Friday 19 February 2010

Spirituality : Testing and judging new revelations

Gregory Koukl in his document "Testing "New" Revelation” questions the objective basis whereby neo-revelationists test their revelation if not against Scripture. He states "There has to be more than a bald-faced assertion. I'm right and you're wrong. Why? Because I know it is. I feel that it is. Why don't I feel that it is? Because you're not sincere. Either side can play that game. There's got to be more than that, is what I'm saying. It's not a sufficient basis to authenticate an alleged revelation. There is a place where such a thing fits, though. If the fact of a divine revelation can be substantiated by external objective evidence first, and a person still rejects it, then it is fair, it seems to me, to question the person's sincerity. Because when there are many infallible proofs, to use the apostle Paul's words in the book of Acts, and a person still ignores them and clings to his feeling that this new revelation is valid, then his claim that he is seeking truth is clearly disingenuous in my view. In other words, if you can show through objective proofs that something is God's word and a person refuses to accept it because they don't feel it is, then you have an objective test up against a subjective test. The subjective test has always got to give way at that point. And if it doesn't, then it shows that the person who says he is seeking is not interested in objective truth. He is interested in finding something that appeals to his feelings, not something that is true."

Gnostic mystics typically believe that one should not judge anything or anyone, and just accept everything in the name of love. They believe that this subjective type of "love" is more important than "truth" and are taught that if they can only focus enough on love, they will always find truth. This teaching goes totally against Scripture. Even though Jesus did tell his followers not to make soulish judgments (Mat 7:1), Paul clearly explains how the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God (1Cor 2:14) but how the spiritual judges all things (1Cor 2:15), and how the saints will judge the world and angels (1Cor 6:2,3) and how much more should we judge things that pertain to this life?

In 2Tim 3:16 Paul says that : "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work".

Therefore also those were praised in Acts 17:11 for searching the scriptures to test new revelations for truth "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scripture daily to find out whether these things were so."

No comments:

Post a Comment