If God Knows What I Need, Why Should I Pray? by Kent Crockett

Author:Kent Crockett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: how to pray;prayer life;praying;Christian living;prayer
ISBN: 9781619708884
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Published: 2016-04-15T15:00:35+00:00

Does God Only Speak through the Bible?

You’ve probably heard of the Great Brink’s Robbery. On January 17, 1950, a team of eleven thieves stole $2.7 million from the Brink’s Armored Car depot in Boston. At the time, it was the largest robbery in the history of the United States. All eleven members of the gang were later arrested. But the real Great Brink’s Robbery is when you’re on the brink of a blessing and someone interprets it away. There’s a sure way to make certain that this doesn’t happen to you. The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures, will help you interpret passages correctly (see 2 Peter 1:20–21).

Some people believe God doesn’t speak individually to people today because we have the entire Bible to read. They presuppose that the Lord only speaks through the Bible and that it’s the only way He communicates with His people. By making this incorrect assumption, they conclude that any revelation outside the Bible cannot be from God.

However, reading the Bible doesn’t guarantee that He will speak to you through it or that you will hear His voice. Even though the Pharisees continually studied and memorized the Scriptures, Jesus told them, “You have [not] heard His voice at any time. . . . You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. . . .” (John 5:37, 39). They never heard God speak to them through the Scriptures or in any other way, for that matter.

Adherents for this man-made doctrine, which teaches that God doesn’t speak today, usually base their arguments on this Scripture: “For we know in part and prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:9–10). This interpretation assumes that “the perfect” in this verse refers to the Bible, meaning that Christians didn’t need any further information from God once the complete New Testament had been written. But while it’s certainly true that the Scriptures are God’s recorded revelation to us, that doesn’t mean He is limited to speaking only through them. If you have been taught this theology, would you please carefully consider these six problems with that interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13:9–10?

Problem 1. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it prophesy that a Bible will be written. An important principle in interpreting the Scriptures is to read the passage for what it actually says and not what you think it says. The phrase has been translated by Greek scholars as “when the perfect comes” and not “when the Bible is written and completed.” Replacing the word “perfect” with the word “Bible” is altering the Scriptures for the sole purpose of substantiating a particular theology.

Problem 2. God does speak through the words in the Bible, but that does not exclude Him from also speaking information to our minds. This does not mean that additional Scriptures or other books can be added to the Bible. It simply means the Scriptures give general instructions to everyone, but the Holy Spirit can give specific guidance to each individual concerning what to do in their unique situations.

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