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LIFE MEETS THEOLOGY:

Putting Words in God's Mouth

by Greg Williamson (c) 2008

COPYRIGHT RELATED INFO

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS

ARE FROM THE  New American Standard Bible.

LIFE: Recently I happened across a lovely looking little devotional book titled Dear Jesus, written by Sarah Young (author of Jesus Calling). Looking past the cushioned hardcover binding, ribbon page marker, and pastel pages, what  caught my attention was the fact that each entry includes a first-person statement from God/Jesus to the reader which reflects what God "said" to Ms. Young. As she puts it in her introduction: "I wrote Dear Jesus in the same listening-to-God mode that I used with Jesus Calling. I've continued to write with the help of Christ's Spirit, who guides my thinking while I listen in His Presence. I believe the Bible is the only infallible Word of God. My writings are based on that absolute standard, and I try to ensure they are consistent with Scripture" (page 7).

While what Ms. Young writes may or may not be in line with biblical truth, it seems to me she has taken the very dangerous step of putting words in God's mouth. Add to that her claim that she wrote with the guidance ("help") of "Christ's Spirit," and it could easily be construed that she is putting her writing on a level very near that of Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture (Ms. Young's "infallible disclaimer" notwithstanding).  

While I rejoice in the fact that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and active in the life of every true believer who earnestly seeks God's will, it seems to me Ms. Young has made the same mistake as many of our brethren on the charismatic side of the aisle: the claim to have received direct, extra-biblical revelation from God.

I suppose what I find most bewildering is the fact that Ms. Young could very easily have made the exact same points without presuming to speak for God. To use a random example, rather than having God/Jesus say: "Beloved, I know how difficult it is for you to control your thoughts. Your mind is a battleground, and evil spirits work tirelessly to influence your thinking: even deceiving you with intrusive thoughts at times. Your own sinfulness also finds ample expression in your thoughts ... " (pages 116-17), she could have written something along the lines of: "As revealed in God's Word, the Bible, controlling our thoughts can be very difficult. The mind is a battleground, and evil spirits work tirelessly to influence our thinking: even deceiving us with intrusive thoughts at times. And our own sinfulness also finds ample expression in our thoughts ... " --- with appropriate Bible verses to follow. While such an approach may not be as experiential, it does have the distinct advantage of pointing the reader toward God's inscripturated truth rather than his/her own thoughts and feelings under the guise of "listening to God."

Ms. Young confesses that "the Bible is the only infallible Word of God." Considering the fact that ours is a world in which increasing numbers of people profess a strong desire for things "spiritual" while simultaneously rejecting anything that even hints at orthodox Christian truth, it seems to me we would be much better off with lots more of the infallible and lots less of the fallible.

THEOLOGY: The number one way God speaks to us is through the pages of his inspired, authoritative Word, the Bible. Does God communicate through circumstances, our thoughts, our emotions, etc.? Absolutely. But here's the catch: We need to run everything through the grid of Scripture. Why? Because even on our very best day, we remain sinful people who tend toward pride and rebellion.

Which helps to explain why countless professing Christians  plunge headlong into grievous sin. Having convinced themselves that 1) a particular sin is the only thing that will make them "happy," and that 2) their personal happiness is God's number one priority in the universe, it is a perilously short step to abandoning one's family, or engaging in extramarital sexual relations, or hitting the bottle, or gambling, or any of a host of other sinful actions that shipwreck one's faith and leave scores of hurting people in one's wake. What do such destructive behaviors have in common with Dear Jesus' "listening to God mode"? Answer: They both equate our fallible thoughts and emotions with God's infallible Word, the Bible.

How do we avoid what is wrong and pursue what is right? Certainly not by reading Dear Jesus. And not even by memorizing countless Bible verses such that we become a walking Bible verse rolodex. Rather, we need to saturate ourselves with Scripture in order that the right thinking that leads to right doing becomes second nature. Far from easy, it begins with making Bible study a nonnegotiable priority on our daily to do list. If and when we do so, we will find God blessing our efforts, the end result being that we glean from it exponentially more than we put into it. (You can click here for some recommended Bible study tools.)

Rather than putting words in God's mouth, we need to be about the business of hiding God's Word in our hearts. Then we can say with the psalmist: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (119:12, KJV).