How Should We Respond to People Who Claim That They Have Received Direct Special Revelation?

How should we respond when someone claims that God has spoken to them directly? Today, Joel Kim considers the nature of special revelation and how Christians can test such claims against God’s Word.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: Joining me this week on the Ask Ligonier podcast as we record live from Ligonier’s 2025 National Conference is Rev. Joel Kim, president of Westminster Seminary California. Reverend Kim, how should we respond to people who claimed that they have received direct, special revelation?

REV. JOEL KIM: We have many fellow Christians, brothers and sisters, who believe that there is an ongoing revelation from God that is often directed personally to them or to a group of people in that way, and especially in the tradition that I grew up in, though Presbyterian, from South Korea. In many ways, there are groups, even among Presbyterians, that believe that there is ongoing revelation from God. I come from a theological perspective and Scripture that reminds us that there was a time where there were confirmations of God’s special revelation through miraculous signs, as well as activities of God, but these have ceased, that in terms of revelation, no longer does God speak to us directly, but in His inscripturated Word. And certainly the Spirit, in working through His very words, the Bible, speaks to us and illuminate those words to us.

I understand that there are lots of discussions about this and many good friends of even our theological tradition who argue that there are personal revelations given to us. And here, this is where a conversation must continue to take place. I keep using the phrase “naively biblical” these days because as I age, I’ve come to recognize that it’s not always about arguments or clear discussions that take place that convinces people one way or the other. Experience is such a powerful thing for a lot of people. So, I don’t want to offend people per se, but to simply point out that here there is an argument to be made that special revelation, revelation particularly of God’s will to us, no longer continues—that now in this stage of Scriptures, God speaks through us through the Word.

I think there are questions that remain, that I think is worth discussing. That is to say, even if we allow for the fact that God is speaking to them in such a way, I do think that there are occasions where, through the Word, there is a understanding that comes that’s unique, that’s illuminating the Word, but it’s certainly not different than the Word, outside the Word, not contra Word, and certainly cannot be against the Word, which is God’s very Word. And I think a reminder to our friends who may feel like this is how the Lord is speaking to them, even if that were true, I think reminders of checking all that they have heard and understand against the Word or with the Word, because there is no way that anything that God speaks to us can be contrary to His revealed will to us. And I think it’s a good reminder to put boundaries in terms of the way we think about the way God speaks to us.

And the reminder to the rest of us that, as we think about what the Lord does and how He continues to guide and provide wisdom for us, that for us, as we continue to think about God, that we find that in His Word, in His revealed will, as we continue to prayerfully reflect upon the Word He has given to us already.