Religion and superstition mix but Bible-based Christian faith doesn’t mix with anything but love. What some have called “bells and smells” or “touchy-feely” faith appeals to the senses — as do flying buttresses and altars in ancient churches (and expressions of modern art in today’s architect-designed church buildings).
God gave us eyes to see with, noses to smell with, ears to hear with, tongues to taste with, and fingers to touch with. We need these to live in this physical world. We can become more tactile, more visual. and so on…but these sensory abilities cannot make us aware of the spiritual dimension that is beyond them.
There is a “sixth sense” which is instinctive, but that’s all. To enter the spiritual dimension beyond the senses, we must be “born from above” — “born again” in the words of Jesus — by the Spirit of God. So many who have had this experience have exclaimed: “After I turned to God and gave my life to Jesus, He forgave my sins — and everything changed! The next day, the sky was bluer and the grass greener!” (My own father, who as a young man gave his life to Jesus in a Methodist Mission, used to say the same.)
What if those priests had entered the dark forests of paganism with faith that Jesus would heal the sick, had rid the people of their diseases, had removed their spiritual bondages — all through laying their hands on the people — and also seen them rejoice with the assurance of sins forgiven? Sensory religion cannot save us from our sins — only faith in God through the Lord Jesus can do that. Nor can screaming guitars, pounding drums, music beats, and rock style singers save us. Some churches are as dark on the inside as those ancient German forests were, and the five senses of people who meet there determine how much of the Spirit of God is present in meetings. Those priests entered the forests with a mixture of fatalism and superstitious sense-religion. We can do better.