A couple weeks ago, I had a very intense dream.

I was living in a city where everyone was crushed under a totalitarian system. No dissent or unapproved thoughts were allowed. It was a very frightening and stifling world.

I especially remember my mental state during it all. Including the person I was hiding with who was under great bondage in her mind. She would not dare to discuss anything. For fear that she would do something wrong. Or to even think something wrong.

I remember being on a wide street with many lanes going each way. But without any traffic anywhere.

When suddenly, at the far end of the street, some huge tank-like vehicles drove by from a side street. As they did so, they fired disk-like energy bolts. Like huge thin saucers that flew down the street toward us. Maybe 3 or 4 at a time.

They would rise and fall and change direction as if searching for a victim. And when a person was impacted by one of these bolts, he would be immediately vaporized. Both me and another person were able to duck behind a building just in time to avoid being detected.

And that’s when I woke up. With great relief.

And then I realized that I could have been praying all along.

That prayer was the solution to the problem in my dream. This was how I could go to the Lord and not simply be as any other fleeing person, imprisoned in his own mind.

If I had done that, I would have been free to think and pray and not suffer the fear of bondage.

OK. So maybe you think that now I’m going to interpret my dream for you.

Well, I’m not.

Because I’m not one of those Christians who is always having dreams and assuming that they contain some message from the Lord that I’m supposed to interpret and share with others. As if the Lord had given me a dream or vision of things to come.

Or some “special word of knowledge”. Whatever that is.

I just don’t do that.

A Presumptuous Affair

And I think that the vast majority of Christians that do that are being presumptuous about such things. Which is a very unpopular opinion for me to express these days. Especially when I see so many YouTube’s of Christians sharing their dreams “from the Lord”.

Now, is the Lord able to give people dreams? Sure. Of course.

But I am basically a Cessationist.

Which means that I believe that once the written word of God was completed back in the first century, those “special gifts” basically ceased; as far as individuals possessing the special gifts of tongues and healings, etc.

Those gifts were given primarily to establish the authority of those first apostles and to meet the needs of the church as the word of God was still in the process of being written.

A process which has now ceased.

Looking for Truth in All the Wrong Places

However, my statement here is not going to be met with any agreement by those in the various types of Charismatic or Pentecostal movements. They believe all that stuff is still going on. In fact, probably even increasing in these last days.

The book of Joel being one of their favorite sources to quote for this.

And they would say that I am stifling or limiting the Holy Spirit by my denial of such gifts as still being valid for today.

But frankly, this thinking is the cause for those movements being so fraught with errors and corruption. For the simple reason that they are not content to allow the word of God ALONE to determine truth and practice in their churches.

And, as a result of that posture, they’ve opened themselves up to extra-biblical utterances, messages, etc, etc. They have set the gift of discernment aside.

Meaning, that there are other sources of truth that these groups are willing to consider in addition to the Bible.

What Is It That Informs Your Interpretation?

This EXTRA-source-of-truth idea is a basic error within all the cults and false religions. The error that they do not consider the word of God as a stand-alone proposition. And that they allow their Traditions to be considered on some form of Equal footing with God’s word.

Which is another way of saying that they have allowed their Traditions to “Inform” them about what the word of God really means.

Catholicism, as one example among many, takes this exact position. As their view of Apostolic Succession – a prime Tradition – affects everything else they believe. Everything.

If one would remove Apostolic Succession from their beliefs, Catholicism dies.

People may as well as go home, throw away their rosaries and go back to reading their Bible as their Final Authority.

Imagine that!

But one more concluding thought here.

Consider that Evangelicalism today is in a very similar, serious state.

If one would actually set aside the opinions of say Billy Graham, Moody Radio, Tim Keller, the Gospel Coalition, and Bio-Logos, and then just believe what the Bible says, what would the average Evangelical pastor or average church leader do?

Gee Whiz.

They might have to go back and read the Bible for themselves. And be forced to double-check all the stuff that they got from their seminaries and Christian colleges.

And maybe even get their sermon ideas and illustrations from sound biblical sources again.

But . . . maybe I’m just dreaming again.

Image by 1tamara2 from Pixabay