The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth (Jn 16:13), and He was promised and given to the apostles (Jn 14:16). Now hear the apostle John: “We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 Jn 4:6). How can we know what is true and what is error in religious matters? The apostle John tells us the deciding factor: If you hear the apostles, you’ll be hearing the truth.
The apostles’ doctrine is the test of truth and error. It is an objective test.
So what? According to historians, out of Methodism came the Holiness movement, and out of that came the Pentecostal movement. The Pentecostal movement stressed the importance of baptism with the Holy Spirit and tongue-speaking. And then in the mid-twentieth century, a neo-Pentecostal movement appeared, assuming the name “charismatic.”
The charismatic movement promotes not only Holy Spirit baptism and miraculous tongue-speaking but the exaltation of emotions and subjective experiences. The charismatic movement has had great influence on religion in our country. Feelings are exalted and worship is organized to give an emotional high. Subjective feelings become the leader, and concern for worshipping in spirit and in truth is trampled by the wayside.
But the Bible emphasizes objective truth as the leader in our lives and the authority by which we must make choices, live, and worship. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The Bible thus places an emphasis upon what is written in Scripture. Jesus showed us by example that our choices should be ordered by the objective truth of Scripture when three times He answered the temptations of Satan with, “it is written.”
Is there no emotion to be had in the exercise of faith? Jesus repeated the first commandment of loving God with all one’s heart, soul and mind (Mt. 22:37). The heart, in addition to involving our intellect and will, includes our emotions. So emotions have a part in our lives. But Jesus expects us to serve with the mind also, and that involves reasoning according to objective truth.
Will you be led subjectively or objectively? The deciding factor between truth and error is not our feelings but the objective truth of the apostles’ doctrine.
What will you be led by? Some may be inclined to say, “I feel God would be ok with what I’m doing,” or “it just feels so right that I’m sure it cannot be wrong.”
How about standing upon the objective truth in the Bible? Jesus said, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (Jn 12:48). That’s objective. The apostle Paul said, “God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel” (Rom. 2:16). The gospel is the standard. Emotions and feelings are powerful, but they are no standard of truth and error! We should be thankful we will be judged not by how we feel but by the words we can read and understand in the Bible. Which will you follow – objective truth, or the ever-changing subjective?
-Larry
Jones