I can get excited by those moments in life when there is a confluence of culture, Scripture, and solid theological teaching. In those moments when something in culture raises an issue, Scripture (with the aid of good teachers) defines reality and readjusts my worldview. Then, as a result, I become more able to engage the surrounding culture and the issues raised within it. The spectacles of Scripture provide a clear view of reality (Calvin’s Institutes, I.6.i.).
One of these cultural, Scriptural, theological confluences hit me this afternoon. I was listening to a classic rock radio station and on came Grand Funk Railroad’s song “I Can Feel Him in the Morning”. If you don’t know the song, the basic premise is that God and his reality are easily intuited by children, and as adults we too can rest assured that God exists because we “Can feel him in the morning . . . [we] can feel him in the evening too.” The song begins with a spoken word intro of several children giving their innocent musings about who God must be and the difference between good and bad. For example, one child says, “He can see us whatever we do . . . whatever we do. He has such powerful eyes, he has to have thousands and millions and billions. And he can still see us when we’re bad.” The intro concludes with a boy saying, “I think . . . hum, there are more people that are bad then there are good. And, hum, when you are good, you live forever. And, if you’re bad, then you die when you die.” Then, the verses each give expression to life’s difficulties which cause us to lose faith. In response to the hard realities of each verse, lead vocalist Mark Farner confidently proclaims of God:
“I can feel him in the morning. I can feel him in the evening too.
I can hear him in the morning, tell’n me what to do.
Got to make a new world, got to make the old one right.
I can see him in the morning, I can see him in the stars at night.”
Whenever God or Christianity gets a nod of approval form pop-culture, Christians are quick to claim the approval as a viable validation of Christianity and its veracity (c.f. “Jesus Is Just Alright” by the Doobie Brothers). However, as Christians, we may be coming up short with respect to cultural engagement. When cultural figures or institutions express appreciation for God and Christianity, something important may be going on, and we aught to pay attention to these expressions. We don’t know what God is ultimately doing in the hearts of those who express vague appreciation for the Christian faith. But, the culturally engaged Christian can’t just let things stay there; the culturally engaged Christian should want to press further. We want God to get more than a nod of approval. We want people to love, worship, and serve God as Savior and Lord.
With that, what could be objectionable about the content of “I Can Feel Him in the Morning”? First, I don’t want to disparage the guys who wrote this song or the people who enjoy this song. This song provides an opportunity to talk about what it means to know God in a more real and biblically grounded way. Now, about the song. This song puts forth a post-modern form of spirituality that grounds the truth of God’s existence in feeling. A cursory perusal of the content of Grand Funk Railroad’s songs shows that band values God in some way. But, writing during the cusp of postmodernism’s upsurge, the band sings about faith in terms of, “whatever’s good for you is true for you.”
OK, so Grand Funk Railroad’s nod of approval may be a little wishy-washy and post-modern; but, well grounded Evangelical Christians don’t harbor such thoughts . . . do they? Well, perhaps in a worship service you have sung Alfed H. Ackley’s song “I Serve a Risen Savior” otherwise know as “I Know He Lives.” The song claims that “whatever men may say” we can know God lives because we experience him in our heart:
“He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life’s narrow way
He live, he lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know he lives.
He lives within my heart.”
This song is infused with a Kantian philosophy that has penetrated the Protestant Christian thinking. During the Enlightenment period, in response to raging critiques of the Bible and Christianity, Emmanuel Kant created a dichotomy between the spiritual and the material world. Kant argued that the truth of the Christian faith can only be apprehended by the experience of the believer, thus separating faith from objective truth. For Kant, faith is a matter of personal experience and feeling, and it has nothing to do with reasonable rational arguments rooted in objectivity. If you were to have asked Kant how he knows Jesus lives, he may have answered, “I know he lives because he is a subjective feeling that I experience deep within my heart.” Ultimatly, Kant was trying to rescue Christianity from critique. However, Christianity doesn't need to be rescued from critique; it can stand up in the face of critique just fine (c.f. "The reason for God" by Tim Keller and "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis).
We have a couple problems at this point. (1) What happens when we simply just don’t “feel it”? And, (2) what happens when someone else has deep feelings for an errant belief system?
First, all Christians will go through times when we don’t really feel the truth of the Christian faith. We all have times of spiritual dryness and weariness when God seems to be absent “along life’s narrow way.” At those dry weary times, we need a knowledge of God that surpasses the vacillating subjective feelings of the human heart; this is when we are to stand upon the Word of God apart from our feelings. I recently heard Dr. R. Scott Clark point out that events like the call of Abram and the Exodus aren’t experiences we feeling in our hearts, they are a real historical events that are recorded in Scripture. Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension aren’t true because we feel them to be true, they are objective truths revealed to us in Scripture. Upon these truths we are called to believe; we are not called to feel them. When we feel strong in the faith, the truths of salvation remain true apart from our feelings. More encouraging, when we hardly feel the faith to be true, the truths of salvation remain true apart from our feelings. God’s Word is perfect – God’s word is truth (Pr 30:5, Jn ). Such truth is a solid anchor against the emotional squalls of the human heart. Such truth is a firm foundation against the ever shifting sands of culture.
Second, what is a Christian to do when someone from another faith expressed deep hearty feelings for their religion (especially when that Christian doesn’t feel so good about his or her faith)? Feelings have become the apologetic de jour in America
Do many people feel that God is real? Yes. Do many Christians feel that the God of the Bible is real? Yes. Do Christians experience uplifting worship services? Yes. But, don’t relegate belief to the arena of feelings, emotions, and experiences. There will be times when feelings fail, emotions run dry, and experiences are almost non-existent. When these times come, we need something more; we need an objective source of truth that resides outside of us – the Word of God.
So, the next time you trip over a song like “I Can Feel Him in the Morning” by Grand Funk Railroad on the radio, see it as an opportunity to gently press deeper questions about the existence of God.
So, the next time you trip over a song like “I Can Feel Him in the Morning” by Grand Funk Railroad on the radio, see it as an opportunity to gently press deeper questions about the existence of God.
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