Are visions real?

[brighthouse98]

Brother Alexander, Acts 2:17 Usually brother visions and dreams reflect upon 2 things, 1. You present condition! ( 2 Cor 13:5-8) and 2. A personal command to act ,I never heard God ask us to do something LOL He tells us! Usually brother this vision or dream is personal. NOW!!! We also know that the enemy can appear to us as well! ( Gal 1:8) so we test!!

( 1 John 4:1) and ( 2 Cor 13:1) I myself have had a vision, this upon salvation,and a few dreams which have come to pass. But I do not preach upon visions and dreams, rather the truth of God's Word,for others to consider in there own lives. I remember a fine brother came up to me, and said "Well God does not do these things anymore,this time has passed".

Holy Spirit rose up in me and said to me back to him." How many people came to the Lord in your church last Sunday?" He said why brother mark we had 11 people come to the Lord in our church last Sunday!!" I said you could not have!! LOL You just told me God gifts have gone away now!( Eph 2:8-9) ( Rom 11:29) ( 2 Cor 1:20) So if the Lord has stopped,then one cannot become a believer either. LOL We know the truth,and have been set free by his truth!!( john 8:32) So be not deceived,any truth which comes through a vision or dream must be confirmed through his very Word!! Hope this helps brother, stay true,stay in God's Word!!

 

[TheLearner]

The problem I have is when people are using visions in talking to new Christians and they are only using their experience rather than focusing on God. It also seems if that if that experience didn't happen they wouldn't be a Christian. I think It also makes other people feel bad as well if they don't get visions, that they could only become a Christian if they have visions. But I thought the whole point was accepting Jesus in our lives and not just hope that a vision will come.

Most visions are their overactive imagination use to control or impress others --- trying to claim an authority they do not rightly have.

I have never seen any of the warnings about an upcoming disaster come true. The disaster they warned about never happened.
Also, most are so mundane, there really is no purpose to them. They predicted weather disasters and wars that never happened.

Example off top of my head,

D and C 87:1-8:

Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls; And the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place. For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out upon all nations. And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war. And it shall come to pass also that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall become exceedingly angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation. And thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations; That the cry of the Saints, and of the blood of the Saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of sabbath, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies. Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.
http://www.tektonics.org/gk/josproph.php

 

[TheLearner]

Anabaptist Church

Certain Anabaptists of the early 16th century believed that the Millennium would occur in 1533.[4] Another source reports: "When the prophecy failed, the Anabaptists became more zealous and claimed that two witnesses (Enoch and Elijah) had come in the form of Jan Matthys and Jan Bockelson; they would set up the New Jerusalem in Münster. Münster became a frightening dictatorship under Bockelson's control. Although all Lutherans and Catholics were expelled from that city, the millennium never came."[5]


Assemblies of God Church

During World War I, The Weekly Evangel, an official publication of the Assemblies of God, carried this prediction: "We are not yet in the Armageddon struggle proper, but at its commencement, and it may be, if students of prophecy read the signs aright, that Christ will come before the present war closes, and before Armageddon...The war preliminary to Armageddon, it seems, has commenced."[7] Other editions speculated that the end would come no later than 1934 or 1935.[8]

Calvary Chapel
The founder of the Calvary Chapel system, Chuck Smith, published the book End Times in 1979. On the jacket of his book, Smith is called a "well known Bible scholar and prophecy teacher." In this book he wrote:

As we look at the world scene today, it would appear that the coming of the Lord is very, very, close. Yet, we do not know when it will be. It could be that the Lord will wait for a time longer. If I understand Scripture correctly, Jesus taught us that the generation which sees the 'budding of the fig tree', the birth of the nation Israel, will be the generation that sees the Lord's return; I believe that the generation of 1948 is the last generation. Since a generation of judgment is forty years and the tribulation lasts seven years, I believe the Lord could come back for his church anytime before the tribulation starts, which would mean anytime before 1981. (1948 + 40 − 7 = 1981) However, it is possible that Jesus is dating the beginning of the generation from 1967, when Jerusalem was again under Israeli control for the first time since 587 BC. We don't know for sure which year actually marks the beginning of the last generation.[9]

This same viewpoint was published by the popular pastor Hal Lindsey in his widely published book The Late Great Planet Earth.[10]

Irvingism
The well known Scottish cleric, Edward Irving, was the forerunner of the Catholic Apostolic Church.[11] In 1828 he wrote a work headed The Last Days: A Discourse on the Evil Character of These Our Times, Proving Them to be the 'Perilous Times' and the 'Last Days'. On pages 10–22 we find some telling information which includes the following:[12]

I conclude, therefore, that the last days... will begin to run from the time of God's appearing for his ancient people, and gathering them together to the work of destroying all Antichristian nations, of evangelising the world, and of governing it during the Millennium... The times and fullness of the times, so often mentioned in the New Testament, I consider as referring to the great period numbered by times...Now if this reasoning be correct, as there can be little doubt that the one thousand two hundred and sixty days concluded in the year 1792, and the thirty additional days in the year 1823, we are already entered upon the last days, and the ordinary life of a man will carry many of us to the end of them. If this be so, it gives to the subject with which we have introduced this year's ministry a very great importance indeed.

Mennonites
Russian Mennonite minister Claas Epp, Jr. predicted that Christ would return on March 8, 1889, and, when that date passed uneventfully, 1891.[33]

Montanists

Montanus, who founded the Montanist movement in 156 AD, predicted that Jesus would return during the lifetime of the group's founding members.[34]

Presbyterian Church

Thomas Brightman, who lived from 1562 to 1607, has been called "one of the fathers of Presbyterianism in England." He predicted that "between 1650 and 1695 [we] would see the conversion of the many Jews and a revival of their nation in Palestine...the destruction of the Papacy...the marriage of the Lamb and his wife."[35]

Christopher Love who lived from 1618–1651 was a bright graduate of Oxford and a strong Presbyterian. Love predicted that: (1) Babylon would fall in 1758 (2) God's anger against the wicked would be demonstrated in 1759 and (3) in 1763 there would occur a great earthquake all over the world.[36]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfulfilled_Christian_religious_predictions#Adventism,_Millerism

I apologize for using wicki pedia

 

[TheLearner]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events#21st_century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_and_claims_for_the_Second_Coming_of_Christ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfulfilled_Christian_religious_predictions

The Predictions of the 1856 Vision
Concerning a conference in 1856 Ellen White declared: "I was shown the company present at the conference. Said the angel, 'Some food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus.' " All who were alive then are now dead. Does this unfulfilled prediction mean that Mrs. White is a false prophet? We offer a more extended answer to this question because it illustrates a fundamental misconception regarding the gift of prophecy.
https://whiteestate.org/legacy/issues-1856visn-html/

 

[TheLearner]

In 1977, Oral Roberts claimed that God had appeared to him and instructed him to build a medical center called the CITY OF FAITH. In 1980 he claimed that he had a “face to face” conversation with a 900-foot-tall Jesus who told him that he was going to solve the City of Faith’s financial problems. Seven years later, Roberts said that God had appeared to him yet again and told him that he would die if he did not raise $8 million within 12 months. The wild-eyed visions and unrelenting appeals could not save the City of Faith. In 1989, Roberts closed it to pay off debts! Yet the Pentecostal world in general did not decry Roberts as a false prophet and a religious phony. Thousands continued to flock to ORU from Pentecostal churches, and millions of dollars continued to flow into Roberts’ ministry from gullible supporters.

By the 1980s, Pentecostal evangelist Peter Popoff had a ministry on 51 television channels and 40 radio stations and an annual income of seven million dollars. He also held healing crusades in many cities, during which he would exercise a “word of knowledge” by calling out the names, addresses, and illnesses of strangers who were in attendance.

In 1986, the news broke that Popoff’s amazing “revelations” were broadcast to him by his wife after she had conversed with members of the audience. She transmitted her information by radio signal, and Peter could hear her voice through a tiny receiver in his ear. A team of skeptics discovered the ruse and recorded the private broadcasts using a scanning receiver and recording equipment (Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1986).

https://www.wayoflife.org/database/recent_pentecostal_scandals.html

 

[TheLearner]

John Owen said,
“If private revelations agree with Scriptures, they are needless. And if they disagree, they are false.”

 

[SoulWeaver]

John Owen said,
“If private revelations agree with Scriptures, they are needless. And if they disagree, they are false.”

Private revelations which agree with Scriptures serve to build up a believer and straighthen their walk, and also may minister to others around them. They are not "needless". They might be for personal correction. Or for personal encouragement. It might be to send you to serve God, per example to preach the Gospel to someone. God had given me a vision of danger in which my mother was, when He instructed me to testify about Jesus to her, some time after I got converted, and btw this is the first time I mention it before people the vision wasn't important but what was laid on my heart. We should be always cautious about any spiritual manifestation, especially flashy visions that people brag about, but smug dismissal is not instructed in the Bible.

 

[SoulWeaver]

John Owen said,
“If private revelations agree with Scriptures, they are needless. And if they disagree, they are false.”

It is sad, when people who apparently do not walk in power think they are fit to instruct others about (even against!) God's spiritual gifts. It's as bad as unfiltered, counterfeit spirituality, by which Christians also get deceived.

 

[brighthouse98]

john Owen must never have told his son or daughter that he loved them,for confirmation repeats a fact already understood. And sure is never needless to those who hear of ones love for another. Does anyone find it needless to express a known love for another? But then again John Owen never shed his blood for me,or any of you either. ( 2 Cor 13:1) Guess John never studied scripture.

 

[Alexander435]

John Owen said,
“If private revelations agree with Scriptures, they are needless. And if they disagree, they are false.”

Thanks, It is interesting as well to see what other types of churches believe in visions as obviously, some churches believe that visions are real and others do not.