IS IT POSSIBLE TO RECEIVE DIVINE REVELATION TODAY

Neal Pollard

A letter dated January 17, 2013, and addressed to me at the church's address arrived a few days ago.  It was from a woman pastor who works with a "charismatic" church just east of Denver. It purported to be a message dictated to her from Jesus.  The message was for His "servants throughout this city" and it said, "All you who cry out for revival, All you who are waiting for the move of God; I have prepared my servant, I have prepared my holy warriors, I have released them to bring revival to this city, open the doors of your church to my chosen ones, so that I may bless you through them, and grant you the revival you have been crying for." She assured me (and the other recipients?) that at this revival there would be "Open heavens, deliverance, healings, opening of spiritual eyes, baptism of Holy Spirit and fire, outpouring of spiritual gifts and much more."  As I do not receive many letters like this, I found this correspondence quite noteworthy.

The question is, "Could this be true?"  Could this very ardent and sincere woman have received such a revelation?  If so, I am troubled by the implications.  Going to their website, I saw teaching about salvation ("sinner's prayer"), the end of time (premillennialism), worship ("holy dance"), women's role (multiple women prechers) and demon possession that contradict revealed Scripture.  If Jesus was behind what she and her church claims He is, then the situation exists that He would be contradicting through people like these what He taught through the apostles and prophets who wrote the New Testament.  Ironically, the web site prominently features a passage from near the end of the Bible which says, "Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" (Jude 3).  Jude declared "the faith" (objective, not subjective) handed down "once for all." What does that mean? The faith was handed down once, not continuously or progressively.  The faith was handed down for all, not just the saints of the first-century.  

When people claim receiving direct messages and revelation from Christ, they face two insurmountable problems.  The first is confirming the message with miracles, wonders, and signs, since the miraculous age ceased.  The second is pitting God against Himself, by having Him tell us in the Bible that it (the Bible) is His complete guide for man (cf. 2 Peter 1:3; Gal. 1:6-9) and then sending messages in addition to it.  Not doubting the lady's sincerity, I still dispute her claim.  May we be content to faithfully receive God's Word and actively live it.  Alleged additional revelations today are impossible in light of the fact that God chose to limit Himself to that message "once for all handed down to the saints."

Who Determines Truth?

Neal Pollard

"Truth" is an important Bible word, being found 189 times in the Old and New Testaments.  It is an important Bible word because of what it is.  Many have walked in old Pilate's shoes, asking, "What is truth?" (John 18:38).  Jesus' prayer concisely answered that question, even before Pilate uttered it.  The Lord said that God's Word is truth (John 17:17). Yet, we can easily find ourselves substituting that for something or someone else.  Notice the following.

The culture cannot be the standard of truth.  Not only does their standard constantly change, its basis for what is considered truth is skewed and self-determined.  In other words, a worldly approach to "truth" more often than not coincidentally coincides with what people want to do.  Many times, the world gets it exactly backward.  As Isaiah put it, the world using its own wisdom calls evil good and good evil (5:20).  By its own standards, the world does not come to even know God (1 Cor. 1:21).  1 John 2:16 thoroughly dismisses the idea of one's worldly contemporaries being the standard of truth.

The religious world cannot be the standard of truth.  In far too many areas, individual religious groups, denominations, have invented their own doctrines.  They, too, can form their teaching and convictions based upon the strong pressures of culture.   They can reform and reshape their beliefs to accommodate people's circumstances.  For any number of reasons, the religious world veers left or right of biblical center (cf. Deut. 5:32; Prov. 4:27).

The Lord's church cannot be the standard of truth.  Opinions, traditions or customs, and preferences cannot be passed off as synonymous with or equal to truth.  A congregation of God's people, well-intended or not, can depart from the truth.  We cannot blindly follow even these away from truth.

A particular school, preacher, periodical, etc., cannot be the standard of truth.  We can admire colleges and training schools for their work, teachers, and graduates, but this confidence must always remain conditional.  As we remember that one can veer from truth by binding or loosing, we must always measure what is promoted as truth with God's divine standard.  What is true of institutions is equally true of individuals. Even if someone speaks passionately, with conviction, and without hesitation or reservation, our job is to compare their message with God's (cf. Acts 17:11).  We can easily confuse charisma and chemistry with truth, but there is no inherent connection.

You and I cannot be the standard of truth. All of us have scruples, consciences, preferences, proclivities, likes, and dislikes.  We may feel quite strongly about them.  But, we cannot make ourselves the standard of truth on any biblical matter.  

There is but one right standard and that is scripture.  Yes, there is the matter of proper interpretation and recognizing there can be improper interpretation.  On some matters, scripture may not be as definitive as we want or even initially think.  Yet, regarding anything that would effect our salvation, God has a clear, understandable "position" stated forth in Scripture (cf. 2 Pet. 1:3).  What He says on the matter is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Accept no substitutes for this!

NFL’s Replacement Officials

 

 

The replacement officials in the NFL have just been awful this year.  For those who don’t know, this entire controversy started when the NFL and the normal officiating crew couldn’t come to a contract agreement.  As a result, the normal referees basically went on strike until the NFL gave them better terms (which is still pending).  Who knows how long this will last, but until it is fixed, one can only see more of the same bad calls in the future.  While no referee is ever going to be perfect, this year’s officiating has become both comedic and out of control.  For example:

• Officials have lost control in at least two games and fights broke out (the Denver-Atlanta and Baltimore-Philadelphia games).
• An official pleaded with LeSean McCoy during the game to play better because he had him on his “Fantasy Football team.”
• 3 crucial calls were proven wrong and overturned just in the first half of the Denver-Atlanta game.
• Officials stopped the clock twice for the once occurring “2-mintue warning.”
• One team was granted a 4^th timeout (each team only has 3).
• Officials have taken very long to figure out penalties and simple procedures (like the placement of the ball).
• Some players have been flagged for doing absolutely nothing wrong.
• Extra yards have been mistakenly awarded during penalties.
• There has been an abnormally high amount of missed calls and miss-applied rulings.

Almost all of the problems with the replacement officials can be chalked up to one problem: they don’t know the rulebook!  If they knew the rules there would be less fights, no untactful comments, less time making decisions, more correct calls, and much better officiating overall.

So, what does all of this have to do with spiritual life?  In a similar way, we too must know the spiritual rulebook.  We have had the Bible for about 2,000 years.  Most households have several Bibles lying around.  Reading God’s word is legal and can be done without persecution.  Despite all its ease and availability, people still don’t know God’s rules.  There is no excuse for us not to know God’s commands.  Far too many Christians who should know God’s rulebook inside and out are walking around like the NFL’s replacement officials.  As a result, false teaching, division, bad judgment, unscriptural decisions, controversy, and a host of other problems occur.

Jesus clearly stated in John 12:48, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.”  It would greatly behoove us to know God’s rules.  Let’s make sure we are spending time reading and studying God’s official rulebook for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

"THE SPIRIT IS LEADING US TO __________"

Neal Pollard

When I was preaching in Virginia, I received a call from a concerned brother in another state.  He related to me that the congregation where he was attending was trying to push for women to serve in the church's leadership roles.  He explained that the preacher's and leadership's defense and rationale was that the Holy Spirit was moving among them and leading them to this conclusion.  

Have you ever heard a person or congregation seek to promote or defend a practice by claiming this kind of Spirit-guidance?  On the surface, it may seem powerful or compelling.  After all, if God is leading one to do something who is to oppose it?

The interesting (and important) thing is that the Spirit has already led us to truth on the matters pertaining to life and godliness (cf. 2 Pet. 1:3).  The Spirit inspired His Bible writers to reveal all truth (cf. John 14:26; 16:13).  Other passages, like 1 Corinthians 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:21, show God's deliberate process of revealing His truth through inspired men in the time of the Bible.  You will also notice that God confirmed the word of His spokesmen through miracles, wonders, and signs (Acts 2:22,43; 4:30; 5:12; 6:8; Rom. 15:19; Heb. 2:4).  

When someone contends today that the Spirit is moving them or the congregation to do "X," a couple of puzzling conundrums must be solved.  First, if "X" conflicts with God's revealed truth in Scripture, why is the Spirit calling for it and why should this calling trump God's original will on the matter?  Second, what miracle, wonder or sign will be done to confirm the validity of it?  Third, what if someone else says, "But the Spirit is leading me to tell you that's not correct?"  

The Spirit is leading us and speaking to us today.  He does so powerfully, through the Word He moved men to write (cf. Heb. 4:12).  This sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17) is ample to guide us to do all the will of God!

Area Preacher Speaks for God About Worship

The church in the Denver metro area is no different than most parts of this nation.  There are a few congregations of God's people with whom we find ourselves deeply divided when it comes to worship, women's role, the plan of salvation, and even how to view the Bible.  One zealous young preacher in the area has been doing much to defend a radical overhauling of the Lord's church through his writing and preaching.  One of his more recent blog posts seeks to prove what he sees as the pressing need of the church to change, using the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale to illustrate this.  He contrasts the time before Tiger Woods' hole-in-one there in 1997.  Before, there were conservative old men with cardigans tied around their neck and polite golf claps.  Since then, a coliseum has been built around the hole and rowdy college fans boo shots they deem not close enough to the pin.  Analyzing this Arizona anomaly, the writer credits new leaders who change the boundaries, bending to the local culture, capitalizing on the "right moment," and meeting people's expectations.

The thing that struck me most was that this no doubt well-intentioned young man tried to speak for God and the Holy Spirit.  He said, "God and the Holy Spirit are ready for a party."  God shows up for worship at church camp.  God shows up at the worship at Pepperdine University (Where Christian Church members speak on the program, like Victor Knowles. Where church of Christ members who have added instrumental music, like Rick Atchley, Lynn Anderson, Jeff Walling, and others, speak. And where this young man and his wife speak).  He asserts that "we need a fresh wind of the Spirit" plus "leaders who will change the expectation in our worship experience."  He ends by saying that God is "ready for a new day."

Here's the flaw in his assertion.  How do we know what the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit want from our worship? How are we to know what God is ready for or where God shows up?  Are we to take our brother's word about what God wants?  No matter who speaks, this brother or any other, including me, we must "speak the utterances of God" (1 Pet. 4:11).  We do not have to guess at what God wants or desires.  He has revealed His will.  We do not keep on the cardigan or hold onto the golf-clap, to borrow our brother's analogy, out of personal preference.  Only the Lord gets to make that decision, and He has informed us of His decision about our worship in His written revelation (see 1 Tim. 2:8-15; Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; etc.).

One need only visit the podcasts or watch video of the latest worship at this area congregation to see what our brother means by "fresh wind," "right moment," or "change the expectation" in worship.  It means women leaders.  It means a choir.  Will it mean instrumental music?  If the Spirit is instructing them differently than in His Word, what proof is there to confirm it?  What is to be done with the Spirit's previous, once for all, sufficient work of Scripture?  Does it get jettisoned?  I will not speak for God, but here is what He said:  "But even if we (which included an apostle, NP), or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!" (Gal. 1:8).  Let us be very careful what we teach (cf. Jas. 3:1)!