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Does God still speak through dreams? (Genesis 37:5-7, 9)



      

Genesis 37:1 - 11

ESV - 1 Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

Clarify Share Report Asked March 28 2023 Mini Anonymous

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Profile pic Mark Vestal Proud of nothing of myself. Freed by Christ who did it all!
God has spoken to us through His completed perfect Word.

1 Cor 13:8-13 KJV:
"Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

Any 'dreams, visions, or voices' that we may have had, seen, or heard can absolutely be influenced based on what we have read or learned from His Word, but no not directly today. 

We are not part of the biblical prophetic times of God's chosen people Israel. The finished Word of God was not yet available at those times, which was the reason prophets (mediators between God and man) were needed.

April 08 2023 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Image41 Ezekiel Kimosop
Does God still speak through dreams? My answer is in the negative. 

The Scriptures contain a summary of God's revelation to us in Christ Jesus. Pentecostal/Charismatic traditions insist that God continues to speak to us through prophetic dreams and visions. They cite a number of prophetic writings such as Joel 2:28 and 1 Corinthians 12-14 as evidence that prophetic revelation continues in the church. 

Hebrews 1:1-2 proclaims that God spoke to our fathers through prophets in times past but that He now speaks to us through His Son. We also learn from other passages of Old Testament Scripture that God spoke through several characters in the Bible including Joseph and Daniel. In the New Testament Scripture, God primarily spoke spoke through Jesus Christ during the latter's earthly ministry. He later spoke through a number of people including Paul, Peter, and Apostle John trough dreams and visions. 

When the sealed Scriptures became available to us following the canonization work of the Council of Carthage in 397 AD, Evangelical Christian tradition has faithfully held that God speaks to the church, and to the world, exclusively through the written Scriptures. 

I am therefore persuaded that God no longer speaks through dreams and visions and that any claim to prophetic inspiration or revelation outside the authority of the sealed Scriptures is inconsistent with Scripture. My view is that no person today can validly purport to have heard from God through visions and dreams.

May 16 2023 2 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini Mark-Jakob Otsa
I believe I have personally seen dreams that have been of God to guide my life. Some of these things have taken place, some not yet. It is one of God's way to speak with us even in this day and age.

Seeing as you are concerned if dreams from God to men stopped in the Old Testament I would turn to Joel 2:28 where God promises:

“And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions."

This is talking way after the times of Joseph or any other well known person from the Bible, but is actually referring to God's people in general in the end times before the last judgment.

Also, we could learn starting from Job 33:14 that God uses dreams to guide us:

For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction. In order to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. Man is also chastened with pain on his bed, and with strong pain in many of his bones, so that his life abhors bread, and his soul succulent food. His flesh wastes away from sight, and his bones stick out which once were not seen, etc..

There are a lot of people from the Old and New Testament who have received instructions from God via dreams, including Joseph, who was the stepfather of Jesus if you would read from Mathew 1:20 onwards. As well, Paul has received multiple instructions from the Lord through dreams (see: Acts 16:9; 18:9-10) and the three wise men of East in Mathew 2:12:

Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

I would say it is safe to say that God does speak in dreams still and not only to Christians, but to people yet to receive Him as their Lord and saviour.

April 07 2023 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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