God Still Speaks Part 2

Since those who are cessationists like to claim the novelty of continualism in Church history, and claim our disbelief in Sola Scriptura because we believe that God can speak directly to us I would like to look at a few examples of men who uncontestedly believed Sola Scriptura to see if they understood it in a semi-deist sense.
First off I would like to look at a man in both the Baptist and Reformed traditions John Bunyan. Specifically, his autobiographical book “Grace Abounding”, let us see whether he receives guidance only from the Word or also receives direct guidance spoken to his heart and conscience (a method contained in the Word).
Excerpt from Chapter 2
But the same day, as I was in the midst of a game at cat, and having struck it one blow from the hole, just as I was about to strike it the second time, a voice did suddenly dart from heaven into my soul, which said, Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell? At this I was put to an exceeding maze; wherefore, leaving my cat upon the ground, I looked up to heaven, and was as if I had, with the eyes of my understanding, seen the Lord Jesus looking down upon me, as being very hotly displeased with me, and as if he did severely threaten me with some grievous punishment for these and other my ungodly practices. I had no sooner thus conceived in my mind, but suddenly this conclusion was fastened on my spirit, for the former hint did set my sins again before my face, that I had been a great and grievous sinner, and that it was now too late for me to look after heaven; for Christ would not forgive me, nor pardon my transgressions. Then I fell to musing upon this also; and while I was thinking on it, and fearing lest it should be so, I felt my heart sink in despair, concluding it was too late; and therefore I resolved in my mind I would go on in sin; for, thought I, if the case be thus, my state is surely miserable; miserable if I leave my sins, and but miserable if I follow then; I can but be damned, and if I must be so, I had as good be damned for many sins, as to be damned for few.

Excerpt from Chapter 4
Thus, therefore, for several days, I was greatly assaulted and perplexed, and was often, when I have been walking, ready to sink where I went, with faintness in my mind; but one day, after I had been so many weeks oppressed and cast down therewith, as I was now quite giving up the ghost of all my hopes of ever attaining life, that sentence fell with weight upon my spirit, 'Look at the generations of old and see; did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded?' At which I was greatly lightened and encouraged in my soul; for thus, at that very instant, it was expounded to me, Begin at the beginning of Genesis, and read to the end of the Revelations, and see if you can find that there was ever any that trusted in the Lord, and was confounded. So, coming home, I presently went to my Bible to see if I could find that saying, not doubting but to find it presently; for it was so fresh, and with such strength and comfort on my spirit, that I was as if it talked with me. Well, I looked, but I found it not; only it abode upon me; then I did ask first this good man, and then another, if they knew where it was, but they knew no such place. At this I wondered that such a sentence should so suddenly, and with such comfort and strength, seize and abide upon my heart, and yet that none could find it, for I doubted not but it was in holy Scripture. Thus I continued above a year, and could not find the place; but at last, casting my eye into the Apocrypha books, I found it in #Ec 2:10. This, at the first, did somewhat daunt me; but because, by this time, I had got more experience of the love and kindness of God, it troubled me the less; especially when I considered, that though it was not in those texts that we call holy and canonical, yet forasmuch as this sentence was the sum and substance of many of the promises, it was my duty to take the comfort of it; and I bless God for that word, for it was of God to me: that word doth still, at times, shine before my face.

Excerpt From Chapter 5
So as I was going home, these words came again into my thoughts; and I well remember, as I came in, I said thus in my heart, What shall I get by thinking on these two words? This thought had no sooner passed through my heart, but the words began thus to kindle in my spirit, `Thou art my love, thou art my love', twenty times together; and still as they ran thus in my mind, they waxed stronger and warmer, and began to make me look up; but being as yet between hope and fear, I still replied in my heart, But is it true, but is it true? At which, that sentence fell in upon me, he 'wist not that it was true which was done by the angel' (#Ac 12:9).

Then I began to give place to the word, which, with power, did over and over make this joyful sound within my soul, Thou art my love, thou art my love; and nothing shall separate thee from my love; and with that, #Ro 8:39 came into my mind. Now was my heart filled full of comfort and hope, and now I could believe that my sins should be forgiven me; yea, I was now so taken with the love and mercy of God, that I remember I could not tell how to contain till I got home; I thought I could have spoken of his love, and of his mercy to me, even to the very crows that sat upon the ploughed lands before me, had they been capable to have understood me; wherefore I said in my soul with much gladness, Well, I would I had a pen and ink here, I would write this down before I go any farther, for surely I will not forget this forty years hence; but alas! within less than forty days, I began to question all again; which made me begin to question all still.

Now acknowledging that Bunyan had many struggles at this time, is there anything in those portions that leads you to believe that he saw anything incongruous with God speaking directly to him in his everyday life, and even encouraging him not only by reminding him of canonical Scripture, but even using a quote from the Apocrypha. Is the God of all comfort limited to using other believers to give comforting illustrations or can He not impress His comfort directly upon the human soul Himself?
I believe the God of nature can even use nature to show us His truth and to comfort and encourage us. Brother Lawrence, the author of the Practice of the Presence of God, had a profound change wrought in his life by the sight of a tree apparently lifeless awaiting the bloom of spring. Personally, when I was going through a very discouraging time and even questioning my own sanity, I was encouraged by seeing, on more than one occasion, blackbirds attacking a hawk that was just taking off. I saw it, and I realized that these birds were swooping down on the hawk out of fear, and though they could pester and annoy the hawk, yet the hawk would rise and when it did not only would it be beyond their reach, but it would even prey upon the birds that were now attacking it. That gave me hope to continue in spite of the discouragement I felt that yes I would rise above it and even be of further use because of it.
While on the subject of God speaking in nature, might I also add that unless we are willing to retreat to deism or outright atheism, we must acknowledge that God controls the weather and the earth. Katrina proved if nothing else, that the Lord still sits upon the floods and He still has His way in the whirlwind (hurricane). The destruction of all the casinos along the coast also spoke volumes concerning His feelings about gambling. To deny His hand and voice in nature is classic Deism.
Another interesting question arises from the study of Church history, how do you handle coincidences? Like the earthquake arriving in Constantinople the night after Chrysostom was banished the first time, provoking the empress to recall him. Natural disasters can have a marvelous effect on a guilty conscience! Would you call that God speaking or is that only a coincidental side-effect.
How about when the 90+ year old Bishop of Constantinople, Alexander, prayed that either he would die or Arius would so that he would not have to see such a heretic readmitted into the church, and then Arius suddenly drops dead! Coincidence, or God’s intervention.
If we believe, as we should, that God guides the affairs of nations then we must believe that God speaks to nations, sometimes through judgments. Sometimes it is easy to discern as in the French Revolution following as a consequence of the expulsion of the Huguenots. When there is no salt in a land, the putrification rapidly accelerates and ends in dissolution and despair. Also to anyone looking for God in history it would also be apparent that the immorality of the upper echelons of Society during the 1920’s brought down the two fold judgement of God upon the nation (ie. The Great Depression and WWII), which reset the clock on the advance of immorality until the 1960’s. A less known example which I will tentatively put forward would be Belgium in WWI and WWII. Why would a small nation which is historically neutral have such proportionally large losses inflicted upon its civilian population? The answer lies, I believe, in Belgian Congo/Zaire/DRC. The Belgians were among the most brutal of all colonial powers and in BC workers on the rubber plantations were kept in slave-like conditions and attempts to escape were met with amputation of limbs and other horrendous indecencies. Is it not possible that God punished national crime with national judgment?
Scripturally, God argues from national to personal supervision (Psa. 94:10). If God still speaks to the nations and corrects them by judgments, does He not also speak to men’s individual hearts? Or do you deny His continued control over the nations?
Semi-deism is one of the three u-u-ughly daughters of unbelief, the other two are atheism and deism. Semi-deism allows for a past revelation, but not a present revelation, because all has been revealed in the Word. Let me ask a question. Are not all actions in a sense revelatory of the actor? As the saying goes, “The lion is known by his claw.” If God reveals nothing then He also does nothing, because all He does in the world would reveal something of His character, even as any work of art reveals something of the artist. If He punishes sin, He reveals Himself to be just. If He removes a judgment based upon repentance He reveals Himself merciful. These are all contained in Scripture, when we see these things happen do we not see the hand of God still working, either with an individual or a nation? If there is a vision of Christ, and He acts as the Christ of the Gospels, teaching what is in them, is it not perhaps the Christ of the Gospels that I am seeing? If it waddles like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks, is it a duck or have they gone extinct? One genuine duck-sighting disproves extinction.
In closing, “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks (note the present tense). For if they did not escape, those who refused him that spoke on earth, much more we shall not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from Heaven.” (Heb. 12:25).