The Language of Feelings

by Gardner Hall

Have you heard this type of language from disciples you know?

• “I took it as a sign that God wanted us to be here.”
• “I think that God was trying to tell me something by allowing this to happen.”
• “I felt a providential nudge to do it.”

Our evangelical friends have used this type of language for decades, and now it is exploding in popularity, not just among them but also among brethren we know! After all, we read their material and listen to their media. Postmodern thought, with its emphasis on trusting feelings with a corresponding distrust of language and the written word, has overwhelmed the religious world. The concept that God speaks directly to us through our feelings, hunches, and events in our lives is “in,” but it is dangerous for several reasons:

• Even during those rare intervals in history of direct revelation, God didn’t speak to millions of followers through their premonitions, leadings, and inner illumination, but rather precisely to a few prophets through words (Acts 11:14). On rare occasions he confirmed those words with signs (Gideon, Hezekiah, Zechariah), but the original message always involved language, words.
• With our prejudices and inner biases, we have enough trouble being honest with God’s objective written word. Throw our “gut feelings” and other subjective impressions into the mix of what we feel to be God’s revelation, and the waters become hopelessly muddied.
• The lack of trust in the sufficiency of the written words of God’s inspired apostles and prophets has always been a prime mover behind apostasy. When some say longingly, “But don’t we need more than what we have in the scriptures?” they are frankly showing a lack of faith and a great disrespect for God’s chosen method of communicating with us.

Careful with “the language of Ashdod,” the jargon of those who look for God’s leading apart from inspired scripture! Scriptural principles are sufficient to reveal God’s will to us and to confirm our path before him (II Timothy 3:16, 17). In inspired scripture, we have the faith that was once for all time delivered to the saints (Jude 3). We don’t need more!