On the mountain bearing the name,
Jabal an-Nour, in a cave called Hira, from what eventually became a book called
the Qurán, an angel named Gabriel, brought a word for God to a man named
Mohammad. Eventually, this event was the beginning of a series of events that
resulted in what is today one of the largest religions in the world; Islam.
Islam exists because a man claimed that God spoke to him on a mountain, in a
cave, through an angel named Gabriel. Did God speak to Mohammad?
On Easter morning in 1935, in the
Korean mountains, a young man was praying, when suddenly, Jesus appeared to him
in a vision. In that vision, Jesus supposed informs the young lad, Sun Myung
Moon that he is to finish the work that Jesus started 2,000 years earlier. From
this experience was born the Unification Church, a.k.a. the Moonies.
One spring day, in 1820, a 14-year
old boy went into a grove of trees to pray. This lad petitioned God for an
understanding of which church was the true church. The young man reported that
God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. The Father and Jesus Christ
informed the lad that all of the religious denominations were preaching false
doctrine. He was told to wait for further instructions. According to the Church
of the Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith’s revelation was the greatest revelation
in the history of the Church since the Christ event. This experience produced
the Mormon Church.
One man, on a very popular
Christian network, tells his audience that God spoke to him and told him that
Fidel Castro would die in the 90s. The same man said that God told him that
Homosexuals in America would be destroyed by fire in 1995. This man also
claimed that Jesus would appear physically in churches to show His people how
close we are to the second coming. This man is none other than Benny Hinn.
I very recently heard someone claim
that the Holy Spirit will oftentimes tell us the exact amount we should give,
and to which causes. No so long ago, I had a dispute with Darrell Bock over at
DTS regarding his position that God still speaks to us today by way of dreams
and visions. Indeed, it is frightening that the idea that God is continuing to
reveal things to us by way of personal, mystical encounters, has invaded even
our most conservative evangelical and reformed churches, and it has done so
with great haste and sensation. I can hear claims in our own conservative,
Baptist church that parallel those of Mohammad, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze
Russell, Sun Myung Moon, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Hagin and many, many others.
It seems to me that there can be no
doubt that the foundation of Christianity for many, if not most professing
evangelicals has eroded to the point that it no longer exists. The foundation
of God stands firm. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you
are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself
being the corner stone, in whom the
whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the
Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the
Spirit.” (Eph. 2:19-22)
Recently it has been reported that John
Piper publicly engaged in the Catholic practice of Lectio Divina. And if
you visit Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC, Tim Keller’s church, you will find Lectio
Divina is being taught there. Click here
for Redeemer's teaching on lectio divina. It is no secret that Ronnie
Floyd, president of the SBC has gone off the deep end a long time ago. He
recently spoke at the heretic, Mike Bickle’s IHOP. Click here
to read more I have been saying for years now that if Christianity is to be
preserved in one’s life and in the local church, it will only be preserved
insofar as Scripture is preserved. A proper understanding of the phenomenon of
Scripture is essential for a healthy, vibrant Christian experience.
What is happening in the modern,
American, evangelical churches? In order to get to the root-cause of this
problem, we must return to the garden and our original parents. After God
created Adam, he spoke to Him, saying, The Lord God commanded the man, saying,
“From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from
it you will surely die.” (Gen. 2:16-17) God spoke to Adam. God’s speaking was
clear. God’s speaking was authoritative. Adam knew without question that God
had spoken. Adam trusted God’s Word. However, when the time was right, Satan
entered the garden disguised as a serpent. While Satan would have obviously
been out of place appearing in the garden, the serpent was not. It was an
appropriate and clever disguise.
Eve willingly entertained a word
from the serpent that contradicted God’s word. Eve was willing to consider the
possibility that God’s word could be evaluated, tested, and scrutinized. Rather
than accept God’s word for what it is, Eve listened to the tantalizing
seduction of the serpent, Satan in the flesh so to speak, and ventured out into
the realm of autonomous human reason. And when Eve reasoned using the serpent’s
method, a method that cut God out of the process, she concluded that God’s word
was not the final say in the matter. There were other possibilities. When man
reasons apart from God, he will always, to varying degrees, conclude that God
is wrong. So it was in the garden, and so it is today.
ὁ θεὸς…..ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν ἐν υἱῷ. Ho Theos...elalensen humin en huioi. "God has spoken to
us in the Son." Semantically, the aorist is consummative. The writer is emphasizng
the the fact that God has spoken one final time through the person of Jesus
Christ. The revelation of Scripture is the final event of God speaking until we
are united with Christ in eternity at his return. What this means is that all
claims that God has spoken to someone else apart from Scripture are false. If
we dare venture down any other path, we are left with the seriously flawed
argument that we can test personal revelation by an appeal to biblical
revelation. The fact is such an endeavor is impossible. Take Benny Hinn’s claim
that Fidel Castro would die in the 90s. How would it be possible for anyone to
have evaluated Hinn’s claim at the time? Suppose I claim that God spoke to me
in a dream and told me to give $15,000 to a particular ministry. How could I or
anyone else know for sure that God had spoken to me?
If a claim of God speaking can actually be tested by Scripture, then the
event itself can be ruled superfluous. That is to say, a person claiming that
God spoke to them in a dream not to cheat on their spouse is redundant and
unnecessary. These modern claims then are untestable. Not only are they
untestable, they are ambiguous. The way God spoke in the biblical revelation
compared with how God supposed speaks to people today is radically different.
When Mary was visited by the angel, it was beyond doubt. When Jonah was
instructed to preach to Ninevah, there was no question that God had spoken.
When Adam was forbidden to eat from the tree, it was crystal clear. There was
no chance that these people could have mistaken God’s word for some internal
impression. Today, people have things pop into their minds and claim that it is
God telling them to do something. It is just that ridiculous. How do you know God
told you anything when all it is is a thought that popped into your mind? The
claim that God spoke is a very serious claim indeed. But modern, American
evangelicals think God is the all-tolerant sweet grandpa who will let you get
away with anything because he is such a loving God. This picture of God is the
product of a sinful, hedonistic, nihilist society that suffers from the accute
condition of self-fascination. No one wants to offend or be offended. Everyone
is interested in being politically correct, even most of those who say they don’t.
And as a result, we let everything slide. We tolerate any and every claim that
walks onto the field. If we didn’t, the charismatic movement would have died
long ago. If we didn’t tolerate everything, Ronnie Floyd would have been
publicly rebuked and maybe even replaced by now.
When we abandon the actual revelation of the self-attesting Word of God, we
open the door to an "anything goes atmosphere." It is only when we can point to a
final, actual, knowable revelation that we can distinguish false claims of
revelation from true revelation. Only then can we know what is true and avoid
what is false. In reality, the contemporary refusal to regard any truth as sure
and certain is the word kind of infidelity. [John MacArthur, The Truth War]
When we see the Bible as uncertain and perhaps even wrong or highly
questionable in some places, it makes other claims that God has spoken, much
easier to posit. It is only when we hold to the doctrines of the sufficiency,
necessity, perspicuity, and authority of Scripture that such claims melt away
under the heat and light of divine truth.
