the Bible means when it says, "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ." And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Satan looks like an angel of light, not an angel of darkness, an angel of light. And deceivers disguise themselves by pretending to be servants of righteousness. Other people appeal to the sincerity of their convictions as evidence that what they believe is true.

John 8

I don't know if they think that everyone else is just nonsincere, but a lot of times they'll say something like, "God would not allow me to persistently believe something with this kind of sincerity if that thing was false. He knows I'm trying to follow what's right." The terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks against the US did so because of their beliefs. A conviction so strong, so sincere, they were willing to die for it. Perhaps the most convicted and convinced group in the Bible were the Pharisees. They held to their beliefs so ardently with such conviction and yet they couldn't even recognize their own Messiah.

John 8 says, "Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. The Pharisees belief led them to kill the son of God. All the while believing that they were upright and obedient and righteous. Jesus told them, "You are believing in a lie. It's real belief, but it's in a lie." Conviction and sincerity, no matter how strong, is not sufficient for accurately determining truth. Our thoughts, feelings, and desires and experiences are very important.

But we should not place sole reliance on subjective means for determining what's true. Not only does the Bible teach us to not exclusively rely on feelings and experiences. It says, "Test everything. Hold fast to what is good." Jesus teaches us that to determine truth, we must abide in his word. This is why Christians love the Bible and are so eager to submit our experiences, our beliefs, our feelings at the foot of what God's word says. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Real quick, in conclusion, I want to acknowledge that I do think experientially God initially reveals himself to us subjectively.

I'm not throwing away feelings or convictions or spiritual experiences or anything like that. When someone first believes, they're a lot like uh the blind man that Jesus healed on the Sabbath. When that blind man was being interrogated by the Jews, he simply said this. Whether he's a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. John Kelvin compared reading and experiencing scripture to tasting salt. How do you know that salt is salty? You taste it and you experience it. And by tasting the word of God, you experience it as God breathed and able to make us wise unto salvation.

I am not denying these experiences. All I'm saying is that these things need to be tested and evaluated in the way that God says we should test and evaluate them. You and I need to be so very wise and we need to be on guard against false prophets who are deceivers and who will ultimately go on to deceive billions of people into sincerely believing a lie. I'll leave you with the words of Paul. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything and hold fast to what is good. If you want, I have a number of videos right here that will help you test the claims of LDS apostles and prophets. I believe that when those claims are tested, when these people are evaluated in the way God says we should evaluate them, they come up wanting and we can actually discern with confidence that these men are not from God, but are in fact the very false prophets that are warned about in scripture.