What do you do if God tells you something that is in direct contradiction with something that’s taught in the Bible? The Christian might say, “God will never tell you anything that contradicts Biblical theology.” To take this position is to elevate the Bible above the free will of God. Is it not true that God is an entirely free being without restrictions, and can do whatever He pleases, even if what He says or does contradicts what is taught in the Bible?
I suppose the Christian might argue that God could contradict the Bible, but He never would. Well, the testimony of many people from non-Christian religions would appear to provide evidence against such a position. Or is the Truth that God only speaks to orthodox Christians, and only does so in accordance with Biblical theology? This would mean that anyone else who claims they have heard from God is deluded; even if that number amounts to millions, or even billions of people.
There are only two alternative explanations that I can imagine, from a Christian standpoint. The first is that satan is controlling the thoughts of every person who feels they hear from God in a way that is contrary to orthodox Biblical theology. The other is that God is lying to anyone who hears from Him in such a way, perhaps as part of His plan to damn the majority of human beings in line with the doctrine of double predestination.
One aspect of my personal theological perspective is that God controls the thoughts of every human being without exception, which I have justified extensively in my book, God’s Grand Game. Even if people were to suppose they were hearing from satan, satan is not a free being with free will, but operates entirely under God’s control. So even when people are hearing from satan, they are really hearing from God controlling satan.
The only other conclusion I can envisage is that God truly does speak to people in a way that is contrary to orthodox Biblical theology, because He has a plan for their lives that is outside of the Christian faith. This might be true if God has a positive and meaningful plan for every human being; but this is a perspective that cannot be justified according to orthodox Christianity, which paints Christianity as an exclusivist religion, where one is either saved in accordance with Biblical theology, or damned.
In this post, I have shared a thought process that I have been going through over the last couple of days. I am not trying to promote a particular viewpoint, I am merely expressing my thoughts openly and truthfully. Thank you for reading.
(Image by Daniela Jakob from Pixabay)
Perfect Chaos 