# Witness of the Holy Spirit ## Intro How does a Christian *know* the faith is true, and not just think it probably is? Part of the answer is public evidence: arguments for God, the historical case for Jesus, and above all the resurrection. But the New Testament adds a second ground that no argument can supply. Paul writes that "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God" ([Romans 8:16](/codex/romans-8-16/), ASV). John writes his letter "that ye may know that ye have eternal life" ([1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/), ASV). This is called the **witness of the Holy Spirit**. The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, gives the believer a direct, personal assurance that the gospel is true and that he belongs to God. It is not a feeling that replaces evidence, and it is not an argument. It is closer to the way you know a friend's voice: you do not reason your way to it, you recognize it. The two grounds work together. Evidence is what a Christian can *show* to someone else. The Spirit's witness is how the believer *knows* for himself. Neither one replaces the other, and Scripture itself tells believers to test every inner claim to the Spirit against the truth God has already made public. ## In full The witness of the Holy Spirit (Latin *testimonium Spiritus Sancti internum*, "the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit") is the doctrine that the Holy Spirit, in his work of applying redemption, produces in the believer a non-inferential, personal knowledge of (1) the truth of the gospel and the divine authority of Scripture, and (2) the believer's own adoption as a child of God. The doctrine is grounded in Pauline and Johannine texts ([Romans 8:15](/codex/romans-8-15/)-16; [Galatians 4:6](/codex/galatians-4-6/); [1 John 5:6-10](/codex/1-john-5-6-10/), [13](/codex/1-john-5-13/); [John 16:13](/codex/john-16-13/); [1 Corinthians 2:12-14](/codex/1-corinthians-2-12-14/)). It was given classic Reformed form by [John Calvin](/codex/john-calvin/) (*Institutes* I.7), developed as a doctrine of personal assurance by John Wesley, and carried into classical Pentecostalism's emphasis on the present, experienced work of the Spirit. In contemporary philosophy of religion it appears as the "extended" model in [Alvin Plantinga](/codex/alvin-plantinga/)'s *Warranted Christian Belief* (2000), where Christian belief produced by the Spirit's work is held to be warranted without being inferred from other beliefs, and as the "self-authenticating witness" in [William Lane Craig](/codex/william-lane-craig/)'s *Reasonable Faith*, which distinguishes *knowing* Christianity is true from *showing* that it is. Its chief apologetic objection is the parity charge (members of other faiths, notably Latter-day Saints, report a similar inner witness), answered by the role of public evidence and by Scripture's command to test the spirits. ## The biblical basis Each text below is quoted from the ASV. 1. **The Spirit testifies to adoption.** "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God" ([Romans 8:16](/codex/romans-8-16/)). The verse names two witnesses, the Spirit and "our spirit," agreeing on one fact. The verse before it ties the witness to the cry of adoption: "ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" ([Romans 8:15](/codex/romans-8-15/)). 2. **The same cry in Galatians.** "And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" ([Galatians 4:6](/codex/galatians-4-6/)). The verse is Trinitarian in shape: God the Father sends the Spirit of the Son. The witness is the Spirit's own act, not the believer's mood. 3. **Written so that you may know.** "These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God" ([1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/)). John treats assurance as knowledge, not as a hope that might be true. 4. **The witness of God is greater.** In [1 John 5:6-10](/codex/1-john-5-6-10/), John speaks of "the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth" (5:7), and reasons: "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater" (5:9). Then: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him" ([1 John 5:10](/codex/1-john-5-10/)). Note what the witness is *about*: "he hath borne witness concerning his Son" (5:9). The Spirit's witness points to Jesus Christ who "came by water and blood" (5:6), a public, historical person. 5. **The Spirit of truth guides into truth.** "when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth" ([John 16:13](/codex/john-16-13/)); "he shall bear witness of me" ([John 15:26](/codex/john-15-26/)). The Spirit's testimony is Christ-centered by design. 6. **Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.** "we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God" ([1 Corinthians 2:12](/codex/1-corinthians-2-12-14/)). And "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged" (2:14). This explains why the same evidence can leave one hearer cold and bring another to faith. 7. **Certainty, not only probability.** Luke wrote his Gospel "that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed" ([Luke 1:4](/codex/luke-1-4/)). Luke grounds that certainty in careful historical inquiry ([Luke 1:1-4](/codex/luke-1-1-4/)), which is the public-evidence leg of the same picture. ## Historical theology ### John Calvin: the internal testimony Calvin devotes *Institutes* Book I, chapter 7 to the question of how anyone can be sure Scripture is God's word. His answer is that the church's authority cannot settle it and human proofs cannot finally settle it either. In the Beveridge translation, he says our conviction "must be derived from a higher source than human conjectures, Judgments, or reasons; namely, the secret testimony of the Spirit," and that "the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason" (*Institutes* I.7.4). He adds that Scripture, "carrying its own evidence along with it, deigns not to submit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of the Spirit" (I.7.5). Calvin did not reject evidence. Chapter 8, which follows directly, sets out supporting proofs of Scripture's credibility. His point is about order: the proofs confirm, the Spirit convinces. (Beveridge translation, [CCEL](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes.iii.viii.html).) ### John Wesley: the doctrine of assurance Wesley preached on [Romans 8:16](/codex/romans-8-16/) in two discourses titled "The Witness of the Spirit" (Sermons 10 and 11). He described the Spirit's testimony as "an inward impression on the soul" by which the Spirit of God witnesses directly to the believer's spirit that he is a child of God, that Christ has loved him and given himself for him, and that his sins are forgiven (Sermon 10, I.7). He also argued that this witness of God's Spirit comes before the witness of our own spirit, since a person cannot love God until he knows God loves him (I.8). ([Sermon 10 text, Wesley Center Online](http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-10-the-witness-of-the-spirit-discourse-one/).) Wesley paired the direct witness with an *indirect* one: the visible fruit of the Spirit in a changed life. A claim to the first without the second, in his view, was a sign of delusion. That safeguard matters for the objection treated below. ### Classical Pentecostalism Classical Pentecostalism grew out of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement and the Azusa Street revival of 1906 under William J. Seymour (see [Pentecostalization of Global Christianity](/codex/pentecostalization-of-global-christianity/)). It inherited Wesley's conviction that the Spirit's work is something a believer can know in experience, and it pressed that conviction further: the Holy Spirit is personally present and active now, in assurance, in guidance, in gifts, and in empowering witness, not only in the apostolic age. Classical Pentecostalism in this original stream is Trinitarian. The Holy Spirit who bears witness is the third Person of the Godhead, distinct from the Father who sends him and from the Son of whom he testifies ([Galatians 4:6](/codex/galatians-4-6/); [John 15:26](/codex/john-15-26/)). The later Oneness movement, which denies that distinction, is a separate development (see [Oneness Pentecostalism](/codex/oneness-pentecostalism/) and [Trinity](/codex/trinity/)). The Trinitarian shape is not decoration here: the witness is the Spirit testifying *to* the Son and crying *to* the Father, which only makes sense if the three are distinct Persons. ## The philosophy ### Plantinga: the extended Aquinas/Calvin model In *Warranted Christian Belief* (Oxford University Press, 2000), [Alvin Plantinga](/codex/alvin-plantinga/) first sets out an "Aquinas/Calvin" model on which belief in God can be produced directly by the [sensus divinitatis](/codex/sensus-divinitatis/). He then extends it to specifically Christian belief. On the extended model, a person hears or reads the gospel, and the Holy Spirit works in that person so that he comes to believe it. Plantinga names three parts of this process: Scripture, the internal instigation of the Holy Spirit (Aquinas's phrase), and faith. In his words, these "are together the central source of warrant for Christian belief" (*Warranted Christian Belief*, p. 202; [CCEL](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/plantinga/warrant3.vi.ii.i.html)). Chapter 8 develops the model under the title "The Extended Aquinas/Calvin Model: Revealed to Our Minds." The key claim is that belief formed this way is *basic*: it is not inferred from other beliefs, yet it is warranted, because it is produced by a process designed by God and aimed at truth, working as it should. This is the same structure that warrants ordinary perception and memory. See [Reformed Epistemology](/codex/reformed-epistemology/) for the general theory. Two limits of Plantinga's claim are often missed: 1. **It is conditional.** Plantinga argues that *if* Christianity is true, Christian belief very likely has warrant in roughly this way. He does not claim the model proves Christianity true. Its target is the charge that Christian belief is irrational or unwarranted even if true. 2. **It does not exclude evidence.** Nothing in the model forbids arguments. It denies only that arguments are required for a believer to be rational. ### Craig: knowing and showing [William Lane Craig](/codex/william-lane-craig/) builds on this in *Reasonable Faith* (3rd ed., Crossway, 2008), ch. 1. He holds that the fundamental way a believer knows Christianity is true is the self-authenticating witness of the Holy Spirit, and that argument and evidence play the primary role when the task is to show Christianity true to someone else. He states the distinction plainly: "it's important to distinguish between *knowing* Christianity is true and *showing* Christianity is true" ([Q&A #167, "Counterfeit Claims to the Witness of the Spirit," 2010](https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/counterfeit-claims-to-the-witness-of-the-spirit)). 1. **Knowing.** For the believer, the Spirit's witness is primary and evidence is a support. A believer who meets an argument he cannot yet answer is not thereby obliged to give up what he knows. 2. **Showing.** In conversation with an unbeliever, the believer cannot hand over his inner witness. He has to work from common ground, so evidence and argument come first, and the Spirit uses them. 3. **Unmistakable, not indubitable.** Craig writes that the Spirit's witness "is unmistakable (though not indubitable) for him who has it and attends to it" (same Q&A). A person can be tempted to doubt something he really knows. ## The objection: "Mormons feel a burning in the bosom too" **The objection.** Latter-day Saints also appeal to an inner witness. The Book of Mormon closes (Moroni 10:4-5) by inviting the reader to ask God the Father, in Christ's name, with a sincere heart, real intent and faith in Christ, whether the book is true, and promises that its truth will be made known by the power of the Holy Ghost. The phrase "burning in the bosom" comes from a separate Latter-day Saint text, Doctrine and Covenants 9:8, addressed to Oliver Cowdery. If a Latter-day Saint's inner witness confirms Mormonism and a Christian's confirms historic Christianity, the skeptic says, inner witness settles nothing. See [Mormonism](/codex/mormonism/). **The reply.** 1. **The Christian case does not rest on the inner witness alone.** Christianity stakes itself first on a public event, the resurrection, with named witnesses ([1 Corinthians 15:3-8](/codex/1-corinthians-15-3-8/)), and Paul names the falsifier: "if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain" ([1 Corinthians 15:14](/codex/1-corinthians-15-14/)). The Book of Mormon's own test, by contrast, is inward. This is the difference the [Christianity Is Brainwashing Objection Defeater](/codex/christianity-is-brainwashing-objection-defeater/) lays out in its worldview comparison: one faith offers a public test, the other an inward one. 2. **Scripture commands that inner claims be tested.** "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God" ([1 John 4:1](/codex/1-john-4-1/)). The test John gives is doctrinal and public: "every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God" ([1 John 4:2](/codex/1-john-4-2-3/)). An inner witness that contradicts what God has already revealed is, on the Bible's own terms, not the Holy Spirit. Paul's rule is the same: "prove all things; hold fast that which is good" ([1 Thessalonians 5:21](/codex/1-thessalonians-5-21/)). 3. **The Spirit's witness has a fixed object.** In [1 John 5:9-10](/codex/1-john-5-9-10/) the Spirit testifies "concerning his Son." The witness does not float free to confirm any book or prophet; it confirms the Jesus of the apostolic, public record. A witness claimed for later revelation that revises that record fails the test in point 2. 4. **Parity of experience is not parity of truth.** That two people report a similar experience does not mean both are right or both are wrong. A counterfeit coin does not prove there is no real money. Craig's reply runs this way: the Christian who has the genuine witness may conclude the other person is sincerely mistaken, and in conversation he turns to evidence, which "may (not will)" break a false assurance (Q&A #167). 5. **The evidence leg is checkable.** The Book of Mormon makes historical claims about ancient American peoples that can be tested against archaeology, genetics and linguistics. The resurrection claim can be tested against the first-century record. Here the cases are no longer symmetrical, and the comparison runs in Christianity's favor. ## How evidence and witness relate | | Public evidence | Witness of the Spirit | |---|---|---| | What it is | Arguments for God; the historical case for Jesus and the resurrection | The Spirit's direct testimony to the believer | | Who it serves first | The inquirer and the skeptic | The believer | | What it gives | Strong, reasonable confidence of the kind we have about other past events | Personal knowledge and assurance | | Can it be shared? | Yes, anyone can examine it | No, it is first-person | | Scripture | Acts 1:3; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8; 1 Peter 3:15 | Romans 8:16; 1 John 5:13; Galatians 4:6 | Neither leg replaces the other. Evidence without the Spirit's witness can leave a person persuaded but not converted ([1 Corinthians 2:14](/codex/1-corinthians-2-14/)). A claimed witness without public truth to test it against has no guard against counterfeits ([1 John 4:1](/codex/1-john-4-1/)). The [Cumulative Case for Christian Theism](/codex/cumulative-case-for-christian-theism/) supplies the first leg; this page describes the second. ## Honest limits 1. **It cannot be used as an argument.** Saying "the Spirit told me" gives a skeptic nothing he can examine. In apologetic conversation the witness explains why the believer is confident; it does not show the other person anything. 2. **Believers can mistake their own feelings for it.** Emotion, upbringing and group pressure can feel like assurance. Wesley's test of fruit and John's test of doctrine exist for this reason. 3. **Its strength varies.** Believers in seasons of doubt, depression or spiritual dryness may sense the witness weakly. That is a pastoral fact, not a refutation. See [Doubt and Fear](/codex/doubt-and-fear/). 4. **Plantinga's model is conditional.** It defends the rationality of Christian belief given its truth; it does not by itself establish that truth. 5. **Traditions differ in emphasis.** Reformed theology stresses the Spirit's witness to Scripture's authority; Wesleyan and Pentecostal theology stresses the witness to personal adoption. Both appeal to the same texts and are compatible, but they are not identical. ## See also - [Cumulative Case for Christian Theism](/codex/cumulative-case-for-christian-theism/), the public-evidence leg that this witness complements - [Minimal Facts Argument](/codex/minimal-facts-argument/), the historical case for the resurrection in its shortest form - [Argument from the Resurrection](/codex/argument-from-the-resurrection/), the full resurrection argument - [Pre-Pauline Creeds](/codex/pre-pauline-creeds/), the early date of the [1 Corinthians 15](/codex/1-corinthians-15-3-8/) creed - [Reformed Epistemology](/codex/reformed-epistemology/), the general theory of properly basic belief - [Sensus Divinitatis](/codex/sensus-divinitatis/), the natural faculty the extended model builds on - [Pneumatology](/codex/pneumatology/), the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Trinity - [Christianity Is Brainwashing Objection Defeater](/codex/christianity-is-brainwashing-objection-defeater/), public test versus inward test across worldviews - [Falsifiability Across Worldviews](/codex/falsifiability-across-worldviews/), which faiths stake themselves on a public event and which on inner experience - [Faith is Belief Without Evidence Objection Defeater](/codex/faith-is-belief-without-evidence-objection-defeater/), why biblical faith is not evidence-free - [Holy Spirit Isnt Real Because Christians Disagree Objection Defeater](/codex/holy-spirit-isnt-real-because-christians-disagree-objection-defeater/), a related objection to the Spirit's guidance - [Argument from Religious Experience](/codex/argument-from-religious-experience/), religious experience as evidence - [Mormonism](/codex/mormonism/), the main parity objection - [Pentecostalization of Global Christianity](/codex/pentecostalization-of-global-christianity/), the Azusa Street origin of classical Pentecostalism
## Common questions this page answers **Q: What is the witness of the Holy Spirit?** It is the Holy Spirit's direct testimony to a believer that the gospel is true and that he is a child of God. Paul states it in [Romans 8:16](/codex/romans-8-16/): "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God" (ASV). It is personal knowledge, not an argument. **Q: How can a Christian know Christianity is true and not just believe it?** On two grounds that work together. Public evidence, such as the arguments for God and the historical case for the resurrection, gives strong reasons anyone can examine. The inner witness of the Holy Spirit gives the believer personal assurance. John wrote "that ye may know that ye have eternal life" ([1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/), ASV). **Q: Isn't the witness of the Spirit just a feeling?** No. Feelings come and go and can be produced by many things. The Bible describes the Spirit's witness as testimony from a Person, the third Person of the Trinity, always pointing to Jesus Christ. Scripture also requires that every claimed spiritual impression be tested against revealed truth ([1 John 4:1](/codex/1-john-4-1/)). **Q: How do you answer Mormons who say they feel a burning in the bosom?** Christianity does not rest on inner experience alone. It stakes itself on a public event, the resurrection, which can be examined historically. Scripture commands believers to test every spirit by the public truth about Jesus ([1 John 4:1-2](/codex/1-john-4-1-2/)). A similar experience on two sides does not make both true, and the evidence can be checked. **Q: What did Calvin mean by the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit?** In *Institutes* I.7, Calvin argued that certainty about Scripture comes ultimately from "the secret testimony of the Spirit," not from church authority or human proofs alone. He still gave supporting evidences in the next chapter; the Spirit convinces, the proofs confirm. **Q: What is Plantinga's extended Aquinas/Calvin model?** In *Warranted Christian Belief* (2000), Alvin Plantinga argued that when a person hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit can produce faith directly. Belief formed this way is not inferred from arguments, yet it is warranted, because it comes from a God-designed process aimed at truth. He argues this holds if Christianity is true; the model does not itself prove Christianity. **Q: What is the difference between knowing and showing Christianity is true?** William Lane Craig uses this distinction. A believer knows Christianity is true chiefly through the Spirit's witness. To show it to someone else, he must use arguments and evidence that the other person can examine, since the inner witness cannot be handed over.