In this article posted today, we see the issue of “syncretism” – bringing in outside influences to one’s faith system and how it is working itself out in America. In the article, two people are interviewed – Albert Mohler, current President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of his 
former classmates, Julia Jarvis, now an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.
In the section with Ms. Jarvis, we see this:
Jarvis says her late mother, like 49% of adults in the Pew survey, also had a moment of “religious or spiritual awakening.”
“My mother feared for years that I was no longer saved, but just two days before she died, she had an epiphany,” Jarvis says. “She said she was ‘told’ in a spiritual experience to put aside all religious and political differences and just love each other. That was her blessing to me, and that’s what I’m doing.”
As we see, not all “epiphanies” are good things.
This is an example of what happens when “personal experience” takes precedence over the eternal truth contained in the Word of God. ”Experience,” or “I was told,” can give us license to rationalize doggone near anything we want and, as Judges says, people do whatever seems right in their own eyes.
The Scripture tells us to “test all things.” Against what standard, though? The standard we are to use is the Word of God, not personal experience or personal “messages from God.” The Word of God IS the only infallible source for all matters of faith and practice for the Christian. That’s why we are to study, so we can do the “testing” required.
