We live in a time when personal experience has risen above all as the ultimate criterion of what is right and what is wrong. Think of all the people trying to justify themselves based on how they feel. Divorce is usually justified on the basis that a couple no longer feels in love. They say homosexuality should be accepted as a moral good, as some homosexuals say they felt a same-sex attraction from an early age. Even many professing Christians make their decisions about good and evil based on how they feel.
It’s hard to talk to someone who makes your experience the ultimate arbiter of reality. Many people adopt the old maxim that “a person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument. “At the end of the day, we have to disagree with that statement, but not because the experience is not a valuable tutor. Experience can help us link theory with practice and abstract concepts with specific situations. This helps us examine the nuances of life in this complex world. Even experiments that seem to show that experience goes beyond argument. I think of Roger Bannister’s example, before 1954, many people claimed that no human being could run a mile in less than four minutes. that the argument was invalid.
- The problem is not that the experience can never overcome a discussion; We know from the history of science that the experience of empirical research has often denied the dominant arguments.
- The problem is the idea that the person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument.
- In many cases.
- The strong argument goes beyond experience.
- This is especially true when the debate is about personal experience versus a good understanding of God’s Word.
I remember a moment when a lady came up to me and said: ?Dr. Sproul, I was married for thirty years to a kind man and good supplier who is not a Christian; Finally, I could no longer be without having in common with him the most important thing in my life: my faith, so I abandoned it. . But he calls me every day and begs me to come back. What do you think God wants me to do?
“Is it easy?” I say: “Your husband’s lack of Christian faith is not a reason for a divorce according to 1 Corinthians 7. So God’s will is for you to return to Him. “
The wife did not like my answer and said it was not good because I did not know what it was like to live with her husband. I said, “Ma’am, you didn’t ask me what I would do if I were in your place. I could have left your husband long before you, but it doesn’t matter. You asked me about God’s will, and that’s clear from this Isn’t your experience a license to disobey God? I am grateful to Announce that when the woman realized that she was asking God to make an exception just for her, she repented and returned to her husband.
This woman’s argument is repeated every day among many Christians who submit the Word of God to their experience; Many times, when our experience conflicts with the Word of God, we set aside the scriptures; one can take refuge in public opinion or in the most recent Psychological Studies. We allow the common experience of those around us to become normative, denying God’s wisdom and authority for the collective experience of fallen human beings.
In fact, we all know that experience is usually a good teacher, but experience is never the best teacher. God, of course, is the best teacher, why? Because it teaches us from the perspective of eternity and the riches of its omniscience.
Sometimes we try to hide our trust in experience with a more orthodox language. I cannot say how many times I have heard Christians say that the Holy Ghost has led them to do things that the scriptures clearly forbid or that God has given them peace in relation to their decision to act in a manner clearly contrary to God’s law. But it is blasphemous slander against the Spirit, as if tolerating sin. It is bad enough to blame the devil for our own choices, but we are exposed to serious risks when we invoke the Spirit to justify our transgressions.
One of the most powerful handling devices we have ever developed is to pretend that we experience the Approval of the Spirit with respect to our actions. How can anyone dare to counter us if we claim divine authority for what we want to do?The result is that we end However, the scriptures tell us that the Holy Ghost leads us to holiness, not sin, and if the Spirit has inspired the scriptures, any experience we have that suggests that we can go against biblical teaching cannot come. of that.
As long as we live on this side of heaven, we must face the fall of our body and soul. Seeking to make our experience decisive about what is right and what is wrong means repeating the sin of Adam and Eve. Why did you disobey the Lord?Why did you trust your experience that told you this: the tree was good to eat, pleasing to the eye, and a desirable tree to give understanding?(Genesis 3. 6). They ignored the promises and warnings God has given them about the fruit of the forbidden tree. Experience can and should teach us, but you can never be the final arbiter of what’s right and what’s wrong. This role belongs only to our Creator, and His Word provides us with the standards by which we must live.