Waltke on suffering, hunches, violence to Scripture and special revelation

Many of us pentecostals tend to ask for God to solve our problem more than we desire for a greater measure of surrender to his will. Maybe we try to ask God to bend his will so that he can answer our prayers and fulfil our desires. We even try to quote Scripture in the manner that we think it means to us, perhaps even searching through multiple bible translations to find one that is most in line with what the text to say.

I have done an extensive study throughout Scripture about "asking God for a sign," covering about ten main passages, and I find it difficult to conclude that the normative experience supports such actions. There are probably a handful of passages I would like to add to the study, but I am quote certain that they would affirm rather than rebut my interim take on the matter. If you would like a copy of study, just contact me for it and I'll be happy to share it.



From Pages 35-38 of: Finding the Will of God

The problem of suffering, such as Abel's, leads to think that either (a) there is no God, and life is merely a pathetic Joke, or (b) God is a cruel and arbitrary God who cares nothing for the people dearth, or (c) God is powerless, or (d) God is alive and at work in our lives, but we do not completely understand Him. It takes faith to believe in the latter; something many people refuse to do. But the Bible is clear, and according to Romans 1 nature itself evidences, that God is alive and powerful, that He loves us, and that He has a plan for everyone. Being far beyond what our finite minds can comprehend, we do not know everything about Him nor are we able to always discern His plan. Yet my faith continues in Him. As Job put it, Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."

That's why my following of God is based upon my relationship with Him, rather than on a special "sign." Rather than looking for some sort of wrapped spiritual package from the Almighty, I want to rely upon my closeness to Him. So when I wonder about which job offer to take, I don't go through a divination process to discover the hidden message of God. Instead I examine how God has called me to live my what my motives are; what He has given me a heart for, where I am in my walk with Christ; and what God is saying to me through His word and His people.

I have observed Christians making major decisions based upon this faulty notion that God has a hidden will that He wants them to discover, and it has often led to disaster. One couple I know quit their jobs and went into a specialized ministry based on a "hunch" that God wanted them to make a change. I certainly believe the good Lord gives us desires and inclinations, but we need to examine our motives behind them. Instead the couple should have spend time discussing their love for God. When you clarify your love for God, and you stand right and clean before Him, it becomes much easier to see how the desires of your own heart match up to those of God. It is certainly cheaper and easier to say, "I've got a feeling," but it lacks the necessary depth and relationship that the Lord uses to shape His people.

Too many have used the "hunch" method to rationalize poor decisions or to excuse their carnal living. "God told me to buy this expensive home even though it is beyond my financial ability" is certainly convenient for assuaging the conscience, but it also happens to run in direct contradiction to God's own Word as given to us in the Bible. This sort of cheap reasoning requires no character development. God doesn't change you; you simply change your mind. "Wisdom" in the Old Testament is a character trait, not simply thinking soberly. People with wisdom have the character whereby they can make good decisions. They don't have to rely on faulty logic.

Not only is the logic of many Christians faulty, but their exegesis is terrible. Countless times I have heard people quote Proverbs 3:5-6 as their basis for divining God's will: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." Many people read the word "direct" and assume that verse means God will give them special direction in the everyday decisions of life. But that Hebrew word literally means to "go straight," so a sound exegesis will reveal that if you will trust God you will not go outside the bounds of what the book of Proverbs teaches. When it says that "He will direct your path," it does not mean God will offer you special revelation, but that He will make your track right because you are living your life in accordance with the words of Proverbs. Using a verse as a magic incantation does not mean God is obliged to hand you an answer to your problem. That is simply not true to Christian experience. Receiving a message from God is nearly always in conjunction with having a loving heart toward God. The Spirit of God in your life, together with the influence of the Word, illuminates the thoughts of the Lord. As you put God's Word into practice, He establishes your thoughts so that you participate in His eternal plan.

Any time you take the Bible out of context you destroy the intent of His word. That's why you cannot take instances of God's special revelation and make them normative for the Christian experience. Paul saw a great light, fell to the ground, and was blinded when he met Jesus Christ. It was an amazing encounter, but if we try to make that the norm for all new Christian experiences we leave most believers out of the kingdom of God. By the same token, the apostle Paul took the gospel message to much of Asia Minor without ever having a divine intervention. When he did experience a special revelation, seeing a vision of a man calling him to Macedonia, he obeyed. But the special revelation of God was a rare and unique experience, even for Paul.
The disciples obeyed their calling to preach the good news in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the world, but they did so as they were given an opportunity. There are few instances of divine intervention like that of Philip being transported to a new location. And when God did miraculously intervene and lead someone to a special task, it was significant enough to be recorded in Scripture. I do not think we can take special circumstances and make them the norm by which we live our lives. Special revelation for guidance was not the normal apostolic experience. And at the time it was received (by Paul, by Philip, by Peter as he lay on his roof), it was not being sought. God intervened to change the course of their lives in a dramatic way, not simply to tell them to alter their plans a bit. Special revelation came at a time when God wanted to lead them apart from the normal ways in which His people make choices.

There is no place in the New Testament where we are taught to seek a special revelation, and the practice may actually lead to disobedience if it causes Christians to neglect the everyday opportunities life brings us to wait for a special word from the Lord.

Having said that, I do believe in special revelation, and I think too many conservative scholars have no place for God's special intercession because they have no control over it. We can't force God to talk, yet sometimes He completely surprises us and talks anyway.

Waltke on seeking God's will through special signs

From Pages 31-32 of: Finding the Will of God

The New Testament gives no command to "find God's will," nor can you find any instructions on how to go about finding God's will. There isn't a magic formula offered Christians that will open some mysterious door of wonder, allowing us to get a glimpse of the mind of the Almighty. The Bible forbids pagan divination (Deuteronomy 18:10) and claims severe penalties for those who resort to magic for determining the will of God in this way. Simon Magus was severely rebuked in Acts 8 for seeking supernatural powers, and Christ criticized the perverse generation that always asks for a sign from God.

God is not a magic genie. The use of promise boxes, or flipping open your Bible and pointing your finger, or relying on the first thought to enter your mind after a prayer are unwarranted forms of Christian divination.

The reliance on special signs from God is the mark of an immature person; an individual that cannot simply believe the truth as presented, but must have a special, miraculous sign as the symbol of authority from God.

The Genre of Revelation from a "secular" viewpoint

F F Bruce recounts the occasion whereby a Christian was giving away a New Testament translation of the Bible as part of his evangelistic endeavors, on the condition that the undergraduates at the university who received them would read them. When he bumped into one of these students a few months later, he found that that student did in fact read it. In response to the question of what did the "unchurched" undergraduates thought of it, he replied, "the front end was a bit repetitious, telling the same story four times, but I sure like that bit of science fiction at the end."

D A Carson cites this exchange as an example of how to interpret any form of literature, we need to recognise the genre, "you don't interpret all text the same way! They are not all chronicles, they are not all parables, they are not all poems, they are not all history. The bible is made up of many different genres... Most things that you read, you You dont take the editoral page the same way as "

For the extended explanation and discourse, please refer to his lecture (starting at approx 8mins) at Revelation (part 1)

Stott on our first obligation to the biblical text

How much do we love God's word? Enough so that we do not impose the twenty first context to interpret what the ancient authors addressed to an ancient audience?

From Page 26 of: The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching

John Stott, "The first obligation [in expounding the text] is faithfulfulness to the biblical text. You and I have to accept the discipline of thinking ourselves back into the situation of the biblical authors-their history, geography, culture, and language. If we neglect this task or if we do it in a halfhearted or slovenly way, it is inexcusable. IT EXPRESSES CONTEMPT FOR THE WAY IN WHICH GOD CHOSE TO SPEAK TO THE WORLD [my emphasis]. Remember, it is the God-inspired text we are handling. We say we believe this, but our use of Scripture is not always compatible with what we say is our view of Scripture. With that painstaking, meticulous, conscientious care we should study for ourselves and open up to others the very words of the living God! So the worst blunder that we can commit is to read back our twenty-first century thoughts into the minds of the biblical authors, to manipulate what they said in order to conform to what we would like them to have said and then to claim their patronage for our options."

Hybels on a leader's need to turn a vision into action

From Page 51 of Courageous Leadership

I run across an alarming number of leaders who would rather cast vision than to roll up their sleeves and attempt, with the Spirit's power, to achieve it!

Such leaders eventually lose credibility. I've never known a leader who could keep the vision hot and the team motivated indefinitely without eventually being able to say to the troops, "we're making progress. That dream we've been dreaming, that prayer we've been praying, that picture of the future that's fired us up--well, it's happening. We're not just blowing smoke."

A leader who can't point to actual progress will eventually have to answer an awkward question from someone on the team: "oh great Visionary One, when might we get some indication that we're getting closer to the destination?" A question like that should tip off a leader that teammates will not ensure mere vision casting indefinitely. They need to see results.

Walton on not violently bending and imposing on Scripture

Wise words from respected Old Testament John Walton that I cannot agree more emphatically with, “We are not free to impose our own questions, our own culture, our own agendas, our own issues on the biblical text, and demand that it address our situation. It’s addressed to an ancient culture, in an ancient language, in an ancient time. And we need to make sure that we are entering that world instead of dragging the text as if it were talking to our word and in our terms. The message transcends the culture, but the form is culture bound. And so we have to recognise then that we are reading the text as outsiders… If we are going to get the full focus of God’s revelation to us and get the full force of its authority, we have to try to take our place in that audience, and try to hear as that audience would have heard it…”

Source: Outsiders: Reading the Bible Out of Context

Review & Highlight: Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem

Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

DeYoung authentically shares about his personal struggle with busyness. DeYoung shares that busyness is not a worn as a badge of honour, but because he is so bad at managing his life that he writes as a fellow straggler. In his words, he hopes that us readers will find the book "highly practical and accessibly theological" (p17).

Indeed many of us are addicted to crazy busyness in spite of the emotional, spiritual and physical toll it has on us. An anecdote from DeYoung that resonated with me: "I read an anecdote once about a woman from another culture who came to the United States and began to introduce herself as 'Busy.' It was after all the first first thing she heard when meeting any American. Hello, I'm Busy. She figured it was part of our traditional greeting, so she told everyone she met that's who she was." (p16)

DeYoung suggests that busyness can ruin our joy (p26), rob our hearts (p28) and cover up the rot in our souls (p30). In Chapter 4, The terror of total obligation, I was reminded that "Jesus didn't do it all. Jesus didn't meet every need. He left people waiting in line to be healed. He left one town to preach in another. He hid away to pray. He got tired. He never interacted with the vast majority of people on the planet. he spent thirty years in training and only three years in ministry. He did not try to do it all. And yet he did everything that God asked him to do." (p50)

I relate to his sharing that "I can forget that my circle of influence will inevitably be smaller than my circle of concern. Above all, I can lose sight of the good news that the universe is not upheld by the word of my power (see Heb. 1:3). That's Christ's work, and no-one else can do it. Hallelujah - he doesn't even expect me to try." (p51)

We must set priorities because every yes we say, means saying no to something else. In chapter 5, Mission Creep, Deyoung shares that he too must set priorities because "I cant do it all" (p57) and "if I am to to serve others most effectively" (p60). He also "must allow others to set their own priorities" (p63), sharing that his "own tendency is to to be overly accommodating when put on the spot by an invitation like that. I usually overcommit and lead people on, rather than stating up front what my priorities are (probably because I like pats on the back and prestige and so many of the Ps in Chapter 3 - The manifestations of Pride (People-pleasing, Pats on the back, Performance evaluation, Possessions, Proving myself, Pity, Poor planning, Power, Perfectionism, Position, Prestige, Posting online).

He also helpfully advises "Don't always expect the lunch request to work. Don't get upset when your 'what do you think?' email doesn't get answered. Don't be offended if your need doesn't go to the top of the pile. Understand that people often say 'I'm busy' because saying 'I have many priorities in life and right now you aren't one of them' would be too painful. Don't think it rude if some people have less availability for you than you have for them. And don't begrudge people the time you are so so desperately fighting for. Unless we're God, none of us deserve to the priority for everyone else all the time." (p64)

No book about rest is complete without commenting about the Sabbath, to which DeYoung cites G K Beale's conclusions (from Pages 800-801 in his 2011 book titled A New Testament Biblical Theology): "First, the seventh-day commemoration in Gen. 2:3 and Israel's Sabbath ordinance is transferred to the first day of the week because of Christ's resurrection. Second, Israel's way of observing the Sabbath, with all its detailed requirements, falls away, and there is a return to the creational mandate. The observance of this mandate is a day of commemoration of God's creative rest, a celebration that Christ has entered that rest, that believers have begun to enter such rest, and a pointing forward to believers completely entering that rest. In addition, Christ's coming fulfills Israel's unique Sabbath commandment, since he is Israel's Messiah, accomplishing Israel's end-time exodus and representing true Israel and the end-time temple." (p90-91)

DeYoung puts forth a summary reflection about the sabbath in commenting, "I think the most important part about the Sabbath command is that we should rest in Christ alone for our salvation. But along with that there is still an abiding principle that we ought to worship on the lord's Day and trust God enough to have a weekly routine where we cease from our normal labours." (p91)

Busyness, as DeYoung disgnoses it, "is as much a mindset and a heart sickness as it is a failure in time management. It's possible to live your days in a flurry of hard work, serving and bearing burdens, and to do so with the right character and a right dependence on God so that it doesn't feel crazy busy. By the same token, it's possible to feel amazingly stressed and frenzied while actually accomplishing very little. The antidote to busyness of soul is not sloth and indifference. The antidote is rest, rhythm, death to pride, acceptance of our own finitude and trust in the providence of God." (p102)

[Spoiler alert - I highly recommend that you stop here and read the book to find out what DeYoung emphatically advises us to do to put a stop to our crazy busyness]

In the penultimate chapter of this mercifully short book, this is the "one-point plan" DeYoung calls us to restore order to our life (p113) - "spend time everyday in the Word of God and prayer," that is if you are "sick and tired of feeling so dreadfully busy." This unfortunately is no-quick fix, which would have been great for us consumeristic people. Deyoung did not give us a specific time, as the emphasis is on a consistent habit rather than "a sporadic burst of fits and starts".

Even as a seminary student, I am heartened that DeYoung, the theologian and passionate student of the bible he is, relates to struggling with a devotional time just like I do. And to that, he tells us that "no single practice brings more peace and discipline to life than sitting at the feet of Jesus."

In the ending paragraph of the book, DeYoung has this word of encouragement to leave us with, "It's not wrong to be tired. It's not wrong to feel overwhelmed. It's not wrong to go through seasons of complete chaos. What is wrong - and heartbreakingly foolish and wonderfully avoidable - is to live a life with more craziness than we want because we have less Jesus than we need." (p118)

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