HAVE YOU NOTICED? Have you noticed the new feature in Today’s Alternative articles? Questions have been added to aid your understanding and your spiritual growth. Each article now contains questions, at the end of the article, that have been answered in that lesson. Check your understanding. In Acts 18:9, we are told that the Lord spoke to the apostle Paul in a vision, telling him not to be afraid for He was with him. We have seen such before in Acts 10 when, through a vision, God arranged for the Gospel to be taken to the Gentiles (non-Jews) for the first time. The writer of Hebrews acknowledges the various ways that in times past God spoke to people, but tells us that in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:1, 2) .

God’s days of speaking directly to people or in dreams, and visions, ended when miracles ceased, following the completion of the New Testament Scriptures. That can be verified as God’s intention by 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 and Ephesians 4:11-13. Yes, there are those today who think that God still speaks to them and they teach that He does, but what do we hear them say? What they claim God says to them, are things that He has already said and are recorded in His scriptures, which were completed in the first century. But, they are mainly things that are a direct contradiction of what God’s inspired word says. Now if people of today knew the Scriptures better they would recognize this as fact..

Don’t depend on someone else, not even me, to tell you what God’s word says. If you can’t read it for yourself in the Scriptures, how do you know it is true? You don’t. And your soul depends upon your knowing the truth. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Only truth can free us from the guilt of sin..

Paul, strengthened by the words of the Lord, remained in Corinth for a year and a half teaching the word of God. Read God’s word for yourself and be strengthened as He speaks to you. That is how God speaks to us today..

True or false questions to aid your understanding and spiritual growth: .

1. God at one time spoke to mankind directly and in dreams and visions.
2. 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 and Ephesians 4:11-13 show that God would not continue to speak in such ways to mankind.
3. Those who claim that God still speaks to us directly today speak only things He has already said in His Holy Word or direct contradictions of what He has said in the Scriptures.