The cafeteria is crowded with first and second graders when I am on duty there. It is full, and it is loud. VERY loud. It has to be, with nearly 200 children talking even at a normal level, trays banging, feet shuffling, and forks tinkling.
There is this first grade boy who is quiet. He doesn’t speak much, and when he does it is in a soft-spoken voice. He is sensitive and artistic. He has a kind heart and loving eyes.
He raised his hand and he had something to say. I came over, expecting him to ask me the usual, like, please open my ketchup packet, or I dropped my fork and I need another. Instead he said,
“I saw birds at my house.” “What kind of birds did you see?” “I saw a blue jay!” he said happily. “I saw a robin, and a red bird, and crows.” He looked very pleased about this. I said, “The red bird is a cardinal.” “OH! I saw ducks too. We have a pond. And some other birds I forgot.” “Yes, ducks are birds. What do you like about birds?”
“Birds make me laugh.”
EPrata photo
To be touched by the simplicity and beauty of birds singing and flying about a yard is, to me, a response to the Creator in childlike faith.
A childlike faith means that the child sees the wonder of God in all the ways He has revealed Himself as the Bible says. Children intuitively understand the connection of creation to the Creator. I see this every day at school. God says we should all see it.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20
Even the creation groans for its Creator, but still does what it is supposed to do even thru the curse- bring Him glory. And they do it.
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; And the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? (Job 12:7-8)
The birds of the air know what to do. The stars in the sky know what to do. But even when we know what to do, having been saved, often we do not do it. I need to do more of my job for the Lord, and more of praising Him and bringing Him glory.
Bless the LORD, my soul! LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks on the wings of the wind; He makes the winds His messengers, Flaming fire His ministers. (Psalm 104:1-4)
There are billions of stars in our galaxy, and billions of galaxies inside our galaxy and billions more galaxies outside it to the ends of the universe. The stars are innumerable, yet God created all the stars in one moment, as stated in Genesis 1:16 “And he made the stars also… lol it’s like a throwaway line! Oh yah, He made stars too…LOL!
And He named them all!
When a person is injured and the body begins to repair itself, the body knows which kind of cell to replicate. It knows and it goes ahead and does it correctly. God’s perfection at the cellular level brings home like two bookends the fact that God is author of every aspect of the universe from the macro to the micro. From the largest to the tiniest, He is behind it all, and worthy of praise.
How does a cell know to be itself and not another cell in another part of the body? It is the self-replicating DNA that regenerates us, physically. The scientific definition says ‘self-replication is any behavior of a dynamical system that yields construction of an identical copy of itself.’
Replicators have several parts: –A coded representation of the replicator. –A mechanism to copy the coded representation. — A mechanism for effecting construction within the host environment of the replicator.
One of the truisms that scientists ignore when it comes to the evolution v. creation debate is that for there to be self-replicating DNA, which is a code, there must be a CODER. Someone must have created the code and installed it. No computer software created itself, ever. A software engineer created it and installed it. Information must have come from a Mind.
In addition, DNA is self-correcting! There are ‘fixer cells’ inside our bodies that hurry to a place where there is trouble and fix the cell! How does a fixer cell know to do that, and where to go? Again it is a praise to our Creator!
Think on Him today as Creator, and praise Him at times throughout the day as you see some of His wonders.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever; May the LORD rejoice in His works; He looks at the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke. I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my praise be pleasing to Him; As for me, I shall rejoice in the LORD. (Psalm 104:31-34)
The Lord has plans to prosper His children. He makes continual promises that we should not fear, because He knows our needs, and He will supply them. Matthew 6:31-34 is one example. The verses say,
“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
The People were wandering in the desert and had gotten mightily hungry. (Exodus 16) They began longing for the time of their captivity because at least then, they had bread and meat (Exodus 16:3). They began to grumble against Moses and against the LORD.
So, “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.” (Exodus 16:4)
These difficult economic times have been long, hard, and painful. Many people, Christians included, have lost jobs, have faced foreclosure, and have had to undergo extreme austerity measures (voluntarily or involuntarily). Pension plans are wiped out. Americans have been so used to prosperity that we have planned for it in the long-term with retirement accounts that we expected to remain full and fuller as time went on. We expected that after ten or twenty or thirty years that we would of course sell our houses and reap a comfortable profit. We were used to corporate loyalty and lengthy terms of employment, if not permanent ones, if we obtain tenure or have a strong union to back us. Long-term perspectives of our own personal wealth was the norm.
Long-term is no longer the norm. The weather, the economy, the animals, the government, the individual…all are behaving strangely now. God is lifting His Hand and we see the result of our country having less protection as we adjust to the new reality.
Yet, God said He would supply us. I can almost hear the prayers of Christians who beg for supply. Who pray for restoration of what they once had. I can almost hear many brothers and sisters crying out, “Where is it?? ‘My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 4:19) So where is it?”
It is in Matthew 6 and it is in Exodus 16. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.” and “the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day.” God IS supplying you, faithful one. He just may be doing it in a manna situation, a one-day supply instead of extra, like before. He sent the Israelites a one day portion delivered, on time, every time. He even made it so that their clothes did not wear out. (Deut 29:5) The LORD told Moses that He was doing it to test them. Not that God didn’t know the outcome of the test, like He needed to learn something, but that He wanted to restrict their supply so that they would learn to more faithfully depend on Him. Is that your situation? Could you be undergoing a test so that you will learn to depend on Him to greater degree and be strengthened for trials?
Do not worry about what you will eat nor what you shall wear. Do not worry about tomorrow. He provides. Think of the Israelites. Think on His promises to keep us and provide for us. If you only have enough today, do not fret, for you are blessed with bread from heaven!
*She would be another, better Eve, working in cooperation with the Redeemer, bringing the world back “from its revolt and sin.” 1*
photo source: Thegraphicsfairy.com
Lori Alexander The Transformed Wife @godlywomanhood posted something the other day on a topic she often posts on: suffragism. Suffragism is defined as the advocacy of the extension of suffrage (as to women). Women who advocated for the right to vote were called suffragettes.
The 3 Big Moral/Social Justice Movements of the 1800s
Suffragism arose in the early 1800s as the Temperance Movement gained widespread momentum. The Temperance Movement was a moral movement urging societal change- that people (men) abstain from drinking alcohol. Another moral movement in the early decades of the 1800s overlapping with Temperance and Suffrage, was Abolition of slavery. Women were effective campaigners in the Temperance movement and soon began to campaign for the right to vote. They were effective in this also. They held protests, parades, pickets….
Suffragists parade down Fifth Avenue, 1917.
Advocates march in October 1917, displaying placards containing the signatures of more than one million New York women demanding the vote.
The New York Times Photo Archives
All this female hussy-type activity was jarring to many, and soon an anti-Suffrage movement sprang up. These were women (and men) who opposed the movement to give women the right to vote.
Anti-Suffragists’ Methods
These ‘antis’ wanted to get their position across but do so in a more genteel, ladylike way. So:
“They campaigned at country fairs by distributing bulletins while offering advice on such womanly subjects as first aid. Considered the “Heaven, Home and Mother crowd,” they held teas, fund-raising balls, and luncheons at hotels and women’s colleges, as opposed to the noisy parading, picketing, and public speaking promoted by suffragists. The “antis,” wearing their emblem of pink or red roses, campaigned quietly by circulating antisuffrage literature in the state legislative gallery.”Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
[As an aside, this reminds me exactly of Phyllis Schalfly’s method she used to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. See: Hulu’s series ‘Mrs. America’]
The antisuffrage movement was the birth of the Cult of True Womanhood. Historians acknowledge that it was based on the 4 moral virtues of piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. This was a real cult and a real movement and historically a fact.
The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors and society could be divided into four cardinal virtues-piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. Put them all together and they spelled mother, daughter, sister, wife-woman. Without them, no matter whether there was fame, achievement or wealth, all was ashes. With them she was promised happiness and power.” Barbara Welter,The Cult of True Womanhood1820-1860, see below for source.
source thegraphicsfairy.com
“Antisuffrage members alleged that the right to vote would not solve the problems of women and society. They opposed suffrage primarily because they believed in the “cult of true womanhood” (piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness) and in the separate sphere of the home. The apolitical association served to educate and to legitimize activism within the traditional female domain.” OKHistory.org
You note that though these ‘antis’ were opposed to women’s suffrage and scandalized by women protesting and marching and speechifying, the antis were hypocritical in their approach. IF they truly embodied “Godly Womanhood” they would have been content to remain at home and leave the anti-suffrage campaigning to the husband.
But they didn’t.
The Cult of True Womanhood was (and is) a real thing
The movement that arose in opposition to women’s suffrage in the latter decades of the 1800s and early 1900s was, as mentioned before, a moral one. It was named. Its name was “Cult of True Womanhood“. It was also called the “Cult of Domesticity”. Part of its ideology included the ‘separate spheres’ concept: that women dwelled on one sphere (the home) and men dwelled on another sphere (the world).
Is this beginning to seem familiar with a certain movement headed by certain females on social media today? It is now known as the Trad Wife movement.
Activism is Activism, Hypocrisy is Hypocrisy
The godly womanhood cultists back in the 1800s were activists just as much as the bolder ‘pro-suffrage’ activists were activists. Their methods differed, but they were ALL activists. The ‘True women’ simply applied a veneer of virtue over their activities and claimed the higher moral ground. Remember, the hallmark of the Cult of True Womanhood was and is “Piety, Purity, Submissiveness, and Domesticity.”
Interestingly, in addition to external pietism, and in addition to the internal hypocrisy in their approach, the Cult of True Womanhood anti suffragists also had at its center an unwieldy quandary. Believers in the cult said women are the moral arbiter of the home, not only capable but commanded to set standards for Christian Godly living, yet at the same time, women lacked the moral intelligence to make proper moral decisions when they vote.
“It is unwise, unfair, and unjust to force upon a majority of women, a measure which is obnoxious to all their ideals of womanhood, in order that the wishes of a small minority may prevail.”
But that same tract goes on to say the following:
“It is a mistake to presume that all women will vote right on moral issues. Experience proves that many of the worst ills of social life are due to the influence of women of low ideals of right and wrong, or of degrading morals.”
History is more nuanced than our memories allow
An ideal, these women say, is the wife in the home, never straying outside it, presiding over serene domestic excellence. It is a moral ideal, not a biblical reality. The 1950s picture of ‘prefeminism’ life didn’t exist. If you want prefeminism life, go back before the Fall. The ideal presented by the Godly Womanhood Cultists is a figment. Their version of womanhood was hardly EVER the case then and it’s hardly ever the case now. We read from Jeanne Boydston :
Meanwhile, industrialization also forced free women in northern working-class households to labor for cash, as street vendors, tavern-keepers, boarding-house operators, paid domestic servants, garment workers, prostitutes, and a variety of other occupations. Young women from New England farms provided the nation’s first factory labor force in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, beginning in 1814. A surprising number of middle-class families also depended on the paid labor of the wives.
Who could adhere to these impossible and largely imaginary eras of domestic perfection? Mostly white upper class women.
Although all women were expected to abide by the standards of true womanhood, in reality, it was predominantly White, Protestant, upper-class women who did so. Due to social prejudices of the period, Black women, working women, immigrants, and those who were lower on the socioeconomic ladder were excluded from the chance to ever be true paragons of domestic virtue.”Thought Co.
source thegraphicsfairy.com
A wife should occupy herself only with domestic affairs-wait till your husband confides to you those of a high importance-and do not give your advice until he asks for it…if he is abusive, never retort.”
The Lady’s Token: or Gift of Friendship, 1848
History is complicated and our minds want to dispense with some of the more gritty realities-
This [wives’] work was vital to household economic survival. Only among the very wealthiest families were husbands’ incomes large enough to purchase everything a family needed to survive. In the poorest of families, wives scavenged the wharves and alleys for abandoned or unguarded food, fuel, and clothing. Even in middling families, a wife’s labor in keeping a garden, making clothes, economizing with food, and even producing some of the family’s furnishings (ottomans, pillows, mattresses) and equipment (like soap) enabled her household to maintain a comfortable standard of living on incomes that were often otherwise insufficient.Jeanne Boydston
Folks adhering to the Cult of True Womanhood only have ONE narrow view of what a woman is or what she may do. The reality is different. Women worked the cotton fields, the mills, or farmed, for example.
If the middle or lower class wife’s activities seem familiar, it is because they were recounted as the Proverbs 31 wife’s full day of work. Martin Luther’s wife Katy Von Bora also spent hours upon hours a day doing these same activities so the household could survive economically.
Katharina immediately took on the task of managing the monastery’s vast holdings. She bred and sold cattle and ran a brewery to provide for their family, the numerous students who boarded with them, and her husband’ visitors. In times of epidemics, she operated a hospital with nurses, working alongside them. Luther called her the ‘boss of Zulsdorf’, after the farm they owned, and the ‘morning star of Wittenberg’ for her habit of rising at 4 a.m. … She thus assisted her husband with running their estate and directed renovations when necessary. Source
Were the Proverbs 31 wife or Katharina Von Bora not ‘godly women’?
The Bible does call for women to be at home primarily oriented toward the home! The word of God advocates for that. But HOW this plays out varies, and it is not, I repeat, not, the singular, narrow view that the historical Cult of True Womanhood promoted in the 1800s and it’s not the narrow view of ‘Trad Wives’ today. It’s not even the biblical view. Why?
Because Prov 31 woman and Katy Von Bora were Gospel centered, not Morality centered. That is the difference between a cult or trad wife, and a biblical wife. They ministered as whole women, in true service to the King, not in service to 4 ‘true woman’ or ‘trad wife’ virtues of piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. That is the difference. Biblical versus moral.
Lydia ran a business selling purple. Susannah was wealthy enough to support Jesus’ ministry AND travel with him. Priscilla made tents with her husband. Rachel’s job was a shepherdess. The Midwives of Egypt worked, the funeral mourners had jobs (Mark 5:38), Sheerah was a builder. And so on.
The 4 Virtues: Piety, Purity, Submissiveness, Domesticity
If this is beginning to seem familiar to you, this is the exact cult that Lori Alexander The Transformed Wife of @godlywomanhood is part of and promotes relentlessly.
I’ve mentioned earlier that the anti-suffragettes formed a moral movement, or a movement based on virtues. Granted, these morals were lifted from the Bible and are excellent virtues for women to have. But once you unhitch these virtues from the Gospel, they turn into serpents and slither away from context and truth to become external legalistic demands instead of internal virtues enhancing a Gospel-oriented life.
As with anything related to history, first, we always remember things more fondly than they actually were. Our historical memories might be sepia-tinged, flower laden soft memories, but the reality of womanhood at the time the Cult of True Womanhood was born was hardly that.
To the extent that white women from more prosperous households succeeded in embodying “true womanhood” in their own lives, they inevitably did so at the expense of other women, whose labor produced so many of the commodities and services of the perfectly domestic household. Here was the final paradox of nineteenth-century “true womanhood.”Jeanne Boydston
As godly women, we want to raise up younger women to enjoy marriage as a true Godly woman. We do so by teaching the whole woman all the doctrines of the Bible so that she will be stable and assured of her position in life: as a child of the king ministering to Him out of love and gratitude for His sacrifice on the cross. We do not extract preferred virtues from the Bible, turn them into a cult, and place these burdensome demands on women as moralistic ideals separate from the word of God as a movement on its own.
The Trad Wife movement may have a germ of a good idea at the center but like Jesus warned, woes to anyone who substitutes pietism for holiness, and moralistic externals for internal realities.
There is nothing new under the sun. The Cult of True Womanhood existed then and it exists now. Be warned that, as Shakespeare said, everything that glitters is not gold.
Has anyone else noticed that in spite of more people waking up to deception and warning others, deception continues to spread like a lit match in a haystack?
Amy Spreeman
Yes. I have noticed. Sometimes the deception in both the world and in Christianity, or the current version of it, seems like a wave I cannot withstand.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Note the people in the boats.
Sometimes it seems like deception is clawing the faithful in a great wave threatening to drown the truth. Of course, the truth will never be drowned. God is powerful to preserve and grow his church. It shall never be overcome. (Matthew 16:18).
It is still hard to stand at the shore and see people claiming to love Jesus but dragged away from Him in deception. I deal with discernment in this ministry (as well as encouragement, exhortation, and natural theology.) Researching and writing about Discernment can turn a person crabby and bitter, or lead them into despair. UNLESS the person, unless I, stay focused on Jesus.
I need to ask Jesus for some strength. I spoke to Jesus about this as I was making my bed and straightening up. It was an out loud prayer. (No, He did not answer back…not audibly anyway. Read to end.) I was saying that discernment takes a toll, but it is worth it when some, even one, comes to the truth without the pollution of deception. It is worth walking through the haze of anger and outrage for even one to be delivered from a false doctrine. Lord, I know it may not be your will to encourage me or show me, I said, but if possible, I could use some encouragement right now.
I thought of the starfish story. Yes, even one.
I’m sure you have heard the starfish story. Here it is from Joel Barker. The story has gone through several iterations since the 1969 Loren Eiseley original.
Once upon a time, there was a wise man, much like Eiseley himself, who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day. So he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn’t dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.
As he got closer, he called out, “Good morning! What are you doing?” The young man paused, looked up and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”
“I guess I should have asked, Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”
“The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don’t throw them in they’ll die.”
“But young man, don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!”
The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves. “It made a difference for that one!”
The next day, a woman messaged me. She said she was relieved and happy that someone was calling out Lori Alexander. She said that Lori’s ungodly advice had put a burden on her, and as a result she had increasingly felt defeated and hopeless. That Lori’s approach was definitely not one of caring or compassion. This lady was thankful for the essay I wrote that pushed her firmly toward confirming her earlier discernment of Lori’s legalism.
Well.
I want to help ALL the starfish. I can’t. But through the power of the Holy Spirit, I made a difference to THIS one. Thank you, Lord for answering my plea.
When I listen to “Shall we gather at the river”, and think about all my Christian friends I’ll see there. Let us gather at the river now, in our hearts, and worship Him, acknowledge His power and His love. His grace delivers us, we lay our burdens down. I praise Him today and all days. He is waiting for us there, arms outstretched and in perfect love He will envelop us. He is on His throne, and He reigns. Again, I praise Him today and all days.
Today is the last part of a 4-part series on direct revelation. Direct revelation is when God personally and individually and uniquely speaks to a person on earth. He has a personal message for the person which is outside of the Bible. Sometimes people claim to hear God audibly, like Jennie Allen who founded IF:Gathering did, claiming “a voice from the sky”, or they say they hear Him speak in dreams, whispers, visions, or impressions. However the method the claim is “God told me”.
The question I’ve been answering is, “Does God still give revelation today?” The answer is NO.
We can refer to two verses in the Bible. One in the OT in Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
And in the NT in Rev 22:18-19 where the Bible is closed out with this warning, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
Does God ever call Christian mothers to full time ministry outside of their homes, especially if their children are still young?
Mom doing dishes. EPrata
Let’s be cautious about using the word ‘call.’ God doesn’t call people to do the opposite of what he has ordained in His word. Anyone claiming that they heard a voice or received a dream, vision, or message from God telling them otherwise is either self-deceived or lying. God does not contradict Himself.
His word is clear that the primary orientation of the woman in the home is to the home. Titus 2 records some principles for the woman/wife/mother, here-
Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor be enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
If a woman follows those verses she will not dishonor the Lord. Now perhaps a woman hasn’t had children or her children are older teens or adults and she has more time at home. Rather than become bored and tempted, she might obtain a job or volunteer. The key is being sensible. If a full time job, removes the mother from the home in ways that cause the home to become fractured or run less well, the verse says the word of God will be dishonored. It is up to each couple to decide what is sensible for them and how the love commanded to her husband and children is best expressed. But in fact I’ve seen few woman be able to manage a full time job outside the home AND raise the children with full attention and energy.
Why is claiming direct revelation from God dangerous?
Allowing ground to the devil makes one drift away. Hebrews 2:1- For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. ANYTHING that drives a wedge between our mind and soul and Jesus is a danger. Satan’s lies do that.
Sinclair Ferguson explains why so many prefer an immediate revelation of God to the ongoing illumination of the word of God by the Spirit of God:
–It is more exciting to have direct revelation rather than Bible revelation. It seems more “spiritual,” more “divine.” –For many people, it feels much more authoritative to be able to say, “God has revealed this to me” than to say, “The Bible tells me so.” –Direct revelation relieves us of the need for painstaking Bible study and careful consideration of Christian doctrine to know the will of God. In comparison to immediate revelation, Bible study seems—to be frank—boring. ~Source Ligonier.org, Knowing God
Why is all of this important knowledge for the average Christian mom and wife?
For the name of Jesus and His glory. That is the chief end of man, the Westminster Confession says in number 1. We must glorify Him. Anything that glorifies him is necessary and anything that detracts from it is, well…
I understand the loneliness of the stay at home wife and mom. You are thirsty for an adult to talk to, you want grown up conversation, you feel your mind dulling by the day. This makes a woman a target for voices that are pitched to her yearnings and inner desires for affirmation, attention, or just love in a busy life. Ignore those devilish voices. Say in the word, the sure word. A MORE sure word honor the word by following the prescriptions outlined for women of all ages, no matter what age you are.
I am publishing a 4 part series on Direct revelation. This is part 3. Part 4 will be tomorrow. Next week I have some different topics to cover. People in greater numbers, not fewer, are still claiming God spoke to them personally, or directly. This is known as direct revelation.
Throughout the Bible from Adam to Noah to the Prophets to Saul/Paul to the Apostles even John on remote Patmos, God and Jesus spoke directly to people to communicate His word. He also spoke through angels, a burning bush, and even a donkey.
When the Bible was completed, He ceased speaking directly. We have the word of God now as the final communication from Him.
Yet with the plethora of people claiming God still speaks, even some claiming He speaks to them, offering encouragements and making promises, I am examining whether those claims can be true. Despite the stern warning in Revelation 22:18-19 and despite the clear statement in Hebrews 1:1-2, people are alleging ‘God told me’.
I bear witness to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19).
God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, (Hebrews 1:1-2).
After Revelation when John penned the words of Revelation, the final book, God concluded that the revelation was complete.
Some people, when they claim God has communicated with them, say they felt a sense of peace about the issue which they discussed. Is a feeling of peace a sure way to determine that a message from God was real?
Is having peace about something a fool proof way for Christians to know God’s will?
No. Firstly, founding any decision or action on a feeling is unwise. Feelings are fleeting. Feelings are deceptive.
Secondly, since we have already determined that God is NOT speaking directly to people these days, therefore any feelings that are evoked from a lying action are also suspect. The ‘peace’ they are feeling could easily be a deceptive feeling of peace, brought on by a seeming affirmation of what their flesh wanted.
People in the New Testament didn’t usually feel ‘peace’ when they communed with God. Peter shrunk back in the boat and pleaded with Jesus to ‘go away from me!’ Isaiah said he was undone. Even the gentle scene with Hagar, she was told to go back and serve abusive Sarah, was not a decision that would have evoked a peaceful feeling. Paul was told to stay in Corinth and keep preaching, that polluted city of licentiousness and blasphemy.
Not that communication with God audibly was never peaceful, but usually in these communications, God is telling people to do something either countercultural or counter to what the flesh wants. These are difficult things that normally evoke other feelings besides peace.
Further, Paul learned peace. Philippians 4:11, Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
He had to learn it. He learned it the hard way, being beaten in every city, jailed, hounded by false teachers, accused of preaching false doctrine, slandered. He learned contentment. But he didn’t start out being peaceful with every situation. He learned it. So must we.
You can be anxious about a path you know you should take but still be confident in the LORD, but not have peace in ourselves. We often DON’T have peace, because the Gospel and holy living we are called to do is oppositional to our flesh, which still is infused with sin. That there might be an unpeaceful battle in our conscience or our heart about a particular decision is by no means indicative of its error. Though sometimes it is, like everything with the Bible, we don’t determine holy standards by our feelings or experiences.
The answer to the question in the title is: NO. God is not speaking now apart from or outside of His written word. Take a look at Part 1 for scriptural explanation of this question and answer.
Of the many millions of ‘Christian’ teachers and authors out there who claim that God IS speaking today, they claim also to have the insider information on how to hear him, how to detect if the voice was from God, and how to communicate with him in return.
Again, no. But the question remains, that so many people unfortunately ask:
If we do hear a voice, how do we know it’s from the Lord? And if it’s not from God, then who is speaking?
It is not from the Lord. It is not. There is an entire sub-industry to the Christian Publishing industry of ‘how to hear from God’. Rick Warren, Priscilla Shirer, Joyce Meyer, Mark Batterson, Dallas Willard, and many others have written books and teaching curricula on this topic. The marketplace is flooded with books on how to hear from God. If direct revelation was such an important method of communing with God, why is it so lacking in instruction in the Bible? No, 2 Timothy 3:16 says, says All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;
We can tell by comparing what was said by this voice and how the people reacted. First, the reaction of the recipient-
The Reaction
The true recipients of God’s word or even of His word through an angel was they all fell down, they were crushed and undone as Isaiah was. ‘The trauma of holiness‘, as RC Sproul used to say. An encounter with God always was a traumatic experience. Peter cried out, “depart from me for I am a sinful man!” They hear the word and obey immediately, because they know it is God speaking.
Yet these ladies who claim to hear from God flit around as if it’s a robo-caller on the other side of the phone. When Beth Moore receives a message, she argues with God, so does Joanna Gaines, who actually reported that she flatly told ‘god’ NO. Beth Moore even put ‘Jesus’ on hold saying she’d get to him in a minute and went on with what she was doing first! No, IF it was God first they would fall down in despair for their own sinfulness, and second they would be eager to hear and obey.
The Content
Next, you can tell the voice isn’t from God because of the content of the message. The women (and men) claim to have casual chats with the holy almighty. Sarah Young’s revelations are all things a woman would like to hear, and in a manner that doesn’t even sound like God is speaking, but a 13 year old girl mooning over a poster on her bedroom wall of the latest celebrity teen.
Many times, the content of the so-called message from God is centered around the person to whom God is supposedly communicating- their wants, their needs, their issues. When God communicated in the Bible with people, his messages were mainly concerned with proper worship, His glory, His prophetic plans, His commands, His judgments.
For example, in the New Testament God communicated with Joseph in a dream. In the dream, God told Joseph to take Mary as his wife and to flee to Egypt. He didn’t tune in to ask Joseph how he was feeling about Mary’s pregnancy.
In the Old Testament when He spoke to Hagar in such a personally compassionate way, He told her what to do and then uttered a prophecy about her son.
No, Jesus taught his disciples and by extension us, to pray. He didn’t teach us anywhere in the New Testament to seek His audible voice. (Matthew 6:9-13). All we need is in the Bible.
The Deception
People who claim to hear a voice rarely say that it could be a deception. They seem sure that it was God and only God who spoke to them. For example, Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s show Fixer Upper and the Magnolia Empire, said she heard God clearly in a garden no less, and he supposedly assured her that all her dreams of having a large platform will come true. It never occurred to her seemingly, that the ‘voice’ was indulging her flesh and that it could have been a deception. No, because she was being assured of her dreams, that seemed to cement it for her and she went on to tell this ‘testimony’ in a widely circulated video. Here is a sample:
“I hear God say very clearly, he said ‘Joanna if you trust me with your dreams I’m gonna take Magnolia further than you could have ever dreamed so just trust me.’ I remember hearing that and feeling completely peaceful about it…”
Of course she felt peaceful, she was just told by a voice she thinks is the creator of the universe telling her he will make her dreams come true. Wouldn’t YOU feel ‘peaceful’ about that?
Why do these direct messages – especially the ones to women – never seem to have anything negative to them? God told Hagar to go back and serve Sarah who hated Hagar and abused her. Not so ‘peaceful’. Did God tell the Angel Gabriel to tell Mary that all her dreams would come true? No, he told her what would happen to her body and what to do next. Rebekah inquired of God why her pregnancy was so painful, God told her that 2 nations were in her womb and one will be stronger than the other. He didn’t take time to assure her of her feelings about it.
That dreamy, sentimental faith which ignores the judgments of God against us and listens to the affirmations of the soul is as deadly as cyanide. Faith in faith is faith astray. To hope for heaven by means of such faith is to drive in the dark across a deep chasm on a bridge that does not quite reach the other side.
If someone hears a voice it could be the devil or his unholy angels. Satan masquerades as minister of righteousness, after all, and so do his fallen angels. (2 Corinthians 11:14). Eve was deceived by satan masquerading as a serpent. Demons spoke through men, (Acts 9:13-15). There is such a thing as lying spirits who speak through the mouth. (1 Kings 22:19–23).
Peter said we have a “more sure word”. (2 Peter 1:19). You can be SURE that it is God speaking when you read His word. You don’t have to take courses to learn how to determine if what you are hearing is from God or not. (It’s not). You can be sure that His written word is sufficient for your life. Read it, enjoy it, be confident in it!
I’ll do a short series to finish out this week on the dangers of direct revelation. I’ve written about this subject a few times. Why do I return to this subject? First, because it is a pervasive issue in the faith; second because it is a dangerous practice; third, because it betrays either a massive ignorance on the part of the person who claims God talked to them or a massive self-deception; and fourth, because I still get push-back every time I write on it, showing the continuing need for teaching on this subject.
Look up the subject of ‘god spoke to me’ or ‘god whispers’ or ‘god told me’ anywhere online and you will receive millions of results purporting to teach you how to hear God’s voice, or from people who claim to have already heard it. I googled ‘God whispers’ and received 15 million results, starting with books on Amazon that teach it.
No. God is not speaking now, except by His Spirit who illuminates the truths in His written word, the Bible. (And not the Catholic Bible and not the Mormon Bible).
1. What is the “God told me” religion?
It is a conviction that God is still personally speaking to people today, that He delivers new revelation, He guides in personal, individual matters such as where to go or what job to take, or who to marry, and the general notion that He speaks to His people directly, outside of scripture. But He doesn’t. The 1689 Baptist Confession Chapter 1 number 1 says,
The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience, although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and his will which is necessary unto salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord at sundry times and in divers manners to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church; and afterward for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan, and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary, those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased.
This is known as ‘Cessationism’, from ‘ceased’, meaning stopped. The podcast from G3 Ministries discussing that the miraculous gifts of the spirit have ceased can be listened to here.
2. Does God talk to us audibly?
No. Hebrews 1 refutes the idea that God is still speaking in various ways as He did in the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. Then, He spoke through a burning bush, a donkey, angels, Prophets, visions, voices, and circumstances such as earthquakes or brimstone, etc. It should be noted that God did not speak directly to His people often. He only spoke during times of great change, as with Moses, the period of Elijah and the Prophets, and when Jesus came in his incarnation. There were hundreds and hundreds of years where God didn’t speak in any way directly or indirectly.
It was not a common thing then and it is not a common thing now. His word is final. Jesus is the ultimate message. If we insist that we hear from heaven now, it renders Jesus less than the pinnacle of God’s written revelation. If He speaks now, it renders the scriptures as we know them open and insufficient. It renders Jesus’ message incomplete and needing additional stopgaps, patches, and additions.
Further, IF he is speaking now, then which people do we believe? How are they authenticated?
God’s Final Word in His Son: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. (Hebrews 1:1-2)
G3 Ministries is coming out with a film on this issue in September. It is called, aptly, Cessationist. Here is the trailer:
the-end-time.org 