Many sources report that, in the words of Roman Catholic conservative Dinesh D’Souza, “Millions of Muslims are Converting to Christianity After Having Dreams and Visions of Jesus Christ.” Charismatic sources agree with the Catholics about millions of Muslims becoming Christians through dreams and visions. So do Southern Baptist mission agencies.
These visions and dreams clearly prove that:
1.) Continuationism is true and cessationism is false. God is continuing to give revelatory dreams and visions today. We have lots of testimonials, and testimonials can’t be wrong.
2.) Any passages of Scripture that seem to teach the cessation of revelation with the completion of the canon must be reinterpreted in light of the overwhelming proof from the dreams and visions.
3.) If this can happen in Muslim lands, it can happen here. Instead of the hard work of teaching people to skillfully preach the gospel, and working so that they grow spiritually to the point where they love to go house to house, we should encourage people to seek after signs, wonders, and dreams, because that is how there will be millions of new converts here in our country as well.
Right?
Wrong.
Why?
Scripture is the sole authority for the believer’s faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:15-17). Scripture is more sure than any experience–even hearing the audible voice of God Himself (2 Peter 1:16-21). Scripture, therefore, must never have its teaching ignored, altered, overlooked, or changed because of what someone claims he experienced. Indeed, even if everyone in the whole world said something was true, but Scripture said otherwise, the Bible would be right and everyone would be wrong: “Let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).
Scripture teaches cessationism, as the studies linked to here clearly demonstrate. There are no Apostles today or apostolic gifts (Ephesians 2:20), the canon of Scripture is complete (1 Corinthians 13:8-13), and God Word is His completed revelatory speech.
Furthermore, Scripture teaches that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17); conversion comes through Scripture (John 15:3). Men are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23). So nobody has been born again because of a dream. The Holy Spirit produces the new birth as sinners, enabled by grace, respond to the gospel recorded in the Word of God. This is “thus saith the Lord.” I don’t care what someone says happened in his dream. God’s Word is infinitely more reliable than someone’s dream, and Scripture teaches that people are born again through hearing the gospel, not having dreams and visions.
So how do I explain the dreams? I don’t need to explain people’s dreams. The Bible tells me to live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4), but it never tells me that I need to explain what someone said he saw in a dream. I don’t need to explain dreams of people who say they left Islam and rejected Allah and the Quran for Christianity. Nor do I need to explain the dreams of people who say they left Christianity for Islam after having a dream. How am I supposed to know what is going on in someone else’s head when he is sleeping? The vast majority of the time I can’t even remember my own dreams. Yet I need to explain what someone tells me happened in his dream, or what someone tells someone else who tells someone else who tells someone else who prints an article with no documentation in a charismatic magazine about a dream?
I am suspicious that these “millions” of converts are allegedly taking place in lands far, far away where it is impossible to verify anything. For example, in the Dinesh D’Souza video above, there are no sources provided and no way to verify anything. This is typical–indeed, D’Souza is a scholarly man who tends to document his material far better than does the average charismatic magazine. With these millions of alleged converts to Christianity, true churches–independent Baptist churches–should be overflowing in Muslim countries, as Islam is allegedly collapsing and true Christians are allegedly becoming a huge percentage of the population. But are these people-if they even exist–becoming true Christians, or leaving Islam for other demonic religions, like Roman Catholicism or Oneness Pentecostalism? What would someone leaving one false religion for a different false religion prove? Scripture teaches that we see Christ by faith, enabled by the Spirit, in the Word (2 Corinthians 3:18), and all images of Jesus Christ are idolatrous violations of the Second Commandment (see the relevant resources here). So are they seeing the real Jesus in a dream? Also, where are all these people? Why is this only (allegedly) happening in places far, far away where we can’t actually verify it? I think of how Jack Hyles claimed that through “God’s power,” allegedly in conjunction with carnal promotion and marketing techniques that manipulated people and are found nowhere in Scripture, he had far more “saved” in one day than the Holy Ghost did on the Day of Pentecost, although not even one person was added to First Baptist of Hammond, Indiana on that day through these “saved” people, and people close enough to the situation to investigate claimed that the vast majority of these “saved” people were just as lost as before. I think of how Keswick continuationist John A. MacMillan, who is promoted among Independent Baptists at schools like Baptist College of Ministry. MacMillan claimed to have an amazing technique for casting out demons, which was copied by him and promoted at one of the yearly Victory Conferences at Baptist College of Ministry and Falls Baptist Church–but people who were close to the situation claimed, on the contrary, that the demons were in control of everything. I think of how Evan Roberts and Jessie Penn-Lewis, with their dreams and visions, destroyed the 1904-1905 Welsh revival. Scripture is sufficient, so even if I were confronted with signs and wonders of the quality that the Antichrist will perform in the Tribulation, I would still go by sola Scriptura–Scripture alone. But the alleged evidence for these dreams and visions seems to be woefully lacking. They aren’t like the real revelatory miracles in the Bible before the miraculous gifts ceased.
Note that the question is not if God is powerful enough to give people dreams. The question is not one of God’s power. It is one of what He has said He would do in His inspired revelation, the Bible–and in that revelation He has said that the giving of revelation through dreams has ceased. Nor is there a category of “non revelatory” dreams that are infallibly from God. If God gives infallible truth, then it is revelation. If it is not infallible truth, then God is not speaking in the dream, for God cannot lie, but only speaks and reveals infallible truth.
What if I come across someone who actually is serving the Lord faithfully in a true church, but who says that having a dream was part of how he became a Christian? Doesn’t that mean that I need to reinterpret Scripture? No. God is sovereign, and He can use all kinds of things to get people thinking about religion or about His Word. I know someone who is a faithful Christian who, before his conversion, liked to watch creationist videos while smoking pot. That doesn’t mean I commend the pot smoking. I know someone else who called on a ghost (likely a demon) to come to him, and then says that the ghost came at night and almost killed him. The demonic intervention led this person away from agnosticism to openness to the supernatural, and years later he became a Christian. That doesn’t mean I support agnostics calling on ghosts or demons. So if someone says he had a dream and that led him away from Islam to Christianity, I’m glad if he trusted in Christ, while everything contrary to Scripture that took place in his life–including the alleged revelatory dreams–are chalked up to God’s merciful and providential grace, and need no further explanation. (This is even apart from the fact that we cannot see people’s hearts, and even in true churches people without the new birth can enter and appear to be genuine believers for a time, so I cannot rule out the possibility that the person who claims to have been born again after seeing a dream is not a true child of God.)
So are millions of Muslims being born again because of dreams? No. Nobody is being born again because of a dream. Are Muslims having dreams that lead them to all kinds of religious experiences? Very possibly. Why? There could be all kinds of reasons. I do not need to speculate.
What I do need to know is what Scripture teaches. The Biblical truth of cessationism is being weakened in some independent Baptist churches because people are not thinking Biblically, but are allowing what people say is happening in their dreams to justify changes to Biblical beliefs on charismata. You are dreaming if you think it is right to change one’s doctrine and practice from what Scripture teaches because of what some other person says he saw when he was sleeping.
Never change or set aside God’s Word because of an experience or what someone says. That was part of Satan’s original technique that caused the Fall in Genesis 3. Go with Scripture–not the dreams. As Christ said, “thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Give Muslims gospel truth, such as in The Testimony of the Quran to the Bible pamphlet. Reject the dreams. Do not be deceived.
Thomas,
I agree with the post as a whole. We are living in a sad time when experiences trump God’s word.
What I would like to respond to is the statement “There are no Apostles today or apostolic gifts”. While I agree the “gifts” are not necessary and therefore ceased with the completing of scripture, we must still have apostles today. That’s how we plant churches. We call them missionaries. The word apostles means a sent one. Churches still send men today. I believe the subject you have written on here has caused us to attempt to re-term an apostle. I believe we see the patter of 1 Corinthians 12:28 continuing today. A church begins with sending an apostle or apostles to an area to begin the process of a church plant.
I always enjoy reading the great information and challenge this blog poses. Just thought I would throw in a comment I a discussion I have had about this several times. Thanks!
“Never change or set aside God’s Word because of an experience or what someone says.” Amen. This is so problematic in modern Christianity. An “experience” trumps what God’s word says, so people revise what they believe about the word — rather than rethinking the experience in light of God’s word. Perhaps this is just one of the final outcomes of our continual debasing of the word.
An old preacher friend of our family used to say, “If it is against God’s word, don’t believe it — even if you saw it yourself!”
Thanks, Bro Vaughn! Nice quote from the old preacher.
Dear Mat,
You are correct that on occasion the Greek word apostolos is used in a looser way of someone who is “sent,” a “messenger” (Greek apostolos, Philippians 2:25). In that sense, the guy who brings you your package from UPS is an apostolos, a “messenger.”
However, in the narrower sense of the church office, there were twelve Apostles, and that’s it. They were the foundation of the church (Eph 2:20), and once the foundation is laid, there is no more foundation. The Apostles were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:22) and could perform miraculous signs:
2Cor. 12:12 Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.
And the twelve Apostles have their names in the New Jerusalem’s foundation (Revelation 21:14).
In that sense, there are no Apostles today.
What we commonly call the “missionary” is actually the Biblical office of the “evangelist,” someone who “evangelizes” or preaches the gospel for the purpose of seeing people converted and then has authority from his sending church to baptize and see a new congregation established. In Acts 8 Philip the evangelist was not conducting special meetings to exhort saints to adopt Keswick theology. He was evangelizing to see new churches established. This is why the evangelist is mentioned before the pastor-teacher in Ephesians 4–the evangelist is Christ’s instrument for the church starting, and then the pastor is the shepherd of the redeemed flock.
Thanks for the comment.
Thomas,
The Bible does not say you must be an eye witness of the resurrected Christ to be an apostle. It only says that the replacement of the bishopric of Judas must be an eyewitness.
As to there only being 12, if you were speaking of the first church yes, but overall no. There is at least two more. Paul and Barbara’s are called apostles in Acts 14:14.
There is no evangelist starting churches in the Bible only apostles. In Acts 8, which you referred to, we find in verses 14-16 that the apostles come to where Philip was to lay hands on those there so that “they” corporately receive the Holy Ghost. This is them becoming a church and receiving their candlestick. It was done by apostles and not the evangelist.
The signs are something that was done as confirmation of what God was saying would happen. We don’t need that now as we have the scriptures completed and prophecy verified. Having said that we don’t need to deny a teaching simply because we reject the signs. Most churches require an “missionary” to meet the qualifications of a pastor. That is because as an apostle they are not only evangelizing, but also shepherding those new converts. An evangelist is not sufficient to start a church due to his job being only to see people saved. If not then a pastor, who is told to do the work of an evangelist (II Timothy 4:5), would have to be starting churches as well as pastoring.
How could Smith Wigglesworth, Derek Prince operate in THE GIFTS”you say STOPPED with the disciples? I myself have had the ”gifts” operate in my own Ministry…AND WHO SAYS THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST IS NOT SCRIPTUAL TODAY?…I HAVE SEEN AND OPERATED IN SUCH FOR OVER 40 YEARS !!!
Thomas,
The Bible does not say you must be an eye witness of the resurrected Christ to be an apostle. It only says that the replacement of the bishopric of Judas must be an eyewitness.
As to there only being 12, if you were speaking of the first church yes, but overall no. There is at least two more. Paul and Barbara’s are called apostles in Acts 14:14.
There is no evangelist starting churches in the Bible only apostles. In Acts 8, which you referred to, we find in verses 14-16 that the apostles come to where Philip was to lay hands on those there so that “they” corporately receive the Holy Ghost. This is them becoming a church and receiving their candlestick. It was done by apostles and not the evangelist.
The signs are something that was done as confirmation of what God was saying would happen. We don’t need that now as we have the scriptures completed and prophecy verified. Having said that we don’t need to deny a teaching simply because we reject the signs. Most churches require an “missionary” to meet the qualifications of a pastor. That is because as an apostle they are not only evangelizing, but also shepherding those new converts. An evangelist is not sufficient to start a church due to his job being only to see people saved. If not then a pastor, who is told to do the work of an evangelist (II Timothy 4:5), would have to be starting churches as well as pastoring.
In relation to your 2nd comment, Mat (and I think Bro Brandenburg should have the comments that are pending in review posted soon–he does that, but as a contributor, my comments usually get up right away), Acts 14:14 is just the loose use of the word apostolos in the sense of “messenger,” at least for Barnabas. In relation to the apostol* word group, consider in the Greek OT:
Deut. 22:7 ἀποστολῇ ἀποστελεῖς τὴν μητέρα, τὰ δὲ παιδία λήμψῃ σεαυτῷ, ἵνα εὖ σοι γένηται καὶ πολυήμερος ἔσῃ.
Deut. 22:7 Thou shalt by all means let the mother go, but thou shalt take the young to thyself; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long.
Mother birds do not have the office of Apostle, but they are “sent away” in this text.
Psa. 77:49 ἐξαπέστειλεν εἰς αὐτοὺς ὀργὴν θυμοῦ αὐτοῦ,
θυμὸν καὶ ὀργὴν καὶ θλῖψιν,
ἀποστολὴν δἰ ἀγγέλων πονηρῶν·
Psa. 77:49 He sent out against them the fury of his anger, wrath, and indignation and affliction, a message of evil angels.
Evil angels do not have the office of Apostle, but they are sent forth.
Acts 8:14-16 says nothing about a new church being constituted.
2 Cor 12:12 does not say anything about only some Apostles doing signs. In contrast to false teachers, Paul, the Apostle, could do signs and wonders. Someone who cannot do signs and wonders is not an Apostle, except in the looser sense in which the word can be “sent out” like mother birds and evil angels can be sent. This is why the apostles are a foundational gift. Once a foundation is laid, the church is built upon it, but one does not keep building the foundation. There is no more foundation being built 2,000 years into church history.
Thanks for wanting to think things through and be Biblical.
Hi Thomas,
You said that there were only 12 Apostles (in the sense of special office). Do you not count Paul? Or do you not count the replacement of Judas?
I would put forth that there were 12 + 1 (13) Apostles, with Paul a special addition for the Gentiles.
Hi Tenrin! Good question. I’m not 100% sure on the answer to that one; maybe Bro Brandenburg can give his thoughts.
Even if one concedes that there were more than 12 Apostles, however, they still would need to to signs and wonders, were a foundational gift according to Eph 2:20, not a continuing one, etc. So we still don’t have Apostles (in the narrow sense of the word in which it is a spiritual gift) today.
Thomas, I respect your answer.
I agree that any person holding the office of Apostleship would need to do signs and wonders, and in fact they have to be a direct witness of the resurrection of Christ, as that is one of the function of the Apostles. That means Apostles cease after the first century, and in fact as Paul stated he was the last witness of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:8).
I have thought about it before, but would want to look into it more before I publicly commit to a view on the Internet with a potential audience of billions of people.
Hi Jimmy!
Please read “Scripture Truths for Charismatic Friends” at:
https://faithsaves.net/charismatic-movement/
and the study of what Scripture teaches about Spirit baptism here:
https://faithsaves.net/spirit-baptism/
to find out what the Holy Spirit has revealed as the truth in His Word about your questions.
If you can provide us the names and addresses of some people who have had death certificates and were in the morgue but whom you then raised from the dead, that would also be greatly appreciated. If you can’t do that, at least a few people who had missing limbs (amputated arm, amputated leg, etc.) through whom you were able by Apostolic gifts to give them both of their limbs back and restore them to perfect health, that would also help at least somewhat. Of course, when Christ healed He had no failures or relapses, so I trust that when you exercise your miraculous gifts they are like Christ’s, and you don’t say that if people don’t get healed you blame them for not having enough faith, when Christ regularly healed unbelievers.
Thank you.