"God told me." "Says who?"
A layperson at the LCMS convention in Houston has informed that august assemblage that his vote on a particular issue (which one isn't important) was dictated by a direct revelation from God. "God told me," he says.
Lutherans, of course, reject the idea of private communications from God- not because God isn't perfectly capable of communicating with us directly if He chooses to (just as He did in biblical times), but because any claim of divine revelation must face the very reasonable question, "Says who?" People perceive all sorts of things to be God's will. Many of these things contradict one another. It's one thing to say, "I believe that this is what God wants," based on a thoughtful reading of Scripture and a rational consideration of the matter under consideration. But to say "God told me" is to say something more than merely "I think this is what God wants." It's to claim inerrancy for one's perception. It's a pretty arrogant thing to say, really- not only because it lifts one out of the company of one's fellow everyday, ordinary believers and into that of the prophets and the apostles to whom we all acknowledge that God spoke directly, but because it is to invest our own opinions and perceptions with divine authority. And if somebody says that God has said so-and-so, they should not only be prepared to answer the very reasonable question, "Says who?," but to demonstrate the genuineness of their "revelation" with a miracle or two, at the very least. After all, anybody can say "God told me." And pretty much anybody has.
Several years ago, the daughter of a Lutheran blogger friend of mine decided to go over her head to a Higher Authority. When told that it was time for bed, the toddler informed her mother that God had told her that she should stay up and color with her crayons a while longer. Fortunately, my blogger friend was sufficiently well grounded in both basic Lutheran theology and common sense not to listen to the little schwaermer's claim,
and hustled her off to the bedroom.
But those who make such claims are not always so innocent. Thomas Muntzer, whom God "told" at the time of the Reformation to kill all the Catholics and Lutherans and Jews and Anabaptists in Germany who didn't believe that he- Muntzer- was God's prophet, comes to mind. So does David Koresh. And Jim Jones. And Muhammed. And the father of a gay man who once told an ELCA synod assembly I attended that God had told him that the passages in Scripture which condemn homosexuality really don't mean what the words say.
If God really tells us something, what He says is, by definition, of equal authority with Holy Writ. The form of the communciation isn't important; it's the identity of the One Who communicates that matters. Every time somebody says "God told me," he or she is putting whatever comes next on exactly the same level, authority-wise, with Holy Scripture. Such people may or may not realize that they are doing so, any more than those in the habit of claiming that God speaks to them directly reflect on the fact that in the thousands of years recorded in the Bible, God only spoke directly to a handful of people. Even then, direct revelations from God were hardly common, everyday experiences.
One thing, in any event, is certain: if we accept the bona fides of any Tom, Dick or Harry that claims that God has spoken to them, or if we uncritically regard any perception of God's will we may entertain as the voice of the Almighty Himself, we toss the sola Scriptura right out the window. In fact, we toss the authority of Scripture itself right out the window. In that case, the Bible can be overruled by anyone with the audacity to make the presumptuous claim, "God told me."
Personally, if I had a vision purporting to be a revelation from God, I would have myself examined by a psychiatrist to make sure I wasn't suffering from late-onset schizophrenia before I would do anything else. And I would reflect on an episode of that great old TV program, WKRP in Cincinnatti, in which Dr. Johnny Fever overheard the voices of the people who lived in the apartment below him through the heat duct, and concluded that he had heard the voice of God instructing him to leave his career as a disk jockey and become a golf pro. It took a little common-sense theology from Mr. Carlson- ELCAn though he presumably was- to set him straight.
I'd also spare a thought for St. Jerome, who refused to read the classics for years after having a dream one night in which Jesus accused him of being a Ciceronian rather than a Christian, and beat him up for it. It took Jerome years to recover his sense of proportion after dreaming of being mugged by his Savior. But Jerome, at least, had a better excuse than most: supposedly when he awoke in the morning, he was bruised and battered from Christ's alleged attack on him!
It's not for nothing that Martin Luther wrote that any "communication from God" apart from the external Word is of the devil. This is not to say, of course, that God doesn't lead us through the Word and our prayerful application of it to our lives; of course He does. But it is to say that we can be wrong. It is to say that we shouldn't confuse what God actually says with our own, fallible application of His will to the present set of circumstances- or forget that no matter how sure we may be that we have God's will figured out, we can be wrong- and always need to submit it to the only reliable authority on the subject we have: His written Word.
Lutherans, of course, reject the idea of private communications from God- not because God isn't perfectly capable of communicating with us directly if He chooses to (just as He did in biblical times), but because any claim of divine revelation must face the very reasonable question, "Says who?" People perceive all sorts of things to be God's will. Many of these things contradict one another. It's one thing to say, "I believe that this is what God wants," based on a thoughtful reading of Scripture and a rational consideration of the matter under consideration. But to say "God told me" is to say something more than merely "I think this is what God wants." It's to claim inerrancy for one's perception. It's a pretty arrogant thing to say, really- not only because it lifts one out of the company of one's fellow everyday, ordinary believers and into that of the prophets and the apostles to whom we all acknowledge that God spoke directly, but because it is to invest our own opinions and perceptions with divine authority. And if somebody says that God has said so-and-so, they should not only be prepared to answer the very reasonable question, "Says who?," but to demonstrate the genuineness of their "revelation" with a miracle or two, at the very least. After all, anybody can say "God told me." And pretty much anybody has.
Several years ago, the daughter of a Lutheran blogger friend of mine decided to go over her head to a Higher Authority. When told that it was time for bed, the toddler informed her mother that God had told her that she should stay up and color with her crayons a while longer. Fortunately, my blogger friend was sufficiently well grounded in both basic Lutheran theology and common sense not to listen to the little schwaermer's claim,
and hustled her off to the bedroom.
But those who make such claims are not always so innocent. Thomas Muntzer, whom God "told" at the time of the Reformation to kill all the Catholics and Lutherans and Jews and Anabaptists in Germany who didn't believe that he- Muntzer- was God's prophet, comes to mind. So does David Koresh. And Jim Jones. And Muhammed. And the father of a gay man who once told an ELCA synod assembly I attended that God had told him that the passages in Scripture which condemn homosexuality really don't mean what the words say.
If God really tells us something, what He says is, by definition, of equal authority with Holy Writ. The form of the communciation isn't important; it's the identity of the One Who communicates that matters. Every time somebody says "God told me," he or she is putting whatever comes next on exactly the same level, authority-wise, with Holy Scripture. Such people may or may not realize that they are doing so, any more than those in the habit of claiming that God speaks to them directly reflect on the fact that in the thousands of years recorded in the Bible, God only spoke directly to a handful of people. Even then, direct revelations from God were hardly common, everyday experiences.
One thing, in any event, is certain: if we accept the bona fides of any Tom, Dick or Harry that claims that God has spoken to them, or if we uncritically regard any perception of God's will we may entertain as the voice of the Almighty Himself, we toss the sola Scriptura right out the window. In fact, we toss the authority of Scripture itself right out the window. In that case, the Bible can be overruled by anyone with the audacity to make the presumptuous claim, "God told me."
Personally, if I had a vision purporting to be a revelation from God, I would have myself examined by a psychiatrist to make sure I wasn't suffering from late-onset schizophrenia before I would do anything else. And I would reflect on an episode of that great old TV program, WKRP in Cincinnatti, in which Dr. Johnny Fever overheard the voices of the people who lived in the apartment below him through the heat duct, and concluded that he had heard the voice of God instructing him to leave his career as a disk jockey and become a golf pro. It took a little common-sense theology from Mr. Carlson- ELCAn though he presumably was- to set him straight.
I'd also spare a thought for St. Jerome, who refused to read the classics for years after having a dream one night in which Jesus accused him of being a Ciceronian rather than a Christian, and beat him up for it. It took Jerome years to recover his sense of proportion after dreaming of being mugged by his Savior. But Jerome, at least, had a better excuse than most: supposedly when he awoke in the morning, he was bruised and battered from Christ's alleged attack on him!
It's not for nothing that Martin Luther wrote that any "communication from God" apart from the external Word is of the devil. This is not to say, of course, that God doesn't lead us through the Word and our prayerful application of it to our lives; of course He does. But it is to say that we can be wrong. It is to say that we shouldn't confuse what God actually says with our own, fallible application of His will to the present set of circumstances- or forget that no matter how sure we may be that we have God's will figured out, we can be wrong- and always need to submit it to the only reliable authority on the subject we have: His written Word.
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