God Said to Me

God Said to Me

I was asked by a friend to listen to a CD of a sermon that he had attended. In the sermon the speaker said that on the way to the venue, God had spoken to her and told her what to say to the audience while driving in the car on the way to the engagement. She then began to speak about her father’s ministry and that he had made a number of motion pictures while he was alive and that these movies were indeed God’s word to the church. In fact, she claimed that her father was like John the Baptist and his words (and motion pictures) were the very word of God. I told my friend that he should beware of speakers who say that God told them this or that, and that while it may have been that this speaker was just caught up in some evangelical clichés, that one should always be very careful when ascribing words to God. God has given His revelation to man, and for us today we find this revelation in the Holy Scriptures. When people attempt to subjectively add to that word, by saying God said this or God told me that, they are in danger of becoming false prophets. Deuteronomy 18:20 states “’But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” If we say God has said something when he has not, then we stand opposed to God and we are found to be worthy of death. The protestant reformation flew the banner of “Sola Scriptura” in opposition to the Roman Catholic view of church authority, where sacred tradition, sacred Scripture, and the teaching authority of the Scripture, and the teaching authority of the Church are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others. The Reformers found “scripture alone” to be so necessary, that countless men gave their lives defending it. Yet today, Protestants seem to find it relatively easy to claim personal subjective authority, many times contradicting the scriptures, trampling under foot what their protestant forbearers fought so hard to establish, that the Bible is our ultimate authority!

The reformed Westminster Confession of Faith states in section 1 of the first chapter that, “Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation; therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his Church; and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.”

This first proposition of the confession is all about God’s revelation to man, we learn here that the light of nature, the works of creation and God’s providence manifest the goodness, wisdom and power of God. The creation is a witness to all men that God exists and in fact all men know that God exists, and if man denies that God exists then he is suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. What may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them (Rom 1:19), to the extent that all men are left without excuse. Yet, as much as God has shown Himself to man in this way, it is insufficient to bring the unregenerate to life. Man cannot know that knowledge of God, or of His will in this revelation, in a way which is necessary for salvation. This revelation then is called God’s “general revelation”, it is what is general or typical for all men everywhere.

The confession then states that because of this, it pleased God at different times and in diverse ways to reveal Himself to man, in such a way that would generate the fruit of salvation or regeneration. God showed Himself to Abram saying to Him “1 now the LORD had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.

2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Gen 12:1-3

God revealed Himself to Moses in a burning bush, to Joshua as the Captain of the Host of the Lord, to the prophets in dreams and visions. He has spoken to us in these last days through His Son, Hebrews 1:1-2 states “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.” The New Testament Apostle of Christ was an office that had a criterion, that they needed to be eye witnesses of Christ’s earthly ministry or eyewitnesses of the risen Christ. Peter says in Acts 1:21 concerning the replacement of Judas, “therefore one of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” The Apostle Paul, likewise, met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and was commissioned by Christ Himself. In Acts 9:15 the risen Jesus tells Ananias concerning Paul, “go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Not only did Christ Himself commission Paul but also the gospel was given to him by the revelation of Christ. In Galatians 1:11 Paul states, “but I make known to you brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” There is no one alive today that meets this rigid standard for apostleship, though countless men claim it, and anyone who says they do should be avoided and exposed, for the false authority they claim to wield.

The confession then goes on to state “and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the holy Scripture to be most necessary”. This section states that it pleased God to put His truth, His Word, into a literary form, whereby it would be better preserved and better spread from person to person. God’s Word, in this written form is less likely to be perverted by Christ’s Church and the authority of the church is better established. The church is comforted and encouraged to stand against the sin that so easily entangles men and the power of Satan and the system of the world. As the church, we have the scriptures, we have the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit to bless us in understanding the scriptures, we have theologians who can teach us the deeper meaning of the scriptures and systematize the doctrines the Word bears out. We have preachers, who exegete the text and deliver the simple message of the Gospel of Christ to the ears of the unregenerate and the power within this message breaks the bonds of sin and sinners are saved. We are blessed beyond measure and given through the knowledge of God contained in the scriptures everything we need pertaining to life and godliness. We are presented with Christ, from beginning to end, from the Adamic Covenant to the New Covenant and all the covenants in between.

The last portion of chapter one section one of the confession exclaims, “those former ways of God’s revealing His will unto His people being now ceased.” This section states that the burning bushes, the Christophonies, the visions and dreams of prophets, and the age of the Apostles has now ended. There is no new revelation forth coming. God’s redemptive plan for fallen human kind (which by the way is the central theme of all of God’s revelation to man) has come to its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. The Covenant of Grace has manifested itself, in full bloom, in the sacrifice of the Lamb. Christ’s work on the cross and His furthering the outpouring of His grace by offering His mediating refuge from sin and the wrath of God to not only Jews but Gentiles, is the full extent of all that God had determined to do to redeem a people for Himself. The unfolding of the scroll of God’s covenants to man is stretched out, complete, for all to see and marvel at. What more could God possibly do in order to secure salvation for those He loves? What else can we as His sheep ask for in terms of favor, from our heavenly Father and His Son? And yet sadly, many Christians today seek for further revelation and signs from God, unsatisfied with what God has already given, the way to salvation through His Son, they seek for further manifestations. They have trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace by asking for something more. Jesus said in Matthew 12:39, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah”. This sign has already been given two thousand years ago, committed to writing, by the hand of chosen men inspired by God Himself, preserved for those of us today, who through the grace of God, hear it read and believe. God’s revelation to man is complete, and God’s former ways of revealing His word unto His people have now ceased, but God is not silent. When the Holy Scriptures are read and exegeted, His revelation is heard again anew and the hearts of those whom God has chosen are moved to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Luke, in Acts 17:11 commends the Bereans for being more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched the scriptures to test if what they were being told by the Apostle Paul were true. They did not just take Paul’s word, but were diligent to make sure that what he said could be verified by God’s word. How much more then, should we, when we hear those with much less authority than Paul claim that God has said something to them, question whether or not what they say is true, for if God has indeed audibly spoken to them and imparted some revelation through supernatural means then we should without question be compelled to begin writing the next book or epistle of scripture. Since this has not happened in two thousands years, we can rest assure that God has not revealed Himself to anyone in any canonical inspiring way since the first century. It is only when we read from the scriptures, already penned, that we should ever dare utter the words, “God said to me”.

Clay