[aron]

I may be too much in my own mind (always a danger). But I've come to believe that a chief peril of the modern religious sentiment is to make people believe that subjective experience is a stand-in for objective reality, which makes them prey for manipulation and abuse. Witness Lee asked the Shanghai elders, "How did you feel" when they expelled Watchman Nee for gross sin. Even basic issues of human conduct got subsumed by, "How do you feel".

Now, imagine being born into a system that traffics in manufactured feelings. Eventually Leader A quits Leader B because it doesn't feel good any more to follow that one. Then mummy and daddy split because they can't agree on which leader to follow, again feelings lead them deeper into the quagmire. Now imagine you're a child or a young teen. All your life you've been told that reality itself is to meet on the proper ground under the proper leadership and call on the Lord in the proper way, and pray-read the right verses from this week's HWMR, and suddenly it all dissolves. All along your feelings were conditioned by your handlers, and suddenly your handlers are in turmoil. Whither reality, at this point?

Which is why I keep pointing to the experiences of Jesus in the Bible. They have been validated. "No one can do the works you do, unless God is with him." This goes up to the cross, and beyond. "He rescued me, because he delighted in me". The Father delighted in the Obedient Son, and raised him from death. This transcends our daily experiences and ultimately can imbue them with meaning, if we don't allow ourselves to be distracted by ephemera and clutter.