In this article we reflect on the place of emotions, or if you like, the experience in the life of faith. I use these terms interchangeably. Although they are not entirely synonymous, they correspond to a large extent. That is why I do not wish to make a sharp distinction here.

A Current Topic⤒🔗

Faith and emotion: it is a timely topic. There is a lot of talk about feelings and experiences within and outside of the Reformed circle. It is like it is in the air, also with non-Christians. People are looking to compensate for the chilliness of a technocratic computer society. That is how the New Age movement got its chance, where the emotion received ample opportunity to express itself. The attention given to the emotions clearly has something to do with the overall climate of how people are thinking and living.

In that kind of a climate, the charismatic movement is gaining the necessary appeal to Christians of an orthodox persuasion. Faithfulness to the Bible — no matter how this is further defined — is combined with a lot of personal warmth. It appears that Reformed church people are also receptive to it. Whoever points to deviations from biblical doctrine in charismatic circles, often finds little understanding for his arguments. Deviations? That could be true. But it feels good there. The integrity of the experience outweighs substantial doctrinal differences.

No New Idea←⤒🔗

A timely theme — but definitely not a new theme! From of old, the longing for the mysticism of a direct, immediate experience of God. Within the Reformed tradition we know of the discussion about the experiential aspect: the experience of the work of the Holy Spirit in one’s heart. In some circles you can hear warm pleas for the so‑called scriptural‑experiential preaching. That is a preaching that not only pays attention to God’s Word, but also to the ways of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a person.

A Legitimate Theme←⤒🔗

Faith and emotion: it is also a legitimate theme. Feeling and experience have a legitimate place in life with God. Believing — in the sense of Heidelberg Catechism q/a 2 — is a matter that involves one’s full humanity. It also extends to the emotion, in which the bond with God becomes alive for you, and in which you also experience that bond with God. You are happy to belong to him. You surrender to the Lord with full confidence. You find pleasure in serving him. You can feel God being very near you! Even when things are very dark in your life, or getting that way. Totally unexpectedly, a specific word from Scripture can touch you emotionally!

The bond with God can give you a very good feeling. Feelings of joy, but also different feelings: emotions of sadness and feelings of dejection on account of your sins. What the Bible calls: a godly grief (2 Cor. 7:9). I am also thinking of very negative feelings, for example, anger and rebellion. You can find it all in the Bible — just read the Psalms. People can overflow with happiness, but they can also be in deep despair. In Scripture, the emotional aspect is completely part of it. The same can be found in the Reformed confession. How often don’t we encounter words of emotion: comfort, happiness, and sadness. Also — and especially — in the Canons of Dort, which are often regarded as being so “dry” and dogmatic. How warmly do they speak! I highly recommend it for your personal relationship with the Lord.

Subjectivism←⤒🔗

But, according to Scripture, what then is the place of feelings in our lives with God? At his point it is good to warn each other about the danger of subjectivism. That is a fancy term that requires explanation. When you talk about the subject, then — in simple words — you are talking about yourself. I am a believing subject. I can also fully take that into account. I believe. My emotions are fully involved with this. But if something becomes an “ism” there is always an imbalance. Subjectivism means: the believing person becomes the decisive point of departure. More precisely: what the believing person personally experiences about God makes all the difference. Your emotion becomes, as such, a separate source of revelation, in fact even more important than the Bible.

The Further Reformation←⤒🔗

Such subjectivism is not some phenomenon from today or yesterday. To limit ourselves to the history of the Reformed churches in the Netherlands, we can point to the movement of the Further Reformation here.¹This movement can be dated from just before the Synod of Dort 1618/19 to roughly halfway through the eighteenth century. The men of the Further Reformation — there are a number of differences between them, but they are agreed in this — demanded special attention for the growth, the fruit, and assurance of the spiritual life. In itself this is a beautiful and good ideal. Unfortunately, a certain vision of the personal experience became more and more dominant. How does a person feel about being a child of God? Do you particularly look for the characteristics of the election in yourself? Only once the experience has given you assurance of this can you have any certainty here.

As a rule this means you need to wait for a conscious moment of conversion, for a particular experience, a special intervention by God. What is needed is a “powerful conversion,” in which you feel emotionally grasped and convicted by the Lord. Before that happens you may not appropriate God’s promises for yourself, and you cannot say that God’s salvation is also for you. Otherwise — as it is explained — you end up with a stolen Jesus.

It is rather remarkable. The idea of a powerful conversion in (overly) experiential Reformed circles looks like the proverbial two peas in a pod in what is said about this within a considerable part of the charismatic movement. There too, the conscious moment of conversion is known as the hallmark of truth: “There and at that time the Lord spoke to me!” “That is when the Lord took hold of me!” God’s Word only becomes valuable through one’s own conversion. And even more remarkable: in turn the (overly) experiential Reformed and the charismatic story displays all sorts of common ground with that of modern experiential theology, however different the effect may be. Subjectivism can apparently easily change its appearance. But whether it is dressed up as orthodox or as liberal, the basic principle is the same. All‑in‑all still a shocking discovery!

God’s Word of Promise←⤒🔗

Just to be clear here, the personal sincerity of the previously Reformed or charismatic brother or sister is not at stake here. Yet it is fitting to sound a warning about subjectivism. In subjectivism, the assurance and the joy of faith are derived from people’s own heart and experiences. That makes for a shaky foundation. The source of one’s own heart can easily run dry. Do not begin with yourself, for that is not our starting point. Begin with the Word of God, with the promises of the covenant. Those promises are not empty words. In them the promising God himself comes to us: here I am, as your God! He begins. And that beginning also remains with him. For a man’s faith he must always return to the starting block, the promise word of God, i.e., to the God of the promised word. Your anchor has a solid hold in him. We are not thrown back on our own resources, nor on our feelings, but on the promises spoken by the living God.

Am I truly God’s child? I am not going to get assurance of this by registering all kinds of characteristics and feelings within myself. Besides, who says you are not fooling yourself in the process, attempting to draw things toward yourself? I can only be sure of belonging to him because God has told me. God does not lie. He is the God of my baptism. Of course I need to obey his word of promise and say “Yes” and “Amen” to it. But I do not have to derive that “Yes” and “Amen” from myself, nor from my feelings and experiences. God’s promise is my foothold and certainty for knowing that. This promise reaches far beyond my emotions. It also goes beyond my personal experience of piety. Here I am thinking of the final answer from the Catechism (answer 129). When I have prayed, I may say “Amen” with peace of mind. That is how it is! God has heard my prayer much more certainly than I feel(!) in my heart that I desire this of him. For the Lord keeps his word and the promises on which I may plead in prayer. And so I can simply say “Amen,” sometimes even in spite of my feelings and experiences.

Victims←⤒🔗

I mentioned that the desire for “feelings” and “experiences” in our life with God is a valid theme. At the same time, the danger is not inconceivable that this desire will start to dominate our life with God. I see that it makes victims among us. Feelings come first, and only then can you dare to fully believe. As a minister you will come across some dead‑serious catechism students in your study, who postpone their making profession of faith with the argumentation: “I first want some more experience.” Sometimes there is no way to convince them otherwise.

That is why we must continue to always realize this together: the exaggeration in the desire for “feelings” and “experiences,” the imbalance of subjectivism, deprives the life of faith of the only basis on which it can truly rest: God’s promised word. Emotions are somewhat like quicksand. Today you may feel a strong bond with God and know for sure that you are a child of God. Tomorrow you suddenly cannot feel it anymore and this causes great fear and uncertainty. The Christian’s religious life is subject to emotional fluctuations. Here you also encounter your limitations as a sinful person. Then it is rather threatening, when your feelings and experiences are to be the deciding factor for whether you belong to God. You could get into a panic about this uncertainty.

If feelings are decisive, then all disturbances in the emotional life become very scary. When someone gets off the rails psychologically, his feelings no longer support his faith. The depressed patient can be quite unmoved, the relationship with God completely cooled down. Prayer will then also become a major problem. Thankfully, faith does not mean believing in yourself because you experience it all so well. Believing involves feeling. At the same time, believing is more than the human function of feeling. It is the deep conviction — worked by the Holy Spirit — that God keeps his word, even when I may not feel that way. This is true also when I cannot do anything with my faith. Also when I no longer have any sense of God on account of dementia. Even then, God’s Word is sure!

The Negative Experience←⤒🔗

Moreover, the experience can even be at odds with God’s promise. God promises his love and care. But it does not always feel that way. How hard can things be for a Christian! Before you realize it you can be struggling with the same problems as Asaph did in Psalm 73. In that struggle you only keep your head above water when God’s word of promise is the decisive starting point, and not your experiences. The promises are true. Even though before our eyes everything may seem to go against it, yet God is good to me, according to his promise. That promise continues to hold true, even when you have to die. My objections to subjectivism — however it may express itself — are not only of a doctrinal nature. What concerns me is the practice of the life of faith, which cannot rest in itself. It can only rest in God and his Word. Certainty of faith is outside of myself. And that is a good thing — we are not handed over to ourselves. We may flee to the Lord.

Scriptural Experience←⤒🔗

Having said this, this does not mean that feelings and experiences are altogether out of the picture. They will get their rightful place. Feelings and experiences are not conditions for faith, but they are the result of it — for God is the living God. The God of the Bible is not the God of a distant past. The Christ of the promises is much more than just a historical figure. Through his Spirit the Lord is present in the life of his own and he also shows his presence. When you always go back to God’s Word, you will also “feel” and “experience” what God promises.

That keeps going up and down in the lives of sinful people. The Spirit continues to give reminders of assurance for your emotions as well. And if the certainty of faith threatens to become certainty based on yourself, then that same Spirit can also harshly put you in your place at times, by allowing you to experience a period of being spiritually subdued. He does that in order that you discover: I do not have the certainty myself. I really need to derive it from God’s word of promise, through the power of the Holy Spirit. That Spirit teaches us to know the Father and the Son in faith. He gives experienced assurance of God’s forgiveness and love, comfort and courage, and also pleasure in the service of God. But this is always through the Word.

This is how scriptural experience becomes part of your life of faith. You experience it. That is not a frantic search in yourself for all kinds of signs of your election and the like. Scriptural experience means to discover, to rediscover certainty in God. You start with God’s word of promise. And to your delight you notice within yourself how that Word, in spite of all the limitations that may be present, resonates in your heart and life through the Holy Spirit. That indeed is fruit of God’s electing grace. But that fruit does not provide the basis of your assurance of faith in advance. Instead, it confirms you in that certainty afterwards.

A Critical Assessment←⤒🔗

When Scripture is your starting point and your standard here, then you will also learn to be critical of your own feelings. Something is not necessarily good because I feel good about it. If you do not pay attention, your feelings may run away with you. In that case the Lord can explicitly forbid something in his Word, yet with a pious face you may say: “Yes, but I feel that the Lord does not think that I am wrong.” In this way, perhaps even with the best intentions, you can end up with self‑willed worship.

But God’s Word continues to supersede our feelings. Do not attribute to the Holy Spirit something that actually comes from your own mind. Critical testing of the Word remains necessary. You have to submit to this with your feelings as well.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

Faith and emotion: you can reflect and discuss it for a long time. The proper sequence is decisive here: faith comes first, trusting the Lord in his Word. And then in its wake follow your feelings. Only when experience is a true faith experience are you able to really do something with it in your life with God. Then you can also cope with emotional limitations, no matter how hard it is for you. The Word is our anchor. That is what really gives you a good feeling!