Did Jesus Teach that His Followers Would Hear His Voice? Can Christians Hear the Voice of God Part V

Several Years ago, the speaker at a conference I attended related his experience with someone who believed in private revelations.  While he was travelling to speak at yet a different conference, his wife received a call from the Vice President of one of North America's prominent Christian University's, he related the conversation like this:

When his wife, Betty [a pseudonym], answered the phone, the caller identified himself as Dr. Mort [my pseudonym] of the university, and asked to speak to her husband whom we will call Dr Johns [also my pseudonym]:

"Hello, this is Dr. Mort," of the prominent Christian university "is Dr. Johns available."

"No," said Betty, "he's out of town on a speaking engagement. [This was before the cell phone era.] I can relay a message to him and have him call you."

"Oh, that would be great! ...Would you let him know that I, and a group of our faculty, have been fasting and praying for a month, in our last meeting we all agreed that God has spoken to us each, and that God is calling Dr. Johns to be our next university president..."

Betty replied, "I will relay the message, and I'm sure that if God says the same to him, he will call you back." 

Dr. Mort's call was never returned. Dr John's theology was incompatible with the university's, which was that Jesus himself had taught that mature, sheep, Spirit lead believers, would regularly hear his voice, receiving divine revelations, which Dr John thought was at best error. 

Those who teach that mature Christians hear Jesus' voice always refers to John 10: 1-5, 7-14). They assert that Jesus, illustration of the sheep in the sheepfold is an unequivocable promise that "two-way communication with God" is a result of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in a believer. Jesus said so:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the   sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. (John 10: 1-5 ESV)" 

What could be clearer? Those who truly know Christ hear his voice, he calls their name, and leads them out. Right?... Wrong! Frankly, when biblically trained, theologically educated people use this verse this way it shows either a carelessness for proper interpretation, or the disingenuousness of their teaching. Teachers who use this passage this way must intentionally ignore verse 6, or their hearing God's voice teaching is proved dubious. The Bible tells us that Jesus was speaking figuratively when he spoke about his sheep hearing his voice:

[6] This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. (John 10:6ESV)

Sometimes it is a challenge to determine when a scriptural passage is to be taken figuratively, but not here. John tells us that it is a "figure of speech!" A figure of speech is a form of writing where a group of words or an expression has a meaning beyond their literal sense. John the author of these words was the most figurative of the New Testament writers. Yet this is the only place where he identifies what is being said as figurative. He wants to make sure the readers understood this is not to be taken as a description of how God leads and speaks to the believer. John 10: 6 is actually a disclaimer warning about taking this passage literally. To understand what a figure of speech means, we have to look to its context. 

In the preceding passage, John 9, Jesus encounters a man born blind from birth. His disciples ask whether his sickness was a result of his or his parent's specific sin.   "[3] Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:3ESV)" Jesus responded that God's glory would be revealed in the man's sickness and then healed the man on the spot. Everyone who witnessed the event, or who knew the man, was astonished. 

Upon finding him well his neighbors, family and friends questioned how this had happened, and he testified. "[11] He answered, 'The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.' [12] They said to him, 'Where is he?' He said, 'I do not know.' " (John 9: 11- 12ESV). They took the man to Pharisees' who were incensed that Jesus did this on the Sabbath. They question the veracity of the man's story, calling his parents to testify that he was indeed their child who had been blind from birth. They continued harassing the man and insisted that he recant his testimony or be ostracized. The man refused to recant:

[30] The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. [31] We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. [32] Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. [33] If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:30–33ESV)

The Pharisees are livid, call the man and Jesus a sinner, and cast the man out of the synagogue. In other words, they reject the Person and Work of the Messiah that has just been revealed to them with confirming miracles. 

Jesus then shows up to give clarity to what has happened:

[35] Jesus heard that they had cast him [the man born blind from birth] out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” [36] He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” [37] Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” [38] He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. [39] Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” [40] Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” [41] Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains. [1] “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. [2] But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. [3] To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. [4] When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. [5] A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” [6] This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. (John 9:35–41; 10:1–6ESV)

The meaning of Jesus' metaphor is clear. Those whom Jesus calls to faith (his sheep) are the ones who hear and respond to his call. Those who reject him are not his sheep, he does not call them, and they do not recognize him.  Jesus identified himself, to the man who had been born blind, and he believed. The man born blind from birth (the sheep) had heard the voice of the Shepherd (Our Savior) and believed. The Pharisees who not only had the man's testimony, corroborated by his parents, but had Moses and the Law, rejected both the man and Jesus as "sinners." 

    This passage has nothing at all to do with a believer hearing God's voice for guidance, we know that, because John warns us against taking it that way, reminding us of its figurative nature. When Jesus uses figurative speech, he almost always uses it to clarify and explain what has happened prior to his teaching. He extends this metaphor based on the practices of shepherds at the time. At the end of a day shepherds usually corralled their sheep together in a large community sheep pen, which had one large door at its entrance, in the morning each shepherd entered the pen and called to sheep. Each sheep recognized the voice of their shepherd. Notice how Jesus builds on the metaphor to explain the gospel call further:

 "So, Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep... [9] I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture... [14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the father knows me and I know the father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16] And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So, there will be one flock, one shepherd. [17] For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. (John 10:7,9,14–17ESV)

The point of the metaphor is that the voice, that only the true sheep hear, is the gospel. Those who respond to the gospel do so only because God has chosen his sheep. When the gospel goes out to all the sheep in the pen (which is all humankind) only those whom God has chosen will recognize the distinctive call of their Savior to follow him. When understood in context and other teaching in the gospel of John (6:37,40; 8: 45-47;). The man born blind from birth responded to the gospel, because God had chosen him.

Jesus makes it clear that the sheep who hear his voice are those he has chosen for redemption:

[25] Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, [26] but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. [27] My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. [30] I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25–30ESV)

The Pharisees reject, because God had hardened their hearts. 

Jesus choses us for redemption before we ever respond. Our belief itself comes from him. This is the biblical doctrine of election, while some Christians interpret the nuances of the doctrine differently, the metaphor clarifies. Jesus uses the sheep hearing his voice to explain that our response to the gospel never originates within our own heart. The man born blind from birth came to faith, because God by his grace drew him. The Pharisees were blind, because God had rejected them. This passage has nothing to do with "discerning the voice of God" for daily decisions.

To take this passage as a description of how God leads believers is an unacceptable teaching of the scripture and can only lead one to the conclusion that the Experiencing God Movement is false teaching. Rather than being proof that a mature Christian will be "regularly hearing the voice of God," this passage is the nail in the coffin for the EGM teachers. The only way to draw that conclusion from this passage is to carelessly or intentionally ignore the context. They EGM movement must either deny or diminish the fundamental doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture and embrace an unbiblical form of private revelation that the scripture rejects, which will be the subject of the next post.