This is an interesting topic of discussion that came up over on The Prairie Homemaker site (love that forum!). Back when I was attending a Southern Baptist Church, we did a ladies' study on "A Heart Like His", which was a study guide by Beth Moore. This was probably back in 2000. Yes, it had to have been. I was pregnant with my son at the time. In the past few years Beth Moore has, sadly, started leaning toward the emergent path with focus on contemplative spirituality and dream interpretation. The question that arose was in regards to whether or not dream interpretation is bad thing, since God spoke to His people through dreams in the Bible. God communicated many times with Joseph through dreams and visions. In fact, prophecies were oftentimes relayed through dreams or visions (daydreams, if you will).
It is interesting to note, however, that after Christ's sacrifice on the cross the Bible no longer mentions God speaking to people through their dreams. While I am no Bible scholar and certainly cannot know the ways of our Heavenly Father, I personally believe since we have His word in complete form (the Bible) and all prophecies have been revealed, God no longer uses dreams to reveal Himself to us. In fact, the most recent concept of holy visions during dreams is considered relatively New Age and is heavily influenced by mysticism. The only time dreams and visions are mentioned after Christ's atonement for our sins was in Acts chapter two, when Peter tells the people of Judea that in the last days their old men shall dream dreams and their daughters will prophesy and there will be signs and wonders.
Ecclesiastes 5:6-7 (NKJV) says:
" Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse[a] and destroy the work of your hands? 7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.?
Verse seven is, essentially, saying that most of the time our dreams are relatively meaningless. Our dreams are a manifestation of what our brain cannot process throughout the day. All day long we are bombarded with stimuli - sounds, smells, tastes, sights. When we enter R.E.M. sleep, our brain tries to break down and process all we have taken in throughout the day. Ever notice when you go to bed stressed or filled with anxiety you may have unsettling dreams, or even full-blown nightmares? When you go to bed with a peaceful mind you may not recall your dreams at all.
Does this mean God will never speak to anyone during a dream state? I don't have the answer to that. I cannot be so bold as to speak on behalf of God or place limitations on His means of communicating with us. With that said, I think many people want to rely on tangible proof of His existence rather than looking to Him with the utmost faith in the Unseen. Certainly a dream of something you want coming to fruition is more comforting than feeling as if your prayers are going no further than the ceiling, correct? How many people pray about something and then see a billboard or hear a song on the radio mere minutes or hours later and they're convinced it's a "sign from God"? God may very well speak to someone through a billboard or song, but usually it is our way of trying to see the signs in everything, rather than waiting on the Holy Spirit moving in our heart. We're impatient people who don't want to rely on the measure of faith God has given each of us.
So, where did this dream interpretation stuff come from, anyway? It came from the emergent church movement. What do we need to know about the emergent church?
It's a modern branch of theology that prides itself on being "seeker-friendly" and "worship for the post-modern world". Many of the buzz phrases you'll hear from emergent leaders are "worship experience", "generous orthodoxy", "centering prayer", "contemplative spirituality", "moral relativism", "all-inclusive", "relevant", "deconstruction(ism)/(ist)", "organic/fluid", "relational", and "missional". The services are comprised of a lot of bells and whistles (tons of Christian themed rock music, Hi-Def projection equipment, energetic leaders, etc.) and very little of the Gospel message of sin and salvation.
Emergent churches, from the surface, are cool. They have skate boarding ministries. They don't preach all of that scary "hellfire and damnation stuff". They love gays and polyamorists and abortionists. The "worship experience" is just like a rock concert. No boring preachy junk. The problem is that it is spiritually void. Isaiah 55:11 says:
"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
God's Word will not return void. Empty, fuzzy feel-good messages with no hope of salvation presented, no Gospel message presented, returns void. Please do not misunderstand me. There is room in every church for the homosexual, the adulterer, the abortion doctor - if they are seeking repentance. A person cannot blatantly violate God's crystal clear standards and sit in church congregation with an unrepentant heart and a reprobate mind. Our churches should be open to those seeking His will. A church that plays cool music and puts on a laser light show every Sunday morning (or afternoon. People don't want to wake up early for "churchy stuff" anyway), but refuses to preach the Gospel, is an emergent church and participating in a great deception that (tragically) will lead many people straight from the gates of heaven.
Amazingly enough, the Bible spoke against the emergent church movement long before it ever came into existence! 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says:
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables."
This is the truth:
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
Amen and amen! Emergent churches do not preach that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that the only way to God is through HIM. Emergent churches teach you have your god, I have mine, he has his, we're all right and we're all going to heaven just by different paths. Emergent churches oftentimes will also teach that Jesus was a liberal hippie. These teachings are patently false, unscriptural and potentially dangerous.
I will cover the dream interpretation and how Beth Moore ties into this in Part 2.
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