Does God still speak to us today?
The opening words of the epistle to the Hebrews set the question in its proper light: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us in His Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). The answer Scripture gives is not that God has fallen silent, but that He has spoken — fully, finally, and gloriously — and that His speaking has reached us in a form we can hold in our hands and hide in our hearts.
God Has Spoken in His Son
The great turning point in the history of divine communication is the coming of Christ. In Old Testament times, God spoke in fragments — a word through Moses, a vision through Isaiah, a burden through Jeremiah — but now He has spoken "Sonwise," as Norman Anderson puts it:
Norman Anderson"In chapter 1 He is the Speaker, for God has spoken in Him. In times past God had spoken through the prophets, using them as channels for His Word. In these last days He has spoken Sonwise. God is the Speaker, the Speaker is God."
This is not a lesser speaking but the greatest of all. The Son who speaks is also the Creator, the upholder of all things, and the one who made purification for sins. Anderson goes on:
"If the first chapter expatiates upon the greatness and glory of the Person of the Speaker, then the second chapter introduces us immediately to what He spoke — His Word. He spoke salvation."
J. N. Darby traces the same connection in his Synopsis:
J. N. Darby"God had spoken to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways; and now, at the end of those days … God had spoken in the Person of the Son. There is no breach to begin a wholly new system. The God who had spoken before by the prophets now went on to speak in Christ."
And again:
hebrews1"'God has spoken in the Son,' says the inspired author of our epistle. He is then this Son. First He is declared Heir of all things. It is He who is to possess gloriously as Son everything that exists."
So the answer to "Does God still speak?" begins here: He has spoken in the Person of His Son — not piecemeal through prophets, but completely, finally, and with divine authority.
God Speaks Through His Written Word
But how does that speaking reach us today? Through the Scriptures — the written record of all that God has revealed. C. H. Mackintosh is emphatic that the Bible is not a relic of the past but the living voice of God for every generation:
C. H. Mackintosh"The Bible, on the contrary, is the book for today. It is God's own book, His perfect revelation. It is His own very voice speaking to each one of us. It is a book for every age, for every clime, for every class, for every condition, high and low, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, old and young."
And again, with characteristic force:
"God has spoken — spoken to us. His word is a rock against which all the waves of infidel thought dash themselves in contemptible impotency, leaving it in its own divine strength and eternal stability. Nothing can touch the word of God."
This is no dead letter. Mackintosh insists on its living power:
"It speaks right home to the heart; it touches the deepest springs of our moral being; it goes down to the hidden roots of thought and feeling in the soul; it judges us thoroughly. In a word, it is, as the inspired apostle tells us, 'quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.'"
William Kelly traces how the written word came to be, and why it was necessary:
William Kelly"For more than two thousand years the word of God was not yet written. Men had no more than the word of God spoken … Long afterwards — and there was wisdom in the arrangement — when man's age began to be shortened to its present limit, God made a written revelation … Scripture, therefore, is more than the word. It was the word before Scripture, but now Scripture is God's word written by inspired men."
And he adds:
"Every scripture — whether what was written or what was going to be written — every scripture is given by inspiration of God."
God Can Reveal His Mind
Kelly also answers the objection that God cannot communicate with man — an objection that, in various forms, is still raised today:
"If an infidel can make a revelation of his mind to do people mischief, I suppose God can make a revelation of His mind to do men good … The notion, therefore, that God cannot reveal His mind is not only false but denies that He is light and love."
The Holy Spirit Makes the Word Living
The Scriptures are not merely an ancient document to be studied — they are made living and powerful to us by the Holy Spirit. Kelly opens up this truth from 1 Corinthians 2:
"The entire subject is opened out remarkably in the second chapter of First Corinthians, where is shown the part the Holy Ghost takes in three ways. It is by the Holy Ghost that the things are given; and the Holy Ghost it is by whom we receive what is by Him revealed and communicated … But the Spirit of God cares for duly communicating in words the truth of God. Then, again, your minds are not capable of taking in the truth: but the Spirit of God deigns to work in man."
Mackintosh also brings out how the Lord Jesus Himself continues to speak to us through the Word:
Mackintosh"He ever lives to act for us on high, and to act on us and in us by His Word and Spirit. He speaks to God for us, and He speaks to us for God."
And Mackintosh draws out the practical effect of the Spirit's work with the Word:
"We shall be led by the powerful ministry of the Holy Ghost into the depth, fullness, majesty and moral glory of holy scripture."
The Word Is All-Sufficient
A striking note that runs through all these writers is the sufficiency of Scripture. God has not left us to grope in the dark or wait for new revelations. Mackintosh states this with great clarity:
"We must faithfully maintain at all cost the divine authority, and therefore the absolute supremacy and all-sufficiency of the word of God at all times, in all places, for all purposes."
And Darby asks the question that lies behind all others:
Darby"It is evidently an all-important question, Have we a revelation from God? a communication of His thoughts on which we can rely? Is there nothing certain, nothing certainly known, nothing which enables me to say, I have God's truth? Have I from God such a revelation of His mind as is authentic and authoritative, such that I can know from Himself what God is?"
His answer is an emphatic yes — and that this revelation is found in the Scriptures as we have them, authenticated by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
So does God still speak today? He does — not through new prophecies or private revelations, but through His Son as revealed in the written Word, made living and powerful in the soul by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is not a record of what God once said; it is His voice speaking now, to each one who has ears to hear. As Mackintosh puts it, it is "a heavenly revelation which speaks to us with a point and freshness as if it were written expressly for us — written this very day."