Feelings are not Facts

I have seen a phenomena in Pentecostal churches that I have visited. The propensity to elevate feelings above Christ. Because of this the people who attended were willing to throw the principles of the Bible under the bus to follow their feelings.

Often one sentence from scripture was removed and place with other passages out of context to construct a desired belief. We see this in other churches too, but the most dramatic I have seen has been in the Pentecostal groups. Since feelings are facts to those who must have their spiritual high, they depend on excitement and euphoria to continue a sense of spirituality. Its fleshly and demonically inspired.

When they were told what they did or said was not Biblical they would tell me that the Holy Spirit told them. When I asserted that the Holy Spirit does not violate His own word and that who they heard was not the Holy Spirit, then they would become angered and fight to defend their disobedience.

I have had Pentecostals twist the Bible to such a degree that it had no resemblance to the meanings God intended. "Out of context" teachings are common in these gatherings, as long as everyone "feels" good about them.

I have even attended Pentecostal women's Bible studies in which the leader would ask the attendees to read a Scripture and then asked "what does that passage mean to you."

When someone asks a woman in the group their interpretation of a Scripture, they are giving the authority of interpretation over to that person instead of God. This makes the Bible a subjective book without accuracy and without authority.

1 Peter 1:20-21 " 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever brought about through human initiative, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.…"

Since extra Biblical doctrine is added to enhance the emotional experience, there is a hostility that arises when anyone attempts to show the errors that emerge from extracting Scripture from its context.

In one group I attended the leader, who was a woman, became gleeful and excited to tell the group there were angels walking around their chairs. I sat completely unemotional while the room erupted in claps and shouts of amen. I never figured out why that woman told us that, since angels are all around us all the time, we just can't see them. The only reason I could figure that she would tell everyone is that she was elevating herself as one who had something special to see things the others could not see.

Of course she couldn't prove they were there, nor would it matter, we have no need to see angels.

This is the kind of silliness we see happening regularly in the Pentecostal gatherings, they must have an experience they can see or someone who saw it for them, to feel close to God. One can feel close to God while being very far away. Emotions lead us down a deceptive path that creates euphoria but is not real.

2 Corinthians 5:7
"7 For we walk by faith, not by sight."

We see this same mentality in the Catholic church, there must be miracles seen and rituals performed to have a sense of closeness. Sadly this form of closeness does not bring us close to Christ, it detracts from our walk of faith. Faith being the substance of things not seen.

The more we must see with our eyes and do with our hands, the less faith we exhibit.

2 Corinthians 5:16-19 "16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation."

Our walk with Christ does not hang on events and feelings, it hangs on faith in Him, a daily walk continually consulting Him while praising Him above all experiences, even when life does not give us what we would like, we still praise Him.