In a recent video posted to the Gospel Coalition, Southern Baptist Convention president J.D. Greear addressed the question of whether God speaks audibly to people today, as He does throughout scripture.
New video: @JDGreear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of @SummitRDU, weighs in on whether God still speaks audibly. pic.twitter.com/eZbpI9hKFn
— The Gospel Coalition (@TGC) January 2, 2019
His answer was a nuanced one, and though he didn’t say that God couldn’t or wouldn’t speak in an audible voice to people, he added, “I will say that the Bible does indicate that the way that His Spirit speaks is obviously through the Scriptures, in these last days, God has spoken to us through His Son and this includes the writing of the Bible.”
He also added this thought when addressing why the New Testament isn’t clear on the question of whether we should expect to hear God’s voice audibly today: “I think that ambiguity is intentional because God does not want us to have the assurance that He is saying things that aren’t written in the Bible because more havoc has been reaped of the church following the words ‘God just told me’ than probably any other phrase in Christian history.”
It’s a thoughtful answer to a very complex question.