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By Elizabeth Prata
Sufficiency of scripture is an important topic for me as a woman, because so many of the books aimed at women loading the shelves at Christian bookstores, and so many women's ministries telling us we should be hearing from God or are touting some author's experience from having heard from God.
I listened to Phil Johnson and Justin Peters at the Truth Matters Conference last night. The topic this year is sufficiency of Scripture and by contrast, that we are not hearing personally from God in these days. If one is hearing from God outside of scripture it means the canon is not closed, and it means the scripture we have is not enough, or, isn't sufficient. But scripture itself declares that it is.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16)
It is a daily grief to me to see so many women 'Bible teachers' casually telling auditoriums full of eager female listeners of their wonderful conversations with God. It hurts my heart to see the devotional "Jesus Calling" on friends' shelves with bookmarks in them. It makes me mourn to hear friends sigh and say they wish they could hear from God like ___________fill-in-the-blank teacher.
For example, the founder of the wildly popular IF:Gathering Jennie Allen heard a directive from allegedly God audibly telling her to equip this generation. Gee, even Paul didn't receive such an impressive mandate. He was told he must suffer for the name. (Acts 9:16).
In another example, the wildly popular HGTV mogul and lauded Christian celeb Joanna Gaines allegedly heard directly from God specific promises of coming fame and success in her chosen career.
Sarah Young of Jesus Calling regularly hears whispers and voices from the other side, so much so she filled a book with His exact words, allegedly. Or two. Or three. If she is hearing from Jesus and writing His words down in quotes, she is writing scripture. Do you believe Jesus Calling is scripture?
Queen of the audible silent whispers in her ears and voices on heart Beth Moore hears from God in such casual terms so frequently you wonder if He has taken up residence in her living room.
Ladies, God is not speaking personally now, to anyone on earth. He is in heaven, interceding, preparing a place for us, and sustaining the universe by the power of His word. (Romans 8:34, John 14:3, Colossians 1:17). Making such a claim strikes directly at the sufficiency of scripture. We have Jesus, the second person of the trinity, and the Spirit, the third person of the trinity, speaking to us through the written word and illuminating it to our minds and conscience. If that is not enough for you, please ask yourselves why.
Meanwhile, here is the short blog essay by Jeremiah Johnson and Justin Peter's short response to the title question:
If Scripture Is Sufficient, Why Are So Many Professing Believers Looking for Something More?
Sufficiency of scripture is an important topic for me as a woman, because so many of the books aimed at women loading the shelves at Christian bookstores, and so many women's ministries telling us we should be hearing from God or are touting some author's experience from having heard from God.
I listened to Phil Johnson and Justin Peters at the Truth Matters Conference last night. The topic this year is sufficiency of Scripture and by contrast, that we are not hearing personally from God in these days. If one is hearing from God outside of scripture it means the canon is not closed, and it means the scripture we have is not enough, or, isn't sufficient. But scripture itself declares that it is.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16)
For example, the founder of the wildly popular IF:Gathering Jennie Allen heard a directive from allegedly God audibly telling her to equip this generation. Gee, even Paul didn't receive such an impressive mandate. He was told he must suffer for the name. (Acts 9:16).
In another example, the wildly popular HGTV mogul and lauded Christian celeb Joanna Gaines allegedly heard directly from God specific promises of coming fame and success in her chosen career.
Sarah Young of Jesus Calling regularly hears whispers and voices from the other side, so much so she filled a book with His exact words, allegedly. Or two. Or three. If she is hearing from Jesus and writing His words down in quotes, she is writing scripture. Do you believe Jesus Calling is scripture?
Queen of the audible silent whispers in her ears and voices on heart Beth Moore hears from God in such casual terms so frequently you wonder if He has taken up residence in her living room.
Ladies, God is not speaking personally now, to anyone on earth. He is in heaven, interceding, preparing a place for us, and sustaining the universe by the power of His word. (Romans 8:34, John 14:3, Colossians 1:17). Making such a claim strikes directly at the sufficiency of scripture. We have Jesus, the second person of the trinity, and the Spirit, the third person of the trinity, speaking to us through the written word and illuminating it to our minds and conscience. If that is not enough for you, please ask yourselves why.
Meanwhile, here is the short blog essay by Jeremiah Johnson and Justin Peter's short response to the title question:
If Scripture Is Sufficient, Why Are So Many Professing Believers Looking for Something More?
Hi Elizabeth, I got to read some words by Paul David Tripp on the FB of my Christian friends. What do you know about him?
ReplyDeleteHi Jerome, I've looked around a bit and can't find anything terrible about him. I've heard of him but I'm not familiar with his teachings or ministry enough to offer any sensible opinion. Sorry. :(
ReplyDeleteI've followed Jeremiah Johnson for a time and noticed he was aligning with some unusual (and suspect false teachers) such as Kat Kerr and 7 Mountain mandate leaders. So I question his teachings, in your mentioning him in this blog I presume you still feel he is doctrinaly sound?
ReplyDeleteI'm not aware of his aligning with suspect teachers. In the blog essay I linked to, I feel that what is said in that essay is doctrinally sound.
Delete"The Lord showed Himself to me in a dream..." There are plenty of professing Christian individuals who have accumulated audiences of several thousand members due to claims of having received dreams, visions, and miraculous healing powers from God.
ReplyDeleteThe four gospels record the Lord Jesus Christ healing the sick and casting out demons. The apostles did the same. The prophets wrote down what God had told them. Yet, these people did not gain large audiences but were usually met with brutal hostility.
Something is wrong with this picture. One has to wonder why an increasing number of Christians are searching for more miracles and revelation from God. This scenario so clearly parallels the unbelieving Jews that Christ so criticized (Matthew 12:38-42).
These people who claim to experience God given dreams and revelations cannot logically answer the question of how they know whether their experiences are of divine origin. Moreover, there is nothing so special about these so-called prophets that would cause God to exclusively give them revelation. That is how we know these types are full of themselves.
The Apostle Paul would have shunned this mystic spirituality as being carnal (Colossians 2:18). Some may argue that those who are skeptical of Pentecostal claims simply lack faith in God. However, biblical faith requires a degree of skepticism. For example, we reject the existence of Zeus. Paul said to test all things and hold fast to that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
If Christians want to spend time with God, then they need to start opening their Bibles and reading them. If Christians want to hear the audible voice of God, then they need to read the Bible aloud. He still speaks today. He does so through Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16).