Sola Scriptura vs Those who claim to hear God's voice (Steven Furtick, Rick Warren, Copeland etc)

Hello. In this video, I'd like to ask you a question. Do you believe in sola scriptura?

This is the idea that the Bible alone is our authority. So the Bible alone is the authority for Christians.

I don't think most Christians believe this today because we see a generation, a whole generation,

I blame the charismatic movement and people like Billy Graham and Rick Warren who helped to get charismatic theology into Baptist churches.

I blame them for this whole generation of people who claim to hear

God's voice. People who claim a direct pipeline to God. They're hearing God's voice all day, every day.

And here's what I've noticed. You can have a preacher, okay, a pastor who studies the Bible day after day after day, and he brings the word of God to people, you know, the

Bible, he brings the Bible to them in context. He teaches people the Bible. He shares

God's actual word, the scripture. He shares the truth with them and people won't listen, but they will listen to this inner voice or this inner impression.

We have a whole generation of leaders. So let's play some clips of some of the most popular pastors in America, all talking about hearing

God's voice. And I'm going to show you why this is a scam. All right.

So Stephen Furtick has a direct pipeline to God. Really? Really?

Stephen Furtick, his church, they actually claim that he is a vision casting leader and that in their early promotional material, you can find this on YouTube.

They say our pastor, Stephen Furtick, he hears directly from God. That's what he was claiming, a direct pipeline to God.

Well, if you believe that, then you don't believe in Sola Scriptura, because if you have a direct, if Stephen Furtick has a direct pipeline to God, then the

Bible alone isn't the authority. It's the Bible plus Stephen Furtick, right?

Now who opposes Sola Scriptura? It's the Catholic church because they believe that the Pope hears directly from God or, you know,

God, the Holy Spirit is working through the church. So the church is an equal authority and tradition is an equal authority.

So we all know that the Roman Catholic church denies Sola Scriptura. But if you buy into this idea that these vision casting leaders like Stephen Furtick and others,

Benny Hinn and these other people, if you believe that they are hearing directly from God, then all of a sudden they're like another

Pope that, okay, the Bible is a authority, but Furtick, he's an authority too.

After all, if he hears directly from God, he's like the prophet Elijah. He can be writing scripture.

He just hears from God and writes it down. And that should be scripture if it's actually from God.

Here's what the Bible says, Hebrews 1, 1 and 2, God, who at various times and in various ways spoken time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son.

We have the word of Christ. This is the new Testament revelation of Jesus Christ.

We have the whole Bible. This is God's word. If you asked me, Pastor Mike, do you think God is still speaking?

You know what I'm going to say? Yes, God is still speaking. He is speaking through his word, but God is not speaking through Stephen Furtick.

But here's Rick Warren, and he's claiming also to hear God's voice.

Listen. I know the voice of Jesus Christ. I know when he speaks to me, there's no doubt in my mind.

The Bible says that hearing God's voice and being able to distinguish it is important for three reasons.

First, it proves you are a child of God. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice.

Okay. Now that statement about my sheep hear my voice, this is John 10, 24 through 28.

Let me just read that because it's so often quoted out of context about hearing the audible voice of God.

That's not what Jesus is talking about. The scripture says, John 10, 24 through 28, then the

Jews surrounded him, that is Jesus, and said to him, how long do you keep us in doubt?

If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe.

Okay. This is the context. They do not believe the works that I do in my father's name.

They bear witness of me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.

As I said to you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

What is Jesus saying? You know, my sheep hear my voice. That means every Christian is going to hear the voice of God.

That is, that's not the point. The point is a person who hears his voice is someone who believes, okay.

Believers hear God's voice. In other words, we, we hear the word of God and we believe it.

Okay. We have heard the gospel. We've heard the word of Christ and we follow Christ.

That, that's all that means has nothing to do with hearing the audible voice of God, or even getting some inner revelation or some inner impression.

Those who hear God's voice in that context are simply believers. People who listen to what

Jesus says. We listened to what he taught, you know, so to speak, because we, we read it in scripture.

And of course, back then they actually had Jesus there and they literally heard his voice and listened. But today we get it through the

Bible. It has nothing to do with hearing the audible voice of God, but let's continue. The Bible tells us in the, in the book of John chapter eight, verse 47, he who belongs to God hears

God's voice and he who does not belong to God does not hear it. Okay.

Again, it's the same thing. Those who hear his voice, so to speak, has nothing to do with hearing

God's audible voice. It has to do with you being a believer and listening to what

God says, obeying him. Okay. Believe the gospel, believe in me and you believe in Jesus.

That's hearing his voice. It has nothing to do with actually hearing the audible voice of the Lord. That's not what he's saying.

And Rick Warren, let me just play that clip again, because the implication is very, very serious.

The Bible tells us in the, in the book of John chapter eight, verse 47, he who belongs to God hears

God's voice and he who does not belong to God does not hear it. Okay.

So that's very dangerous. Rick Warren is making it sound like if you've never heard the audible voice of God, or if you've never heard

God's voice and some sort of what inner impression and how do you even know? But if you're not hearing

God's voice, I guess you're not even a Christian. I mean, that's what he's saying. And there are other sermons online, just type in, and I don't encourage you to listen to this stuff, but there's a sermon, something like how to hear, how to hear

God's voice by Rick Warren. And he says, you just got to tune in to the right frequency, whatever that means.

But he says, if you're not hearing from God, I mean, prayer is us talking to God. And if you don't hear back, if you're not hearing from God, I guess you don't have a relationship with him.

In other words, if you're not hearing the voice of God, like I am, I guess you're not even saved. I mean, this is, this is false teaching.

Okay. Your salvation is not dependent on you hearing God's voice. Okay. Your salvation is dependent on you trusting in the gospel.

This is very, very dangerous. Now let's listen to Kenneth Copeland. The moment my feet touched it.

Now I didn't hear this audibly, but I heard this, this is the revival capital of the world and you're going to build it.

And I thought, what on earth with, but now you're sitting in it.

I want to point this out to you by hearing that audibly, it dropped a word down inside me.

All right. So did you catch that? First of all, he says that he heard something, but it wasn't audible.

And then, you know, less than a minute, like 30 seconds later, he says it was audible. So his own testimony contradicts itself.

Like Kenny, was it audible or was it not? But Copeland is claiming that he built his church because he heard the audible voice of God.

God told him to build that church, that mega church. And that would be what revival center of the world or something.

But he heard audibly, but then it wasn't audible, but it was like, which is it? Let's listen to that again.

The moment my feet touched it. Now I didn't hear this audibly, but I heard this, this is the revival capital of the world and you're going to build it.

And I thought, what on earth with, but now you're sitting in it.

I want to point this out to you by hearing that audibly, it dropped a word down inside me.

All right. So again, he's contradicting himself. And then he makes this other claim where he's quite clearly taking scripture out of context.

Listen. And I didn't know it at the time, but when, when

I heard it in my spirit, I thought, well, all right, here we go.

Praise God. Now. Thank you, Jesus. Look with me now.

No, no. Thank you, Lord. I received that verse 13 again.

How be it when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he is not speaking of himself.

Well, whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come.

He will, but it takes faith and it takes time, but he will show you things to come.

I fully expect him to show me things to come as I pray about them and pray about them and pray about them concerning the coming year.

All right. Now I hate to point out the obvious, but when Jesus said that in John 16, he wasn't talking to you.

He wasn't talking to me. And he definitely wasn't talking to Kenneth Copeland. Jesus was talking to his disciples.

He would guide them into all truth. The Holy spirit would guide them into all truth. They were the ones who wrote the new

Testament. So he would show them things to come. But that doesn't mean that,

Hey, just any old person in the world who reads the Bible, Jesus is speaking to them directly that, you know, your neighbor,

John Smith from next door, God is going to guide him into all truth and show him things to come.

That has nothing to do with it. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples. Now, is there an application for us?

Does God lead us into all truth? There is an application for us, but these verses are being twisted out of context to where, you know, these men that I showed you, these national leaders, they're claiming to hear

God's voice and they're not hearing God's voice because they're all teaching false doctrine. So they claim to hear

God's voice. And the danger is that if you're not hearing God's voice, well, there's something wrong with you.

And while you need to follow them to get these secrets and how to hear the voice of God and Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn and all these guys, they do the same thing.

Rick Warren, they're going to teach you how to hear the voice of God.

And my friends, you will never hear God's voice until you're in heaven. Yes. In theory,

God, we all know God is capable of speaking to me audibly. He could do that this afternoon.

If he chose to, it's not about God not being capable. It's just the people in the

Bible that actually heard the voice of God. It's like 0 .000001%.

I mean, it was so rare in Bible times. And we have that word from Hebrews that God has spoken in these last days.

And he's spoken through his son. This is why we have the Bible. And again, if you claim that you believe in sola scriptura, that the

Bible alone is your authority, why should we even expect to hear some sort of extra biblical revelation?

So I think this is a very dangerous teaching. It's a modern teaching. It's always been around in cult groups throughout the years.

Joseph Smith from the Mormons, he claimed extra biblical revelation. All of the cult leaders, they claimed to get revelations and messages from angels and God spoke to them and all the rest.

But now this cultic mentality has gone mainstream within evangelicalism. And it's very, very dangerous.

And it contradicts the doctrine of sola scriptura, that the Bible alone is our authority.

I do expect to hear the voice of God someday when I'm in heaven. And I pray that I hear the words, well done, faithful servant.

But until then, I'm going to stick to God's word because whatever Kenneth Copeland is saying, whatever

Rick Warren is saying, I can't trust what they're saying. Okay. I can't trust them.

We can though, we can trust God's word. Amen. Thanks for listening. And until next time, may the