Witness of the Holy Spirit

Definition and Meaning

The witness of the Holy Spirit is the Christian doctrine that the Holy Spirit confirms truth in the hearts of believers. In Protestant theology the term is used in two principal senses.

• The Holy Spirit bears witness with the believer's spirit that he or she is a child of God. This sense is connected with assurance of salvation.
• The Holy Spirit inwardly persuades the believer that Scripture is the Word of God. This is commonly called the "inner witness of the Holy Spirit."

Biblical and Historical Background

The passages most frequently cited are Romans 8:16 ("The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God") and Galatians 4:6. John 15:26 states that the Spirit testifies of Christ, and 1 John 5:6 declares, "it is the Spirit that beareth witness."

The Reformer John Calvin, in Book 1 of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, held that the authority of Scripture is confirmed not by the approval of the church but by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit. The Westminster Confession of Faith carries this idea forward in Chapter 1, stating that full assurance that Scripture is the Word of God comes from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in the heart. In Chapter 18 it names the testimony of the Spirit of adoption, by which believers are adopted as children of God, as one of the grounds of the assurance of salvation.

In the eighteenth century, John Wesley placed particular emphasis on this doctrine. Wesley distinguished two kinds of witness. One is the "direct witness," by which the Holy Spirit immediately makes the believer's soul aware of being a child of God. The other is the "indirect witness," by which believers confirm this for themselves by examining the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. At the same time, he warned against the fanaticism that elevates experience while neglecting the Word and its fruit.

Perspective: Korean Protestant practiceHow this idea is used in Korean churches, kept from the original Korean article.

In Korean Protestant churches, the doctrine is treated in different ways according to theological tradition.

• Presbyterian and other Reformed traditions: Following the Westminster Confession, these churches address this doctrine when teaching the authority of Scripture and the assurance of salvation. They hold that the witness of the Spirit is inseparable from the Word, and they therefore often teach believers not to rely solely on emotions or extraordinary experiences as its basis.
• Methodist, Holiness, and other Wesleyan traditions: These churches regard the witness of the Spirit as an important theme of Wesleyan theology and teach it as a doctrine of assurance, holding that believers can know that they are saved. A frequently cited example is Wesley's Aldersgate experience, in which he recorded that his heart was "strangely warmed."
• Pentecostal denominations: These churches also use the term "witness" or "evidence" (jeunggeo) to refer to the sign of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Pentecostalism has traditionally regarded speaking in tongues as the initial evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Many other denominations do not regard tongues as a necessary sign of Spirit baptism.

Across denominations in Korea, new-member classes and Bible studies on the assurance of salvation commonly introduce this doctrine on the basis of Romans 8:16.