Testing Spiritual Experiences: A Manifesto
Readers of mine will note that I cite a wide tapestry of evidence in my writing about the nature of the spirit realm, the afterlife, and all things supernatural. I, of course, bring the Scriptural evidence to bear on these topics, but I don’t stop there. I cautiously include findings from the disciplines of anthropology and parapsychology, as well as from personal spiritual experiences past and present.
Other believers, by contrast, may find themselves more comfortable with a “Scripture only” approach to theology. After all, Moses tells us that “the secret things belong to the Lord” (Deut. 29:29), and Saint Paul was not permitted to share details of his mystical transport to the “third heaven” (2 Cor. 12:2–4).
Bringing the subject matter to our own day, we might consider the outlook of the more responsible leaders within the Charismatic renewal—a “signs and wonders” movement heavily associated with spiritual experiences. Influential figures like Jack Deere, Sam Storms, Michael Brown, and R.T. Kendall are adamant that they believe in the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit not because of personal experience but because they have been convinced by the testimony of Scripture. Deere’s testimony is emblematic:
[M]y thinking had not changed because I had seen a miracle or heard God speak to me in some sort of supernatural way. I had no such experiences. I had no dreams, or visions, or trances, or anything that I could identify as supernatural beyond my conversion experience. This shift in my thinking was not the result of an experience with any sort of supernatural phenomena. It was the result of a patient and intense study of the Scriptures.1
Such a statement reflects the healthy Christian approach of making Holy Scripture the final word in forming a theological worldview. Despite this bedrock of Scriptural authority, however, I would contend that Christians may and should take into account personal experiences in understanding God’s cosmos.
While Deuteronomy 29:29 is often cited as evidence against “speculation” outside the explicit teaching of Scripture, Bible readers are also provided the following maxim within the Wisdom literature:
It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out. (Prov. 25:2)
This saying depicts a glorious venture of coming to understand how God has designed the world. Such was the impetus for many of the luminaries of the scientific revolution: Their faith led them to believe in a universe of divinely ordained laws, and their pursuit of scientific knowledge was an analog to their pursuit of God himself.
The Wesleyan Quadrilateral
For Christians, then, all the data points we encounter in our life experience should be considered puzzle pieces to forming an overarching worldview. Without denying a belief in prima scriptura (Scripture has the “final say” in matters of faith), we should “supplement” our faith (2 Peter 1:5) with the knowledge afforded by scientific research, personal experiences (past and present), and our God-given reason. This epistemology has been codified in the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: A way of knowing that combines the testimony of Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason.
While I do not hail from a Wesleyan heritage, I have come to appreciate this approach to knowledge. For the Scripture itself tells Christians to expect personal experience with the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:16)—a detail that even the conservative Martyn Lloyd-Jones was apt to emphasize.2
In considering this topic, I must further admit some appreciation for the Roman position on private revelation, defined as a “Message from God that does not add to the deposit of faith, but rather helps people to live out their faith more fully.” Some private revelations have been judged contradictory to the Christian faith, while others have been judged as “worthy of belief.” Importantly, though, “the faithful are not required to accept them.”3
Juxtaposing the Roman guidance on dealing with private revelations with the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, Christians are tasked with using their God-given reason and spiritual discernment to sift out truth from falsehood when hearing of spiritual experiences or mystical visions.
At no point should we place these private revelations on the same plane as Scripture, and no believer should be required to incorporate private experiences into his or her theological system. At the same time, however, we live in a day and age where we are surrounded by spiritual seekers of all stripes. Christians should at least reckon with individual testimonies and make an earnest attempt to understand them.
Consider, for instance, cessationist Justin Peters’ response to Michael Brown after the latter recounted to him a firsthand story of a remarkably supernatural prophetic word: “I don’t know that that happened.”4 Rather than engaging with this manifestly spiritual experience, Peters retreats and tacitly accuses his interlocutor of either deception, delusion, or demonization.
Peters may not be “obligated” to believe Dr. Brown’s interpretation of that anecdote, but as a creature endowed with the faculty of reason, he has a responsibility to “make sense” of what Dr. Brown experienced. This is of even more importance in dealing with the spiritual experiences of non-believers: Believers should be ready to interpret personal experiences within their Christian worldview. Simply refusing to “speculate” will leave many genuine seekers lost and confused. To this end, A Magical World was my attempt to sketch out a worldview that not only affirms the Christian faith, but also provides a grid for understanding universal supernatural phenomena under the umbrella of that faith.
As mentioned at the beginning, readers of my book should be cognizant of my belief that—carefully tested—information from private revelations may be permitted as one of our knowledge sources. That knowledge is not infallible, but it is still knowledge. Anecdotes of exorcistic successes, out-of-body visions, miracles of healing, and accurate prophetic utterances are littered throughout my discussions of each topic. And I am not without precedent in doing so.
The Quadrilateral in Action
New Testament scholar Dale Allison, for instance, suspects that Saint Augustine may have taken such an approach in his theology of the post-mortem judgment: His description is so similar to the reports of near-death experiencers (NDErs) that Allison believes Augustine may have heard such testimonies himself and attempted to reconcile them with his knowledge of Scripture.5
To offer a modern example, the eminent Peter Kreeft—a bona fide spiritual heir of C.S. Lewis if there ever was one—includes the collective testimony of “Saints, mystics, . . . resuscitated patients, [and] the traditional beliefs and stories of many premodern cultures” in his theology of the afterlife.6
On the evangelical side, even someone as conservative as apologist Lee Strobel has emphasized the importance of reckoning with the reports of NDErs in our understanding of the afterlife.7 He follows the example of evangelical pastor and researcher John Burke, who has spent decades studying NDEs and testing them against a Biblical worldview.8
I commend this approach as not only reasonable but indeed consonant with the glorious maxim of Proverbs 25:2. The caution of Deuteronomy 29:29 should be read, I think, as a warning against excessive speculation and a Ulyssean lust for knowledge. Paul notes that “promot[ing] speculation” is a hallmark of false teachers (1 Tim. 1:4) and warns against “going on in detail about visions” (Col. 2:18). But a reasoned effort to “search things out” should not be conflated with self-indulgent speculation (e.g., some forms of “strategic level spiritual warfare” popular in some Charismatic circles). Instead, it should be understood as a good faith quest to know the glory of God in his creation—in both the physical and the spiritual planes.
Thus, when readers see me citing personal experience as part of my evidence base, I hope they will recognize that such an approach is neither without precedent nor without reason. And indeed, some “personal experiences” are so well documented that they should be considered with the weight due to any scientific findings. “The plural of anecdote is data,” after all.9
For a prime example, the relative consistency of testimony among NDErs, along with the objective evidence against the hallucination theory, is at a point where even non-believers can argue for the existence of the soul on scientific grounds. Furthermore, when certain mystics report visions which overlap with NDEs, we should pay careful attention: The visionary reports of Saint Anthony in the patristic period as well as those of Sadhu Sundar Singh in the twentieth century stand out as particular examples.
The whole schema brings us back to the classic distinction between the “special revelation” of Scripture and the “general revelation” afforded to humanity in our study of nature. Christians have long posited that there need be no conflict between the “book of nature” and the “book of Scripture,” though we may at times need to re-examine our interpretation of either.
The same dynamic should apply to our examination of experiences. We are told in Scripture to “test everything” and to “hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). Paul speaks here in the context of prophecy, but I think his admonition applies equally to any sort of spiritual experience, not least mystical visions. And if we are truly to “hold fast what is good,” we can have some degree of confidence in incorporating lessons from these experiences into our understanding of the world.
In the future, I hope to compose some articles doing some such “testing” of experiences. I did this with the 2008 Lakeland Revival a few years ago, and I hope to single out the supernatural experiences of other events and individuals going forward.
Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit: Discovering How God Speaks and Heals Today (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 23.
See R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit’s Work in Our Lives (Lake Mary: Charisma House, 2014) 33–47.
Leon J. Suprenant, Jr., Pocket Catholic Dictionary, Faith Basics (Steubenville: Emmaus Road, 2013), 67 (emphasis added).
Justin Peters in American Gospel, “Roundtable: Brown & Storms vs. Peters & Osman,” https://youtu.be/Dd8b2ia66ms?si=JtupyrjTXV3h7aga&t=6190.
Dale C. Allison, Jr., Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 57.
Peter Kreeft, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Heaven . . . But Never Dreamed of Asking (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1990), 49, 55.
See his 2022 documentary, The Case for Heaven.
See Burke’s popular book, Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2015).
Originally attributed to Raymond Wolfinger.