Why do I do this? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
I had recently finished Priscilla Shirer’s awful book on this chapter and figured I could read another one when I found one on sale in email notifications. So I downloaded it to my Kindle and found lo and behold, it was only 32 pages. Good thing I got it on discount. You can read this easily in an hour or so, and it will be time horribly wasted. Anyway, the book is available here if you are interested.
I realize I am a lone voice in evangelicalism saying something like hearing the voice of God is not meant to be a normative practice, but I will say it. I must stand for what I see as biblical truth and against what I see as a dangerous threat to biblical truth. It is mind-boggling to me how such a movement as this has caught in with people who claim the Bible as their sole authority.
The first chapter is about why Sheldon Newton wrote this book. The first is that God is our creator and since He has a perfect plan for our lives, we should want to know what it is. That God is our creator will receive no pushback from me. That He has a perfect plan will. This is stated nowhere in Scripture and frankly, since we’re all sinners, if there was a perfect plan, we would have all blown it already.
The second reason he wrote this is because there are so many prophets and prophetesses out there and we need to know who is of God and who isn’t. Well first off, if we can all supposedly hear the voice of God, why should I need to listen to anyone else? Is God’s voice insufficient?
The next point is I discount anyone immediately who puts a title on their name like that. Call yourself an apostle or a prophet or something similar and I don’t listen. Send me a Facebook request with those titles on there and it will be a hard pass.
He then says with mediums and physics running around, it would be good that we are not deceived. No. That is not a typo. He says physics. That being said, again, I have to ask. Is Scripture insufficient?
The fourth is that we need to stay focused on Christ and what is good for our lives. Again, I agree. The problem once again rises up. Is Scripture insufficient? It’s amazing that Protestants who are to have a high view of Scripture discount it so easily with this nonsense.
The fifth reason is that many children of God have not learned to hear the voice of God. Thank God for that one. Maybe these people will do something radical like, I don’t know, read the Bible more? Maybe focus less on what they’re feeling and everything around them and focus on Scripture? We couldn’t have that could we?!
The sixth reason is that Newton has seen years of people being deceived by erroneous doctrines. Geez. That is a problem. If only we had something like a book that God had left us that we could know came from Him that we could study and learn what we needed to learn. Pipe dream. Right?
The final reason he gives is that many people are running to prophets and others to get what they think is a real word from the Lord. Again, it sure would be nice if we had a sure word from the Lord that we could count on. If only there was some work like, again, maybe a book, that had stood the test of time and could be trusted as the Word of the Lord.
Well, those are his reasons for why Scripture is insufficient, I mean, why we need to hear the voice of God. Let’s see in the next section how well he does at arguing for that position.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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