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Better Felt Than Told
By Donald R. Fox
The expression “better felt than told” has been sprinkled throughout literature and has been a common idiom for a long time. I have heard this type of statement many times, and mostly it is associated with religious emotions. If you have been around some religious folks, you may hear some say, “I know I am saved, it’s a better felt than told experience.” I have heard some say, “I wouldn’t take a stack of Bibles for how I feel.”
You may have heard such type remarks worded in a different fashion. The idea is that their faith and belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord is an arousing and emotional one. They feel like they are saved! Along with this type of poignant, moving hyper, such like people feel that the Bible is also a very mysterious book that cannot be understood. The conclusion for them is that their unexplained and mysterious sensation is better felt than told. Further, with these emotions comes the belief that one can be saved by a miraculous work performed upon them by God. Their personal inner emotions are the sum and total of their evidence that they are saved. The denial of easily understood biblical teaching is part of their lot. With this rejection, they deny “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
Do I doubt their sincerity? No, I do not! Yet, with this form of emotional self-salvation, they are rejecting the Word of God. With their self-motivated sincerity they believe that which the Bible will not substantiate, validate or bear out. Salvation without obedience to the Word of God is a delusion and destructive self-deception.
“Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God: and every one loveth him that begat loveth him also that is
begotten of
him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love
God, and
keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his
commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1
The above verses cannot be misunderstood! Now, the sadness over the type of people that desire salvation by a better than told feeling is that they totally reject God’s Word, His commandments. Would emotionality driven people say that God’s commandments are not necessary?
To reject is to refuse! “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven” (Hebrews 12:25). In Old Testament times, people refused to listen unto God’s Word. “God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” (Hebrews 1:1). How can we escape, if we refuse to listen, to hear the Son of God? “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son…” (Hebrews 1:2).
REMEMBER: All we know
about God’s plan for mankind, we
learn from the Bible. Mark that down! PONDER THE FOLLOWING FRIENDS:
Don’t we
all understand many things without fear of misunderstanding? We
understand
Webster’s Dictionary as to the defining and spelling of
words. We also accept
Webster as the authority for such. We understand blue prints,
contracts,
clothing sewing patterns and a host of other things. Get the idea?