Does God speaking to people contradict 'Scripture Alone'? - The danger of judging by experience

Why are there some who believe that God cannot speak outside the Bible? In a book called God Doesn't Whisper by Jim Osmond, Jim proposes that as a college student he was confused that God wasn't speaking to him in the way that he seemed to be speaking to some of his peers.

I never heard the voice of God as much as I wanted to. And I was in angst over this. I started to question whether or not I was mature, whether or or not I was understanding the Lord. And this created a big crisis point in my own life that the Lord ended up using to cause me to question that theology entirely. Now I wanted to hear the voice of God. I was trying to hear the voice of God. I was listening for the voice of God, but I never heard the voice of God.

And this was a driver towards him writing the book God Doesn't Whisper, wherein he puts forth that God does not speak outside of the Bible in visions, dreams, or prophecies, or any other way. There are many sincere believers like Jim, brothers and sisters in Christ, who I dearly love, who have a passion for the sanctity of God's Word. But we all face a danger of trying to feel validated and approved of God because He speaks to us in a certain way, because we heard his voice in a certain way, or when we compare ourselves to others, that he has spoken to us in the way he's spoken to someone else. And if we find that God hasn't spoken to us in the ways that he's spoken to someone else, we can question, is there something wrong with me? Have I done something wrong? Or am I not special? You know, does God not approve of me? What's going on? And then we can react out of that. But see, we hold too many assumptions as people sometimes. Assumptions like that God speaks to all people in the same way, which he doesn't. Or that God speaking to you in a certain way validates your approval in Christ, which it doesn't. The word of God speaks the truth of what he thinks of us. That he calls all men to repent and that he forgives us as we do, and that he saves us as we do. We do not need some exterior voice outside of what God has declared in Scripture to validate our approval and our salvation and God's love for us. Rather, Scripture is sufficient in that. Indeed. Amen and Hallelujah. But none of this is a danger to the reality that God can decide to speak to individuals or to churches or to countries in ways that align perfectly with the Scriptures. That is to be tested to the Scriptures at all times, but yet is not simply through the Scriptures. And so I am truly sorry if you've witnessed or experienced spiritual abuse of some kind. Perhaps a word of God that someone said was God's word but was not. Let us also recognize that these were the acts and teachings then of men. And they do not define God's perfect will revealed in the Scriptures alone. The Scriptures alone reveal to us God's desire to prophesy through his people. So let us not create a theology based off our non experience of God speaking through us or other people in our circles. But what about that Scripture alone thing, Sola Scriptura? Isn't God speaking outside of the Scriptures incompatible with Sola Scriptura? Let me give you just a short history lesson. The Reformation reacted to a certain false doctrine in the Catholic tradition. The Catholic Church stated that their Catholic traditions and Scripture has equal authority, that their tradition should be considered as Scripture. And this led to the adoption of Sola Scriptura, meaning Scripture alone in the Reformation that the traditions of men do not hold the same authority as the Scriptures. Martin Wieser writes about this in his writing of Sola Scriptura, Biblical and Theological Perspectives on Scripture Authority and Hermeneutics Studies in Reformed Theology. He speaks about how Sula Scriptura rejects any infallible authority other than the Bible and in this view that all non scriptural authority is derived from the authority of the Scriptures or is independent of the Scriptures and is therefore subject to reform when compared to the teachings of the Bible. This is what many of us believe, that anything outside the Bible must be tested to the Bible and if it doesn't align must be reformed into the image of the Bible and the doctrines laid out within the Scriptures as it was preserved for us today. So we see that Sola Scriptura is compatible with God, speaking in prophecy, dreams, visions or personally. As long as we test all things to the word of God, the Bible. Sola Scriptura does not mean that God has restricted himself to only speak within the Bible. John 21:25 even expounds upon this further when he writes now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written written. So while the Bible is perfect and our standard of holiness, it itself acknowledges that it is completely inadequate to record all of the works and words of God and that all of the books in the world could probably not contain them. God does speak in the Bible first and foremostly and through it but he also speaks through his people. And when he does speak, it is always miraculous faith building. It gives us direction and peace of his involvement in our life's calling. We see, for example, in Matthew 10, how God tells his disciples that in the middle of trial they should trust that the Holy Spirit will speak to and through them and that they should not only rely on their own minds. We read in verse 19, when they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that very hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. God shows us that there are certain moments when mere intellectual preparation will never be enough. See, for those who say that God only speaks through the biblical canon, this very scripture is to be disregarded. For according to them, God cannot speak through his people in any way except through what he has only simply revealed in their written word of the Bible. But yet there is a deeper reliance on His Holy Spirit that I want to submit to you that God is trying to communicate to us. As well known reformed theologian John Piper said, I don't see anything in the Bible that would say God can't communicate with us in extraordinary ways outside the Bible. He can. But what's the big deal? And what are the consequences of believing the opposite? You may struggle to mature in understanding the Bible itself if you believe that God only speaks through the Bible. For the Spirit of God is now no longer allowed to speak and is rather quenched in reality. The Holy Spirit can quicken our weak minds to understanding the Bible in greater ways and at times even so with dreams, visions and other ways of speaking. Just like Peter received his vision about what was already revealed in God's Word. But God found it important to show Peter a vision to draw Peter's attention to that revelation of being able to mix with Gentiles, even though that truth has already been established long before. Number two, individuals who hold to a view that God no longer speaks outside the Bible will have difficulty navigating personalized individual callings. They will find themselves going here or there without clear direction. There are times when God will show us what house to buy, who to marry, what job to take or not take, and so forth. It does not mean that he will always speak to us in such ways about those things. But there are moments where he will decide to become involved in a way where he finds it necessary to speak to us in a miraculous way about such decisions. Number three. Such people may miss convictions and corrections. The Holy Spirit desires to speak to them in any way outside the Bible, pointing them to the Bible, stunting their spiritual growth. And number four, they will miss opportunities for reaching the lost as the Holy Spirit desires to specifically direct them to specific people, specific places, and specific times. For example, as Yeshua received a word of knowledge speaking to the Samaritan woman about her life as Jesus, as we know very well, was directed to go certain places at certain times and to not go certain places at other times as the Spirit spoke to him. Notice how all of the above were things that the Pharisees who came against Yeshua struggled with. And I don't want you to struggle with those things. I want you to be able to grow in learning the voice of God, relying on on him first and foremostly to speak through the Word of God, but also recognizing and opening the door for him to speak to you in other ways in this life. The more our personal prayer life suffers, the more we will compensate by absolute reliance on our intellectual stimulations alone. Our relationship with God cannot simply consist of studying His Word. His Word is so important, and there is a lack of studying of His Word in this world today. People are destroyed for a lack of knowledge in this world today. Amen. But also remember that he desires for us to draw near to him in prayer, and when we don't, we will compromise our relationship with him and we will struggle to hear his voice. God is calling his people to a balanced relationship where theologians learn to pray and intercessors learn to be theologians. And perhaps when we come back to this intimate relationship with our Father, we will see him speak to us through the Scriptures like never before, through dreams and visions as Acts 2 promised us, through words of knowledge and the gift of prophecy, as through prophets of old, the interpretation of tongues, as Paul said, would occur, and even through significant life events, our own conscience, and our prayer time. But what about all of the imaginary prophecy, prophetic abuses, confusing words, and strange behaviors by some who say that they practice prophecy? Please stay tuned for Part two where we're going to be discussing discerning prophecies, dreams and visions, and the voice of God. We're going to talk about dream interpretations, the dangers of spiritual abuse, and to discover ultimately, according to the Bible, the ways that God indeed does speak. You can find out [email protected] Many blessings to you and Shalom.