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Transcript 330C — Are Dreams and Visions for Today?
CALLER: What does the Bible say about dreams? In Joel it says in the last days your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
HC: The question is raised concerning the Biblical declaration of dreams and visions. In the days of the Bible, that is, before the Bible was completed in about AD 95, the possibility of believer receiving divine truth directly from God in the form of a dream or a vision was possible. And that's why in the days of Pentecost, AD 33, when the last days began (the last days encompass the whole New Testament period, beginning with the cross), in that day it was still possible to receive divine truth in that fashion.
But once the Bible was completed that possibility no longer exists, because God indicates in Revelation 22:18, "If anyone adds to the words of this book, I will add to him the plagues written herein." Now that doesn't mean that we lose our prophetic office. The main thrust of Joel 2, as it's quoted in Acts 2:17-21 or 22, is not that throughout the New Testament period people will dream dreams and see visions, but that all believers will be prophets. They will all be qualified to declare God's Word. Now a prophet, in the days of the Bible, had two sources whereby he could receive divine truth. The usual source was the Bible, which was an incomplete Bible in those days. The more exotic, the more exciting source, was to receive a special revelation of some kind in a dream or a vision. And this is spoken of in Acts 2:17.
Once the Bible was completed we continue to be prophets declaring God's Word, but our source of truth now is circumscribed by the Bible. It now is the complete revelation of God. We no longer are to expect that God will speak to us in this more exotic or more exciting way of coming to us in a dream or a vision, because that would violate Revelation 22:18.
CALLER: Okay. So that will not occur.
HC: That will not occur. If someone today receives a vision, or a voice or a dream that they believe is from God, however holy it may appear, or how exciting it may appear, you can depend upon it, it was not from God, because God will not violate His own Word.