I recently wrote a piece for Word by Word, the blog for Logos Bible Software, about the search for mountaintop experiences. Here is a taste:
“I need to hear a voice from heaven.”
That’s what Robert, an atheist, told me after we met together to read the Bible for most of an academic year. We had studied John, Romans, and selections of the Old Testament to examine both the claims of Christ to be the Savior of the world and his resurrection from the dead to vindicate those claims. In the end, Robert refused to believe, asserting it was nothing but a cleverly devised myth.
Now it’s one thing when an atheist approaches the Bible this way with respect to converting to Christ. But surely true followers of Jesus wouldn’t approach the Bible that way with respect to their spiritual formation. They wouldn’t require a voice from heaven before repenting of sin or conforming to Christlike character. Right? … Right?
There was a follower of Jesus, who had the most dramatic mountaintop experience in history. And his conclusion was that you and I don’t need to share it, because we have something even better.
