Jeremiah 23:28,29; Hebrews 1:1,2; John 5:39—John 6:63; 2 Peter 1:19
The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me—the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.
GEORGE BURDER (1752-1832): Dreams are sometimes of use to warn and encourage a Christian, and seem to be really “from God;” but great caution is necessary, lest they mislead us. They must never be depended on as the ground of hope, or the test of our state; nothing must be put in the place of the Word of God.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Another very common error is that a good dream is a most splendid thing in order to save people—that if you dream that you see the Lord in the night you will be saved, or if you think you see some angels, or if you dream that God says to you, “You are forgiven,” all is well. Now, if it be so, the sooner we all begin to eat opium the better; because there is nothing that makes people dream so much as that; and the best advice I could give would be—let every minister distribute opium very largely, and then his people would all dream themselves into heaven.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We believe that many have been awakened to a sense of their danger, and brought to think seriously of their souls and eternity, by means of a dream. But to rest in, or build upon a dream, would be obviously quite a different thing.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Whence is that confidence which some derive from dreams, or visions, or other conceits of their own? It all arises from a propensity inherent in fallen man to rest in something besides God.
JOHN BUNYAN (1628-1688): They that take more heed to their own dreams than to the Word of God, fear not God. This also is plain from the Word. “For in the multitude of dreams, there are also divers vanities, but fear thou God,” Ecclesiastes 5:7; Isaiah 8:20—that is, take heed unto His Word. The fearing of God is opposed to our overmuch heeding dreams: and there is implied, that it is for want of the fear of God that men so much heed those things.
GEORGE OFFOR (1787-1864): No one can charge Bunyan with a superstitious notion of dreams. Such a mode of interpretation as he recommends is both rational and scriptural.
C. H. SPURGEON: I know some who think themselves to be God’s children, because they dreamed they were. They had a very remarkable dream one night, and if you were to laugh at them they would be unutterably indignant; they would call you an “accuser of the brethren.” They do not rely upon what God has said to them in the Bible; but they had some singular vision, when deep sleep had fallen upon them, and because of that, they reckon they are children of God.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: We do not believe that the soul will ever be allowed to rest in such dreams or visions, if the Holy Ghost is really working.
C. H. SPURGEON: In the course of seeing persons who come to me, I hear every now and then a story like this, “Sir, I was in such-and-such a room, and suddenly I thought I saw Jesus Christ, and heard a voice saying such-and-such a thing to me, and that is the reason why I hope I am saved.”—“Oh, but,” saith another, “I have confidence that I am saved, for I have had a wonderful dream, and, moreover, I heard a voice, and saw a vision.” Rubbish all! Dreams, visions, voices! Throw them all away. There is not the slightest reliance to be placed upon them. “What, not if I saw Christ?” No, certainly not, for vast multitudes saw Him in the days of His flesh, and perished.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): “But we see Jesus,” Hebrews 2:9. What is meant by this? How do we “see Jesus”?
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Not with bodily eyes, but with the eyes of the mind, and understanding.
A. W. PINK: Not by means of mysterious dreams or ecstatic visions, not by the exercise of our imagination, nor by a process of visualization; but by faith. Just as Christ declared, in John 8:56, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.” Faith is the eye of the spirit, which views and enjoys what the Word of God presents to its vision.
In the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Revelation, God has told us about the exaltation of His Son; those who receive by faith what He has there declared, “see Jesus crowned with glory and honour,” as truly and vividly as His enemies once saw Him here on earth “crowned with thorns.” It is this which distinguishes the true people of God from mere professors. Every real Christian has reason to say with Job, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee,” Job 42:5. He has “seen” Him leaving Heaven and coming to earth, in order to “seek and to save that which was lost.” He has “seen” Him as a sacrificial Substitute on the cross, bearing “our sins in His own body on the tree.” He has “seen” Him rising in triumph from the grave, so that because He lives, we live also. He has “seen” Him highly exalted, “crowned with glory and honour.” He “has seen Him”—as presented to the eye of faith in the sure Word of God.
C. H. SPURGEON: Dreams! The disordered fabrics of a wild imagination—how can they be the means of salvation? Poor dear creatures, when they were sound asleep they saw the gates of heaven opened, and a white angel came and washed their sins away, and then they saw that they were pardoned; and since then they have never had a doubt or a fear. It is time that you should begin to doubt, then; a very good time that you should; for if that is all the hope you have, it is a poor one—to trust them is to trust a shadow, to build your hopes on bubbles.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Believe me, it was not a whim or a dream, which changed my sentiments and conduct, but a powerful conviction—that many wholesome and seasonable admonitions have been received in dreams, I willingly allow; but though they may be occasionally noticed, to pay a great attention to dreams, especially to be guided by them, to form our sentiments, conduct, or expectations upon them is superstitious and dangerous.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: I could never find peace for my guilty conscience in visions or dreams, for the simplest of all reasons, that visions and dreams could not cancel my guilt or satisfy the claims of the holiness of God. I may be aroused to a sense of need, by a vision or dream; but my need can only be satisfied by Jesus and His precious blood, as unfolded in the Word, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
C. H. SPURGEON: “But surely a dream will save me.” It will give you a dreamy hope, and when you awake in the next world your dream will be gone…The one thing to rest upon is a more sure word of testimony—Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and whosoever believeth in Him is not condemned.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: You must rest only in Christ—build only upon Christ—boast only in Christ. All else beside that will prove utterly insufficient.
