Is Christianity an Experience?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here’s this week’s question:Dear Dave and Tom:Would you gentlemen address the growing enthusiasm for the experiential in Christianity today?I remember years ago when it seemed that extreme Pentecostals and the hyper-Charismatics were the only ones into that sort of thing.Now it seems to be everywhere in the church, conservative or otherwise.Some of the things I’m thinking about are the Richard Foster mysticism, the content-less, mood-oriented, repetitive music chorus’, the hyped spirituality through ritual and liturgy, and of course, feelings related psychotherapies.Is it just my imagination, or have these things inundated the church?

Tom:

Dave, my opinion is the experiential has always been around.There’s a biblical side to the experiential.You can’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ without experiencing that, right?I mean, you accept it by faith, but once He comes into your heart you have a personal relationship, and that’s certainly experiential.But it’s not the thing that drives us, that teaches us, it’s the cart, it’s not the horse, that draws us, it’sthe Word of God.But all these things this person writes to us about is really true.I think psychology is a major part of this.We’ve been more feelings oriented, very subjective, getting away from absolutes, from doctrine and so on.What do you think?

Dave:

Well, I think you said it very well.It’s a natural tendency of humanity, and visualization---if I can see it, seeing is believing, they have that the same.

Tom:

Well, it’s the flesh, isn’t it?

Dave:

Right, exactly.If I could just feel God’s presence---No, I am supposed to walk by faith, not by sight.I believe that He is here, that He has come to live in my heart.I don’t always experience this in the way that I would be conscious of.He guides my life, even when I’m not aware that He is guiding my life.Amazing things that God does!You said it well, Tom, that’s the cart, not the horse.So that people think if I can work up a feeling---well, if we’ve got some candles, stained glass windows, that’s what all of this is for.This is what the robes that the priests wear, the incense, all of that sort of thing was somehow, to stimulate our emotions, arouse us so that we would feel like God is there.We would feel like this is something holy and acceptable to Him.No, that, as you said, that’s putting the cart before the horse.If the Lord manifests himself to us, then that’s something that He must do.I don’t get Him to manifest himself by working up some feelings.You could go to Jeremiah Chapter 42, I think, around Verse 10.You remember the people said to Jeremiah:Well, go to God, and ask him what he wants us to do, and then we will do it.Well, they had no intention of doing it.When God tells them what he wants them to do, that’s the thing they don’t want to do.You ever keep praying until, you know, if I just keep praying, maybe the Lord will give me what I want.But it says, in contrast to some of the techniques of visualization that are offered today among Christians, if I can just believe it, if I can just feel it.Jeremiah, he doesn’t do anything, he doesn’t put his hand on his third eye, you know, he doesn’t go into a trance, and he doesn’t try to visualize.He says:(Verse 7) After ten days the word of the Lord came unto me saying.There was no technique Jeremiah had for getting a word from the Lord.This is what’s being taught today, because people are really not in touch with God, and now I’m going to work it up, and I am going to have some technique.This is called divination in the Bible.Any technique that makes God speak to you, or manifest his presence to you, that’s witchcraft!

Tom:

Dave, there’s another side of this.I’ve seen Sunday school curriculum, and books and so on, and they will take a particular scripture, and they will say, Well, how do you feel about this?You know, we’ve moved from---Well, wait a minute, what does God’s word say, what is he telling us, and the emphasis now is how we feel about it.You know, the scripture tells us:There’s a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Dave:

Tom, believe it or not, they are actually doing this in our public schools.Well, how do you feel about 2 + 2 is 4?How do you feel about George Washington crossing the Delaware? How do you feel about this---as though your feelings will make it real.No, that’s Hinduism, actually!

Tom:

And it’s psychology.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

I think the point here is, this concerned person writes about, you know, we have experiences, but let’s get back to what God says, let’s do what he says.You know, let’s lean not upon our own understanding, but trust in Him and look to Him for His way, not a way that seems right unto a man.

Dave:

Amen.