In this video, false prophet Rick Joyners explains more details about his alleged recent trip to heaven. Just like all the other reports of heavenly visitation, from which books and movies in the “I’ve been to Heaven and/or Hell” genre are made; they are all an attack on the sufficiency of Scripture. Even if an account does not directly contradict the Bible per se (and most do), these accounts propose to add to biblical revelation. None of this is biblically supported. All of this information is unbiblical at worst and extra-biblical at best. This leads us to the issue of new divine revelation knowledge. Is God giving certain individuals new revelation and speaking to them apart from and in addition to the Bible? If any of these accounts are even partly true, then the inescapable conclusion is “yes.” The implications of new revelation are huge. If it is necessary for us to know this information, why has God delayed nearly 2,000 years in giving it to us? Did the saints of previous generations have inadequate revelation of Heaven? Did they not have a sufficient supply of God’s truth? If they did, then these and all other accounts of visiting the other side are entirely unnecessary and of no profit to the church. Whatever God allegedly reveals and says to individuals, such as Joyner, (and most of these individuals quote God directly) should carry with it the very same authority as any verse of Scripture since God cannot speak less authoritatively on one occasion than He does on another. In other words, God cannot speak to us in the Bible and “really, really mean it” but when He speaks to individuals outside of the Bible whether in a dream, vision, audible voice, or trip to Heaven still mean it, but somehow mean it less so than He did in the Bible. It is illogical. It is an untenable position. If God is speaking, then God is speaking. If God is indeed speaking to people outside of Scripture then these communications would add to the Bible. Carried to its logical conclusion we are left with an open canon of Scripture. If the canon of Scripture is still open, then anything goes. Consider how many false religions have begun by an individual claiming to have received new revelation from God. Almost every false religion was begun by an individual saying, ‘God has spoken to me. Let me tell you what He has to say.’ Most notable: Mormonism and Islam. Both Joseph Smith and Mohammed, respectively, reported that an entity claiming to speak for God appeared to them and gave them new divine revelation knowledge. Interestingly, both of these men initially believed the entity to be malevolent, but, over time, became convinced that it was from God. From these eerily similar encounters in which extra-biblical revelation was given, two huge false religions were born. The canon of Scripture is complete and it is closed – for good reason. There is clearly a difference between the response of those inspired writers who were allowed to glimpse Heaven and those in our modern day who make the same claims. The New Testament records only three men who were allowed to see Heaven: Stephen just before he was stoned, John, and Paul. Interestingly all three of these men were very much alive when they were given glimpses into Heaven contrary to some, but not all, of our modern cases. Stephen’s glimpse was very brief and offers little detail other than seeing Jesus at the right hand of God. John’s account is by far the most detailed we have, was revealed to him personally by Christ Himself. That leaves us with the Apostle Paul. What do we know, though, of what he saw and heard in Heaven? Absolutely nothing. Paul writes, “I know a man in Christ who…was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.” We have no idea what he saw or what he heard. Why? Because what he saw was “inexpressible” and he was “not permitted” to speak it. Here we have the man who wrote roughly one-third of the New Testament. Not only did he not give us any details of his rapturous visit to Heaven, but he did not even want to mention the experience at all. He did so only reluctantly because his apostleship was being questioned by some in Corinth; hence his reference to himself in the third person, “I know a man.” Paul was so humbled by his experience he would not even refer to himself in the first person. Even with that degree of humility, God still gave him a “thorn in the flesh” to humble him even further. Contrast Paul’s humility with the attitude of those making such claims today, such as false prophet Rick Joyner. In contrast to Paul who gave no details and only reluctantly mentioned it at all, people today who claim to have been to Heaven write books about it and go on national and global speaking tours. Some of these books sell millions and millions of copies. Spin-off books and courses complete with instructional DVDs often follow. Movies are even being made. Paul wouldn’t even speak of his vision while some today use their “revelations” to catapult them into stardom, celebrity status, and the New York Times Best Seller list. The contrast is stark, is it not? Our final authority is the Word of God. No matter how real an experience may seem to us, if it does not plumb with the Word of God then it is an illegitimate experience. Those who promote an illegitimate experience exceeded biblical parameters. They have begun to divorce themselves and those who listen to them from sole reliance upon the Scriptures. Anything that is not of the truth is a lie. Whether the person telling the lie has malicious motives or not is irrelevant to the nature of the information being given. Colton Burpo may have the purest of motives in telling us that God has wings, but when his statement contradicts Scripture, it is not just a fresh perspective, it is a lie. Contradicting Scripture is the work of Satan, not God. Whether these ‘heavenly visitors’, such as: Joyner, Burpo, Piper or Weise intend to lie, contradict Scripture, or promote error, their reports end up doing that very thing. Whether someone is sincere in his promotion of error does not make the error any less harmful to those who believe it. Error is still error. Millions of unsuspecting people are slowly but surely being pulled away from the authority and sufficieny of Scripture and are instead turning to other sources of “truth” for their spiritual knowledge and nourishment. The dangers of this cannot be overstated. These accounts are extra-biblical and often unbiblical. They divert attention away from the true power of God, the Gospel (Rom. 1:16), and emphasize subjective experiences.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 00:52:47 +0000
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