I am convinced that almost all claims made to divine revelations, especially by Pentecostal or Charismatic ministries, are bogus. I hold this view because of the standards of true revelations described in the Bible. Just look at the book of Acts! What are the characteristics of special revelations in Acts?
True revelations from God are uncausable: Revelations from God couldn't be caused or controlled by the recipient. God showed Peter and John while they were on their way to do something else that He wanted to heal the lame man (Acts 3). God surprised Peter with the vision that told him to go to Cornelius' house. Christ unexpectedly appeared to Ananias and told him to go pray for Paul (9:10ff). Years ago, a member of the Vineyard church tried to convince me that we all had spiritual antennae (he then put up two of his fingers to his head, like Ray Walston from My Favorite Martian), and that we could either tune in to God's revelations or tune out. But, based on the book of Acts, we must conclude that it is a false teaching that there are things we can do to cause revelations from God.
Revelations from God are infallible: Revelations from the Lord are always true. The lame man did spring to his feet healed. Ananias and Sapphira were guilty and did drop dead. The other Ananias did find Paul at Straight Street. Men from Joppa did show up at Simon the tanner's house. A famine did strike the Roman Empire during Claudius' reign (11:27-28). There is not even one case where a divine revelation failed to be objectively proven. 2 Peter 1:20-21. It is a false teaching that a real prophetic revelation can have human errors mixed into in it. This is the greatest error taught by Wayne Grudem, who is otherwise a very fine Christian theologian. What Dr. Grudem erroneously calls the gift of prophecy, in his writing son this subject, is actually just the gift of exhortation.
True revelations from God were always verbal: Revelations always came in words, never in the form of feelings or intuitions. Jeremiah 2:1, Acts 8:29, etc. It is a false teaching that inner feelings/leadings = divine revelation.
People like C. Peter Wagner claim to understand the book of Acts correctly, but what they do doesn't even match the book of Acts.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
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2 comments:
This reminds me of a pastor who told me of some acquaintances from seminary who decided to go to a Pentecostal church service one Sunday.
People were speaking in tongues, so one of them decided to quote from one of the Psalms in Hebrew.
The funny/pathetic thing that happened is some deluded soul who thought he/she had the gift of interpretation gave an interpretation to this that was not anywhere close to what the psalm said.
Personally, I think that tongues were real languages (partly because the Greek word translated "tongues" means "languages"!). Otherwise, where's the miraculous sign aspect? Predicting the future is miraculous, instantly healing a sick person through prayer alone is miraculous. Speaking praise to God in a language you don't know is miraculous. Talking in gibberish is not miraculous.
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