Is it safe to say that God revealed X to you? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
I am going through a book by an advocate of Black Hebrew Israelite teaching. I know some students here at the seminary who asked me about it and so I figured I would get a book on the topic and see what I thought seeing as I had never really looked at that area. The book is full of nonsense and most every conspiracy theory out there.
Today, I am reading and I come across this quote:
God revealed to me things that were hidden from us; the truth about our history in relation to the bible and the Ancient Hebrew Israelites. The theories I had about black people, the Curse of Canaan and the Curse of Israelites were right all along. God also revealed to me how Satan is covertly deceiving mankind and we have no clue as to what is going on.
Dalton Jr, Ronald. HEBREWS TO NEGROES: Wake Up Black America (p. 1002). G Publishing LLC. Kindle Edition.
The problem I have with a quote like this is so many of my fellow evangelicals use the exact same language. It would be easy to say “Yeah, but what this guy is revealing is crazy. I am not saying crazy stuff.”
Maybe you’re not, but your language is the same and why should I discount what he has to say and immediately accept what you have to say? The point is I discount him already because where I have looked at what he’s talking about that I already know something about, it’s nonsense. If I can’t trust him on the areas I am sure of, why trust him in the areas I am not.
But both of you speak the exact same language and both of you attribute your thoughts to God giving them to you.
Stop back and think about what you are saying.
“Friends. I want to tell you that this bit of information I am saying, this comes from God Himself.”
If you are saying that, don’t you think you had better make sure that you are right?
On my Facebook post where I discussed this, I was pleased to see one of my friends say that at their church, if someone says “God told me” publicly and they are wrong, they have to apologize publicly. That’s a good start, but isn’t that the problem? If this friend lived in Old Testament times, they wouldn’t just apologize. They would be stoned to death.
Yeah. God took it seriously.
Are we to think that God says “In the past, I took that seriously, but today, it’s no big deal.”
We can say God seems more gracious in the New Testament, which is false, but also, God can seem much more serious about sin on the other hand. The Old Testament says very little about Hell. The New Testament says a lot about it. The first two people to publicly lie to God in the early church were struck dead immediately.
Claiming God said something when He did not say it is a serious matter and we treat it all too casually.
Also, if you say that God told you something, unless it is something that is indisputable that could not be know any other way, I will not take it seriously. If anything, it makes your position look incredibly weak. It’s as if you’re saying, “I have no reason for you to really believe this, so I’ll just tell you that God told it to me.”
“But the prophets of the Old Testament spoke that way.”
Yes, and you are not them. Also, once again, if they were wrong, they paid for it with their lives. Are you willing to do the same?
If you say no, then don’t claim God revealed it to you or told it to you.
Sadly, I am convinced that many who speak this way do not really take the fullness of God seriously. I am convinced we have more of a concept of Buddy Jesus. God is not our king, but He is more of our friend instead. As a result, we treat Him in a way that is far too casual.
Again, I am NOT saying that God cannot do X. I am saying I do not expect it to be normative. I also hope that even if you disagree with me on that, you will still agree that we need to take such claims extremely seriously. God expects to be honored and spoken truly of in everything.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
Support Deeper Waters on Patreon!
