A continual feeling of guilt, or of uncertainty, or of inferiority, can cause individuals to seek after other assurances from God. Because the written Word of God is hard for some to understand, they want more. Some want miraculous things badly enough to self-invent them. When men of letters and degrees see this outrageous display of emotion in religion they think it is “time for men to wake up and act like adults”. In the 5th and 6th centuries BC the rise of the scientific method met the affront of super-emotionalism. The intellectuals made fun of the religious. It causes a sharp polarity between the intellectual and the common people. Intellectuals were persecuted on religious grounds. Trials of heresy were conducted. It introduced wide-spread immorality based upon the freedom of the self. They would cry; “nature wills it, and it pays no heed to rules”. “Nothing is shameful but thinking it is shameful makes it shameful” Finally, “the body is made for immorality.” It introduced Satan-worship. It left man to his own passions. It initiated a reaction which stressed the subjective over the objective. How the ‘FELT ABOUT SOMETHING’ was the only standard that mattered. You see, the intellectuals were demanding PROOF and the super-emotionalists were producing “feelings better felt than told”. The same thing is happening, today. It seems to me that super-emotionalism is the direct reaction against the liberal philosophy and theology of our period of the super-intellect. In our human attempt to verify the existence of God in a time when God is being widely questioned, the way some seek a return to God is to return to the miraculous of the past. .
Christians must take the Bible as the Word of God and believe it!! When the Bible tells us “miracles have “ceased, stopped, no longer exist”, 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, we need no other assurances!! In Christ, God has promised forgiveness, cleansing, the Holy Spirit, endurance, communion, and acceptance—there are NO OTHER proofs necessary than HIS WORD!! Speaking in tongues, casting out demons, or healing the sick are NOT problematic activities; we have God’s Word on the subject. We know that nothing lives in sinners or saints today, except by their invitation. We also know that demons cannot exist side-by-side with the Holy Spirit (which also comes into the lives of sinners saved by the blood of Christ, by invitation). The one who is in Christ becomes the temple of God, 1 Corinthians 6:19. He has been transferred into a new kingdom, Colossians 1:13, and in that Kingdom he has entered into a battle against the demonic which is in the world, but not in the Christian!! The weapons pf the Christians in this warfare are different from that used in exorcism, Ephesians 6:10. Prayer, fellowship, worship, and education based upon God’s Word—these are our supplied weapons to win, not some silly exercise of the Catholic Church! A Christian is involved in activities which will abolish whatever stands between himself and God. This is our success package designed by the great Provider. The early Christians understood this and up-rooted sin in any fashion it presented itself, the only weapon they used was the Word of God, preaching the crucified Christ, and sharing with the world the “crucified life”!
If we begin to doubt our Christianity, if our assurance becomes shaky, we may add assurance, security, and trust by not quenching the Spirit, utilize EVERY OPPORTUNITY for study, fellowship, and prayer that is allowed; we may “be not filled with wine wherein there is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking one to another (addressing one another) in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs”. Ephesians 5:18-19
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, THERE IS LIBERTY. 2 Corinthians 3:17
