Chapter 10.11

Mental Visions & Dreams from God

Table of Topics

A) Visions of God

A.1) Defining divine visions

A.2) The importance of divine visions

A.3) The authentication of divine visions

A.4) Modern examples of divine visions

A.5) The authority of modern divine visions

A.6) Demonic & fraudulent visions: Mormonism

A.7) Biblical visions vs. super-supernaturalism: Jack Hayford

A.8) Biblical visions vs. “Inspiration”

A.9) Biblical visions vs. mega mysticism

B) Dreams from God

B.1) Comparing biblical dreams & visions

B.2) Modern revelatory dreams

B.3) Biblical dreams vs. super-supernaturalism

Extras & Endnotes

Primary Points

• In contrast to apparitions which are experienced through the physical senses, visions are confined to the recipients mind.
• Because of the nature of visions, they “felt” the same as a physical apparition.
• The importance of the revelatory vision in Scripture is demonstrated by the fact that this method of divine revelation was the most common means used by God to communicate to biblical Prophets.
• Perhaps God first appeared to Prophets and Apostles in a more physical way in order to authenticate subsequent, more psychical revelations.
• We should not dismiss the power and effectiveness of visions as a means of divine revelation. When you had a vision from God, you knew it.
• There would seem to be some legitimate, although extremely rare examples of God granting revelatory visions today. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to claim that God has not granted any additional personal revelation since then outside of Scripture.
• We are willing to accept private revelations through visions that exercise divine authority over only the individual, we would reject any claims to extra-biblical revelation that is supposed to exercise authority over others.
• The demonic potential of visions comes to the fore in their foundational place in non-Christian religions and cults like Mormonism.
• A number of professing Christians lacking any of the credentials of biblical men, are claiming that Jesus regularly grants them visions as well.
• There is a great deal more disappointment among current and former members of super-supernaturalism than they care to admit because visions and dreams have been sought and relied on and found to be false guidance rather than divine.
• If you have what amounts to a rare “controlling call” on your life, similar to that of a Moses, David, Paul, Constantine, or Brother Yun, then one is in a better position to expect that God may grant them a vision.

Primary Points

continued

• It is curious that few, if any, of those who claim to have had visions of God or Angels, admit to being struck with the same great deal of terror, guilt, and exhaustion experienced by their counterparts in Scripture.
• You will not find a category of divine revelation in this chapter labeled “divine inspiration” because there are no examples in Scripture of what is normally understood by this term.
• Contrary to mega mysticism the most mystical and subjective type of divine revelation we encounter in the Bible is visions and dreams.
• Even though both dreams and visions occur only in the mind, they can be distinguished by the fact that the former occur while sleeping in an unconscious state, while visions occur while awake, in a conscious state.
• In Scripture the dream was a very minor mode of divine revelation. Most of them were given to God’s enemies, not messengers.
• Dreams and their interpretation have always been a bigger part of pagan spirituality then the authentic Christian kind, manifesting themselves in New Age and occult environments.
• In Scripture only the heathen needed to have dreams interpreted for them by others, which should prove as a warning to the current fad in cults and super-supernaturalism involving dream interpretation.

A) Visions of God

A.1) Defining divine visions

In contrast to apparitions which are experienced through the physical senses of sight and hearing, the experience of visions from God was confined to the recipients mind. ^[1] The distinction between physical apparitions and psychical visions/dreams can be illustrated when God says:

When a Prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal Myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. With him I speak face to face . . . he [physically] sees the form of the LORD. (Num 12:6-8)

As noted in the previous chapter, Moses physically experienced God with his sense of hearing and sight, but normally revelation came from God in a vision occurring in the mind.

More specifically, in visions it would seem God communicated directly to the part of the mind that processes physical senses such that the person “saw” and “heard” in their mind. So much so, that someone like the Apostle Paul could not tell whether his heavenly vision was “in the body” and experienced with his physical senses, “or out of the body,” and experienced as a vision in his mind (2 Cor 12:2). Because of the nature of visions, they “felt” the same as a physical apparition.

Visions normally included not only hearing God, but “seeing” Him. For example, Isaiah writes:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”” (Isa 6:1-3)

Other examples of people seeing God in a vision include Jacob (cf. Gen 28:12-13), the elders of Israel (cf. Exod 24:9-11), the prophet Micaiah (cf. 1 Kgs 22:19), Ezekiel (cf. Ezek 8:1-4), Daniel (cf. Dan 7:9f.), Solomon (cf. 1 Kgs 3:3-15), and of course the apostle John in Revelation (cf. 4:1-11).

The “extrasensory” nature of revelatory visions can be illustrated in the OT in the following incident recorded by Daniel. Notice that while it did not involve an “out of body” experience, the vision occurred only in his mind, and not by the physical senses of Daniel or his companions:

On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was [physically] standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me [in my mind] was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.

I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision. (Dan 10:4-8)

The fact that Daniel’s companions saw or heard something to scare them requires that some sort of physical phenomenon occurred at the time of Daniel’s vision. But the vision itself was only experienced by the Prophet in his mind. ^[2]

A similar event occurred in the Apostle Paul’s initial encounter with Christ. Luke reports that the Apostle “heard a voice” (Acts 9:4) and that his companions “heard the sound” (v. 7). However, it would seem that this communication was not purely physical, as while Paul understood the voice, he reports later that, “My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of Him Who was speaking to me” (Act 22:9), and Paul himself describes the encounter as a “vision from Heaven” (Acts 26:19), biblical language that normally reflects a more psychical experience rather than a physical one.

Visions can extend to even an “out of body” experience in which the person is evidently translated to another realm in order to receive a revelation. This would clearly seem to be the case with the Apostle John in his reception of the Revelation. At various places he describes himself as being “in the Spirit” (1:10; 4:2; as opposed to in the body), and being “carried . . . away [by an Angel] in the Spirit into a desert” (17:3) or “to a mountain great and high” where he is given revelations. Accordingly, this phenomenon is no doubt what is being described in 2 Peter where we read, “but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (1:21). ^[3]

A.2) The importance of divine visions

The importance of the revelatory vision in Scripture is demonstrated by the fact that this method of divine revelation was the most common means used by God to communicate to biblical Prophets. In the verse above from Numbers God describes this very thing. Accordingly, most of the great Prophets of Scripture are described as experiencing such revelatory visions, including Abraham (cf. Gen 15:1-17), Isaiah (cf. chs. 6, 22), Jeremiah (cf. 1:11-13), Ezekiel (cf. 1:3, 12-14), Daniel (ch. 7), Amos (7:1-2), Zechariah (1:8-11), and the Apostle John in the Revelation where while the word “vision” is used only once (cf. 9:17), John uses the phrase “I saw” nearly forty times to describe his visionary experiences.

Visions were so characteristic of divine revelation, that we read of the time of Eli the priest, “In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions” (1 Sam 3:1; cf. Prov 29:18 NASB). In pre-Scripture history, “visions” and “the word of the LORD” were synonymous.

Likewise, the Apostles of the NT received considerable revelation through visions including Paul’s first encounter with Christ (cf. Acts 9:3-7; 22:6-16; 26:12-19), Peter’s pivotal new revelation concerning the Gentiles (cf. Acts 10:9-17; 11:4-9), and the aforementioned visions of John. ^[4]

A.3) The Authentication of Divine Visions

The rather subjective nature of revelatory visions and dreams can suggest they are not as trustworthy as the more physical apparition. Such may even be implied by God’s comparison between Moses and the typical Prophet. With Moses, God spoke to him “face to face” and he physically saw “the form of the Lord.” In the case of a typical “Prophet” God says, “I reveal Myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams” (Num 12:6-8).

Nonetheless, it seems that God tended to provide some objective, physical evidence to authenticate the more subjective revelatory means of visions. For example, we have noted the physical phenomena that was experienced by the Prophet Daniel, the Apostle Paul, and their companions, during their visions (cf. Dan 10:4-8; Acts 9:3-7; 22:6-16; 26:12-19). All of those involved could at least confirm that something supernatural had occurred surrounding the private revelations given. These revelatory events were not only psychical and occurring in the mind of the recipient, but also had some real, miraculous, and physical aspects to them as well.

In addition, it is possible that God first appeared to Prophets and Apostles in a more physical way in order to authenticate subsequent, more psychical revelations. Accordingly, God did not first reveal Himself to Moses as a mere voice out of thin air, but spoke through a miraculously “burning” bush (cf. Exod 3:1-6). Likewise, while the Apostle Paul may have received mere psychical visions afterward (cf. Acts 16:9-10; 18:9-11; 22:17-18), his first encounter with Christ involved unmistakable, miraculous, physical phenomena (cf. Acts 9:3-7).

We would suggest something similar occurred in Abraham’s first encounter with God when, “The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you” (Gen 12:1). Apart from some sort of miraculous, physical manifestation, how else could the Prophet know he could trust the Voice that spoke to him? Indeed, Stephen later relates the Jewish tradition that, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran” (Acts 7:2). The absence of any mention of a vision would suggest to us that a physical appearance of some kind is meant. Likewise, we read that after Abraham had entered Canaan, “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, Who had appeared to him,” the language again suggesting to us a physical appearance.

All of this is to suggest that perhaps God interspersed apparitions of the more physical, objective kind in the life of one whom He gave visions of the more psychical and subjective kind so that the recipient would have some identification and authentication of whom was speaking to him. And more generally, it would have seemed most helpful if the initial encounter was of the more physical kind, as evidenced above. Therefore, perhaps Prophets and Apostles knew the voice and form of the Lord in their visions because they had experienced the same in the more objective physical realm as well.

Additional authentication of what could have been merely subjective experiences is given particularly to the Apostles as well. For example, Ananias miraculously confirms the private vision Paul had experienced (cf. Acts 9:10-18), as does Cornelius with Peter’s vision (cf. Acts 10:1-33).

Finally, even without physical, objective authentication, we should not dismiss the power and effectiveness of visions as a means of divine revelation. In fact, the Scriptures equate it with seeing something physically. For example, as noted above, the Apostle Paul describes his initial encounter of Christ as a “vision from Heaven,” the characteristic biblical word for an extrasensory revelation. In addition, the texts relate that, “The men traveling with Saul . . . heard the sound but did not see anyone” (Acts 9:7) and that the “companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of Him Who was speaking” (Acts 22:9). In other words, there were obviously some physical phenomena associated with the vision, but there is no mention of anyone physically seeing Christ in this encounter.

How then are we to interpret the Apostle’s pivotal claim that, like Christ’s physical appearances to the other Apostles (cf. John 20:19-20; Luke 24:36-42), “last of all He appeared to me also” (1 Cor 15:8) and he had “seen Jesus our Lord” (9:1)? It is possible that the Apostle is referring to another, clearly physical visitation of Jesus that he had experienced, but which is not recorded in Scripture (however, cf. Acts 18-9-10 which involved another “vision” of Jesus). However, the best explanation would seem to be that the Apostle is referring to his encounter of Christ in a vision on the Damascus Road, and he is putting the vision on par with the physical apparitions that the other Apostles experienced with their physical senses.

Accordingly, both Jesus and Ananias describe Paul’s Damascus road vision in terms of a real experience of Christ. Ananias tells the Apostle, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus . . . appeared to you on the road as you were coming here” (Acts 9:17) and “The God of our fathers has chosen you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from His mouth” (Acts 22:14). Likewise, Paul quotes Jesus as relating in the experience, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of Me and what I will show you” (Acts 26:16).

Understandably, then, Paul believed he had experienced a post-resurrection appearance of Christ just like the other Apostles, even though it would not seem to have been a physical one. ^[5] Therefore, Scripture, the Apostles, and apparently even God, do not distinguish between the revelatory authenticity or authority of a psychical vision experienced by the sensical parts of the mind, and a physical apparition which includes the physical sense of sight.

The very nature of a revelatory vision is such that the recipient can hardly deny something supernatural has occurred. When it occurs it is supernatural, unmistakable, and even overwhelming because it is not a part of human experience. We see things with our eyes, hear things with our ears, have thoughts occur in our mind, and even dream all the time. But we never have visions. Therefore, even revelatory apparitions or dreams would at least be similar to rather normal human experience. But not visions. And this is perhaps why they are the most frequent mode of personal divine revelation that God has used.

Did we mention that they were often overwhelming? One caused Isaiah to be terrified (Isa 6:5) and Ezekiel to fall “face down” (Ezek 1:28). Daniel said after receiving a vision from God that he “turned deathly pale,” was “speechless,” “overcome,” “helpless,” and “My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe” (Dan 10:8, 15-17). The Prophet John testified that when he began to receive his vision he, “fell . . . as though dead” (Rev 1:17). And the Apostle Paul said it was so real that he could not honestly tell if he experienced it “in the body . . . or out of the body” (2 Cor 12:2). When you had a vision from God, you knew you had a vision from God.

Along these lines, OT scholars C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch comment on Abraham’s vision in Genesis 15:

[There is] the erroneous assumption that visionary procedures had no objective reality, or, at all events, less evidence of reality than outward acts, and things perceived by the senses. A vision wrought by God was not a mere fancy, or a subjective play of the thoughts, but a spiritual fact, which was not only in all respects as real as things discernible by the senses, but which surpassed in its lasting significance the acts and events that strike the eye. ^[6]

A.4) Modern examples of divine visions: Brother Yun & Muslims

As in the case of apparitions, we see nothing in Scripture that would deny the possibility of God speaking to someone in a vision today. In fact, we believe the two occurrences below are legitimate experiences.

First, we will quote the following at length from the Chinese underground Church leader Brother Yun because it is very instructive about how the Lord chose to speak to him, both through Scripture and miraculously. He writes:

On the evening of 4 May 1997, like every evening for the previous six weeks, I reached down and took hold of my limp legs [made that way by the cruel torture of his captors]. Pain raced through my body as I propped them up against the wall. I found this was the best way to minimize the agony. By diverting the blood flow away from my legs they became numb and I could sleep fitfully throughout the night.

The very next morning, in my depressed and hopeless condition, the Lord encouraged me with a promise from Hebrews 10:35, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.” I awoke with these words in my mind.

As the prison slowly stirred to life, I started to read the Book of Jeremiah. The Lord related it to my injuries and my situation in a very powerful and personal way. It was as if the Holy Spirit was speaking to me directly through his Word: “Let my eyes overflow with tears night and day without ceasing; for my virgin daughter – my people – has suffered a grievous wound, a crushing blow… Have you rejected Judah completely? Do you despise Zion? Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed? We hoped for peace but no good has come for a time of healing but there is only terror… For the sake of your name do not despise us; do not dishonour your glorious throne. Remember your covenant with us and do not break it.” Jeremiah 14:17,19,21.

I felt just like Jeremiah. I was overwhelmed and it seemed as if the Lord had abandoned me to rot in prison forever. I cried out to the Lord, echoing Jeremiah’s words, “Oh God, why have you afflicted me so that I cannot be healed? I hoped for peace, but no good has come. Please Lord, do not despise me.”

I continued reading, “Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.” Jeremiah 15:10. Once again the words seemed to leap off the paper and into my spirit. It was a very holy time, as though God Almighty himself had descended into my cell and was dealing with me face to face.

I had so much grief stored up inside me, and it all started to gush out before the Lord. I sobbed, “Lord Jesus, just like Jeremiah said, everyone strives against me and curses me. I can’t take any more. I’ve reached the end of myself.” I wept so hard that my eyes became swollen from all my tears. My Lord comforted me like a loving father holding his little boy. He reassured me with the next verse, “The Lord said, ‘Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose: surely I will make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and times of distress.”‘ Jeremiah 15:11.

From my inmost being I cried out to the Lord from Jeremiah 15:16-18, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revellers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?” Many times I asked him why I was in such pain, I could bear it no more. My heart was downcast and I was ready to give up.

God’s Word came again to me with both a severe warning and a promise, “Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you, declares the Lord. I will save you from the hands of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the cruel.'” Jeremiah 15:19-21.

As soon as I read these verses, a powerful vision suddenly came to me even though I was wide awake. I saw my wife Deling sitting beside me. She had just been released from prison and was preparing some medicine. She lovingly treated my wounds. I felt greatly encouraged and asked her, “Have you been released?” She replied, “Why don’t you open the iron door?” Before I could answer she walked out of the room and the vision ended. The Lord spoke to me, “This is the hour of your salvation.” Immediately I knew this was a vision from the Lord, and that I was meant to try to escape.

It was now more than six weeks since my legs had been smashed. Even putting a little weight on them caused tremendous agony. But I believed God had told me in three different ways that I was to try to escape: through his Word, through the vision I’d received that morning, and through brother Xu [who had told him to escape]. . . . I shuffled out of my cell and walked towards the locked iron gate in the hallway.

And escape he did from the Zhengzhou Number One Maximum Security Prison in China. ^[7]

It would seem that visions have also been occurring in rather amazing numbers among unregenerate Muslims. In the last ten years, more Muslims have come to Christ than in the previous one thousand years. And reports from numerous missions agencies claim that many of these conversions occur in the context of a vision to individuals or entire villages.

In a recent newsletter from Campus Crusade’s Jesus Film Project, Jim Green, a highly respected Crusade staffer for forty years, reported that if you were to gather a typical group of one hundred new converts from Islam and ask them how they first learned of Jesus, ninety-nine of them would say, “I saw Him in a vision. He appeared in brilliant white light and told me that He was the Way and that I was to seek Him out.” ^[8]

Mr. Green goes on to relate the following:

The next report comes from a traveling “JESUS” film team that was working in one of these countries. The team was driving through a remote, dangerous region that had hardly been touched by the good news. A policeman flagged down the team’s car which was filled with 16mm projection equipment and gospel literature. The policeman asked the team to give a ride to an Islamic teacher who immediately got in. You can imagine their anxiety when this highly respected teacher asked, “Tell me, are you the ones planning to tell people about God?”

Entrusting themselves to the Lord, they responded, “Yes, we are.” Astonishment followed. Bouncing along the dusty road the teacher told the team how he had experienced a vision. “I was told to come to this spot in the road, at this time, that I would encounter someone who would tell me about God. It must be you.” ^[9]

A.5) The authority of modern divine visions: private, not public

All of the above seem to us to be legitimate, although relatively extremely rare examples, of God granting miraculous revelation since the closing of the biblical canon. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to claim that God has not granted any additional personal revelation since then outside of Scripture.

However, we notice in the examples above that the revelation was intended only to exercise authority and be applied to the individual receiving it. In other words, such extrabiblical revelations only had a private application and had no authority over others.

This is an important distinction that, as we will note below, super-supernaturalism ignores. While we are willing to accept private revelations of this kind that exercise divine authority over only the individual, we would reject any claims to extra-biblical revelation that is supposed to exercise authority over others. The kind of people in Scripture who received visions that contained authoritative revelation for others were Prophets and Apostles who could then miraculously authenticate themselves as messengers of God. No one can or is doing such today.

Nonetheless, any kind of enthusiasm that super-supernaturalists might claim for even private visions and dreams needs to be balanced by the fact that its occurrence is still relatively very rare and a great number of such events have been demonic, rather than divine.

A.6) Demonic & fraudulent visions

We have pointed out all along that the devil works to counterfeit virtually every means of revelation, and visions are no exception. Accordingly, God tells His people through the Prophet Jeremiah:

Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD . . . I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in My name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? (23:16, 25-26; cf. Jer 14:4; Deut 13:1-3; Zech 10:2).

No doubt these false prophets truly did experience a dream, but it was not divine revelation, underscoring the need for discernment.

The first thing to note on this topic is that miraculous apparitions, visions, and dreams occur in clearly demonic contexts. The Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology (EOP) records:

Visions occur to people of all cultures and all states and positions. They come to the irreligious and educated, and by no means have they been confined to the ignorant or the superstitious. Many men of genius have been subject to visionary appearances. . . .

Another form of clairvoyance is “second sight.” . . . Persons gifted with second sight often see symbolical [visions]; for instance, the vision of a funeral or a coffin when a death is about to occur in the community. Symbolical appearances are indeed a feature of clairvoyance and visions generally. . . .

One characteristic type of [vision] is the appearance of the Virgin Mary. . . . Such appearances involve messages for mankind as a whole, usually admonitions against sin and exhortations to repentance. . . . Such [visions] have reinforced the faith of thousands of Catholics, though many have pointed out that similar visitations have been recorded widely within non-Catholic Christianity and among most or all of the world’s religions and peoples. It is natural that sincere devotees envision a divine figure in the form familiar through the iconography of their own religion. The nineteenth-century Hindu mystic Sri Ramakrishna frequently had ecstatic visions of the goddess Kali. ^[10]

Along these lines, the rightly respected Bible teacher Erwin Lutzer remarks:

We know that satan can appear in whatever form he is expected. If you are a Catholic, he will appear as Mary; if you are a Protestant, he will appear as Jesus; if you are a Hindu, he will appear as Krishna. ^[11]

The EOP also suggests some of the natural sources that have been discovered for visions:

From the late-nineteenth century on, [visions] have usually been ascribed to hallucination. . . . Hallucinations, whether coincidental or otherwise, may and do present themselves to persons who are perfectly sane and normal, but they are also reported by people who are suffering mental disorders, under hypnosis, or in a state of hysteria. Hallucinations are also symptomatic of certain pathological conditions of brain, nerves, and sense-organs. . . .

[Visions] may be produced experimentally by the projection of the double or powerful suggestion. The first attempts in the latter class are recorded from Germany in H. M. Wesermanns’ Der Magnetismus und die allgemeine Weltsprache (1822). On four occasions he succeeded in inducing four separate acquaintances to dream on matters suggested by himself. On the fifth occasion he produced a collective [vision]. The subject and a friend who happened to be in his company saw, in the waking state, the apparition of a woman in accordance with the operator’s suggestion. ^[12]

The demonic potential of visions comes to the fore in their foundational place in non-Christian religions and cults. Zoroaster (c. 600 B.C.) founded a religion named after him, based on a vision he had received:

It was at age 30 that Zoroaster received enlightenment. As the account goes, Zoroaster received a vision on the banks of the Daitya River when a large figure appeared to him. This personage identified himself as Vbhu Manah, or “good thought.” This figure took Zoroaster into the presence of the wise lord Ahura-Mazda, who instructed Zoroaster in the true religion. ^[13]

In the first and second century mystery cults, demonic visions were experienced as well. NT scholar James Dunn writes:

We have little literary evidence of the mystical experiences which presumably came to many of the initiates to the mystery religions; but the enigmatic description of Lucius’s experience in his initiation to the cult of Isis may probably be taken as typical:

I approached the very gates of death and set one foot on Proscrpine’s threshold, yet was permitted to return, rapt through all the elements. At midnight I saw the sun shining as if it were noon; I entered the presence of the gods of the underworld and the gods of the upper-world, stood near and worshipped them. ^[14]

Likewise, we read of the founding of the Sikh religion in India by Nanak (1469-1539):

At the age of 33 he was said to have received his divine call. One day after bathing, Nanak disappeared into the forest and was taken in a vision to God’s presence. He was offered a cup of nectar, which he gratefully accepted. God said to him: “I am with thee. I have made thee happy, and also those who shall take thy name. Go, and repeat Mine, and cause others to do likewise. Abide uncontaminated by the world. Practice the repetition of my Name, ablutions, charity, worship, and meditation . . . My Name is God, the primal Brahma. And thou are the divine Guru” ^[15]

Mormonism was likewise founded on demonic visions. Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of Mormonism, writes the following in his book, The Pearl of Great Price:

So great was the confusion and strife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person, young as I was [15], and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was wrong. . . .

I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter, and fifth verse, which reads, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth unto all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. . . . So I retired to the woods to make the attempt. . . . Finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to open up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me. . . . Thick darkness gathered around me. . . . But [I was] exerting all my power to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy. . . .

Just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head . . . which descended gradually while it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said (pointing to the other) ‘This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.’

My object in going to inquire of the Lord, was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. . . . I asked the personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right . . . and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong, and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt. . . . When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. ^[16]

Commenting on Joseph Smith’s vision, cult expert Dr. Walter Martin put the matter into perspective:

With one “Special Revelation” the Mormon Church expects its intended converts to accept the totally unsupported testimony of a fifteen-year-old boy, that nobody ever preached Jesus Christ’s gospel from the close of the Apostolic age until the “Restoration” through Joseph Smith, Jr., beginning in 1820! We are asked to believe that the Church Fathers for the first five centuries did not proclaim the true gospel -that Origen, Justin, Irenaeus, Jerome, Eusebius, Athanasius, Chrysostom, and then later Thomas Aquinas, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Tyndale, Wycliffe, Knox, Wesley, Whitefield, and a vast army of faithful servants of Jesus Christ all failed where Joseph Smith Jr., was to succeed!

With one dogmatic assertion, Joseph pronounced everybody wrong, all Christian theology an abomination, and all professing Christians corrupt -all in the name of God! How strange for this to be presented as restored Christianity, when Jesus Christ specifically promised that “the gates of Hell” would not prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18)! In Mormonism we find God contradicting this statement in a vision to Joseph Smith Jr., some 18 centuries later! ^[17]

The early Mormon leadership experienced many visions. For example, it was common in the closed meetings of the Mormon leadership for them to report such things. One former member related the following from an early meeting of Joseph Smith and others:

Soon after Joseph says, “Sidney [Rigdon], have you seen the Lord?” He [Sidney] answered, “I saw the image of a man pass before my face, whose locks were white, and whose countenance was exceedingly fair.” Then Joseph replied, “I knew you had seen a vision, Sidney, but you would have seen more, were it not for unbelief.” Hiram [Joseph Smith’s brother] said he had seen nearly the same as Sidney, which was pronounced by Joseph to be the Redeemer of the world. . . .

Joseph next passed round the room, and laid his hand upon each one, and spoke [in tongues] as follows, as near as the narrator call recollect. . . . After administering the sacrament several of the brethren were called upon to arise and speak in tongues. . . . This gibberish for several months was practiced almost daily. ^[18]

The extremely popular, but very questionable “Mary movement” and healing shrine near Lourdes, France also began with a supernatural vision:

At 12:30 on February 11, 1858-the Thursday before Lent-this young girl, Bernadette Soubirous, aged fourteen, very religiously inclined . . . was sent with her younger sister and a friend called Jeanne Abadie, to get firewood for their parents, who were poor peasants living in the village. . . .

[W]hen Bernadette saw her companions going on without her [and they] were out of sight . . . she . . . heard a noise which she described as the sound of a rising storm. She says that as she looked about her, frightened at the sudden sound of a violent wind blowing, out of the interior of the grotto came a golden-colored cloud, and then a beautiful lady, more beautiful than any she had ever seen, came and stood at the entrance to an opening in the grotto, above a small bush. This lady smiled at her and beckoned to her. . . . The beautiful lady then took up a rosary which had been hanging on her own right arm, and . . . when the recitation of the rosary was over, the lady and the cloud disappeared.

By this time the other two girls had missed Bernadette, and, coming to look for her, found her on her knees by the grotto in a state of ecstasy. They saw nothing of the lady. . . . Again and again Bernadette visited the grotto, both with others-who never saw or heard anything unusual-and alone. Bernadette claimed that when she asked the lady her name, she got the reply, I am the Immaculate Conception.” ^[19]

There are several reasons then to doubt the divine or supernatural nature of what is occurring at Lourdes. First, it promotes the unbiblical worship of Mary. There is no support in Scripture for the “Immaculate Conception” belief in Mary’s own sinless birth, and any “vision” that promotes it requires suspicion. ^[20] As Dr. Weatherhead put it concerning his own study of the Lourdes phenomenon: “There is an injunction to have faith in the Blessed Virgin, and one is almost wearied by the endless chanting of “Ave, Ave Maria.” ^[21]

The Unification Church is another demonic cult founded on a vision given to Sun Myung Moon (b. 1920):

At age 16 young Moon experienced a vision while in prayer on a Korean mountainside. Moon claims that Jesus Christ appeared to him in the vision admonishing him to carry out the task that Christ had failed to complete. Jesus supposedly told Moon that he was the only one who could do it. Finally, after much repeated asking by Jesus, Moon accepted the challenge. . . .

Even though Moon’s doctrines are opposed to Christianity, he claims that it was Jesus who revealed them to him. “You may again want to ask me, ‘With what authority do you weigh these things? ‘I spoke with Jesus Christ in the spirit world. And I spoke also with John the Baptist. This is my authority. If you cannot at this time determine that my words are the truth, you will surely discover that they are in the course of time. These are hidden truths presented to you as a new revelation. You have heard me speak the Bible. If you believe the Bible, you must believe what I am saying.” ^[22]

Obviously, many very dangerous and harmful deceptions have come through miraculous visions. We do not doubt that all of the above truly saw and heard something. They probably were not lying about experiencing a vision. But their own pride, foolishness, or lack of discernment led them to believe their vision was divine, when in reality it was demonic. As we note further below, the Church needs to heed this warning today.

While the unbiblical content of a vision may help us discern its demonic rather than divine nature, ultimately, it is the virtue of the followers of such visions that reveal their true nature. For example, when we compare the supernatural historic virtue of authentic Christianity with the Mormonism that Joseph Smith’s vision founded, there is no comparison. Real Christianity has been a greater force for good on the Planet than all other religions and cults combined. ^[23]

A.7) Biblical visions vs. super-supernaturalism: false prophecy from Jack Hayford

What is rather alarming is that these very same phenomena are regularly claimed and acclaimed in modern super-supernaturalism as revelations from God. As further discussed elsewhere, super-supernaturalism is essentially the unbiblical over-expectation and excessive claims to miraculous deeds and communication. ^[24] Accordingly, the popular super-supernatural author Jack Deere devotes a whole chapter to the subject of dreams and visions in his Surprised by the Voice of the Spirit and writes:

[T]here is something very wrong in our relationship with God when we do not see [visions] [or] hear [voices] . . . and yet leave our “time with him” feeling satisfied. ^[25]

Accordingly, visions of Jesus are commonly claimed as a regular part of the Christian life. This, in spite of the fact that super-supernaturalists cannot claim the ministry of biblical characters who did receive visions from God. Do they really wish to say we can all expect to be a Prophet Isaiah or an Apostle John? Nonetheless, a number of professing Christians lacking any of the credentials of these biblical men, are claiming that Jesus regularly grants them visions as well.

For example, Jack Hayford, well-known author and leader of super-supernaturalism related a vision he had to a meeting of the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America in which:

He had seen Jesus seated on His throne at the right hand of the Father. In Hayford’s vision, Jesus began to lean forward and rise from his seat. As the annointing caught in the folds of His garments, it began to splash out and fall over the church. Jesus said, “I am beginning to rise now in preparation for my second coming. Those who will rise with Me will share in this double portion of annointing. ^[26]

Clearly this is either new divine revelation apart from Scripture or a farce. There is nothing in between in such critical matters. However, there are several things that bring suspicion on such a vision.

First, notice that this supposed divine revelation is to exercise God-like authority over all Christians. We are all obligated to believe it if indeed it is authentic, extra-biblical revelation from Jesus concerning His current actions and imminent return. However, as noted above, such a claim would need to be miraculously authenticated and Mr. Hayford has provided no such thing.

It is one thing to claim that God may grant an extra-biblical revelation that exercises God-like authority over the individual receiving it like the legitimate examples shared above. But it is quite another thing to claim that a private vision is intended to contain a divinely authoritative message for a multitude of others, like all of the demonic examples shared above. Admittedly, our examples above are limited, but we would nonetheless suggest that one difference between legitimate post-biblical and extra-biblical divine visions, and modern demonic or fraudulent ones, is that the authority of the former is confined only to the individual, while the latter claims authority over others as well.

In our opinion, extra-biblical revelation that would exercise authority over all Christians such as Mr. Hayford’s claims is not occurring today. This is demonstrated by the fact that all such messengers in Scripture could authenticate themselves as exercising such authority by performing convincing miracles or perfectly predicting the future. No one is doing that today, and therefore, we would not expect anyone to have that kind of revelation. Which is one more major problem with Mr. Hayford’s claim to have received such a revelation from God. He cannot authenticate himself as a messenger of God like biblical recipients of visions did. Has he perfectly predicted the future? Has he commanded a miracle? No.

There are several other problems with Mr. Hayford’s vision as well. While he clearly intended to claim that Christ’s return was imminent, he reported his vision in 1990. How long should we wait until Mr. Hayford is exposed as a false prophet, the very kind that was to be stoned to death in the OT?

Also, Mr. Hayford intentionally used his vision to support the false doctrine of some exclusive, and unbiblical extra anointing of the Holy Spirit, and to further claim that only those who would share his super-supernaturalist beliefs would share in it. As we have repeatedly noted, the real fruit of the Holy Spirit is virtue, and no right-minded Christian would claim they have a “double-portion” of love and holiness compared to their “unannointed” Christian brothers and sisters. And super-supernaturalists certainly shouldn’t claim it because they do not have it. ^[27]

Such people are, “Like clouds and wind without rain” because they “boast of gifts” they do “not give” (Prov 25:14), nor even possess, nor can prove.

We are reminded as well of the Apostle’s warning:

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility . . . disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head [Christ] (Col 2:18-19).

John MacArthur comments on what this “Colossian heresy” was:

In addition to practicing false humility and worshiping angels, the false teachers were taking their stand on visions they had seen. Like many heretics and cultists down through the ages, they claimed support for their aberrant teachings in visions they had supposedly seen. Some of the worst excesses in the modern-day charismatic movement are derived from such visions. There is no need for extrabiblical revelation through visions, because “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” (Heb. 1:1-2, italics added). ^[28]

Normally, in all their fervor for promoting an expectation of miraculous revelation, super-supernaturalists are not honest enough about the potential spiritual pitfalls of following their doctrine. There is a great deal more disappointment among current and former members of the movement than they care to admit because visions and dreams have been sought and relied on and found to be false guidance rather than divine. For example, the rather popular but mystical author John Eldredge ^[29] relates the following:

Over the course of those years we spent many nights in prayer that God would heal [his son] Blaine’s heart. During one of those times, Stasi [his wife], not usually given to visions, had a picture of a light penetrating his heart. At that moment, she felt certain God had healed him. And just this morning, the day for his annual checkup, as I began to pray for Blaine, I sensed Jesus say, I’ve healed him. My heart rested, and I waited for the good report.

[Stasi later calls John and says] “Hi . . . it’s me.” A long silence. “Blaine needs surgery . . . right away.

Hope vanished. I felt that sick-in-the-gut feeling of an imminent free fall, that feeling you get on top of a ladder that’s starting to sway under you. All kinds of thoughts and emotions rushed in. What? Oh, no . . . Not after all this I thought. My heart was sinking. Despair, betrayal [by God], abandonment by God. Failure on our part to pray enough or believe enough. I felt moments away from a total loss of heart. ^[30]

And so will many who follow the super-supernaturalists. What then was the source of Staci’s vision and John’s “sensing” that Jesus had said something extra-biblical to him? Your guess is as good as ours, but it was not God. And how would a real extra-biblical vision or “sense” from Jesus be any different in its communication? Can we only know by the outcome? Is that how those who experienced such things in Scripture knew their visions were from God? Not at all. The Eldridge’s experience and much of their writing are classic examples of mega mysticism which we discuss further elsewhere. ^[31]

As we have noted elsewhere, Brother Yun fits the biblical description of those having a rare, divine “controlling call” on their life (including severe suffering and playing a pivotal part in God’s plan of saving His elect), and therefore, the occurrence of such things has some biblical merit for him. ^[32] Nonetheless, the authority, importance, and comforting effect of Scripture that Brother Yun experienced even in the context of a miraculous vision should not be missed by the super-supernaturalists who insist visions are so necessary. Also, note Brother Yun’s human doubt, even after experiencing such a vision, when he prays afterwards:

Lord you have shown me that I must try to leave this prison. I will obey you now and will try to escape. But when the guards shoot me, please receive my soul into your heavenly dwelling. ^[33]

Finally, Brother Yun gives some wise advice concerning the topic of miraculous visions today:

These don’t happen frequently, but usually only when there is something important or urgent God wants to impress on me. All the visions I’ve received are very short, often lasting just a second or two. Often a picture or scene flashes into my spirit and mind, yet it is so vivid and real I know it’s from the Lord.

As Christians we are not to live by any vision or dream, nor should we seek after them. We must only live by the Word of God and seek the face of Jesus. But we should also be open to allow the Lord to speak to us in these ways if this is how he wants to. Any vision or dream we receive needs to be carefully weighed against the Scriptures, as nothing from God will ever contradict his Word. ^[34]

Contrary to anti-supernaturalism then, we too believe that God may provide such a miraculous vision today to someone. Yet contrary to the claims of super-supernaturalism, they will only occur when God’s more normal means of communication are insufficient (e.g. Scripture, etc.), which is extremely rare. Nor does Brother Yun claim such things are to be the expected normal experience of Christians as super-supernaturalists do. On the contrary, Scripture and our New Nature are more sufficient than super-supernaturalists will admit for knowing and doing God’s will, and if they have truly experienced so many supernatural visions and voices, then we would remind them that there are other sources of such things other than God.

While we would hesitate to say that only really important people should expect such divine visions, the most believable reports of them come from those in very unique situations. For example, the event described in the previous chapter concerning the Emperor Constantine was one of the most monumental ones in all of Church history. Constantine became the first real Christian Emperor, ceased all of the tremendous persecution of the Church at the time, was pivotal in bringing the scattered and divided Church together, and was instrumental in spreading the Gospel throughout the known world.

Can someone today expect a vision from God in order to receive direction or confirmation of a job decision, or some such thing? Perhaps, but unlike mega mystics, ancient and modern, God’s habit of only intervening with such miraculous communication in the most critical and pivotal circumstances regarding His specific plans for the Church as a whole, should be heeded. In other words, if you have what amounts to a rare “controlling call” ^[35] on your life, similar to that of a Moses, David, Paul, Constantine, or Brother Yun, then one is in a better position to expect that God may grant such miraculous communication.

Some have claimed that the promise in John 14:21 should lead us to be expectant of miraculous visions of Christ in our own day. Christ says, “Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show [emphanizō: “appear in person”] Myself to him.” Is this a promise to all Christians that if we obey and love Jesus that He will somehow personally, and even visibly, reveal Himself to them? We do not think so.

It is important to interpret the verse in the context of an intimate communication with the Twelve and to be very careful in applying its contents to Christians in general. Also, the meaning of Christ’s promise to “show” Himself is best found in this very passage. In the verses immediately preceding Christ’s statement here, He said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me” (John 14:18-19). This promise refers specifically to the fact that Christ would physically reveal Himself to the Apostles after His death and resurrection, indicating that this is what Christ was referring to in verse 21.

And this is precisely how the disciples themselves understood it when we read verse 22: “Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do You intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world?” It is clear then that when Christ promised to “show” Himself to those who love Him, He was specifically referring to His post-resurrection appearance to those He was talking to in this passage (cf. John 16:16), and it was not a promise of continuing personal revelations for Christians in general.

Finally, as one studies the biblical instances of God-given visions, it will be noticed that the great majority of those who experienced a vision of God, or even an Angel, also experienced a great deal of terror, guilt, and exhaustion (cf. Exod 20:19-21; Judg 13:22; Dan 10:16-18; Matt 17:5-7; Luke 1:12, 29-30; 5:8; Rev 1:17). However, it is curious that few, if any, of the many people today who claim to have had visions of God or Angels, admit to being struck with the same emotions. Rather, the experience is most often described as a pleasant, if not rather mundane one. All of which makes us wonder what these people are really seeing.

Along these lines, John MacArthur writes:

A well-known charismatic ^[36] pastor told me that sometimes in the morning when he’s shaving, Jesus comes into his bathroom and puts His arm around him and they have a conversation. Does he really believe that? I don’t know. Perhaps he wants people to believe he is more intimate with Christ than most of us.

Whatever the case, his experience contrasts sharply with biblical accounts of heavenly visions. Isaiah was terrified when he saw the Lord and immediately confessed his sin (Isa. 6:5). Manoah feared for his life and said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God” (Judg. 13:22). Job repented in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6). The disciples were petrified (Luke 8:25). Peter said to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord!” (Luke 5:8). Each of them was overwhelmed with a sense of sinfulness and feared judgment. How could someone casually talk and shave while in the presence of such an infinitely holy God? ^[37]

A.8) Biblical visions vs. “inspiration”

As discussed further elsewhere, the most popular and traditional view of how God communicated Scripture to those who wrote it is commonly described as some sort of mental telepathy in which God subjectively, even imperceptibly, supernaturally guided the Prophet or Apostle while they wrote. ^[38] On the contrary, much of the divine revelation experienced by Prophets and Apostles, occurred in the form of much more real visions, objectively authenticated, rather than some mere form of mystical mental telepathy as commonly thought. This is why you will not find a category of divine revelation in this chapter labeled “divine inspiration” because there are no examples in Scripture of what is normally understood by this term.

A.9) Biblical Visions vs. Mega Mysticism

Mega mysticism is our term for the popular belief that God is rather consistently revealing extra-biblical guidance through some sort of direct mental telepathy resulting in impulses and impressions of divine revelation. On the contrary, we do not see any descriptions of this kind in Scripture. The most mystical and subjective type of divine revelation we encounter in the Bible is visions and dreams. And as noted above, God often ensured these were authenticated in some objective ways. The fact that God always made it clear when He was providing someone with extra-biblical miraculous revelation underscores His desire to make it abundantly evident to people when He is speaking to them, a fact often neglected by modern mega mysticism which insists we need to be listening for some “still small voice” to understand God’s will. ^[39]

There simply are no biblical examples of this in Scripture. Unfortunately, mega mystics want to claim that God is speaking to people today just as He did in Scripture. However, God spoke to people in very real visions, not a “still small voice.” Therefore, many of the biblical examples that mega mystics wish to use to promote their false teaching simply do not apply.

B) Dreams from God

B.1) Comparing biblical dreams & visions

Above we distinguished apparitions from visions by saying that the former is experienced with the physical senses, while visions are not. There is another type of revelatory vision described in Scripture that is extrasensory as well called dreams. Even though both dreams and visions occur only in the mind, they can be distinguished by the fact that the former occur while sleeping in an unconscious state, while visions occur while awake and in a conscious state.

Such a distinction may be seen in the apparent vision given to Abraham where we read: “The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward’” (Gen 15:1). It seems most apparent that Abram was consciously awake during this episode, but later in the same encounter “Abram fell into a deep sleep” (15:15) in which he further heard and saw revelation. Technically speaking, then, we could say the first revelation was given through a vision and the second through a dream. ^[40]

However, the Scriptures are often not clear in this distinction. Particularly in the OT, terms used for visions (chazown) and dreams (chalowm) are used interchangeably (cf. Isa 29:7; Dan 2:28; 4:5). Daniel in particular describes having “night visions,” making it rather difficult to know if he was awake or asleep when he received them. ^[41]

We will note here that it would seem God valued revelatory dreams less than visions. We would suggest this is because dreams are the most difficult to authenticate. At least in a vision one is consciously awake, often aware of physical surroundings, and immediately aware that a vision is occurring. Accordingly, in Scripture the unconscious dream was a relatively very minor mode of divine revelation compared to the conscious vision. In fact, most of the revelatory dreams recorded in Scripture were given to God’s enemies, not messengers.

Accordingly, biblical scholars John McClintock and James Strong relate:

While we frequently read of . . . visions, dreams are not referred to as regular vehicles of divine revelation. In exact accordance with this principle are the actual records of the dreams sent by God. The greater number of such dreams were granted, for prediction or for warning, to those who were aliens to the Jewish covenant.

Thus we have the record of the dreams of Abimelech (Genesis 20:3-7); Laban (Genesis 31:24); of the chief butler and baker (Genesis 40:5); of Pharaoh (Genesis 41:1-8); of the Midianite (Judges 7:13); of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2:1, etc.; 4:1-18); of the magi (Matthew 2:12), and of Pilate’s wife (Matthew 27:19). ^[42]

We would suggest then that even God deemed dreams as an inferior mode of revelation because of its more subjective nature than a vision.

B.2) Modern revelatory dreams

Of course, we must keep in mind the normal source of our dreams. Typically they merely reflect what our subconscious mind has been thinking about. Accordingly, we read in the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Dreams have provided creative solutions to intellectual and emotional problems and have offered ideas for artistic pursuits. A type of cognitive synthesis that facilitates conscious insight may occur subconsciously during dreaming. ^[43]

Therefore, we must obviously be very careful about expecting our dreams to be some sort of revelation from God.

Nonetheless, as with visions, there are no biblical reasons why God would not use them today to communicate to His people and it would seem there are some believable and more modern examples. For example, we read the following:

George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, was one of America’s finest preachers during the early twentieth century. However, a crisis early in his life almost ended his ministry. The Dallas police chief, J. C. Arnold, was a member of Truett’s church. He and Truett were good friends. One day Arnold invited Truett and a mutual friend to go quail hunting. While Truett was shifting his gun from one arm to the other, it accidentally fired and struck Arnold in the leg. Arnold assured Truett the wound was not serious, as did the doctors and nurses once they arrived at the hospital. Nevertheless, Arnold died from complications of his wound.

Truett was devastated. He told his wife he could never stand before a congregation to preach again. He concluded he would have to leave the ministry. For the rest of that week Truett prayed and read Scripture, desperately seeking comfort and understanding for his heartbreaking circumstances. Saturday evening, he could be heard praying, “My times are in thy hands,” over and over again. Finally, he fell asleep for the first time since the accident. That night he had a dream where Jesus came to him and said, “Be not afraid. You are my man from now on.”

Truett awoke and told his wife what had happened. Returning to sleep, Truett had the same dream a second time and then a third. Truett went on to preach that Sunday, but those who heard him said his preaching was changed. His biographer notes: “But his voice, I shall never forget his voice that morning, as we heard for the first time the note of sadness and pathos which now we know so well. His vast capacity for helping people in trouble, as well as his power in the pulpit, is born of the tragedy which remade him.”

A devastating circumstance seemed as if it would destroy him, but a word from Jesus changed everything. Jesus turned a tragedy in a young preacher’s life into an event through which God would fashion one of his greatest servants of that era. ^[44]

But again, satan is always in the business of demonically counterfeiting means of divine revelation, and like the examples of demonic visions above, the devil has certainly given people dreams. Accordingly, speaking of the famed although, occultic powers of psychic Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), the Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience relates that, “He had vivid dreams that seemed to contain [famously accurate] past-life and prophetic information.” ^[45] However, Cayce’s apparently supernatural abilities certainly were not “inspired” by God.

B.3) Biblical dreams vs. super-supernaturalism

Elsewhere in KOG we write at length about super-supernaturalism’s characteristic involvement in spiritual fads occurring in our pagan culture. Whatever seems popular in the world, is eventually adopted by super-supernaturalism, which is an important explanation for the great numbers of unregenerated but religious people among them. ^[46] The area of revelatory dreams and their interpretation is just one more example.

Such a thing has always been a bigger part of pagan spirituality then the authentic Christian kind. Accordingly, we read in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:

According to biblical testimony, the royal courts of both Mesopotamia and Egypt had among their wise men and prognosticators those who professionally interpreted dreams. Extrabiblical literature recovered from both areas contains documents of instructions for these professionals. From these and related materials we learn that there was among the peoples of the ancient Near East generally a much greater preoccupation with dreams as portents of the future than appears to have been present in Israel. ^[47]

More recently, dreams and their interpretation have manifested themselves in New Age and occult environments. The Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs reports:

The interpretation of dreams had always been regarded as an occult science [until its popularity in “Christian” super-supernaturalism], with a popularity that waxed and waned with fashion and politics . . . New Age philosophy commonly portrays dreams as a medium for receiving clairvoyant or spiritual information. Various traditional occult systems of dream interpretation are being revived and reinterpreted to be used for this purpose. ^[48]

Dream work is the attempt to explore and interact with dreams for psychological insight in psychotherapy . . . or in manipulating dreams for occult revelations or “spiritual growth” in New Age practices. . . . In New Age practice, dreams can be explored and even manipulated for occult revelations, spirit contact, astral travel, and to induce altered states of consciousness. . . .

Newsweek magazine has observed that a “New Age” of revived interest in dreams and dream work has arrived. The article noted, “What was once a fad is now mainstream. . . . Like crystal work and channeling, dream work is one of the more popular New Age practices.” ^[49]

Which is precisely why it is also popular in super-supernatural “Christianity.”

Accordingly, super-supernatural apologist J. P. Moreland writes:

Currently, dreams are being welcomed again by various Christian leaders as legitimate means for gaining insight into our inner lives and as a way God can communicate to us. ^[50]

First of all, it is only leaders in the super-supernaturalist movement who are welcoming such things. The rest of Christianity is maintaining the more discerning view the Church has held for centuries. Secondly, Dr. Moreland shares this resurgence in the Church of looking to dreams and their interpretation as extra-biblical revelation as a positive thing, with no question whatsoever as to whether or not a resurgence that just happens to parallel what is occurring in the New Age movement is a good thing.

Dr. Moreland’s best explanation for why the Church has historically viewed such a thing with suspicion and scorn is that Jerome (c. 347-420) mistranslated the OT. Dr. Moreland writes:

Although the early church welcomed dreams as one means for God to speak to them [an exaggeration for which he gives no evidence for], there is good evidence to indicate that dreams were brought into disrepute in the church by a mistranslation in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible that became the standard version for the church for a thousand years. . . .

[F]or some unknown reason, in his translation of the Old Testament, Jerome associated “observing dreams” with the practice of sorcery in three particular Old Testament verses (Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Chronicles 33:6; where “witchcraft” or “sorcery” appears in our English versions, the words “observing dreams” appeared).” [As a result?] Eventually dreams fell out of favor as a common means of divine guidance through much of church history. ^[51]

First, Jerome’s “mistake” may not be as great as Dr. Moreland claims. It is true that a more literal translation of the Hebrew in the above mentioned verses would be “divination.” However, one of the foremost methods of divination among the pagans that these Scriptures are referring to was “observing dreams” as Jerome put it.

Secondly, we are once again rather amazed at the lengths super-supernaturalists will go, in order to explain why what they feel is so important and spiritual today, has been denounced throughout Church history by the most godly Christians. The reason is not some supposed slip in the Latin Vulgate, but rather, “dreams fell out of favor as a common means of divine guidance through much of church history” for the very reason they are viewed with suspicion by most godly Christians today. They were never intended to be “a common means of divine guidance,” as Dr. Moreland suggests, even in biblical times, and those who have believed so have always hurt themselves or others. Heresy always hurts people.

For example, Tom Stipe, former member of the Board of Directors for the super-supernaturalist Vineyard Association of Churches recounts that in this movement:

Dreams and their interpretation soon moved to center stage as [Vineyard] prophecy conferences taught devotees to keep a pencil and notebook on their nightstands to write down each dream as it occurred. These were later interpreted [by “prophets”] for God’s message.

People lived on the edge of their seats, waiting for the grandiose promises of prophesies to come true. Most waited in vain. Not long after [this] became the primary source of direction, a trail of devastated believers began to line up outside our pastoral counseling offices . . . [suffering from] shattered hopes because God had apparently gone back on his promises . . . Many were left to continually live from one prophetic “fix” to the next, their hope always in danger of failing because God’s voice was so specific in pronouncement, yet so elusive in fulfillment. ^[52]

We are reminded of the following sad commentary of God concerning Israel, and it especially saddens us because such harmful heresy is being allowed to occur in God’s own precious Church among His precious people. God says to these deceived and deceiving churches: “The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd” (Zech 10:2). At least a shepherd with the correct biblical understanding, courage, and humility to stand up to such damaging and/or demonic invasions of His Church.

Is demonic too strong? Not when the fruit is honestly assessed (cf. Matt 7:15-23). One reason we know that the practice of dream interpretation as practiced in modern super-supernaturalism is unbiblical is that God always intended visions or dreams to be revelations, not mysteries, as the meaning of them is always made clear to the one receiving it. In other words, in Scripture only the heathen needed to have dreams interpreted for them by others, which should prove as a warning to the current fad in cults and super-supernaturalism involving dream interpretation. Even in the example of Paul’s vision of Paradise, it was not that he did not understand what he had heard, but they were simply, “things that man is not permitted to tell” (2 Cor 12:4). In addition, when the vision or dream is given to one of God’s people, God directly reveals its meaning to the person either as part of the vision or by personal and additional revelation.

Extras & Endnotes

Gauging Your Grasp

1. How are apparitions distinguished from visions?
2. Why did visions “feel” the same as a physical apparition?
3. What demonstrates the importance of the revelatory vision in Scripture?
4. What other factors made even “visions” more objectively authenticated in Scripture?
5. We claim it would be inaccurate to claim that God has not granted any additional personal revelation since the closing of the canon of Scripture. Do you agree or disagree and why?
6. Why are we willing to accept private revelations through visions that exercise divine authority over only the individual, but reject any claims to extra-biblical revelation that is supposed to exercise authority over others?

1. What are some examples of the demonic potential of visions?
2. Why should we be skeptical of those who are claiming that they regularly have visions of Jesus or Angels?
3. What is the reason for the great deal of disappointment among current and former members of super-supernaturalism regarding dreams?
4. Why don’t we have a category of divine revelation in this chapter labeled “divine inspiration”? Do you agree or disagree and why?
5. What is the most mystical and subjective type of divine revelation we encounter in the Bible? How does this fact relate to mega mysticism? \\
6. How are dreams and visions distinguished?
7. What attributes of dreams as divine revelation are revealed in Scripture? How does this relate to the growing focus on them in super-supernaturalism?

Publications & Particulars

1. Accordingly, David Aune, a recognized scholar on the topic, relates:

   The vision trance . . . is an altered state of consciousness in which extrasensory audiovisual experiences, usually revelatory in character, are perceived in private by individuals, often prophets or seers. The visions themselves may be experienced as occurring within an earthly setting or may involve apparent out-of-body experiences such as ascents to heaven . . .

   All the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek terms translated “vision” in modern versions of the Bible are terms that primarily denote “appearance” or “sight” in contexts that refer to normal visual perception. Only the context reveals when the “vision” refers to a psychological or revelatory experience in which the subject privately “sees” that which is not physically present to ordinary unaided sense perception. (“Vision” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE), Geoffrey W. Bromiley ed., 4 vols., [Eerdmans, 1988], IV:993) ↑

2. C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch write concerning Daniel’s vision:

   According to this verse, the form described in vv. 5 and 6 was visible to Daniel alone. His companions saw not the appearance, but they were so alarmed by the invisible nearness of the heavenly being that they fled and hid themselves. What is here said resembles Acts 9:3ff., where Christ, after His exaltation, appeared to Paul and spoke to him—Paul’s companions hearing only the voice, but seeing no one. (Commentary on the Old Testament, Electronic Edition STEP Files CD-ROM [Findex.com, 2000], loc. cit. ↑

3. Our claim that the reference to Prophets being “carried” in 2 Peter is describing the same phenomenon in Revelation 17:3 of being “carried” in a vision is strengthened by the fact that the root word used in both places is pherō which simply means: “to bear or carry from one place to another,” (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature (BAGD), F. W. Danker ed., 3^rd ed. [University Of Chicago Press, 2001]), which is virtually what John and several other Prophets describe happening to them. Accordingly, in what Michael Green calls “perhaps the fullest and most explicit biblical reference to the inspiration of its authors” the statement in 2 Peter is also merely speaking of experiencing a vision.

   Accordingly, Dick Lucas and Christopher Green in their commentary in the Bible Speaks Today series (2^nd Peter and Jude [Intervarsity, 1995]) are wrong to interpret the text as saying, “The prophets were gripped by God as he spoke to them and gave them a message to communicate.” On the contrary, being “carried” by the Spirit specifically refers to being “carried” somewhere, at least in the mind, in the form of a revelatory experience. ↑

4. For further on the revelatory methods experienced by the Apostles see chapter 8.3. For the Apostle/Prophet John section 9.7.H. ↑

5. Therefore, we would disagree with NT scholar Gordon Fee who writes regarding 1 Cor 15:8:

   There has been considerable debate as to whether this language describes a merely revelatory vision (e.g., W. Michaelis, TDNTV, 355-60, and W. Marxsen, The Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth [ET, Philadelphia, 19701, pp. 98-111) or an actual objective seeing (G. O’Collins, The Resurrection of Jesus Christ [Valley Forge, 19731, pp. 7-9). Paul surely believed the latter. See the discussion in Kim, Origin, pp. 55-66; cf. F. Keff, “Paul’s Experience: Sighting or Theophany?” New Blackfriars 58 (1977), 304-13. . . .

   Paul believed that his experience on the Damascus road was more than a mere vision. For him it was a resurrection appearance of a kind with all the others [Apostles]-to be sure, after the ascension and therefore out of due season (15:3-8). (The First Epistle to the Corinthians NICNT [Eerdmans, 1987], 395) ↑

6. Keil and Delitzsch, Gen 15:1. ↑

7. Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway, The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun (Monarch Books, 2002), 248-56. ↑

8. Jim Green, The Jesus Film Project (Campus Crusade, 2005), 1. ↑

9. Jim Green, The Jesus Film Project (Campus Crusade, 2005), 1-2. ↑

10. Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology (EOP), ed. Melton, J. Gordon, 4th ed., 2 vols., (Gale Research, 1996), 55, 1376. ↑

11. Erwin Lutzer, Who Are You to Judge? (Moody, 2002), 214. ↑

12. EOP, 60. ↑

13. McDowell & Stewart, Handbook of Today’s Religions (Nelson, 1983), 67. ↑

14. James Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit: A Study of the Religious and Charismatic Experience of Jesus and the First Christians as Reflected in the New Testament (Westminster, 1975), 303. ↑

15. M. A. McAuliffe, Sikh Religion: Its Gurus, Sacred Writings, and Authors (Oxford University Press, 1909), pp. 33-35. ↑

16. Quoted by Alexander Mackie in The Gift of Tongues: A Study in the Pathological Aspects of Christianity, (Doran, 1921), 202-204. ↑

17. McDowell and Stewart, 67. ↑

18. Alexander Mackie, The Gift of Tongues: A Study in the Pathological Aspects of Christianity (Doran, 1921), 227-8 ↑

19. Leslie Weatherhead, Psychology, Religion, and Healing (Abingdon, 1952), 145-6. ↑

20. For further discussion of the Immaculate Conception doctrine in Roman Catholicism see chapter 13.8. ↑

21. Weatherhead, 151. ↑

22. McDowell and Stewart, 99, 100 ↑

23. For further discussion of virtue apologetics for the Christian faith see Book 5: Biblical Apologetics. ↑

24. For further discussion of super-supernaturalism see chapters 7.13-16. ↑

25. Jack Deere, Surprised by the Voice of God (Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 291-2. For discussion of the mega mystical idea that God grants private inspiration apart from Scripture see Book 14. ↑

26. “Pentecostals Set Priorities,” Charisma (January 1991), 44. ↑

27. For further discussion of the false claim of Charismaticism to experience or possess more of the Holy Spirit see section 10.15.A.7. ↑

28. John MacArthur, MacArthur’s New Testament Commentary, Electronic Edition STEP Files CD-ROM (Parsons Technology, 1997), Col 2:18 ↑

29. For further discussion of the mega mysticism in John Eldredge’s writings, see section 14.1.B. ↑

30. John Eldredge, Waking the Dead (Nelson, 2003), 7. ↑

31. For further discussion on mega mysticism see Book 14. ↑

32. For further discussion of why we might expect miracles surrounding Brother Yun’s life see section 10.3.C.3-5. ↑

33. Yun, 255. ↑

34. Ibid., 108. ↑

35. For further discussion of the biblical concept of a “controlling call” see section 7.15.B.1.b. ↑

36. For a definition of charismaticism see endnote in chapter 8.1. ↑

37. John MacArthur, “The Sufficiency of the Written Word” in Sola Scriptura! The Protestant Position on the Bible (Soli Deo Gloria, 1995), 183. ↑

38. For further discussion of the nature of “divine inspiration” for Scripture see forthcoming chapter 8.8. ↑

39. For further discussion of God’s desire to make revelation evident in spite of mega mystical claims see section 14.9 sections E and G. ↑

40. Keil and Delitzsch comment on Abram’s first recorded vision in Genesis 15:

    The “word of Jehovah” came to him “in a vision;” i.e., neither by a direct internal address, nor by such a manifestation of Himself as fell upon the outward senses, nor in a dream of the night, but in a state of ecstasy by an inward spiritual intuition, and that not in a nocturnal vision, as in Gen 46:2, but in the day-time.

    The expression “in a vision” applies to the whole chapter. There is no pause anywhere, nor any sign that the vision ceased, or that the action was transferred to the sphere of the senses and of external reality. Consequently the whole process is to be regarded as an internal one. The vision embraces not only vv. 1-4 and 8, but the entire chapter, with this difference merely, that from v. 12 onwards the ecstasy assumed the form of a prophetic sleep produced by God. ↑

41. J. H. Stek comments on the often obscure biblical distinction between visions and dreams in the Bible:

    Biblical writers appear to have made no clear distinction between a revelatory dream and a night vision. There are a number of passages where dreams (or night visions) are not explicitly mentioned, but seem to be implied (cf. Gen 26:24; Num 22:20; 1 Sam 15:16; 2 Sam 7:4; 1 Kgs 9:2; 1 Chron 17:3; 2 Chron 1:7; 7:12; Jer 31:26; Zech 1: 8; 4: 1; Acts 23: 11; 27:23) – but perhaps in some instances these did not involve a sleep experience; cf. Isa 3:4ff. (“Dream” in ISBE, 1:992) ↑

42. John McClintock and James Strong, “Dreams” in Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, CD-ROM (Ages Software, 2000 ↑

43. “Dreams,” Encyclopedia Britannica; online at http://www.britannica.com. ↑

44. Henry and Richard Blackaby, Hearing God’s Voice (Broadman & Holman, 2003), 156. ↑

45. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience (EMPE), Rosemary E. Guiley (Harper Collins, 1991), 84. ↑

46. For further discussion of super-supernaturalism’s fake revival and adoption of pagan practices see section 10.15.B. ↑

47. J. H. Stek, “Dream” in ISBE, 1:992. ↑

48. New Age Encyclopedia, J. Gordon Melton ed., (Gale Research, 1990), 154-5. ↑

49. Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, John Ankerberg and John Weldon eds. (Harvest House, 1996), 193-4. ↑

50. J. P. Moreland and Klaus Issler, In Search of a Confident Faith (Intervarsity, 2008), 195. ↑

51. Ibid., 195-6. ↑

52. Hank Hanegraaff, Counterfeit Revival (Word, 1997), xii. ↑