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 PrintableVersion Perchance to dreamA Christian perspective on dreams, part 1Recently, three church members, including the pastor, spoke to me about troubling dreams. How concerned should we be about these things, and is there a specifically Christian perspective which can help us deal with them? ‘To sleep! Perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub.’ Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Hamlet III, I, 56) saw the inevitable connection between sleep and dreams, and knowing death was also a sleep, was fearful of suffering eternal nightmares once he had departed this life. The Christian, of course, knows that, while his body is ‘asleep’ until the resurrection, his spirit goes to be with the Lord. We need not fear bad dreams while with the Lord, but what about now? There are several reasons why this topic is important. Firstly, we know that in the Bible God used dreams as a means of communicating his word to various types of people. Second is the practice in some churches of over-emphasising the importance of dreams and looking for messages from God in all of them. We also have the Freudian psychoanalysts’ view of looking for revelations of our repressed emotions and inner selves emerging symbolically in our dreams. Lastly, we spend a lot of our lives dreaming! In fact, it has been estimated that for up to one to two hours per night we are dreaming, and that equates over 73 years to at least 40,000 hours or over four years! God’s use of dreamsThe biblical record of dreams shows that God used this means to impart important messages or judgements to believer and unbeliever alike, and in similar ratios. The believers include Jacob (Genesis 31.10), Joseph (Genesis 37.5), various prophets (Numbers 12.6-8), Solomon (I Kings 3.5-15) and Daniel (Daniel 7). Daniel called these dreams ‘night visions’ which passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He also had visions when he was asleep with his face to the ground (Daniel 8.18), but an angel woke him up and helped him to an upright position; and also when praying and fully awake in the evening (9.21). When he started by lifting up his eyes to see the vision in chapter 10, he soon fell into a deep sleep with his face to the ground, but he was again made to first get onto his hands and knees (v.10), then to stand upright (v.11), so he was fully alert to receive the message, even though he was left trembling. Visions are, therefore, similar to dreams, but may be more striking. New Testament believers include Joseph, who had three dreams (Matthew 1.20, 2.13,19) and the Magi (Matthew 2.12), but Cornelius (Acts 10:3), Peter (Acts 11.5), Paul (Acts 16.9-10, 26.19; 2 Corinthians 12.1) and John (Revelation 1.10, 9.17) all had visions and revelations. Unbelievers who were given dreams by God include Abimelech, who had the first recorded dream (Genesis 20.3). Laban (Genesis 31.24), Pharaoh (Genesis 41.1-32) and his cupbearer and baker (Genesis 40.5-23), the Midianite (Judges 7.13-15) and Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2.1-47, Daniel 4). In the New Testament there is Pilate’s wife (Matthew 27.19). The purpose of God-given dreams seems to be either to give personal warnings, with relevance just to the recipient (Job 33.14-18), such as Joseph’s command to flee from Herod to Egypt, or to give prophetic Scripture, such as to Daniel. With the completion of scriptural revelation (Revelation 22.18), we consider dreams in this particular category to have ceased. As for personal dreams sent by God, we will consider these later. What is a dream?Reformed teaching has historically divided dreams into three categories: natural, spiritual and diabolical (A. Alexander, p.81). A natural dream can be defined as a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a persons mind during sleep (New Oxford Dictionary of English). D-state (desynchronised or dreaming) sleep has been reported for all mammals studied, e.g. monkeys, dogs, cats, rats, elephants, shrews, and opossums, and also in some birds and reptiles. Evidence indicates that D-state sleep is associated with a mechanism involving a bodily chemical called norepinephrine and depends on an area within the brain stem known as the pontine tegmentum (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Natural dreamsThe natural purpose of dreams is a mystery, but two facts are known: people who are woken up to prevent them from dreaming dream a lot more when next allowed to sleep normally, and people prevented from sleeping and dreaming for 100+ hours will develop hallucinations and irrational thinking typical of paranoid schizophrenia (Oswald, p.59). Dreams, therefore, seem to be simply a means of keeping the brain’s computer system debugged and refreshed for new activity. It must be admitted, however, that normal dreams will often reflect the various events of the previous day, may involve the ‘replaying’ of tragic or terrifying events, or possibly have erotic aspects. On waking up following a disturbing dream, it is best to immediately commit the matter to God in prayer, ask for deliverance from any influence of Satan, and forgiveness if any sin has been committed in the semi-conscious state. Usually a peaceful sleep will ensue with no repetition of the discomforting experience. The vividness of dreams may be enhanced during periods of stress, mental disturbance, or while taking certain medications and so one shouldn’t become worried about Satanic influences in these circumstances or else the stress will be exacerbated. Interpreting dreamsOne doesn’t need to scrutinise dreams to discover the seeds of evil which still lurk within our hearts. Neither do we need to pore over every image we might remember. Mostly they will be crazy pastiches of past memories and recent visual images and sensations. It is futile looking for symbolism and hidden meanings in these fleeting apparitions — there is certainly no suggestion in the Bible that we should do so. It is worrying that writing down one’s dreams for discussion by church group leaders is creeping into some evangelicalism. To quote an American lady who attended a Toronto influenced church, but is now of a Reformed persuasion: ‘Our pastor started teaching about how to interpret our dreams to find the message God is trying to give us (most of our dreams are from God). We could even buy a Christian “dream dictionary” to look up the symbols in our dreams to help in the interpretation.’ We must be aware, and beware, of such practices. ‘False prophets say, “I had a dream! I had a dream!” … Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain? declares the Lord’ (Jeremiah 23.25,28). Spiritual dreamsThe Puritan William Bridge (1600-1670) wrote concerning revelations and visions: ‘May not God speak by extraordinary visions and revelations in these days of ours? Yes, without all doubt he may: God is not to be limited, he may speak in what way he please … but where do we find in Scripture, that dreams are an ordinance of God now, wherein he hath commanded us to wait upon him for the expectance of any mercy?’ However, Bridge stressed that the plain commandment of God in his word is a more sure and certain rule to walk by. He gave instances including revelations to Cyprian of persecutions to come, and to Luther that there would be no more war in Germany while he lived, but stressed that if these rare instances should lead to ‘an itching desire after visions and revelations it is ill’. In any case, ‘now the Lord speaketh nothing to us in this way, but what he will have examined by the word: for says the apostle, “If an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than what I have preached unto you, let him be accursed”’ (Galatians 1.8). Concerning natural and supernatural dreams and voices, he quoted Solomon’s words, ‘in the multitude of dreams is much vanity, but fear thou God’ (Ecclesiastes 5.7). Bridge considered it a hard thing to know whether the dream is natural or supernatural; the latter could be from the devil or God. Some think Pilate’s wife’s dream was from God, others that it was Satan trying to prevent Christ’s saving work on the cross. Even Job mistakenly blamed God for scaring him with dreams and visions, when in fact they came from Satan with God’s permission (Job 7.14). We cannot convince others by recounting our dreams, only the authority of Scripture can convince gainsayers (Titus 1.9). Bridge said that ‘even if you have the same Spirit which did write the Scriptures, you have not the same inspiration of the Spirit’. Sources/b> © Evangelicals Now - August 2007 |
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