A Question About Testimonies

[inquiringmind]

If you've ever had a testimony (That the BOM is true, or the Church is true, or Joseph Smith is a prophet), would you know it?

Is it something you could never really forget (or is it something you could have one day, and be unable to recall the next)?

[Buzzard]

Yes, I know it. I don't see how you could forget it in a day, though obviously some have lost it over a longer period of time.

[altersteve]

A testimony is like a living thing. It needs to be nurtured. If you don't feed it by praying and reading the scriptures every day, attending church meetings, and keeping the commandments, it will die. Fortunately, it can be "born again."

[rpn]

Yes, you can forget that you once knew. That is why we are counseled to keep journals. Those who do can often give examples of going through difficulty and feeling alone and reading somewhere in past journal and realizing the things despaired at in the presence, we had once fully resolved.

ETA: It is also why we need scriptures.

Edited February 15, 2012 by rpn

[Grundelwalken]

Forgetting testimony is simply losing the Spirit of the Holy Ghost and returning to the natural man. How long did it take William and Wilson Law to lose their testimony? Or how about Luke Johnson who once testified that since he left the Church he had been miserable but could not bring himself to try and find his testimony again. He remembered the feeling of good but couldn't remember why. MW

[Storm Rider]

If you've ever had a testimony (That the BOM is true, or the Church is true, or Joseph Smith is a prophet), would you know it?

Is it something you could never really forget (or is it something you could have one day, and be unable to recall the next)?

I am not sure I understand the intent of your question. A testimony for some is an event, they can remember the moment the Holy Spirit spoke them about the truthfulness of a given topic such as the Book of Mormon. However, some who grow up in the Church do not have such an event, but it is the small, incremental influences of the Holy Spirit that bring them to point where they know it is true. However, because it is not an event, it is often perceived as "Do I really know it to be true?" In this situation, they yearn for the "event" and some of them are frustrated in their pursuit.

Events, moments of spiritual clarity, are difficult to forget, if not impossible. When we learn, study for years, we come to recognize truth much more easily. Those who are young in spirit can run from this kind of testimony and think they never had it. Those older in spirit cannot forget the truths they knew.

[why me]

If you've ever had a testimony (That the BOM is true, or the Church is true, or Joseph Smith is a prophet), would you know it?

Is it something you could never really forget (or is it something you could have one day, and be unable to recall the next)?

I know that for me, it is something that I will never forget because the experience was very strong after praying about the truthfulness of the book of mormon. I think that one of the problems exmembers have is rationalizing the experience and it also causes a lot of angst in exmormons lives as they attempt to compare it to a warm fuzzy or to going to a baseball game.

[why me]

A testimony is like a living thing. It needs to be nurtured. If you don't feed it by praying and reading the scriptures every day, attending church meetings, and keeping the commandments, it will die. Fortunately, it can be "born again."

A testimony can not be separated from the experience that one had in praying about the book of mormon or about the lds church and experiencing a strong sensation that it was true. I think that this is what a testimony depends on. And how does one foret that experience? The most that I have seen done by exmormns is a rationalizing process of the experience itself.

[Darth_Bill]

A testimony can not be separated from the experience that one had in praying about the book of mormon or about the lds church and experiencing a strong sensation that it was true. I think that this is what a testimony depends on. And how does one foret that experience? The most that I have seen done by exmormns is a rationalizing process of the experience itself.

I don't think people forget the experience, at least I haven't, and rationalization happens on both sides. I have had several experiences that are just as profound, but I rationalized those away because the one grounded in religion seemed to take precidence. It wasn't until I took a look in total of the experiences that I realized how much I rationalized that the religious ones were more important, but not necessarily more relevent. If these feelings are all over, but discount those that don't support our suppositions, or previous experiences, that what are we really paying attention to? I consistantly get a profound feeling when I hear ACDC's "For those about to Rock". Just as powerful when I read a deep poem or scripture. What then am I really feeling and having guild my life? I'm not saying this to be trivial. Experience has altered my life, and experience also affects a person's testimony.

Your mileage may vary.

[CV75]

If you've ever had a testimony (That the BOM is true, or the Church is true, or Joseph Smith is a prophet), would you know it?

Is it something you could never really forget (or is it something you could have one day, and be unable to recall the next)?

QI: Yes. If you have a testimony, you might not call it a testimony, but would you would cetainly know that you now have a most personal, meaningful and edifying knowledge and / or feeling about these things that you didn't have before.

Q2: Barring extenuating circumstances such as injury or illness, you would not forget it. But it is possible to experieince such an erosion in meaningfulness to the point that you forget about it, just as soon forget about it, discount it, or act as if you forgot it. Likewise, a strengthening can be experienced. It entirely depends on what you do with it.