Expert: Rev. Stuart Woodward - 10/19/2006

Question
Do you believe that God speaks directly to us today, or did His revelation cease with the New Testament? Or does your church fall somewhere in the middle, believing that God may choose to speak to some men, but not most?

Answer
Hello Jack,
Thank you for your question. It is a subject about which Christians can disagree though most of that disagreement is down to the fact that we tend to use different kinds of language to describe the same thing.
Certainly in scripture God spoke directly to people through angelic visitations, a voice, prophecy, dreams and so on. We have to ask the question as to whether or not the scripture teaches that such things would cease and if so when. The only truly relevant scripture here is 1 Cor 13 which tells us that when the perfect comes things like prophecy, tongues and knowledge will pass away. Some have used this to try to shore up their belief that all such things ceased to happen when the canon of scripture was closed, that is when the bible was complete.
I do not believe that this scripture supports such a view. In context it is clearly talking about the end time when everything will be perfect. It does not appear to be describing scripture as 'the perfect' at all.
Because the bible never tells me that such things will stop until that day then I have to believe that they still happen. So I do believe that prophecy, tongues, words of knowledge, miracles and so on still happen. I confess this view is influenced by my own experience of such things.
However, we do have to be careful. The bible is God's word to us. It is our only authority for belief and practice. If that were not true our beliefs would change with every popular idea and every time we wanted to justify a course of action.
So what ever God reveals today will never contradict, add to or take from the scriptures. It will be consistent with what He has already revealed. So then God is not going to say that 'adultery is sometimes right' but He may well speak in a some way to lead a person in the choice of a job or in any other particular course of action.
The scriptures tell us that we should test the spirits. Anything which claims to be from God must not detract from the Lordship of Jesus or have the impact of making Him appear to be a liar.
Dr Jack Deere wrote two books which I consider to be very helpful on this. One is called 'Surprised by the Voice of God' and the other 'Surprised by the Power of the Spirit'
I hope my comments are of some help. I must stress that I have the utmost respect for those brothers and sisters who take a different view. I may disagree with them but I do understand their right desire to protect the church from slipping into error.
I wish you God's blessing and leading.
Stuart Woodward.