You saw What ???

[Carl Emerson]

Dr. Coleman was a missionary Doctor in Iraq for 25 years, caring for the sick of any faith.

Being poorly resourced he started to question his ministry.

This particular morning the waiting room was full as usual.

First up was an older muslim woman with very cracked feet. He knew he couldn't do much for her - more than a placebo cream.

Again he wondered if his effort was worth it.

Two weeks later the same lady was in the waiting room.

"Would you like to see my feet Dr. Coleman?" she said.

On examination the feet were like child's feet - soft and new.

Being a Brit he softly said "they do seem to be better don't they"

"Would you like to hear about a dream I had" she said.

"Of course" said Coleman.

I saw a man in white riding on a Donkey and he said to me "Go to Dr Coleman and get your feel healed".

Now the reason for this thread is that it is common among unsaved Muslims to see visions or have dreams that lead them to faith in Jesus.

But if a believer claims to have seen Jesus the theological guns come out.

Why is this?

I saw Jesus face to face when I was 8 years old and this contributed to becoming born again at 13.

I will never forget what He said to me.

"There is nothing in this life that you do that I wont see."

ELRoy is the God who sees.

 

[Bob Crowley]

Way back in 1982 I was sleeping on the floor at a friend's house in Perth, Western Australia.

Things were not good - I was heading for a divorce, there was no money coming in and other circumstances were rather dire.

Anyway one night I had this dream or vision. A bloke walked past wearing a gown with tassels on the bottom. In the dream / vision I wasn't allowed to look up and see who the person was, but I reached out and grabbed hold of one of the tassels as he walked past.

Then I woke up.

A few weeks later I returned to Brisbane with my tail between my legs. About four or so months after that I became a Christian.

For what it's worth.

 

[Fervent]

I think a lot of it boils down to envy or pride. We shrink God to the limits of our understanding, and anything that challenges that feels like an attack to a lot of people.

 

[Rose_bud]

I agree we have Jesus in our theological boxes based on our expectations of Him. It's not entirely new, I believe the disciples viewed Him in the same manner, ie based on their own expectations. But flesh and blood does not reveal who He is... The Father does

 

[The Liturgist]

But if a believer claims to have seen Jesus the theological guns come out.

You are not alone, and what Christ our God said to you conforms beautifully with the Gospel.

The tragedy my dear friend is not everyone who has such an experience reports our Lord saying things which align with the Gospel, which actually means they did not see our Lord but rather either saw an imposter, or in some cases made it up, but we as Christians are not in a position to accuse them of the latter. But if someone claiming to be God, whether in the person of the Father, the Son or the Holy Ghost, or an angel or the Theotokos or another saint, appears, in a dream or otherwise, and makes strange or unreasonable demands, we know that we are dealing with demonic deception, which our Lord warned us of.

So the theological guns should not come out, except to try every spirit, as St. Paul advised us, so as to separate the wheat from the chaff.