Religious experience is problematic because there is no means of verification other than one’s own “experience.” For example, an individual might claim a vision of Jesus, a voice from above, the apparition of an angel, or, Ezekiel-like, transportation to an unfolding realm. To follow such a thing, a person must have more faith in the declarer’s experience than having faith in God. Through taking the word of a man we make ourselves susceptible to that individual’s influence. Thus it becomes possible for us to enter their game or delusion, which ever it may be.
Tag: Holy Spirit
The word “grace” appears 18 times in the Old Testament. It appears 125 times in the New Testament. A striking change. What accounts for this? The apostles tell us. John said that “the law was given through Moses, but grace…came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Paul declared that Christians are “not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14, 15).
From the beginning of time on this earth, the spirit has been connected with life. It was the Spirit of God breathed into man bringing him to life (Genesis 2:7). Jesus tells us plainly that it is the Spirit who gives life (John 6:63), and James further states that “the body without the spirit is dead.” (James 2:26) If it is the Spirit that gives us life and keeps us alive, what is the significance of Peter’s promise to those who would repent and be baptized in Acts 2:38, that they might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit already gives and sustains us physically (Job 33:4). Thus, there must be more than just physical blessings that God, through the mouth of Peter, was promising.