Program / Course 24: Apologetic Practicum / Lesson 6.2
What you will learn
- Distinguish a personal testimony from an argument and know what each can and cannot do.
- Write a brief, honest account of why you believe, including both reasons and experience.
- Describe your faith without claiming more certainty or experience than you have.
- Decide, for yourself, what you are willing to share and with whom.
The big idea
This lesson belongs to an optional subunit, and every exercise is private. When people ask why you believe, two kinds of answer are possible. A testimony tells what happened to you and what you have lived. A reason offers considerations that anyone can weigh. Both are honest ways to answer. They do different work, and each is weakened when it is used for the other’s job. A truthful account says what you actually believe and why, and does not exaggerate. Whether you share it with anyone is your choice.
Key terms
- Testimony
- A first-person account of what you have experienced or come to believe.
- Reasons
- Considerations such as evidence, arguments and Scripture that others can examine.
- Conversion narrative
- A story of how a person came to faith or changed faith.
- Religious experience
- An experience, such as prayer or a sense of presence, interpreted as contact with God.
- Cumulative case
- An argument made of several lines of support that together make a conclusion likely.
- Overclaiming
- Saying more than you know or have experienced.
- Reticence
- A choice to keep some things private.
Background
Optional note: this subunit is optional. A student who prefers never to speak of their faith in public can still complete every exercise by writing privately. The program does not request or receive anything written.
The New Testament contains testimonies. The man born blind says, ‘One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see’ (John 9:25), and does not claim to know more than that. Paul tells the story of his conversion several times (Acts 22 and 26, Galatians 1). The first letter of John begins with what its writer has heard, seen and handled (1 John 1:1). The same New Testament also contains reasoned appeals, such as Paul’s list of witnesses to the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3 to 15:8) and Luke’s statement that he has investigated everything carefully (Luke 1:3).
Traditions differ in how they weigh these. Many Protestant traditions, especially evangelical and Pentecostal ones, encourage believers to share their personal testimony. Catholic and Orthodox traditions emphasize the life of the church and the sacraments, and personal narrative is shared less often in public, though the lives of saints and conversion stories such as Augustine’s Confessions are cherished. Neither approach is wrong. They shape how a person might choose to speak.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Know what testimony can do
A testimony can show that faith is lived by a real person, and it can move others to consider the question. It is hard to argue with, since it concerns what happened to the speaker. That is also a limit. Others who have had different experiences cannot be convinced by your experience alone, and people in other religions give testimonies too.
Treat your testimony as true information about you, not as proof for everyone. ‘This is what happened to me’ is honest. ‘This proves that you must believe’ goes beyond what it can bear.
Step 2: Know what reasons can do
Reasons can be examined by anyone. They include historical arguments about the resurrection, philosophical arguments about God, the coherence of Christian teaching with experience and moral intuition and the witness of Scripture. Their limit is that arguments can persuade the mind without engaging the whole person, and they can be weighed differently by reasonable people.
Many Christians combine them: a cumulative case in which no single line is decisive but several together carry weight. Richard Swinburne and others have argued in this way, and critics dispute the strength of each line.
Step 3: Tell the truth about your own belief
Ask yourself honestly why you believe. You may find that the real reasons include upbringing, a relationship, an experience, a sense of meaning, the beauty of worship, a conviction of sin and forgiveness and some arguments you find sound. These are not shameful. Naming the real mix is more honest than offering only the most impressive reason.
Avoid overclaiming. If you have never had a vivid experience of God, do not describe your faith as if you had. If you have doubts, a truthful testimony can include them. Many Christians tell stories of struggle, and these are often more credible.
Step 4: Draft an account in your own words
Write a short account, perhaps 300 words, with three parts: what your life was like, what changed or what you came to hold and what difference it has made. Add one or two reasons that you find convincing. Keep it concrete and free of unexplained jargon.
Leave out anything that is not yours to share. If your story involves other people, protect their privacy. If it involves painful matters, you need not include them.
Step 5: Decide what to share and with whom
You may keep the account private, share it with a trusted friend or family member, give it in a church setting or publish it elsewhere. Each is a legitimate choice. Jesus told some people to go and tell (Mark 5:19) and told others to say nothing (Mark 1:44), which suggests that discretion has a place. Some traditions treat the inner life as something to be shared with a confessor or spiritual director and not announced to the world.
Respect the same freedom in others. Do not press a person to give a testimony, and do not pressure yourself to produce a dramatic one.
- What are my real reasons for believing, in the order of their weight?
- Which of these are experience, and which are arguments?
- Am I claiming more certainty or experience than I have?
- What parts of my story belong to other people and are not mine to tell?
- To whom, if anyone, am I willing to tell this?
- Would I be content if no one ever asked me for it?
Examples
The man born blind
Questioned by religious authorities, the man healed by Jesus does not claim to know more than he does: ‘one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see’ (John 9:25). The statement is limited, honest and hard to dispute. It illustrates the strength of an uncomplicated testimony.
A balanced account
‘I was raised in a church and left it in college. A close friend’s illness made me ask whether anything held. I started reading the Gospels and found them more believable than I expected, and I started attending worship again. I still have doubts, and I find the problem of suffering hard. I believe because of that reading, because of worship and because of the people who stayed with me.’ (Constructed example.)
Overclaiming
A speaker says that God spoke to him in audible words every day and that anyone who does not hear the same is not truly saved. The claim cannot be tested, and it burdens listeners who have not had such experiences. Traditions differ on how to treat such experiences, but most counsel caution and testing by the community. (Constructed example.)
Different perspectives
Catholic thought
Catholic teaching holds that faith is reasonable and a gift of grace, and the Catechism treats personal testimony as part of evangelization. Catholic tradition also cherishes the lives of saints and conversion accounts, while stressing that personal experience should be tested by the faith of the church.
Orthodox thought
Orthodox tradition values the experience of God in prayer and worship but is cautious about claims of special experiences, which it submits to the discernment of a spiritual father. Many Orthodox accounts of faith focus on the beauty of the liturgy and the example of holy people.
Protestant thought
Many Protestant traditions, particularly evangelical ones, encourage personal testimony as part of the Christian life, and hold that the Spirit bears witness within believers (Romans 8:16). Reformed teaching also links assurance to Scripture and the fruit of the Christian life, not only to feeling.
Philosophical view
Philosophers such as William Alston and Alvin Plantinga have argued that religious experience and belief in God can be rationally justified without formal argument. Critics reply that experiences differ across religions and may have natural explanations. The topic is actively debated.
Secular and psychological view
Psychologists of religion study conversion and religious experience and find that they are shaped by many factors, including culture and relationships. Some nonbelievers respond more to honest personal accounts than to arguments, and others find them unconvincing.
Why it matters
Being able to say honestly why you believe helps you understand yourself, and it prepares you to answer a friend who sincerely asks. It teaches you the difference between what you know, what you hope and what you have inherited. A truthful and modest account is more valuable than a dramatic one, and the habit of honest self-description is itself part of intellectual and spiritual integrity.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: A testimony is only valid if it is dramatic.
Correction: Many believers have quiet stories. A modest, honest account is as true as a dramatic one.
Misunderstanding: Reasons are cold and testimony is warm, so only one is right.
Correction: Both are honest ways to answer. Many Christians use both. Each does a different job.
Misunderstanding: I must share my testimony or I am ashamed of Christ.
Correction: Discretion is also recorded in the Gospels and honored in several traditions. Sharing is a choice and a calling, and not everyone is called to speak.
Misunderstanding: If my experience differs from others’, my faith is deficient.
Correction: Christian traditions recognize a wide range of paths to faith. Faith is not measured by how vivid the story is.
Knowledge check
What is the difference between a testimony and a reason?
A testimony is a personal account of what you have experienced or come to hold, and it is hard to dispute. A reason is a consideration, such as evidence or argument, that others can examine. Testimony gives information about you, while reasons invite assessment by anyone.
What does John 9:25 teach about honest testimony?
The healed man says only what he knows: he was blind and now sees. He does not claim knowledge of all the theological points the authorities press. The verse shows that a limited, truthful testimony can be strong and that one need not overclaim.
How can you avoid overclaiming in a testimony?
Say only what you have experienced and believe, without inflating certainty or experiences. Include doubts if they are real. Do not present your story as proof that others must believe, and do not describe experiences you have not had. Honesty is more persuasive and respects the listener.
Why might a person choose to keep their testimony private?
Reasons include discretion, protecting other people in the story, pain that is not meant to be shared, a tradition that values the inner life as private, or a sense that it is not their calling to speak. The Gospels record both commands to tell and commands to be silent, so private faith is a legitimate choice.
What is a cumulative case?
It is an argument built from several lines of evidence, none decisive alone, that together make a conclusion more likely. Christian philosophers such as Swinburne have argued for God this way. Critics may dispute each line or the way they are combined, so the strength of such a case is debated.
Think it through
- What are the real reasons you hold your beliefs, and which have you never said aloud?
- Which do you find more persuasive when others speak: testimony or argument?
- What would you not want to share, and why?
- How do you feel about the possibility that you will never speak publicly of your faith?
Independent assignment
A private account of why you believe
In your own notebook, write 500 to 700 words. First, a 300-word account of why you believe (or why you are exploring belief), with the three parts described in the lesson. Then a list of the reasons you find strongest, marked as experience or argument. Then a paragraph on what you are not willing to claim, and a paragraph on whether and with whom you would ever share this. Do not send, post or submit this. It is for you alone.
Further study
- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions A classic conversion account that mixes narrative, prayer and reflection. Read selectively.
- Blaise Pascal, Pensées Pascal on the heart and the reasons of the heart.
- Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief A philosophical account of how belief in God may be justified without argument. Read selectively.
- Richard Swinburne, The Existence of God A cumulative case for God. Read the introduction.
- John 9:25 One thing I know.
- 1 John 1:1 That which we have heard, which we have seen.
- Luke 1:3 Luke’s careful investigation.