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Does God Allow Revelation Today Through Dreams?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. Concerning the subject of dreams, I don't feel we could possibly reach any agreement, or agree together on dreams, because actually the Bible gives many examples of dreams. For example, in the Book of Genesis it's used to restrain Abimelech from evil. And in the New Testament, in the first chapter of Matthew, verse 20, the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph concerning the birth of Jesus Christ. So there are many examples where the Lord has used dreams to speak to His children.
HC: But you see, those examples are all given to us before the Bible was completed. They in fact became a part of the Holy Canon, of the Bible itself. That was entirely possible in those days. They did not have the whole Word of God, as we have today. But now God has completed His revelation. God says we are not to add to the words of this book. It alone is the divine revelation.
And so if God means what He says there, then we would not expect that He would violate His rule and come with additional divine revelation in a dream, or in a vision, or whatever.
CALLER: Joel 2:28 says that in the last days God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. It's saying that the young men would see visions and the old men would dream dreams, and it goes on. Perhaps you could explain this Scripture to me better. I interpret it as meaning that as the Lord pours out His Spirit upon all flesh, which would mean all mankind that we are going to be dreaming dreams. And I recall that you asked a lady to ask the Lord to forgive her for dreams she's had. It just seems to me that maybe Joseph should have asked the Lord to forgive him for the dream he had about the birth of God Himself. And these other people who had dreams of revelation from God, according to you they should have asked God for forgiveness for even having had the dream.
HC: No. You see, they had their dreams before Revelation 22:18 was written, before the Bible was completed. Now the "last days" spoken of in Acts 2:17, where Joel's prophecy is quoted, began at Pentecost, because in verse 16 Peter declared: "This [that is, this phenomenon that you see] is what Joel spoke about when he said, "In the last days I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh."
And so it is true that it was possible in the Book of Acts, in that timetable, before the Bible was completed, for a born again believer to have a vision or receive a revelation from God in addition to what was in the written Word. They did not have the whole written Word.
But now we have the whole written Word. And God says we are not to add to the words of this book. Now the big question that we have to face is, "Are we going to look at the Bible as the only divine Word of God?" And of course when we obey the Bible, we are worshipping the God who has given us this truth.
Or are we going to say, "Well, the Bible is the Word of God, but God also speaks this way and that way and the other way." In that case, of course, we're worshipping the god who has given us truth in these other ways. And the Bible says that it alone is the Word of God. And so that would make us guilty of worshipping other gods.
It's not accidental, you know. In Deuteronomy 13, God prophesied something that is very much related to this. In Deuteronomy 13 God said in verse 1: If a prophet arises among you (in other words, this is one of our fellow believers, apparently, and notice the next verse) or a dreamer of dreams (that's very significant, you see) and gives you a sign or a wonder (in other words, he's not only a dreamer of dreams—that is, he is convinced that God is still speaking—but he also comes with signs and wonders; he looks more legitimately of God that you could ever believe), and the sign or wonder which he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods (in other words, "Let us be obedient to that truth which I am bringing to you, which I believe is divine, which is from sources outside of the Word of God"), gods which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you (God knows about this; He's allowing this to happen to discover, are you going to be faithful to the Word of God or are you not) to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice. And you shall serve Him and cleave to Him.
You see, the moment we go outside of the Bible to look for divine revelation, we immediately are a prey of Satan. The Bible teaches in II Corinthians 11 that Satan goes about as an "angel of light." And he is free to use his occult powers. We see this in the secular world very very clearly. In the secular world we know of mediums who can divine the future. We know of people who can read the future in tarot cards and in the ouija boards, and we know of witchcraft, and all of these things. Satan is very active in an occult way in the secular world.
The Bible tells us that he will be active in the church, where the true Gospel is proclaimed. And so we don't want to get snared by him at all. And the only way we can be absolutely certain that what we're listening to is not the voice of Satan but only the voice of God is to listen to the Bible, because the Bible cannot possibly be from Satan in any sense. But a dream, a vision, a revelation, a voice, any of these other things, since Satan is able to convey truth this way in the secular world, he can certainly do it within the church. And the Bible warns us that he will; he'll come as an angel of light.
CALLER: Yes. Satan is very busy in the church today. But everything that I have mentioned so far has been in the Word of God, all these various dreams, and so on. As an example, if I was to have a dream that one of my children was going to be in an accident, I certainly wouldn't refrain from telling them that particular day to be especially careful while driving. Maybe I wouldn't mention that I had a dream, but I think I would say, "Be especially careful today while you're driving," or if possible I would try to do something to prevent what happened in the dream. I couldn't go to the Lord and ask Him to forgive me for having had the dream. If I didn't say anything and one of my children went out and got hurt or got killed, it would probably produce something within me that would make a pretty weird person out of me.
HC: You see, it isn't the dream that's the problem. It's what you do with it. Now the moment you react this way, and say, "Aha! God has spoken to me," or "I've had this dream and now I'd better warn somebody," you are being obedient to that dream. You have reacted to that dream as if it were the voice of God. You have therefore effectively said this, "I know that the Bible is the Word of God and I want to be obedient to it. But also there is the Word of God that came to me in a dream, because I want to be obedient to that, too." And so now you have added to the Word of God. You have said the Bible is the Word of God, and you have said that this dream is the Word of God. And so you've added to the words of this book. You have looked elsewhere for a divine revelation.
And this is what you have to repent of, that you made any effort at all to be obedient to what you heard in your dream. And you know, Satan is always looking around for a way to get a toehold. But the moment we repudiate him, and we cast our lot only with Christ, and turn away from this other activity, then this activity ceases.
Those who have had problems with ESP, and experiences of this nature, testify that when they surrendered their life to Christ, all of this has ended. All of this kind of occult activity ends. Now maybe I'm an abnormal born again believer, but I can tell you, I don't receive messages in dreams about the future. I don't have any kind of an occult life, where I have premonitions or where I have ESP going on, or whatever. It just doesn't happen in a normal born again believer's life. But I know this, that if I want to know something about the future, I've got to read the Bible. This doesn't mean that I don't have times when I might feel depressed, or I might have some kind of a heavy weight upon me. It may be that I didn't eat a good meal yesterday. It may be that I have a deep anxiety about a loved one, and this is depressing me, But I'd never look upon these as premonitions, as something that is going to happen.
I know that everything is in God's hands, and if I want to know the future, I can go to the Lord Jesus. We read in Deuteronomy 18, where God is talking about diviners, "These are an abomination," He said, "I will raise up a Prophet like unto you [He's talking to Moses], and Him you shall heed." And that Prophet is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we only listen to Him. And the Bible is the Word of Christ. It is the Word of God. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
CALLER: I understand that prophecy is telling of the future. I'm sure it's one of the spiritual gifts, prophecy. But this is the reason I wanted to refrain from going into dreams, because I really felt that we probably wouldn't reach any mutual agreement.