We live in a cultural moment where feelings are no longer just influential—they are increasingly authoritative. The question has shifted from “What is true?” to “What do I feel?”
That shift should not surprise us when we see it in the world. But it should deeply concern us when it begins to shape the church. When enough believers begin to trust their feelings over God’s Word, the health of the church is not just weakened, it is slowly derailed.
This is not a new problem. It is as old as the human race itself.
In Genesis 3, we are given more than the account of the first sin and the fall, we are given a pattern. It is a pattern that shows how the enemy works, how drift begins, and how compromise takes root. It is also a warning for Christians today, particularly in a Canadian context where cultural pressures push us to reinterpret or abandon biblical truth.
If we are not careful, the road Eve walked will become the road we follow, moving from trusting obedience to self-direction shaped by our feelings.
Before going further, it is worth pausing to read Genesis 3:1–7, which will inform the rest of the article. (You can hover over or click the reference in the previous sentence and read the passage). What we find here is not just history, but a mirror. The pathway to compromise we find there is one we must avoid as Christians, and even more importantly, as leaders in the Canadian church.
Step 1: Taking Away from God’s Word
“Did God actually say…?” (Gen. 3:1)
The serpent does not begin with outright denial. He begins with subtle distortion. He questions God’s Word just enough to introduce doubt and loosen its authority.
This is often how drift begins, not with open rebellion, but with gentle reinterpretation.
We begin to ask: Is that really what God meant? Was that just for another culture? Surely we understand things better now…
What was once clear becomes negotiable. Commands begin to feel like suggestions. The shift is small, but it is decisive. The conversation has moved from receiving God’s Word to revising it.
But God’s Word is not ours to edit. It is not ours to reshape.
Taking away from God’s Word will never make us more loving or compassionate. It will always lead us away from truth and toward the very destruction the enemy intends, and we are seeking to avoid.
Step 2: Adding to God’s Word
“Neither shall you touch it…” (Gen. 3:3)
God never said that.
Eve adds to God’s command. Likely with good intentions, but the effect is significant. God is subtly reframed as more restrictive than he actually is.
This is another common pathway to drift, not by loosening God’s Word, but by tightening it beyond what He has said: Creating rules where Scripture is silent; binding consciences where God has not spoken; confusing personal preferences with divine commands.
When we add to God’s Word, we distort his character. Obedience begins to feel burdensome rather than good. And when God seems unreasonable, his authority becomes easier to question.
Both subtraction and addition lead to the same place: a weakened trust in what God has actually said. Legalists and those who struggle with license reap the same chaotic consequence: a loosening of the authority of God’s Word.
Step 3: Doubting God’s Goodness and Justice
“You will not surely die…” (Gen. 3:4–5)
Now the attack becomes direct. The serpent challenges not just God’s Word, but God’s character. God is not telling you the truth. God is holding out on you. God cannot be fully trusted. God will not judge you.
At this point, the battle shifts from interpretation to belief. The question underneath every temptation is this: Is God truly good? Can you trust what He has revealed in His Word?
If we doubt his goodness, obedience will always feel restrictive. If we question his justice, sin will always feel manageable, allowable, and permissible.
We hear this same logic today: It’s not that big of a deal. God understands. He made me this way. A loving God wouldn’t judge this.
To deny God’s judgment is to deny his holiness. To doubt his goodness removes the joy and confidence of obedience. Sadly, if you doubt God’s judgment and goodness, you will lose sight of the cross completely, where we find the explosion of his wrath and love, leading to our salvation. The gospel is lost in the gentle drift away from the authority of God’s Word (adding and subtracting) and the adjustment of his character (goodness and judgment).
Those who trust God’s character submit to His Word with great joy, knowing it is best and good. Those who doubt him and his Word begin to drift in distrust on the pathway to despair.
Step 4: Choosing Feelings Over Truth
“She saw that the tree was good… a delight to the eyes… desired to make one wise… she took and ate.” (Gen. 3:6)
The final step is not complicated, but horrifically decisive.
Truth has been questioned, adjusted, and dismissed. Now feelings take over. A choice to follow her heart, rather than to trust in God and His Word. It looks good, feels right, seems desirable; it is better for me than what God had planned.
And so she takes. This is the end of the pathway:
Feelings become the authority. God and His Word are set aside.
This is the language of our culture: Follow your heart. Be true to yourself. If it feels right, it must be right.
But Scripture warns us clearly: “The heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9).
Feelings are real. They matter. But they are not trustworthy guides for truth. They must be shaped by God’s Word, never elevated above it.
The Same Drift Today
The pathway has not changed.
When we let feelings interpret truth, we will avoid the very places where Scripture calls us to stand firm. We will reshape God into something more acceptable. And we will slowly move toward compromise, confusion, and devastation.
This is happening in our cultural moment. And unless we are aware of it, it will happen to us. We are now aware of the devil’s schemes, or at the very least how he has worked in history.
A Better Way Forward
The answer is not to suppress feelings, but to submit them to truth.
Jesus shows us a better way.
Where Adam and Eve doubted, Jesus trusted. Where they chose what looked good, Jesus obeyed what was good. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
If we are going to remain faithful, we must recover a deep conviction:
God’s Word is not only true, but it is also good. As A.W. Tozer wrote in The Knowledge of the Holy, our view of God is the most important thing about us, and if that view is not biblical, it will lead to compromise.
Standing Firm in a Shifting Culture
For Christians in Canada, this is our defining moment.
We must choose now: To know God’s Word, neither adding to it nor taking away from it. To obey God’s Word, even when it is costly. To trust God’s character; his goodness, justice, and wisdom. And celebrate the gospel where these are so richly displayed.
This is not the time to drift. It is the time to stand firm and let nothing move us.
Not with harshness, but with conviction. Not with fear, but with clarity. Not with compromise, but with confidence in the Word of God and the God of the Word.
The pathway towards sin and destruction is subtle, and it is consistent.
It begins when we stop trusting God’s Word and start trusting ourselves. It grows when we lose sight of who he has said he is, and everyone does what is right in their own eyes.
So the question arises: Will we let our feelings distort truth, or let God’s Word (and his revealed Name) shape our heart in the power of the Spirit?
Because one path leads to life, and the other—as we are already seeing—to devastation.
