Those of you who have read a few of my “writings” know that I am a pondering ruminator. Because, over my lifetime and even now, I have received differing, even contrary, messages from Bible-believing Christians on a seemingly fundamental matter, I continue to try to make sense of it and integrate the “truth” into my life and practices.

The “matter” of which I am speaking can be expressed by questions/comments such as:

* Does God still speak to individuals today, or did he stop that upon the death of the last of the apostles personally commissioned by Jesus? Or upon the completion of the “canon” of scripture, if that is, in fact, a different date?
* If God speaks today, is it only by impressions one gets, or conclusions one draws, from reading the scripture?
* Or does God also speak today to people audibly, or by dreams and visions?
* Does God speak by a “still small voice” like inner thoughts?
* Does God “speak” by circumstances – the “opening and closing of doors?”
* If God perhaps still speaks in some of these ways it is only for individual guidance.? * Since the New Testament times, there are no apostles or prophets through whom God gives a current word to the world, the church or to others.

Those who believe that the supernatural gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom and message by interpretation of tongues were instituted by God for the church and never terminated may be called “continuationists.” Those who believe those ended with the New Testament apostles and prophets and there has been no such thing for centuries, could be called “hard cessationists.” A third category called “soft cessationists” say that they would not be so bold as to say God cannot today speak by apostles or prophets, but it would take a high level of evidence to convince them it is actually happening. They would need to see the “marks of an apostle” in miraculous signs, and the prophets would have to measure up to the scriptural standard of being 100% accurate. (otherwise worthy of death??)

Each of these viewpoints has scriptural and logical arguments. For more detail, here is a link to a little online theology course session on this matter - http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=3176

I won’t go into many of the arguments here, but I will note that our own experiences inevitably affect our beliefs – not only about theology. It cannot be otherwise. Jesus knew this. He told his followers to be witnesses of what they had seen and heard. He never told them to be teachers of the scriptures. Now, in the New Testament, we see some of the speakers and writers (including Jesus) did use scripture to explain the things to which they were testifying. But in dialogue with someone else whose experiences are quite different from our own, we cannot expect them to accept our experiences as authoritative.

There is also fear of error which (legitimately) affects our views. There are those who point to “prophets” such as Mohammed, Joseph Smith or Jim Jones to “prove” that those who claim to be prophets today are all false. The counter-argument is that there have always been false prophets as well as true ones. The scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, warn us about false prophets and give instruction on how to discern them. If there were not going to be any true prophets after the book of Revelation, would God not have told us that, so that we would not even have to discern? If you believe the events described in Revelation are still future (and some do not) then you must believe that there are still, or will be, both true and false prophets.

It is my observation that in Christianity today, even within the “evangelical wing” and even within individual denominations and congregations, all three of the above (incompatible) viewpoints are present.

So my concern is this – if Christians, even within one congregation, do not agree on how God communicates his will to us, how can we be in unity? How can we obey the repeated command of Jesus in the book of Revelation, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches?” If we have opposing views, each of us supposing ours to be true and scriptural, about what our “ears” would be and how the Spirit is speaking to the churches, how can we be of one heart and mind? How can the churches know how their Master wants them to go forward?