Faith And Feeling

A good man out of the good treasure

of his heart brings forth

good things, 

and an evil man 

out of the evil treasure

brings forth evil things.

But I say to you

that for every idle word

men may speak,

they will give account of it

in the day of Judgment.

Matthew 1235-36

 

     We live, more than ever, in a world of the senses.  Advertising plays on the emotions and feelings of their intended audience knowing that people today want their senses aroused, their feelings uplifted  to the point that acceptance of what ever is promulgated, put forth as making a person feel good, it must be had by that person.  It is feelings that give people a sense of connection to their world.  Feelings are natural and not all bad when they are not manipulated, when they are not the evidence of faith in an unbiblical manner.  What do I mean?  first, faith, the act of believing, cannot be defined as an assent to the understanding that has been determined by the will.  Why?  Because there are many cases in which a man will believe against his will. 

     Some have argued that faith does not assent to feeling.  Is that true?  If it is true then how does faith affect the person?  Does that mean that feelings have no place in the assent of faith?  It is to be admitted that feelings have great influence on a man's faith.  It is easy to believe what is agreeable, on the other hand it is difficult to believe that which is disagreeable.  Now, it must be admitted that saving faith, as the gift of God, rests on the illumination of the testimony of the Spirit.  This we blogged earlier that this inward illumination is by the testimony of the Holy Spirit.  You see, we have discernment of the truth and its divine excellencies and with that we have the appropriate feelings. 

     Let me concede that our consciousness receives truth by the evidence of the truth, that evidence being the power over a man's heart and conscience.  We can find that this is true be other facts in a persons experiences.  A man repents and believes, but hi is only conscious of his act and not of the supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, it is the exercise of the Holy Spirit that the act by man to believe originate and it is the nature of the Holy Spirit to influence lives.  Our faith is founded on the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit but the act of faith does not reach that testimony on which our faith is founded.  To say then, that faith is founded on feeling is incorrect as for certain acts of faith, even saving faith which is not attended by feeling.  The object historical faith is a case in point, feelings are necessitated by  historicity.  This is an important point: The Scriptures clearly with plainness teach that the ground of faith is the testimony of God, or the demonstration of the Holy Spirit.  It is by the Holy Spirit that we attend the revelation of certain truths, which by the amount of evidence produced to a man by the Holy Spirit; conviction is produced and we receive those truths upon the authority of God.

     Therefore, faith is not necessarily connected to feelings.  Sometimes it is and sometimes it is not.  Upon what then does faith depend?  First, the nature of the object of faith.  Now if a man receives good news his is joyful, but when receiving bad news he is sorrowful.  A belief in moral excellence then feeling involves approbation, in other words praise, but if the act is criminal then the feeling is one of disapprobation.  Secondly, as to the proximate ground of faith we can use as an example of a judge of art and upon his testimony a man would not have aesthetic feeling that is connected to his faith.  Now, if the man personally perceives the beauty of an art piece he is delighted and convicted that it is beautiful.  If a man believes that Jesus Christ is the Savior and manifest in the flesh only on the testimony of the Bible, there is no due impression from that truth.  But if his faith is founded on the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit through whom the glory of God is revealed to that man, that is the glory of Jesus Christ, then that man is filled with felling one of adoration and love.

     True faith is grounded not on some outward expression of euphoric forms of faith giving credence that we are religious and are faithful Christians.  While there are outward expressions of joy, those expression come from deep within a person as the Holy Spirit reveals what God has done for a person by Christ' incarnation, oblation, passion, and ascension into heaven sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for all who enabled and called and believe on His propitiation for sins.  This is joy that cannot be understood or estimated, it is founded upon the authority of God. 

LORD, You will establish

    peace for us,

For You have also done 

    all our works in us.

                                  Isaiah 26:12

To God Who Is Our Strength

Richard L. Crumb