Continuing Revelation – HUH?

The reformation movement brought forth the doctrine of Sola Scriptura which means Scripture Alone. This means, in a nutshell, that all that God wanted to reveal to mankind has been revealed and the Canon is closed with the last book of Revelation. He has revealed to mankind all that is essential and required in matters of salvation, faith, rightly living, end times, etc. God left nothing to chance or inadvertently left something out. It is finished and complete in its entirety and perfection. This was one of the positions taken by the reformers in protest of the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings that included matters that could not be found in the Word of God.

While the Roman Catholic Church continues to teach and proclaim matters that are not found in the Word of God, there are other churches that do the same. Mormons view their doctrine of continuing revelation as one of their more attractive features. The other religions that hold to continuing revelation fall outside of Christianity so I will not address those continuing revelationists. Continuing Revelation has taken a mammoth leap within the Protestant group in the last 100 years or so. Those Protestants that believe that God continues to reveal to man fall within the Charismatic group of Christians.

In their defense, they hold that their continuing revelation does not contradict the bible. For instance, a person from the Charismatic movement may prophesy that in the year 2009, a great earthquake will happen in a particular region. This obviously does not contradict scripture for scripture does not speak about earthquakes in the year 2009.

So what’s the problem? What if an earthquake does not happen as most of the post closing of the Canon prophesies frequently are? It becomes rather obvious that the person did not receive a ‘revelation’ from God. It is apparent that they have claimed to speak in God’s name but obviously have not. The Charismatic movement is wrought with ‘revelations’ that do not come true and yet, and incredibly, they continue to have followers and deceive their followers.

An incident between two Christians went as follows: These two Christians claimed to have received a ‘revelation’ or a ‘word from God.’ They were in discussions regarding how to go about a particular outing. Christian A stated that he was told by God to do such and such. Christian B said that was untrue for it was revealed to her by God to do it another way. The two Christians argued because they believed the ‘revelation’ they received should dictate on how to proceed. Did God give them conflicting information? Or has God revealed all that He desired in the written Word of God. Is the Word of God incomplete? One could only sit there in amusement watching these two argue over the false revelations that they received and emphatically declare that what they received was from God while the other person’s revelation was not. I thought a toss of the dice might be in order.

Amazingly, I ran across a website that offers free personal prophecy. All you need to do is go to their website, give them a description of what it is that you are asking and they will take it to God for you and reply back via email with God’s answer. If you have doubt, it goes on to say, just inform the ‘prophet’ of that doubt in your request and the ‘prophet’ will be more sensitive.

Those folks that receive continuing ‘revelation’ have a disastrous accuracy record. It is not difficult to understand why the accuracy rate is doomed. The answer is that God has revealed all that He desires in the Word of God. It is finished, complete and there is nothing He inadvertently failed to disclose. His last word to mankind is found in Revelation 22:21 “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. “

• “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2Ti 3:16-17)

That pretty much sums it up! God stated a Christian may be competent, equipped for every good work by Scripture. What more do you need?

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