Christian Empiricism

John 20:25 “But he [Thomas] said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.'”

Empiricism is the philosophy (way of thinking) that we can only know by what we have experienced or can feel. Although there may be some truth to this in certain areas, the biblical method and view point is contradictory to empiricism. In our culture empiricism combined with relativism (truth is dependent on the individual) is becoming one of the leading philosophies and it is working its way into the church gradually more and more. As our society moves away from Biblical truth and revelation and towards other philosophies we will be losing our source of belief in “things unseen” to a degree. Biblical revelation does not continually need to be “proven” in the sense of a scientific fact, it does not need to be validated by the feeling of an individual, it simply IS truth because it comes from the God of ALL truth!

The Christian church needs to continually reevaluate what is necessary for salvation and where the foundation of our faith IS. Is it in the feeling we receive when we hear a positive message, do we lose our way when we hear a negative message simply because it does not make us feel joyful. Is the depth of our walk with God one that is swayed by the tides of our emotion or do we seek stability, sufficiency, and strength in Christ our cornerstone and firm foundation. The Christians life although influenced by feeling and experience is NOT determined by things such as this. Truth does not always need a definite experience for it to be true; it does not need to be validated by feelings of pleasure or pain in order for it to be valid. If it were, miracles would be out of the question, the working of God unexpectedly would be unexplainable and then written off, due to the inability to actually scientifically/experimentally prove it as happening. If truth and knowledge MUST be attributed to feeling and experience then some truths we would never know without partaking in them ourselves. Science would prevail over Biblical truth, for “science” is the only thing that is actually proven, right?

Thomas is a key example of an individual who relayed purely on empirical data to believe in Christ. He said he would not believe until he could see, touch, and feel that Christ had risen from the dead…this was NOT what was encompassed in believing the testimony of those who have seen him, even though positive testimony does add more confidence to our strength and trust in the mighty works of God! The beautiful thing about Christ is that He does allow Thomas this sign that he seeks in order to believe, yet proclaims, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” There is something good to believing in the truth without ALWAYS have to feel something, see it, or be able to explain it. That good is attributed to a deep confidence and assurance in the work of God and the Character of God regardless of our instantaneous feelings or desires. He is good whether we feel it or not. We see the work of God in the hearts of men all the time without being able to explain how that work occurred or the length and breadth of the work that God had been doing all along. We see the effects of the wind without seeing the Wind, and so also we see the effects of the Spirit of God at work in the hearts of men without always seeing HIM specifically. We do exercise faith without always having to feel something in the midst of it.

As we continue to draw near to Christ and God who is our source of Truth we must continue to shirk the notion that the way that I feel is the determining factor to the depth of my relationship. If we have been saved by the powerful grace and work of God, then we can proclaim Blessed be God in the midst of our feeling happy or sad, tired or energized, whether we are seeing the nails in His hands or believing the testimony of the work and word of God itself…we do not have to conform to society that teaches if you don’t feel it, see it, empirically test it, it cannot be true. Let God be true and every man a liar!