Views: 0<\/p>
[Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n Our times are characterized by religious convictions based solely upon feelings and experiences. This phenomenon has always been a trademark of Pentecostalism, but it now infects and affects all of the sects (and not a few brethren, as well). Multitudes of religionists trust their eternal destiny to no more than what they like or their feelings. Mormons profess to believe in Joseph Smith and his Book of Mormon <\/em>because they prayed about it and God confirmed it by a \u201cburning in their breasts.\u201d Some describe a \u201cbetter-felt-than-told\u201d sensation that told them to go to a certain street corner and do this or that. All such things are only as \u201ccertain\u201d as the feelings, emotions, and moods of those who \u201ctestify\u201d about them. Perhaps only the weather is more fickle than human feelings and emotions.<\/span><\/p>\n Such professed \u201cexperiences,\u201d notions, and feelings leave men with no standard, no measuring stick. They rest entirely upon capricious sensations, thus they are all subjective. The insincere impostor can claim experiences and fake feelings equal to or even better than those of the most sincere devotee. Pentecostals are inconsistent in their rejection of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon <\/em>as sent from God. Smith\u2019s \u201cexperiences\u201d deserve at least as much credibility as those the Pentecostals claim. In fact, the subjectivist who claims to believe in Christ because he \u201cfeels\u201d a certain way cannot consistently disallow the Hindu who sincerely relies upon his own feelings as evidence that his worship of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva is right.<\/span><\/p>\n While not intending to impugn the sincerity of anyone, it must be a very convenient form of religion that rests on it is so because I say\/feel it so<\/em>. Webster identifies subjectivism <\/em>as \u201ca doctrine that individual feeling…is the ultimate criterion of the good and the right.\u201d Subjectivism <\/em>thus describes the practice of relying upon things that arise from within oneself (i.e., the \u201csubject\u201d), and allowing these thoughts and emotions to determine one\u2019s behavior. Subjectivism is the mother of the idea that each person has his own \u201ctruth,\u201d otherwise known as Postmodernism. Those who smite their breasts and declare, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t trade the feeling I have right here for a stack of Bibles!\u201d are bowing before subjectivism\u2019s throne.<\/span><\/p>\n Neither the Lord nor His apostles ever rested the salvation they offer upon subjective claims or elements. Nor did they ever count mere feelings or emotions as evidence of salvation. The authority from which their Gospel (the <\/strong>Gospel, Gal. 1:6\u20139) sprang was not from the imaginings, \u201chope-so\u2019s,\u201d \u201cthink so\u2019s,\u201d or personal feelings of anyone\u2014their own or others. Their message was not, \u201cLook what we are doing for Jesus,\u201d but \u201cLook what Jesus has done and can do for you.\u201d The message they preached was objective <\/strong>(as opposed to subjective), that is, it was\/is an inflexible standard, independent of the thoughts, opinions, and feelings of men\u2014the Truth revealed from Heaven. Jesus told Pontius Pilate, \u201cMy kingdom is not of this world\u201d (John 18:36). In the same vein, He declared, \u201cMy teaching is not mine, but his that sent me\u201d (John 7:16). His Word remains static, even if all men reject it in their subjectivism\u2014because it exists apart from human origin and from what men think of it.<\/span><\/p>\n The Gospel of Christ, faithfully communicated to us in our New Testament, is God\u2019s <\/strong>thinking, not man\u2019s (John 16:13; 1 Cor. 2:10, 13; Gal. 1:11\u201312; 1 The. 2:13; et al.). When men wanted to be saved, they were not told to pray till they felt <\/strong>a certain way, but to obey the Gospel commands that would put them in touch with the cleansing blood of Christ (Acts 2:37\u201338; 22:16; Rom. 6:3\u20134; et al.). Only by obeying this objective Gospel can one who believes in Christ know that he is saved.<\/span><\/p>\n [Note: <\/strong>I wrote this article for and it was published in The Lighthouse, <\/em>weekly bulletin of Northpoint Church of Christ, Denton, TX, April 6, 2014, of which I was editor.]<\/span><\/p>\n Attribution: <\/strong>From TheScripturecache.com<\/em>, owned and administered by Dub McClish.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Views: 0[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1 page.] Our times are characterized by religious convictions based solely upon feelings and experiences. This phenomenon has always been a trademark of Pentecostalism, but it now infects and affects all of…<\/p>\n