Holy Ghost/Burning in the bosom

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Criticism

Critics complain that the LDS appeal to "revelation" or a "burning in the bosom" is subjective, emotion-based, and thus unreliable and susceptible to self-deception.

Response

Critics fundamentally misunderstand or misstate the LDS revelatory experience if they think it is exclusively or primarily “emotional.” The united witness of mind and heart is key in LDS doctrine.

An LDS “spiritual” experience has as much—or more—intellectual content as it does emotions of peace or joy. Oliver Cowdery received the following revelation through Joseph Smith, and it alludes to previous revelation given to Oliver privately:

22 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might know concerning the truth of these things.

23 Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God? (D&C 6:22–23).

Notice the information spoken to the “mind,” and the peace then follows. And, the solution for later doubts or concerns is not reliance on “a feeling,” but an admonition to recall specific information communicated earlier.

This matches the revelatory pattern explained later to Oliver:

7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong… (D&C 9:7–9).

Again, the united witness of intellect and heart are essential. If either does not agree, then revelation has not confirmed the matter under consideration. Anyone who relies exclusively on a "feeling" does not understand or obey LDS teaching on this matter.

To be sure, many members will talk about how they “felt” when they prayed. It is to fundamentally misunderstand these experiences, however, if we assume (as hostile critics often do) that this talk of “feeling” means simply—or only, or primarily—“emotion.” The LDS member is stymied, in a sense, because there is no good word for what happens that doesn’t also have other secular connotations which critics could misinterpret if they chose.

Hugh Nibley’s description of the critic is apt:

He cannot conceive how anyone could possibly acquire knowledge by any method other than his. He cannot believe that any man has experienced anything which he has not experienced. . . . ‘I have never seen a vision,' says the [skeptic], ‘therefore, Joseph Smith never had one. I have seen dreams [or had emotionally moving experiences], therefore, I will allow him that.'”^[1]

Conclusion

Elder Dallin H. Oaks made the LDS position on revelation and "burning in the bosom" clear:

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.^[2]

Endnotes

1. [note]  Hugh Nibley, The World and the Prophets, 3rd ed., (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 1987), 31.
2. [note]  Dallin H. Oaks, "Teaching and Learning by the Spirit," Ensign (March 1997): 14..

Further reading

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide: Revelation
• FAIR Topical Guide: [http://www.fairlds.org/apol/ai135.html Testimony (Witness of the Holy Ghost)