Articles
GOD SAID (Part 2)
THE BASIS OF ALL ACCEPTABLE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,
it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints
(Jude 3).
Jude speaks of “contending for the faith” —that is, objective faith [i.e., the
Gospel], written revelation, upon which one’s faith must rest. Any “religious
experience” not based upon what God has said is false. One’s religious experience
must be tested by what “God said,” not by what one thinks God
says through a religious experience. Testing what God says by one’s religious
experience today is the basis of false religion. Abraham had a religious
experience, but it must be based upon what “God said” (Gen. 22:1-
13). Salvation is a religious experience, but it must be based upon what
“God said.” Worship is a religious experience, but it must be based upon
what “God said” (Acts 17). The Athenians were having a religious experience,
but it was not acceptable upon God because it was not based upon
revelation. One can find people gathered everywhere in worship going
through some kind of experience, but this does not mean that that experience
is acceptable to God. Every religious experience one has must be in
harmony with what the Bible teaches and must rest upon what “God said.”
When one has some kind of experience unknown to the Bible, that experience
is false and deceptive and not accepted by God. It is time for men to
turn back to the Bible and to find out what it teaches and then act upon it.
The action then will be an experience, which harmonizes with what “God
said.” This will be acceptable unto God. Nothing else is or can be.
