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When Experience Becomes Authority: Testing Every Claim by Scripture
What happens when personal experience becomes the final authority? In this Weekly Watch episode of Contending for the Word, Dave Jenkins explains why Christians must test private revelations, spiritual impressions, mystical experiences, emotional worship, and identity claims by the sufficient Word of God.Listen or Watch
Experience may be real. Feelings may be sincere. But neither can define truth, establish doctrine, or overrule what God has revealed in Scripture. Christians are called to exercise biblical discernment, test the spirits, and remain anchored in Christ and His Word.Scripture must interpret our experiences; our experiences must never reinterpret Scripture.In This Episode
- Why private impressions must never be treated as divine revelation.
- Why spiritual intensity does not authenticate spiritual truth.
- How Scripture addresses mystical spirituality and emotionalism.
- Why feelings must be interpreted by truth rather than used to redefine reality.
- How Christians can test every spiritual claim with biblical discernment.
Key Scriptures
2 Timothy 3:16–17; 1 John 4:1; Acts 17:11; Jeremiah 17:9; Colossians 2:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:21For more episodes of Contending for the Word, visit Servants of Grace.
Dave Jenkins is happily married to his wife, Sarah, and lives in beautiful Southern Oregon. He is a writer, editor, and speaker who loves Christ, His people, the Church, and sound theology.
Dave serves as the Executive Director of Servants of Grace Ministries and the Executive Editor of Theology for Life Magazine. He is the Host and Producer of the Equipping You in Grace Podcast and a contributor to and producer of Contending for the Word.
He is the author of The War of Worldviews: Truth, Lies, and the Battle for the Christian Mind (Theology for Life, 2026), Contentment: The Journey of a Lifetime (Theology for Life, 2024), The Word Matters: Defending Biblical Authority Against the Spirit of the Age and The Word Explored: The Problem of Biblical Illiteracy and What To Do About It (House to House, 2021).
You can connect with Dave on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, or subscribe to his newsletter.
When he is not engaged in ministry work, Dave enjoys spending time with his wife, going to movies, sharing a meal at a favorite restaurant, or playing a round of golf with friends. He is also a voracious reader, particularly of Reformed theology and the Puritans, and is often found working through a stack of new books from a wide range of Christian publishers.
Dave earned his M.A.R. and M.Div. from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.
