Experience Versus the Word
of God
The Church today is troubled by the insistence of so many
of its members on following experience rather than the Scriptures. Books
without number pour off the presses telling us how it was for Bill and Tom and
Jane and Mary, and urging us to do as they did. Norms are set by experience and
then palmed off as principles of living that come from God. Does God use
experience to teach us? Is experience a safe and reliable guide? What place
does experience have in the Christian life?
Too often, Christians judge the Bible by their experience
rather than judging their experience by the Bible. I once sat for over an hour
listening to a preacher tell about his experiences as the basis for his belief
in a doctrine that is actually heretical. Then, I took a half hour exegeting (critically interpreting) and explaining
Scripture that pertained to the matter. When I was through, he said, “Sure,
that’s what those verses seem to say; but if you had had my experiences, you
would know what the passage means.” Interpretation – or I should say, misinterpretation – by experience! That
is what it comes down to in so many cases.
“But surely experience must have a place in the Christian
life?” Of course it does. But it is not a guiding or an interpreting role. That
is where the modern, experience-oriented Christian has gone wrong. In this
subjective age, where feelings and the irrational side of life are in almost
complete control, he has opted for experience as his mentor. Clearly, that is
wrong.
In Deuteronomy 13:1-5 (a
passage rarely discussed in our day) we are told that if a prophet arises
among God’s people (this danger is
largely from within) who says that a miracle will take place, and the miracle actually comes to pass,
we must not follow that teacher if his teaching is out of accord with the
biblical truth about God because truth has supremacy over experience. We are
not called upon to explain how the miracle, or supposed miracle, was brought
about; that is not the issue. The operative factor is not whether a miracle was
performed; it is whether the “miracle-worker” teaches the truth or not.
“OK, I can see that, but what is the place of experience
then?” Perhaps 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 offers as clear a
discussion of the point as we can find. In this section, Paul explains that he
and his fellow workers have suffered affliction in order that they might be
able to comfort (the Greek work, parakaleo,
includes the idea of comfort, but is more general, and ought to be thought of
as assistance of whatever sort the
situation requires) those who are in any affliction with the same
assistance they experienced when they were afflicted. Certainly, Paul is saying
that, in some way, his ability to assist afflicted Christians was enhanced by
his own experience of assistance in times of affliction. That is the whole
point of the passage.
Experience is important, then. I do not want to discount
any proper use of experience that the Bible commends; it is only the idea that
experience guides us in decision-making or teaches us doctrine that must be
avoided. What does experience teach us? How can we become more effective
Christians because of our experience? Just what did Paul have in mind in 2
Corinthians 1? How did his experience of assistance in affliction help him to
become a more helpful assistant to others in affliction?
A closer look at the passage, plus an understanding of
Paul’s use of terms, will help us. The verb parakaleo, “assist” (mentioned above), and its cognate noun,
paraklesis, “assistance” (often translated “comfort”), provide
the key to our understanding of Paul’s words. Paul was helped in his affliction
by some assistance he experienced. And just as he found that assistance
helpful, he, too, may use that same sort of assistance to help others who are in
affliction (note, of every sort). What
was this assistance (paraklesis) that
he experienced, and where did it come from? In Romans 15:5, he tells us, “And
may the God from Whom endurance and paraklesis come give you…” Clearly, if
Paul conceived of assistance (paraklesis)
as God given, it was assistance, “paraklesis” that comes from God that he had
in mind in 2 Corinthians 1.
How does that experience of assistance take place? How
does God assist? Romans 15:4 is explicit on the point: “For whatever was written
in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and
the paraklesis of the Scriptures we
might have hope.” That assistance comes through the Bible. God does not give
assistance in some extrabiblical fashion, but rather, by means of the
Scriptures. The ability to endure and to find help in times of affliction are
given, not in some mysterious or mystical way, but through finding instruction
and promises – in the written Word of God. God gives assistance through the Bible. The Holy Spirit did
not spend hundreds of years producing the Bible only to ignore it in favor of
some other sort of help.
What, then, is the place of experience? It has no guiding
or teaching function at all; the old saying, “Experience is the best teacher,” is
false. We all know people who have destroyed their health through smoking, who
may even have developed lung cancer, who go on smoking anyway. They did not
learn from their experience. Moreover, experience, per se, as we have seen from
the warnings of Deuteronomy 13, can be a false teacher, a dangerous and
misleading guide. But experience of the help the Scriptures give is different
from all others.
Because the Bible is the God-breathed revelation of God’s
promises and directions, when we rightly interpret and implement Biblical
principles, we can experience guidance and other help that differs from all
other experiences. It is the experience of hearing directly from God Himself.
Contrary to what many believe, the Bible does not provide secondary or indirect
help from God; it is the most direct revelation He gives us. When Paul says,
“All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2
Tim.
So, when we turn to the Bible in affliction and experience God’s help, we are better able to know how to assist others in finding that same help from the Bible in their time of affliction. Well, then, does experience have a place? You’d better believe it does! But that experience which God has for us does not come in any other way than through the proper use of the written Word of the living God.
Deuteronomy 13:1-5: After the general prohibition against
involvement in pagan worship (
1. through a false prophet (13:1-5).
2. a loved one (vss. 6-11).
3. revolutionaries who had been
successful in leading an entire town into apostasy (vss. 12-18).
Miraculous signs alone were
never meant to be a test of truth. Miracles happen in many religions because
Satan uses false religions and false prophets to deceive the world (see 2 Cor.
Grist From
Adam’s Mill, pp. 1-4.
Dr. Jay Adams majored in Greek at