What Is Experiential Theology?

(Excerpted from an article by Joel Beeke)  LISTEN to Audio!  Download Audio

"Taste and see that the Lord is good." Psalm 34:8

Experiential or experimental theology addresses how a Christian experiences the truth of Christian doctrine in his life.

By experiential or experimental theology, we mean Christ-centered theology which stresses that for salvation, sinners must by faith have a personal, experiential (that is, experienced) Spirit-worked knowledge of Christ; and, by extension, of all the great truths of Scripture. Thus we must emphasize, as the Puritans did, that the Holy Spirit causes the objective truths about Christ and His work to be experienced in the heart and life of sinners.

For example, our lost state and condition by nature due to our tragic fall in Adam, our dire need for Jesus Christ who merits and applies salvation by His Spirit, and our responsibility to repent and believe the gospel of God's freely offered salvation in Jesus Christ-all must be known and experienced in our lives.

Experiential theology stresses that the Holy Spirit blesses man-abasing, Christ-centered theology that makes room for Christ within the soul; believers will then yearn to live wholly for His glory out of gratitude for His great salvation. The gospel truth of sovereign grace that abases us to the lowest and exalts Christ to the highest in our salvation, must be proclaimed and experienced.

Experiential theology is therefore applicatory. It explains how the life of faith begins with spiritual rebirth and grows in resisting sin and in becoming Christ-like, while being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Such teaching:
  addresses the mind,
  engages the heart,
  and confronts the conscience.

We believe that more than historical faith (believing biblical truth and doctrine with the mind) is necessary for salvation. True saving faith (biblical doctrine and truth formed within the soul by personal knowledge of and trust in Christ alone for salvation) is essential. At minimum, a true Christian should be able to explain the basics of personal conversion, which results in experiencing the reality of:
  the guilt of sin,
  deliverance in Christ,
  and gratitude to the Triune God for His glorious salvation.

Emphasis must be placed, then, on the necessity of being born again, repenting, and believing in Christ alone for salvation.

True conversion should never be presumed in adults or children. Out of loving concern for children and adults, biblical marks and fruits of saving grace are expounded from Scripture to distinguish spiritual life from counterfeit Christianity.

Reformed experiential theology teaches that Christianity is not only a creed and a way of life, but also an inner experience resulting from personal fellowship with God through the indwelling Spirit.

Some assert that this produces an unbiblical kind of mysticism, but nothing could be further from the truth. Unbiblical mysticism separates Christian experience from the Word of God, but the historic Reformed stance demands God-glorifying, Word-centered, Spirit-worked, experiential Christianity. Such Christianity produces a balanced Calvinism that does justice to all aspects of the Christian life:
  the intellectual,
  the emotional,
  the volitional,
  and the spiritual.
It helps promote a comprehensive Reformed worldview. It shows us how to live in two worlds; how to have heaven before our minds to guide and shape our lives here on earth.

"They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." 2 Thessalonians 2:10