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A follow up to this essay is here: One More Thought on Direct Revelation
By Elizabeth Prata
Women have for at least two generations now, grown up in the faith with famous or celebrity women Bible teachers claiming to have had personal revelations and interactions with Jesus. They say "God told me" or "God laid it on my heart to tell you" or "I want to share some of the messages I have received" or "I heard Him specifically say..." Their persistent claims of direct revelation outside of the Bible has normalized it when it was never even normal in Bible times! Worse, it has accomplished two things:
--de facto declared the insufficiency of the Bible
--made a generation of women illiterate, because why do the hard work of studying the Bible when it can just plop down from the sky?
God is not speaking today to people outside of His word.
Whenever I or any of my friends say this, we receive tremendous push back. We are charged with proving it. We are told we're wrong/bad/ignorant of scripture or history. Or, demands are made for scriptures that say so. But when provided, those very scriptures are dismissed. We are given the excuse that we must not "put God in a box" because, after all, He has the ability to do anything He wants, including speak to us in any way or at any time He wants.
It's true that in the past He spoke in many different ways. He spoke directly to man (Adam, Noah, Moses et al), through rituals, ceremonies, from the sky, from the mountain, a donkey, angels, prophets, and a burning bush.
I want to come at this from a different tack today. I was listening to Steven J. Lawson preach Hebrews 1:1-4. This is the classic text that declares that God has ceased speaking because, though He spoke in many ways in prior ages, He has spoken finally in this age, through His Son. WHat came to my mind as Lawson preached was this:
Jesus is the Supreme Being of the Universe. He is the unrivaled supreme one.
And that is why God is not speaking to you.
The previous ways God spoke to man described above are indicative of His progressive revelation. God was building revelatory knowledge of His redemptive plan thread by thread, weaving a picture in His tapestry of redemption through the ages. The pinnacle, the capstone, the zenith of that picture, is Christ. Jesus is God's exact imprint. (Hebrews 1:3). He is the ultimate. He is the highest. He is all-authority. He said and did everything the Father wanted, perfectly. God's words, His concepts, and His principles are supreme overall, and represent His final word through Christ.
People who insist that God or Jesus speaks to them, do you really think that after having set Jesus up as His apex, declaring Himself pleased, that God will then will go lower and speak through you? When He has Jesus He's spoken through, He will speak through you instead?
Will God choose to speak through sinful flesh, when He has His own exact imprint of glory and perfection through which He has already spoken? What a ghastly thought! May it never be!
If you believe Jesus is speaking through you, or your favorite Bible 'teacher' or author, you do not hold Jesus as supreme. It is as simple as that.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20).
By Elizabeth Prata
Women have for at least two generations now, grown up in the faith with famous or celebrity women Bible teachers claiming to have had personal revelations and interactions with Jesus. They say "God told me" or "God laid it on my heart to tell you" or "I want to share some of the messages I have received" or "I heard Him specifically say..." Their persistent claims of direct revelation outside of the Bible has normalized it when it was never even normal in Bible times! Worse, it has accomplished two things:
--de facto declared the insufficiency of the Bible
--made a generation of women illiterate, because why do the hard work of studying the Bible when it can just plop down from the sky?
God is not speaking today to people outside of His word.
Whenever I or any of my friends say this, we receive tremendous push back. We are charged with proving it. We are told we're wrong/bad/ignorant of scripture or history. Or, demands are made for scriptures that say so. But when provided, those very scriptures are dismissed. We are given the excuse that we must not "put God in a box" because, after all, He has the ability to do anything He wants, including speak to us in any way or at any time He wants.
It's true that in the past He spoke in many different ways. He spoke directly to man (Adam, Noah, Moses et al), through rituals, ceremonies, from the sky, from the mountain, a donkey, angels, prophets, and a burning bush.
I want to come at this from a different tack today. I was listening to Steven J. Lawson preach Hebrews 1:1-4. This is the classic text that declares that God has ceased speaking because, though He spoke in many ways in prior ages, He has spoken finally in this age, through His Son. WHat came to my mind as Lawson preached was this:
Jesus is the Supreme Being of the Universe. He is the unrivaled supreme one.
And that is why God is not speaking to you.
The previous ways God spoke to man described above are indicative of His progressive revelation. God was building revelatory knowledge of His redemptive plan thread by thread, weaving a picture in His tapestry of redemption through the ages. The pinnacle, the capstone, the zenith of that picture, is Christ. Jesus is God's exact imprint. (Hebrews 1:3). He is the ultimate. He is the highest. He is all-authority. He said and did everything the Father wanted, perfectly. God's words, His concepts, and His principles are supreme overall, and represent His final word through Christ.
People who insist that God or Jesus speaks to them, do you really think that after having set Jesus up as His apex, declaring Himself pleased, that God will then will go lower and speak through you? When He has Jesus He's spoken through, He will speak through you instead?
Will God choose to speak through sinful flesh, when He has His own exact imprint of glory and perfection through which He has already spoken? What a ghastly thought! May it never be!
If you believe Jesus is speaking through you, or your favorite Bible 'teacher' or author, you do not hold Jesus as supreme. It is as simple as that.
No, the superiority of Christ drowns out every other voice!
~Steve Lawson sermon on Hebrews 1:1-4 The Unrivaled Supremacy of Christ
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20).
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