So what do you think? Does God still speak today apart from the 66 canonical books of the Christian Bible? Seems to be a topic on the minds of a few people I respect, but whose opinions seem to differ greatly. For instance…
In this corner, hailing from his 13.2-acre farm in the Buckeye State, it’s Dan Edelen!
The Bible provides some basis for making distinctions between wrong and right, while the Spirit fills in the particulars. This is life in the Spirit, and it requires us to know His voice when He speaks to us in our day to day existence. …I can’t read the Bible and not see the mystical. As noted in the passage that starts this post, the Apostle Paul himself thought nothing of mystical experiences, such as being caught up in a heavenly realm where inexpressible realities can be glimpsed. Paul goes so far as to boast about the man who experienced this (likely Paul, as most commentators note).
The prophet Isaiah had a vision of God, the Holy One’s train filling the temple. He saw angels and they symbolically purged his sin with a touch of coal to the lips. Ezekiel glimpsed his famous wheel within a wheel. John fell prostrate before an angelic messenger who delivered a vision of the end of all things. Jacob’s ladder. Abraham entertaining three visitors. The inner sanctum of disciples witnessing Jesus’s transfiguration.
The Bible overflows with the mystical. So how is mysticism bad?
And in this corner, the Pastor of Preaching and Vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN… John Piper!
What’s sad is that it really does give the impression that extra-biblical communication with God is surpassingly wonderful and faith-deepening. All the while, the supremely-glorious communication of the living God which personally and powerfully and transformingly explodes in the receptive heart through the Bible everyday is passed over in silence…. I grieve at what is being communicated here. The great need of our time is for people to experience the living reality of God by hearing his word personally and transformingly in Scripture. Something is incredibly wrong when the words we hear outside Scripture are more powerful and more affecting to us than the inspired word of God.
I have to say that, without discounting the Bible’s importance at all, I have to kinda side with Dan on this one. I can have a very deep relationship with my wife through letter-writing when we’re apart, but if she never speaks to me when we’re in person (but rather simply points to appropriate passages in her letters)? Well, unless she’s mute, that’s going to put a strain in the relationship.
Especially if I know from her own testimony in her letters that she’s spoken audibly to others.
For instance… does a publisher like Crossway use some special “Holy Spirit Ink” when printing copies of a Bible? No, of course not. The characters on the page are not themselves the Living Word of God. They are words inspired by God, but without the Holy Spirit speaking to us (audibly or not), confirming what we’re reading as Good and True and “that which is come from the Father,” the printed letters do nothing to us. It is not the “Biblical communication” (that is, the printed page) which speaks to our hearts, but rather the “extra-biblical communication” (that is, the testimony of the Holy Spirit) which makes the scriptures powerful and affecting.
These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:25-26, ESV)
I would say that the Holy Spirit’s “extra-biblical” confirmation of the Scriptures is the primary method he uses (at least in Western culture today), but that selfsame testimony will not allow us to pretend that God is silent apart from the Canon, because as Dan points out in his post, the Canon itself tells us many times that God speaks to men and women apart from the written Scriptures.
[UPDATE: It seems my pastor's wife likes what Dr. Piper has to say. What am I missing here?]
[UPDATE 2: Zoanna (below) said, "I think I’ll do a post, since this comment could go on for a while." Well, she did! 
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[UPDATE 3: Laurie posted again to clarify. Cool!]
[UPDATE 4: John Piper's blog has been updated with a clarification of sorts. (HT: Adrian Warnock)]
Good point. The Bible itself is the best testimony to the fact that God does indeed speak to people.
This shouldn’t be Dan vs. John. I would lose that battle in an instant. I think we’re merely emphasizing two different sides of the same coin. I think both of us are going a little too far either way in order to lead readers away from the brink. Piper’s saying that we give the Bible short shrift (which we do) and I’m saying we give the Holy Spirit short shrift (which we do). It makes it look as if we’re arguing against each other, but we’re not really.
@ Dan: I pretty much agree with that statement (and anyone who might think you were picking a fight has only to look at the dates on the two posts). Still, I think it’s more a matter of Piper saying that we give the Bible short shrift in comparison to extra-Biblical encounters with God, so I think the contrast between y’all’s posts is still there.
Travis, as I said in Laurie’s comment box, I personally am no more OR less amazed whether I hear from God thru the Bible, thru the pulpit, thru other people, or thru His still small voice that I hear clearly and frequently as I go about my business. I ususally agree with Piper but wonder if he’s underestimating the amazing thing of hearing from God as if it’s audible. Certainly his written Word is the primary way thru which He speaks, but you’re right, it’s not the printed letters, it’s the Spirit. I think I’ll do a post, since this commnent could go on for a while. Sorry. You raise some great points, as usual, with clarity and gentleness. I think Piper was missing the gentleness this time, in an effort to not be misunderstood.
That’s kinda like what I was telling you that Amy said to me last weekend… that He IS the Word. And if He’s the Word, then that makes His Word alive. Don’t know if that makes sense outside of my head… I’ve been writing stamping blog posts.
Good post, Bear. Good post.