What Is The Brown Scapular

Thanks for responding (howevermuch delayed). The passage you cite in Numbers does not prove your point. In fact, it proves that God can and does make his will and word known by means other than vision and dreams. Moses in this very passage is singled out as just such an exception.

Which gets to your deeper point, and you may be surprised to learn that it is something all Bible-believing Christians would accept as true. Yes, we would all agree that everyone who speaks for God has been in some form of communication with God. Your insistence that it always be a vision is what is at odds with Scripture, and your own passage in Numbers proves that alternate modes are possible.

Now you may counter that God here is telling Israel that visions and prophets will go together, and in the context of God's covenant with Israel, that was certainly the norm. But there are, as already repeatedly shown, other ways God has of giving men His word. King David, with no record of a vision, still claims God spoke with him:

Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
(2 Samuel 23:1-3)

Because we know to a certainty that God used David to speak prophecy, we know that A) yes, God did communicate with him, but B) no, it is never presented as a vision.

Now you may find it easy to add to the words of God and suggest there was an "undocumented vision." But for myself I choose to be cautious rather than reckless in handling God's word. There is no record of a vision, and we already know there are exceptions to the Old Covenant norm, that He can speak through the unwilling and unaware (Baalim and Caiaphas). So it become a matter of presumption to insist God acted in a particular way when there is no record that He did so:

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.
(Proverbs 30:5-6)

Besides, even if that was the Old Covenant norm (allowing for exceptions), we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto:

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
(Hebrews 1:1-2)

Can God still speak by visions and dreams? Absolutely. Is He limited, or even self-limited, to visions and dreams? Absolutely not. Note the above passage agrees with the principle that God used different ways to speak through the prophets to the ancient ones. But now God has spoken by Jesus Himself, God come in the flesh to dwell among us. Everything spoken to the apostles was on a par with the superior revelation received by Moses, in which we see that God made that early exception because it was every bit as good as a vision or a dream, better in fact.

And what did Jesus say about our ongoing fellowship with Him after His departure from Earth? Who who be His direct presence with believers?

These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
(John 14:25-26)

How much better this is, to have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within every single believer, no matter how humble! This New Covenant is truly glorious, resplendent in every aspect, and so far superior to the limitations of the Old Covenant that we should be careful not to fall into the trap off falling back into the shadows of the past. Such a falling back to the shadows, especially after knowing the truth, amounts to a rejection of the revelation we have received, and should count as precious, and hold to tightly as the great prize that it is:

And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
(2 Peter 1:19-21)

.. and this same Spirit of God is He who speaks to us now, whether by vision or dream or by God simply speaking heart to heart with one of His beloved children, because any who place their faith in Jesus already have access to all the prophetic truth they need to find salvation, and to live a life pleasing to God, and they will not trade that great treasure for the cold and tasteless stew of a false prophet.

Peace,

SR

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