Does God Care About What We Dream?

What are dreams? Do dreams mean anything?

There are three popular ways of thinking about dreams.

1. Some people think they're caused by random impulses in your brain and that they don't mean anything. They don't even make sense.

2. The other extreme is that every dream has some deep meaning and that you can interpret each dream to gain insight into what your subconscious is telling you.

3. In the middle is the idea that at least some dreams are your mind's way of processing stress or what you were thinking about that day.

According the Bible…

We don't talk much about dreams in most churches, but let's talk about what the Bible says about dreams and why we have them.

1. First, the Bible tells us about a number of times when God sent someone a dream, from Joseph in the Old Testament to Joseph in the New Testament, from Pharaoh to the Magi.

God communicated with people in dreams to give them instructions or reveal something to them about the future.

So, why do we dream? The first answer is that God uses them to communicate with us.

2. Ecclesiastes 5:3:

A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool.

What causes dreams according to this verse?

The cares of life. Stress. Whatever you were thinking about that day. These aren't messages from God or anything to act on. Solomon goes on to say in Ecclesiastes 5:7, "Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God."

I don't think he's saying the dreams don't have a meaning in that they're nonsense. They have a cause, and you can interpret them to be your mind's way of dealing with "many cares."

He's saying they're meaningless in the sense that they're not like the dreams that come from God. They're not instructions or visions of what will happen in the future. They don't amount to much, just like a bunch of hot air or someone talking all the time doesn't amount to much. We need to base our lives on God's instructions to us, not the things we dream.

Jude 1:8:

In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.

Apparently, some people in the days of the early Church were taking their dreams to be the inspiration for doing sinful things instead of fearing God and living by what He said.

3. Isaiah 29:8:

as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still.

What causes a person to dream in this verse?

Their desires. If someone is hungry or thirsty, they'll dream about eating or drinking.

What if someone desires something that is sinful? Will they dream about it?

Sinful Dreams

I know I've dreamed about doing something I shouldn't do, whether it be sexual or committing some act of violence or indulging in some other immoral behavior. My wife says that she often dreams about eating to the point of gluttony. How do we handle that? What does God think of us dreaming about sinful things?

Matthew 5:19-20:

For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person…

God says the evil thoughts that come out of our hearts defile us. It's not simply evil deeds that defile us. It's the thought itself. And that makes sense, right? We can't imagine Jesus having sinful thoughts and sinful dreams. Those twisted ways of thinking are a result of our sinfulness. Our sinful heart produces sinful thoughts. If we act on our sinful thoughts, we commit sinful deeds. But it's all sin at every level. God cares about our thoughts.

Genesis 6:5-6:

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

God cared so much about the state of people's hearts and what they were thinking about that He flooded the earth.

But someone could argue that they can't control what they're thinking about when they're asleep. Does that mean God doesn't hold their sinful dreams against them?

Leviticus 5:17-19:

If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible. They are to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the wrong they have committed unintentionally, and they will be forgiven. It is a guilt offering; they have been guilty of wrongdoing against the Lord.

Negative Emotional Dreams

There are other times I dream not about something sinful but something that causes a negative emotion in me. Maybe it's of me falling or being chased or even dying. Maybe it's of me being afraid of someone or being verbally abused by someone.

Fear, anxiety, and hurt are not emotions that God wants me to feel, so how do I deal with those dreams? Is there a way I can prevent them?

Training Our Minds

If God doesn't want us to have sinful thoughts, even in our dreams, and He doesn't want us to be victimized by thoughts we have of fear or worry or grief, etc., what can we do to control our dreaming mind and prevent ourselves from having dreams that aren't pleasing to God and aren't good for us?

1. Pray

Refer back to Leviticus 5:17-19. If we have a sinful thought in our dream, when we wake up, we should pray for forgiveness. We have sinned in our thoughts and need to be forgiven for the sin we committed unintentionally.

So, first, we pray about it. And we don't need to pray only when we have a sinful dream. We can also take our fear and our anxieties to God in prayer and ask Him to help us to overcome whatever is causing those emotions.

2. Continue to Transform Our Thinking

Romans 12:1-2:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

As we continue to grow and mature in our thinking in our waking life, our dreaming mind will follow suit. God will continue to change our hearts so that even when our guard is down when we're sleeping, our natural thoughts won't be sinful or fearful but pure and holy.

To Summarize…

The Bible says we have dreams for three reasons:

1. God communicates through dreams.
2. The cares of life continue into our sleeping mind and cause us to dream about them.
3. We dream about what we desire.

God does care about what we dream because He cares about what we think. He cares about the thoughts of our hearts.

We can control our dreams by praying about them and continuing to allow God to transform our thinking.

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Find more surprising answers to interesting questions on my Theology 101 page!

Why Was the Curtain of the Temple Torn in Two?

 

Luke 23:44-45:

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, ⁴⁵ for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 

Right before Jesus died, it says that the curtain of the Temple was torn in two. Well, what does that mean? What’s the significance of that? Why did that happen?

In the Old Testament, there was a curtain in the back of the sanctuary that walled off a room called the Holy of Holies. Behind that curtain and inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. It was a chest that had the two stone tablets that God had written the Ten Commandments on and then given them to Moses. It had a piece of manna in it, the bread-like substance that God used to feed the Israelites in the desert when they crossed the Red Sea and came out of slavery in Egypt. And most importantly, the Bible tells us that God’s holy Presence hovered over the Ark of the Covenant.

No one was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies and see God’s Presence except for the high priest once a year. And when he went into the Holy of Holies, he had to have his assistant priests tie a rope around his ankle, because if he went into God’s Presence with any unconfessed sin, or with any sin that he hadn’t offered a sacrifice for, he would die, and the other priests would have to pull on that rope to drag him out.

God’s Presence was walled off by that curtain and only a sinless priest could go in and see God. But when Jesus died, that curtain was torn in half. Jesus’ sacrifice for us, Jesus’ blood, cleansed all of us of all of our sins and so now we can all enter God’s Presence without fear because we have all been forgiven. We have all been cleansed.

Before, only the priest could enter into God’s Presence, but now the way has been opened for all of us to approach God.

1^st Peter 2:9:

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

You are the priesthood. Every believer is a priest. You don’t need a priest or a pastor or any other person to get to God. You can enter into God’s Presence yourself any time you want to because you have now been made a priest as well.

Hebrews 10:19-22:

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

The curtain of the Temple was torn in two. Jesus’ death opened the way for you and I to come to God personally, one on one, any time we want to because Jesus’ death took away all of our sins and purified us to enter into God’s Presence.

What Does God Becoming Human Mean for Us?

Christian theology centers on the fact that God became man in the person of Jesus the Christ. But how does the incarnation help us? Why did God choose to enact our salvation in that particular way?

First, let’s get a little background.

Why Did Some Early Christians Doubt the Incarnation?

Some early believers were called docetics, from the Greek word for “illusion.” They said that Jesus didn’t really have a physical body, that it was an illusion. They thought that God putting on a physical body was beneath Him.

Why? They might not have liked the idea of a holy being needing to engage in certain physical activities, such as expelling waste, or having body odor. They might not have liked the idea of Jesus being limited by His physical body. After all, Jesus Himself said that “the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

And Paul said the flesh is where sinful desires come from. 

Galatians 5:16-24:

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

 ¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

But is the Flesh Inherently Evil? 

The body is not evil. We can be tempted in our spirits just as easily as our flesh. Perhaps when the Bible says the flesh is sinful, it's referring to the fact that by myself, in my humanness, I'm evil. My body, my own spirit, my mind, my heart, all of me. I need an outside Helper, the Holy Spirit, to give me the strength to be anything but evil.

But Jesus the man wasn’t alone in His humanness, was He? He did have that Divine help. And so, His flesh was not sinful. His whole being was pure.

Is the Spirit More Important than the Body?

The docetics failed to realize that God values our spirits and our bodies the same.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

God created man to be body and spirit, and at the resurrection, He will raise us as body and spirit.

How Did the Church Determine that Jesus is Both God and Man?

The docetics had a hard time thinking of Jesus as human. They wanted to think of Him as God only and His body as an illusion. Today, people have a difficult time believing that the man Jesus was actually God. 

But the early Church and the historical Christian faith maintain that Jesus is both God and man. But the early Church had to define exactly what they meant when they said that Jesus was both God and man.

Sometimes, someone would try to understand that relationship between Jesus' humanity and His Godhood, and it wouldn't sound quite right. There would be disagreement among Christians, so the Church leaders or the Christian Emperor would call a Council to sort out the problem and give a more detailed explanation of what they meant by saying that Jesus was both God and man. 

Council of Nicea (year 325): 

"Light from Light, true God from true God."

The Nicene Creed doesn't go into detail, but it did establish Jesus’ equality with God in opposition to the teaching of Arius, who was spreading the idea that Jesus was a lesser god than God the Father. 

The Council of Constantinople (year 381) clarified Jesus' humanity. They said that Jesus had a truly human mind and soul as well as body. He was completely human. He wasn't simply God living in a human body. Jesus had a human mind and a human soul. 

Of course, that led to the question, Does Jesus have two souls and two minds? A God soul and a human soul, a God mind and a human mind? 

The Council of Ephesus (year 431) said that Jesus did not have a God nature and a human nature, but one unified nature that is both God and man.

Council of Chalcedon (year 451):

“the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man.”

This statement says Jesus is fully God and fully man. He is one being. It’s similar to the idea that God is One but Three. We don't understand the Trinity, and we don't understand how Jesus can be both God and man at the same time. 

Though it took time to iron out the details, each of the Councils' decisions was based on what they saw in Scripture. Jesus did things that only humans can do, but He also referred to Himself as God. The way God worked through Him then proved that He wasn't wrong about who He said He was.

Should We Relate to Jesus More as a Man or as God?

There’s no right answer to this question. It’s similar to how some people relate to God more as a Father and some more as a King. Some as a Provider and some as the Creator.

Some people draw comfort from thinking of Jesus as the human who can understand what they’re going through. Others respect Him as Lord and think very little of His humanity beyond what they read in Scripture; it has very little bearing in their everyday faith walk.

Of course, we want to know Jesus as fully as possible, so if you tend to think of Him as one more than the other, remind yourself of His Divinity or humanity once in a while.

Why did God the Son Become Human?

Hebrews 2:14-18:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. ¹⁶ For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. ¹⁷ For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

In short, Jesus couldn't atone for our sins break death for us without becoming one of us. He had to stand in our stead as our substitutionary sacrifice. If He was only a man, He would be able to take the place of one person. The fact that He was an infinite God enabled Him to be the substitution for everyone.

How Does Thinking of Jesus as Human Help Us?

I thought of three ways that remembering Christ’s humanity can help us in our daily lives.

Redeems our Emotions

Jesus expressed surprise, anger, and sadness. Because He did, we can know that our emotions have a place in a holy life.

Redeems our Bodily Needs

Jesus went to the bathroom. He passed gas. He smelled. He got hungry and thirsty. This means that we don’t need to feel that these functions and needs are beneath us as God’s children. They’re a natural part of the way God made us.

Redeems our Temptations

Hebrews 4:15-16:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Jesus was tempted in every way we are. He was tempted to do the same kinds of things we’re tempted to do. He was tempted to sin sexually. He tempted to be sarcastic toward other people. He tempted to steal and commit violence. He was tempted to abuse alcohol. As a little boy, He was tempted to disobey His parents. He was tempted to eat too much.

He didn’t do those things, but He thought about them. So, when we think about those things, we’re not wrong. We’re in the company of the one who can empathize with us. He’s also the one who gives us the strength to be like Him and resist those temptations.

In many ways, God became a man not only so that He could redeem us but so that He could be our example of what it means to be a man or a woman created in God’s image.

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Find more answers to interesting questions on my Theology 101 page!

What Should Christians Believe about the Bible?

Christians look to the Bible for answers and guidance. But how do we know we can trust the Bible? What should we believe about the Bible itself?

1. The Bible is the Inspired Word of God

2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is God-breathed

 

2 Peter 1:20: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.

There are two primary understandings of the inspiration of Scripture:

• God dictated the exact words that the people wrote.
• He inspired their spirit and allowed them to come up with their own words.

I think that both are true in certain cases. In the Old Testament, we see plenty of examples of God telling a prophet exactly what to say. We don’t see that very much in the New Testament, however, and one reason might be that Christians have the Holy Spirit living inside them, so the writers didn’t need God’s voice telling them what to write. They felt the Holy Spirit communicating with their spirits instead.

In either case, Christians need to believe that the message came from God, not the human writer only.

2. The Bible is Inerrant

Christians often describe the Bible as infallible. The most common definition of this term is that there are no errors in Scripture regarding Christian faith and practice. In other words, the Bible tells us exactly what we need to know to be saved and live a Christian life.

Some Christians hold that there may be errors in other matters, though, such as historical or scientific accuracy. This description of Scripture allows believers to accept the existence of God and His commandments while also accepting the theories of the Big Bang, Evolution, etc.

A stronger term than infallible, describing the Bible as inerrant implies that there are no errors regarding any matter. If the Bible says God created the world in six days, He created the world in six days.

The difference here is a big one, and its implications have to do with whether Scripture can be trusted or not. If the Bible could be wrong about one thing, why couldn’t it be wrong about something else? If it’s inspired, why would God allow someone to write something that isn’t absolutely true?

The only way we can trust Scripture regarding matters of the faith is to trust it regarding everything else.

But this idea of infallibility also seeks to separate spiritual matters from secular issues. Is the account of Genesis 1-3 a matter of faith or is it simply a scientific concern that the Bible could be wrong about? Those first three chapters carry so many implications for the rest of the Bible that they have to be matters of faith. Otherwise, the rest of Scripture is built on a falsehood. The death and resurrection of Christ holds no meaning if death didn’t come because of humanity’s sin in the garden.

So, Christians need to believe that the Bible is true in all aspects. Otherwise, it’s simply another myth.

3. The Bible is Accurate in its Transcriptions and Translations

Some Christians will admit that they believe that the Scriptures were inspired by God and that they were either infallible or inerrant when the writer first produced them but that errors may have cropped up in the process of copying the texts so many times throughout history and translating them into their non-native languages.

This is a valid concern, but it’s simply not true. The Bible has been the most copied, most translated book in all of history. And what we find is that when we compare the oldest documents with what we read today, it is very, very close. It’s so close to the point that the meaning has not changed.

This shows how much respect people have had for the Bible throughout the centuries and how much accountability there’s been between groups of Christians. One person or church or scholarly association can’t change anything without everyone else calling them out.

That’s why we can believe that what we’re reading is truly God’s message to us.

4. The Bible is Authoritative for Us

Believers differ on how the Bible was inspired and whether it’s inerrant in all it says or not. They differ on how to interpret the Scriptures at many points. But one thing every Christian has to believe is that the Bible has authority.

That’s not to say that the Bible is our only authority. A watchword of the Reformation was Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone, but the Bible itself never claims to be the only authority for Christians. Catholics very readily remind us that tradition passed down from the Apostles and Church Fathers is authoritative. Likewise, churches who recite the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed acknowledge the historic Church councils as having authority. John Wesley said that logic was authoritative. And any church that has a structured government gives some level of authority to its officials.

No matter what other authorities a church acknowledges, however, it must also adhere to the Scriptures. People who disregard the Bible as having no bearing for us today have abandoned the roots of the religion, opting to follow whatever they think is right, in effect making up their own belief system. They’re not only on a different page than the rest of us, but they’re not even reading the same book!

As Jesus said in John 10:35, “Scripture cannot be set aside.”

One objection to following Scripture is the belief that what was written was only valid for the context of the writer. The argument goes that since we are living in a different time with differences in our society, the Scriptures are no longer valid for us in certain respects.

This objection has some validity because Scripture itself takes away our need to follow certain Old Testament practices with the introduction of the New Covenant. We don’t need to sacrifice animals anymore, for example, even though God commanded the people to do it at one point in Israel’s history.

The point to note here, however, is that Scripture itself tells us what is no longer valid. People didn’t decide on their own to stop following the laws of the Old Covenant. No Scripture has told us to stop listening to Paul or Peter or Christ’s words, so they’re still valid for us. They will be in effect at least until Christ comes again and gives us further instructions.

 

 

 

(Copy and print the following handout to lead this discussion in a group or class.) 

 

What Should Christians Believe about the Bible?

Christians look to the Bible for answers and guidance. But how do we know we can trust the Bible? What should we believe about the Bible itself?

 

 

The Bible is the Inspired Word of God

 

2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is God-breathed

 

2 Peter 1:20: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.

 

 

1. How did God inspire Scripture?

 

a. God dictated the exact words that the people wrote.

b. He inspired their spirit and allowed them to come up with their own words.

 

 

The Bible is Inerrant

 

2. What is the Bible accurate about?

 

a. The Bible is accurate in spiritual matters but may contain errors regarding scientific or historical matters.

 

b. The Bible is completely accurate in all matters.

 

The Bible is Accurate in its Transcriptions

 

3. Is the Bible text accurate today? We don’t have the original manuscripts.

 

a. The original writings were accurate, but now there are errors due to it being copied so many times through the centuries.

 

b. The copies we have are as accurate as the original writings.

 

 

 

The Bible is Authoritative for Us

 

4. How should Christians apply Scripture to their lives?

 

a. We should follow every command of Scripture.

 

b. We should understand that some commands only applied to people in that time and culture.