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Isn't Christianity Just an Emotional Experience?

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When a person newly understands that Jesus is God and took his or her death penalty for sin on himself, it can definitely be an emotional experience. When he or she has crossed over from eternal death to eternal life, that can be an emotional experience, too.

But the emotional experience is not all there is to Christianity.

Some think when they have a religious experience and suddenly want to live well and do good in the world, that is Christianity. They may get some emotional joy out of helping others, but that is not Christianity.

Christianity is based on facts:

  1. That there is only one true God.
  2. That He is perfect and holy and requires all who enter his presence to be the same (without sin).
  3. That since Adam and Eve introduced sin into the world, everyone born has sinned.
  4. That the only way, then, for us to enter God’s presence and survive is to have our sins dealt with.
  5. That the only way to deal with our sins is to die for them -- or to have someone else step in to die for us.
  6. That the only person qualified to step in for us must be a perfect sacrifice (sinless), and the only one who can live sinless is God Himself. So God came as a man, Jesus, and took the death penalty for our sins upon Himself on the cross.
  7. And that anyone who accepts this fact (believes it, understands it, owns it for themselves) is saved from the death penalty of sin and will spend eternity in the presence of God (in heaven).

Those are facts. Facts are not based on emotion. Facts are facts.

Emotions come and go, ebb and flow like waves on a shore. Anything based on emotions will also rise and fall, grow and fade, wax and wane.

True Christian faith is based on reason and understanding of God’s history of work on earth. When a person truly understands and believes in Christ (the definition of a Christian), then his or her faith stands strong through any emotional episode.

Emotions may erupt and fade, but true faith remains.

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About The Author

Dianne E
Butts

Dianne E. Butts is a freelance writer, author, screenwriter and contributor to CBN.com.