The Sunday after Easter I began preaching through the book of Acts. This past Sunday marked my seventh straight Sunday in this New Testament book. My text was Acts 2:14-41, Peter's sermon at Pentecost. How ironic that I preached through Peter's sermon at Pentecost on Pentecost Sunday!
Because I covered the whole text in a single sermon, I wasn't able to get into much detail. But something happened after the service that provided a perfect lead-in for this article. A lady approached me after the service and asked to speak with me. We sat down on the first pew, and she told me with tears in her eyes that she had received Christ as her Lord and Savior two days earlier in her kitchen. She had been coming to church with a friend and had come to understand the gospel.
This dear lady proceeded to tell me that the day before she received Christ, she had a dream, and I was in it! She dreamt that we were sitting down on a bench talking about God and the gospel. Now here we were on a pew talking about God and the gospel!
She didn't know what to make of this dream. Quite frankly, I didn't either! Less than an hour before our talk, I had read Peter's quotation of Joel's prophecy:
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams....
- Acts 2:14-17; cf. Joel 2:28Due to time constraints, I didn't really address this whole matter of dreams and visions. But perhaps now is as good a time as any! Actually, I thought through this whole matter rather carefully a few years ago. I'd like to spend the next few posts sharing my thoughts on the subject. Though I will be presenting this subject in a more technical and academic manner than I do in a typical blog post, I can assure you that I am a simple man and have written this piece with the average reader in mind.
The Issue
Since creation,
God has revealed Himself to people in a number of ways. These have been classified traditionally
under two main categories: general revelation and special revelation. General revelation consists of the witness of
creation and conscience. Special revelation
is more specific in nature and, according to Scripture, has consisted of personal
encounters with God, mighty acts by God, propositional revelation (i.e.,
revelation in the form human language), and incarnation (which is really a
culmination of the other three types of special revelation).[1]
Traditionally,
evangelical Christians have affirmed that which Scripture declares: during the
Old and New Testament periods, God on many occasions revealed Himself to people
through visions and dreams.[2] The question that creates controversy is not,
“Has God spoken in times past through
dreams and visions?” but “Does God still
reveal Himself in this manner?” Since
the completion of the canon, does God still communicate through visions and
dreams?
Positions
The three main positions taken on this particular issue are what I have designated the closed cessationist view, the open continuationist view, and the open cessationist view.[3]
The three main positions taken on this particular issue are what I have designated the closed cessationist view, the open continuationist view, and the open cessationist view.[3]
The Closed Cessationist View
Those who espouse this view believe that
God no longer communicates through dreams and visions, now that the canon of
Scripture is complete. This view is
summed up well by Richard Gaffin, who sees any “sense of the Spirit’s
illumination for today of already revealed truth” that goes beyond “thoughtful
reflection and prayerful wrestling prompted by the Spirit, about contemporary
circumstances and problems in light of Scripture” as a stance which
“unavoidably implies a certain insufficiency in Scripture that needs to be
compensated for.” [4] Closed cessationists equate dreams and other
subjective means of spiritual guidance[5]
with “extrabiblical ‘prophecies’” and therefore unbiblical - even dangerous.[6]
The Open Continuationist View
Proponents of this view believe that God still communicates today through dreams and visions, so long as such subjective impressions are evaluated in light of Scripture. A strong and well-known advocate of this view is theologian Wayne Grudem, who associates dreams and visions with the New Testament gift of prophecy. Grudem defines the prophetic gift loosely as “something that God may suddenly bring to mind, or something that God may impress on someone’s consciousness in such a way that the person has a sense that it is from God.” Grudem goes on to point out that “there may be not only words or ideas that come to mind, but also mental pictures (or ‘visions,’ Acts 2:17) and dreams (Acts 2:17) as well.”[7] However, because such mental images or impressions are highly subjective, and “our own thoughts or ideas can get mixed into the message we receive,”[8] prophecy can be impure and inaccurate. It must never be tantamount to Scripture but rather tested in light of Scripture (1 Thes. 5:19-21). But when the gift of prophecy is correctly exercised and regulated, it is a wonderful means of edification to the church and a sign of God’s blessing upon the church.
Proponents of this view believe that God still communicates today through dreams and visions, so long as such subjective impressions are evaluated in light of Scripture. A strong and well-known advocate of this view is theologian Wayne Grudem, who associates dreams and visions with the New Testament gift of prophecy. Grudem defines the prophetic gift loosely as “something that God may suddenly bring to mind, or something that God may impress on someone’s consciousness in such a way that the person has a sense that it is from God.” Grudem goes on to point out that “there may be not only words or ideas that come to mind, but also mental pictures (or ‘visions,’ Acts 2:17) and dreams (Acts 2:17) as well.”[7] However, because such mental images or impressions are highly subjective, and “our own thoughts or ideas can get mixed into the message we receive,”[8] prophecy can be impure and inaccurate. It must never be tantamount to Scripture but rather tested in light of Scripture (1 Thes. 5:19-21). But when the gift of prophecy is correctly exercised and regulated, it is a wonderful means of edification to the church and a sign of God’s blessing upon the church.
Indeed, one continuationist, citing the
fulfillment of the Lord’s prophecy through Joel (2:28) and its fulfillment in
Acts 2 (esp. v. 17), states that visions and dreams are the ongoing “visual
proof” that God has poured out His Spirit on all flesh, and that Moses’ wish
that “all the Lord’s people were prophets” (Num. 11:29) has come to
fulfillment. Thus “dreams and visions
are assigned a place of honor among the various ways in which God makes his
will known to believers”[9] as
part of the ongoing gift of New Testament prophecy.
The Open Cessationist View
The Open Cessationist View
This
position allows for the occurrence of dreams and visions as a means of divine
guidance for today, while affirming the cessation of all the New Testament
revelatory gifts, such as prophecy, tongues, and the interpretation of
tongues. Key proponents of this view
would be contemporary theologian Sinclair Ferguson and seventeenth-century
theologian John Owen.[10] Both argue that while some special gifts in
the apostolic era are no longer given to the church, some continuing operations
of the Spirit are analogous to them.[11] Says Ferguson,
What are we to make of these three positions? Which one is right? Is there a fourth option? How are dreams and visions best interpreted in light of Scripture? I'll give you my take on this issue in part two of this article, to be posted within a week. In the meantime, think through the issue yourself, using Scripture as your guide. Ask the Holy Spirit to grant you insight regarding this matter. As Stephen Olford used to say,
No right-thinking Christian would deny that God continues to be active in the world, to do wonderful things for his people, and especially to answer their prayers in keeping with his promises . . . . It would, however, be a mistake to draw the conclusion from this that such events are normative or that in these events individuals are receiving again the coronation gifts of Pentecost.[12]While the open cessationist would affirm the reality of divine revelation through the avenues of dreams and visions, he would argue that such events are not normative, and that they fall into the category of illumination (i.e. understanding and applying the truth of Scripture).
What are we to make of these three positions? Which one is right? Is there a fourth option? How are dreams and visions best interpreted in light of Scripture? I'll give you my take on this issue in part two of this article, to be posted within a week. In the meantime, think through the issue yourself, using Scripture as your guide. Ask the Holy Spirit to grant you insight regarding this matter. As Stephen Olford used to say,
Where human investigation fails, spiritual illumination prevails.
[1]
This is a brief summary of notes on “Forms of Revelation” given by Dr. Bruce
Ware in Systematic Theology 1 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the summer of 2010.
[2]
These are similar phenomena, with a vision occurring while a person is awake,
and a dream occurring while one is asleep.
(This differentiation may be a bit simplistic, but it is a helpful one
nonetheless.)
[3]
These are my own designations concerning the primary views regarding dreams and
visions. I am unaware of these
designations being used elsewhere. I
have not come across them in my own readings on this subject.
[4] Richard
B. Gaffin, Jr. Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?
Four Views, ed. Wayne A.
Grudem (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 52.
[5]
Such would include “inner promptings, signs, feelings of peace or uneasiness,
strong impressions on the mind, or other similar means.” John MacArthur, Reckless Faith (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994): 182. It should be noted that Richard Gaffin would
not take quite as stringent a view as MacArthur, for Gaffin does say, “The
Spirit may and ought to be at work in the feelings, intuitions, or hunches that
believers have about specific decisions and particular courses of action”
(Gaffin, 155). Nevertheless, Gaffin goes
on to indicate his concern regarding “(Spirit-prompted) impulses of a revelatory
character,” which others (namely, Robert Saucy, to whom Gaffin is referring)
see as “new covenant guidance” not related to miraculous gifts (p. 143).
[7] Wayne Grudem, Systematic
Theology (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press; Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1994): 1056.
[8]
Ibid, 1055.
[9]
George Mallone, Those Controversial
Spiritual Gifts (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1983): 54.
[10]
Though neither of these men use the designation “open cessationist,” their
writings indicate that they affirm(ed)
this view as I have described it.
[11]
Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit
(Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1996): 233. Ferguson cites John Owen, “A Discourse of
Spiritual Gifts” in The Works of John
Owen, ed. W.H. Goold (Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter, 1850-53), vol. 4,
p. 475; cf. p. 454.
[12]
Ibid, 234-235.