Some Other Issues Affected by the Question of Whether and How God Speaks

The question whether God still speaks impacts a number of other issues, ranging from the nature of a believer's relationship with God, to the miraculous, to church offices and authority.

There are a number of other issues that are affected by, or that affect, the issue of “how God speaks.”  I will attempt to list most of them in this post, but will not consider them further at this time:

1.  Questions relating to spiritual gifts, including the cessationist vs. continuationist controversy and controversies over how any gifts that remain currently in operation are to be regulated.  Obviously, if God no longer communicates at all, except through recognized exegesis of the Scriptures, this would imply that the communicatory gifts (e.g., prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and probably also discerning of spirits) no longer function.  However, the converse is not necessarily true.  It is at least logically possible that God still speaks directly to people WITHOUT using one of the spiritual gifts to do it.  Christians in more mystical traditions have always said that God speaks to them, but generally haven’t claimed that a special “gift” was involved, instead viewing this as God’s normal mode of operation for those who are willing to listen.  Think, for instance, of the Quaker doctrine of the Inner or Inward Light.   

2.  Questions relating to the “offices” in the church (as in Ephesians 4:11).  Once again, if God now communicates only in writing, “offices” of the apostle, the prophet and likely the evangelist no longer have any purpose.  However, once again, the converse is not necessarily true–it remains possible that God speaks to us directly, without using other people bearing titles of authority to do it.  (Indeed, the role of pastors and teachers as divinely-appointed “officers,” or the bearers of a divinely-empowered function, given by Christ himself to the Church is somewhat questionable if God’s communication with us is strictly limited to the words of Scripture and proper interpretations thereof, in that no modern pastor or teacher is named in the Bible and God has left Himself no way to tell us who they are.  But I won’t go any further into this question right now).

3.  Questions regarding whether the miraculous spiritual gifts still function, and related questions about what their purpose is or was.

4.  The larger question about whether God still miraculously intervenes in the world or is now limited to acting within natural law, and the still larger question whether He was ever free to act outside of natural law.

5. Questions involving the actual power–or powerlessness–of words, both God’s and ours. 

6.  The question whether God is seeking primarily internal growth in a personal relationship to Him or external conformity.    A strict adherence to the “God now communicates only in writing” thesis would appear to favor the position that God is seeking primarily external conformity to the contents of that writing.  On the other hand, the concept of internal growth in a personal relationship appears to presuppose some degree of two-way communication (a “relationship”).  But there may be ways around these appearances.

7.  The question whether God requires denial of inner problems.  This question is related to the last one–are we here to “look good,” or to grow?

In the remaining posts in this series, I will discuss as many of the important Biblical texts bearing on God’s “voice,” God speaking, and the nature of God’s “Word” or “words” as I am able to find, with links the reader can follow.  I will include, in separate discussions, every proof text I have ever seen used or can find for the proposition that God at some point stopped speaking and now no longer speaks to us directly, except through illumination of what He has already written, and for cessation of spiritual gifts.  I will then attempt to draw some conclusions.