No, God Did Not Speak to You Through, Dreams, Visions, Voices in Your Head, or Divine Impressions - by Ed Dingess

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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This is a long and frustrating article. The author makes numerous undocumented claims, including the title of his article. He never demonstrates any part of his thesis from Scripture. In fact, he barely quotes any Scripture at all.
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“God spoke to me.” “God gave me a dream.” “The Holy Spirit led me.” All these represent claims that I hear just about every time I am around other Christians. Rare is the modern Christian that does not make these claims. Rarer still are those that dare to question such claims. And most rare of all are those that dare to reject such claims in preference for, not just a theological, but a practice view of the sufficiency of Scripture. Why is that? (We discuss the sufficiency of Scripture here.)

The proposition that “God spoke to me” is not the same as the proposition, “God spoke to Moses.” It is not even the same as the proposition, “God spoke to men and women in Scripture.” (Why are these not the same? The author will never explain.)

There are a few things we can point out about the experiences revealed in Scripture and the modern claim that God is still speaking to people.

First, the nature of the experience in Scripture is remarkable. (Why would it not be remarkable today?)

When God spoke in Scripture, it was a miraculous event. (Whenever God speaks it is miraculous.)

God spoke directly to men, audibly in Scripture. (Always? Were these instances the audible voice of God:

Ac. 15:28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements...

Ro. 9:1 I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit — 

Ro. 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

There was no possibility of confusing God’s voice with a voice in my head, my own psychological self-conscious dialectic. ("No possibility of confusing God's voice?" Really?

Ac. 22:8 “`Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. “`I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied.

Ge. 32:29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?”

1Sa. 3:4-5 Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.)

Second, God spoke to men through the Torah. The Torah was given by God through Moses during a miraculous, supernatural event. God spoke to men in visions and dreams within the Scriptures, but these experiences were divine visions and dreams that also suggest supernatural properties for lack of a better expression. In other words, they were real. (The author thinks dreams and visions are real? Whaaaat?)

It was not possible for the recipient to “get it wrong.” (This is simply false.

Da. 12:8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?”

Mk. 8:16-17 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.” 17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?"

Mk. 9:32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

Lk. 9:45 But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

Jn. 10:6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.)

God speaks efficaciously to His children. He does not stutter or stammer. He does not leave you hanging. You know it was God speaking to you because of the supernatural imposition of the event itself. In other words, it is not possible for you to adopt the belief that God had not spoken to you when, in fact, He had spoken to you. (The author has made a series of undocumented claims. Up to now we have responded with Scripture to show that he is completely wrong. Therefore, in the future we shall simply reply, "undocumented claim.")  

What, then, shall we make of these claims that “God spoke to me,” “God gave me a dream,” or “the Holy Spirit is leading or speaking to me”?

If you are the one making such a claim, you must be prepared to defend your claim. (Undocumented claim.)

If you are going to tell others that God is speaking to you, you must give us a reason to believe it. (Undocumented claim.)

No one should expect to make the incredible claim that God is speaking to them without being willing and open to showing us why they believe such an event occurred. (Undocumented claim.)

Yet, when the people making such claims are questioned, even in the politest way, they get incredibly defensive. (Who are these "they?" ALL of them get defensive? Does the author understand that the people he personally talked to [if actually did talk to them] are a subset of all who have had the experience? Therefore, it is a fallacy to generalize from a limited sample.)

It is as though they think that they are one of the apostles of our Lord, speaking with unquestioned authority. (Speculation.)

But even the apostles did not do (sic) operate in such a fashion. (The author is wrong. The apostles were authoritative and expected people to obey them. Paul commanded obedience:

1Co. 14:37 If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command.

2Th. 3:4 We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.)

We read Luke’s record in Acts of how the Bereans responded to Paul’s claims. “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” They turned to God’s speaking in the Scripture to see if Paul’s claims about the Messiah were true. Luke describes these individuals as “more noble-minded” than others. Why? Because they readily received the Word of God and tested all claims by the Word of God. The claims of the apostles were testable. (As are contemporary claims, by the same standard: Scripture.)

This problem has arisen within the Church because of a flawed understanding of the nature of Scripture. What is Scripture? A.B. Bruce represents revelation as consisting of the “self-manifestation of God in human history as the God of a gracious purpose – the manifestation being made not merely of chiefly by words, but very specially by deeds.” [Warfield, Revelation & Inspiration] And that revelation comes to us by way of a text, words put down on paper. The Scripture is not just the record of God’s revelation, but it included in that revelation itself. (We have read this several times and cannot make sense of it. "but it included in that revelation itself" appears to be a sentence fragment.)

The two cannot be separated.

Many modern Christians do not appreciate the uniqueness of Scripture. They do not understand that God’s divine acts in Scripture had a unique and specific purpose. They seem to think that, like Paul, Christ should appear and speak to them. (Undocumented claim.)

But such a view cannot help but devalue the nature of God’s self-revelation in the history of human redemption. (Undocumented claim.)

Any claim that God has acted especially in your life is a claim that must be, by its nature, on par with Scripture. (Undocumented claim, and frankly preposterous. We discuss this idea in depth here.)

God’s acts cannot be categorized into “really amazing” and therefore, authoritative, like the acts in Scripture and “not really amazing” and therefore, not binding, because they are personal to me. (Who does this?)

We have no record of God acting supernaturally in the life of anyone that was just personal to them. (Undocumented claim.)

Every act of God in Scripture was a unique act designed to reveal something about God to His elect. (Undocumented claim.)

Think about it.

I blame this particular error of continuous revelation on two movements primarily: the influence of Anabaptist theology from the radical reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the encroachment of Pentecostal theology into mainstream Christian churches in the 20th century. Pentecostal theology, while denying it theoretically, affirms a standard of revelation apart from Scripture. (Undocumented claim.)

Pentecostal epistemology is experiential at its core and subject to the whim of the individual. (Undocumented claim.)

According to Pentecostal hermeneutics, we live within Scripture the same as the apostles. (Undocumented claim.)

Many — if not most — charismatic Pentecostals even claim that the apostolic office continues to this day. This is a serious error. (Undocumented claim.)

And it opens the door for all sorts of subjective claims that God is revealing himself to us in ways that are distinct from Scripture. And if this is true, Scripture is not any more unique than its final outward form of being 66 books that happen to be collected together in one book called the Bible. (Undocumented claim.)

God’s revelation cannot take on different characteristics because, well, it is God’s revelation. (Undocumented claim.)

The claim is made that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and will teach us and show us all things. The references that supposedly support this way of thinking are John 14:26 and 16:13. But do these texts actually teach us that every Christian will have a relationship with the Holy Spirit of such a personal nature that He will actually lead us in ways that do not concern the revelation of truth in Scripture? What does John 14:26 and 16:13 actually say? What does it mean? And how are we to appropriate it to our lives today?

(...)

John MacArthur explains it well:

You see it in verse 26. “He will teach you all things.” There are things I’ve taught you you don’t understand. Some of them, you’ll begin to understand after the resurrection. Some of them, you’ll begin to understand after I rise and explain things to you. Some of them, you will begin to grasp as the days go on and we talk about the kingdom, and the 40 days before the ascension. But when it comes to knowing all things that I have desired to reveal to you, that necessitates the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Now, you may not be thinking about this the way you should be thinking about it. Because He’s not so much talking about what the Holy Spirit’s going to do in you, as what the Holy Spirit’s going to allow the disciples to do for you. What do you mean by that? I mean, this is primarily a promise that the Holy Spirit will enable the apostles and their associates to write the New Testament. Okay? To write the New Testament. And then, the Lord will give us all the things that He couldn’t say, because the disciples weren’t able to handle it. That’s what this promise is all about. That’s what it’s all about.

(...)

Again, this text is speaking specifically about the relationship and role the Holy Spirit has with the disciples. Neither John 14:26 nor John 16:13 suggests that Christians can expect to be taught all things. (Undocumented claim, and astoundingly false:

1Jn. 2:20, 27 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things... 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.

We discuss "all truth" in some detail here.)

Finally, the notion that we need divine impressions, voices, visions, and dreams today has serious implications for the attribute we call the sufficiency of Scripture. (Undocumented claim. We discuss "sufficiency" here, and impressions here.)

(...)

Further, such claims are simply untestable. (Undocumented claim. In fact, the Bible tells us how to test these or any spiritual claims:

• The Bible itself

2Ti. 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...

• The Holy Spirit

Rom. 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.

• The Body of Christ operating in discernment

1Co. 14:29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 

• The fruit that is borne

Ja. 3:17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

We discuss subjectivity here.)

Whether or not you married “the one” based on some impression is a claim that can in no way, shape, or form be tested.

If these claims are true, a person could sin without violating a command of Scripture. (Indeed, this is quite true. The Bible does not contain a complete list of every possible sin.

Ja. 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.)

If I refused to relocate when God was telling me this was His will for me, that would necessarily be a sin because I am going against God. But that sin is not found in Scripture. How many of these could there be? It seems there could be an infinite number of them. (Again, the Bible isn't a list of possible sins. Rom. 14:23 ...whatever is not from faith is sin.)

Moreover, this thinking impugns the sufficiency of Scripting by implying that Scripture alone is not enough. After all, if I can sin while being obedient to Scripture, (The author moves the goalposts. Previously it was about not violating a command of Scripture. Now it is being obedient to Scripture.)

then obviously Scripture is not sufficient to keep me from sinning (Scripture does not keep us from sinning. 

Ga. 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Ga. 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.)

or failing to walk in the will of God. There are numerous problems with this way of thinking. I hope this post has, at a minimum, helped you recognize some issues with this behavior that you may have not considered previously. (No sir, you have failed miserably.)