When I was a child, I often talked to God, usually when saying my prayers but sometimes when I really wanted something, like a new toy that I coveted, and I thought God might intervene to make it happen. When I abandoned my faith in my teens, I stopped talking to God because I believed God was imaginary and I saw no reason to speak to an imaginary being. But during the time when I believed in God, not once do I recall God speaking personally to me.
In biblical times, of course, it seems that God spoke directly to individuals on a regular basis. The first instance was with Adam and Eve when God warned them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and again after they did. Later God gave detailed instructions to Noah on how to build the ark and spoke directly to Moses on numerous occasions. And so it went. Once we got past biblical times, though, direct verbal communication from God seemed to occur less and less. And now claims by individuals that God speaks directly to them raise eyebrows and we begin to ask questions.
At the risk of being presumptuous, my guess is that many Christians would answer my question in one of the following ways, each of which prompts additional questions:
- God speaks to me, not through my sense of hearing but through my thoughts. He helps me make the right decisions in my life.
How would you distinguish an internal message from God from your own decisionmaking processes? After all, there are times when you think problems through on your own rather than looking for guidance from God. Is there a difference between those two situations?
- God speaks to me by providing me comfort in time of distress. When I am upset I pray and immediately feel a sense of relief.
Experiencing comfort upon asking for God’s help can, I believe, provide significant emotional benefits, including in some cases an ability to think through matters more clearly. Personally, I sometimes turn to friends in times of distress and gain comfort from their support. But in the case of looking to God for comfort, how do you know that your comfort comes from God’s actual intervention rather than simply from your belief in such intervention?
- God speaks to me through the beauty that I experience in his creation.
We all experience beauty, whether it is in music, art, nature, or my own personal favorite, mathematics. Why do you say that such beauty is communication from God and not just an inherent response to your experience with the world? And how do you interpret what message God is sending through such beauty?
- God provides a sign, instructing me how to proceed.
We all experience out-of-the-ordinary events from time to time. How would you know that a particular such event was actually a sign from God? The story of Gideon may be instructive here. When Gideon was seeking to confirm that he had gotten a message from God, he set a sign in advance and then established how the sign should be interpreted, rather than interpreting an event after the fact. Do you set up the sign ahead of time? Otherwise, how would you distinguish the sign from a simple coincidence?
- God speaks by answering prayers—protecting me from harm and healing those who are sick.
In a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, I am sure that many people are praying to God for protection. But some of those people nevertheless meet with disaster—loss of life or of loved ones or of property. Why would God answer some prayers and not others? Are some not worthy of protection or not sincere enough? And when God heals someone, why does he only heal those whose malady is one, such as a disease, from which they might recover through natural processes? Why does God never answer prayers for, say, the regeneration of a limb or an eye? In short, how do we know that such prayers are answered through divine intervention and are not simply the result of the operation of natural laws?
I think it is fair to ask, Why am I posing all of these questions anyway? After all, I don’t believe there is a god to speak to or that speaks to us. The answer is that when there are alternative explanations for experiences, I believe it is appropriate to ask whether one explanation better fits the facts than another. In my view, a naturalist explanation better fits the facts than one that requires belief in a theistic god.
© 2017 John M. Phillips
This is not a point for point answer to your questions John, but just go with it:
ReplyDeleteI liken my hearing God to normal baby/child growth and development. Do I hear my parents from day one -yes and even before birth. But while baby Dennise doesn't understand words right away, I understand being comfortable and sensation of being filled when hungry, I understand feeling of comfort when diaper wet or icky then pleasantness of being cleaned up. I understand warmth and tenderness after with being alone in my bed when awakening and squawking when not seeing, smelling, or hearing my parent who eventually comes in, smiles, speaks my name, and picks me up for a cuddle. Sometimes I cry because I am bored and want/need some attention- to know I am real. Somehow I get to understand the connection between their voice, that they love me and want to care for me. Mom or Dad pick me up when I fall or care for me when I am sick; they call when I am out running around the neighborhood and wants me to come back to check on me and or eat a lunch, or attend to tasks. I depend on them. But often I don't even know the full extent of my need for them!
Same for the Christian who is "born again". We KNOW our Father's voice! We know who Jesus is and if we get it wrong, he will turn us around, take our hand and lead us the way we should go.....We learn to recognize God's "voice" thru the bible, thru a preacher, thru a friend, thru a picture, thru dreams, thru beauty in the world, thru suffering of self or others, thru our daily tasks, thru our relationships of love, thru all kinds of things! I have even "heard" God speak to me after the tv show "hoarders." Sometimes we get lazy or unthankful and don't appreciate how much we really need Him and he guides us back to a thankful heart. We become more and more attuned to the will of our Father as we mature. Think of a radio without an antenna...fuzzy - in and out reception, but with a powerful antenna, we can hear loud and clear....that antenna for the Christian is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus described it as the sheep knowing the shepherds voice. Another way he described was just as the branches of the grape vine have to be connected to the trunk of the grape vine to produce fruit, so we must be attached to Jesus for the flow of the life giving spirit to reach us and we become productive members of the kingdom...Pruning an important part of that process. And periodically it may be we can't hear his voice thru a dry spell- those are realities of a Christian walk.
This is experiential and loving process that God takes me/fellow believers thru.
I guess, Dennise, the point I was trying to make in the essay, and the response I would have to your comment, is that there is a fundamental difference between the communication that a baby receives from her parents and the communication that those of faith ascribe to God. The communication that parent provide to their baby is physical--touch, sight, sound, smell, even taste.
ReplyDeleteBut I presume the personal communications you describe coming from God are none of those. "We KNOW our Father's voice!" A physical voice? "I have even "heard" God speak to me after the tv show "hoarders."" Really? How so?