“Great errors have been committed under the mantra of “God led me,”  uninformed by Scripture. Yes, God leads by providence- but one’s guesswork at what God may be doing is no substitute for immersion in His Word.”

“God showed me,” my friend said.

“He showed me His plan, I just had to recognize the signs.”

Uh oh, red alert, I thought. And the more my friend talked about God’s plan (as interpreted through various “signs” and occurrences in his life) the more alarmed I became.

Over the years, I’ve learned to distrust people’s interpretation of providence.

Why?

Because folks tend to put too much stock in it.

People think they can figure life out by studying their circumstances, rather than Scripture. They tend to substitute “signs” of God’s leading for the clear revelation thereof.

Or to put it another way, people often substitute the knowledge of what God has explicitly said, for a lesser “sense” of what He may (or may not) be doing in their lives.

And that is not only wrong, but dangerous.

You see, history suggests that the greatest errors and atrocities of any age have often been done under the mantra of “God led me,” independent of Scripture. Signs, feelings, and perceptions are often mistaken, or overstated. That which is comparatively unclear takes the place of authoritative, inspired revelation.

People prefer the reading of “tea-leaves” over the Bible, because what the Bible says with clarity, they want to be ambiguous.

Tea-leaves (and various forms of “sign reading”) don’t rebuke. They can be filtered to fit one’s desires. They allow one to side-step God’s clear revelation (in Scripture) in favor of something less convicting. They allow for God’s ambivalence to sin and the ambiguity of His prescribed will.

In my experience, people want this.

In my experience, people prefer a God who leads them through His beneficial actions, not by prescribing behaviors.

And this intersects with man’s great capacity to interpret his/her circumstances in a way that evokes God’s favor (and therefore His acceptance of their choices).

Now, does God use providence to lead us? Is it a valid form of revelation?

Absolutely.

God does lead us via providence, on both a macro and micro level. Nothing is left solely to us, nor to chance. God’s sovereign hand affects and informs our lives, and it would be silly to think otherwise.

So, analyzing “providential clues” in one’s life does have merit.

But independent of Scripture? Not so much.

Man cannot properly filter what God is doing in his life, apart from the knowledge of who God is. Man cannot assess what God is doing, without knowing what He has previously done, and previously said.

Put another way, man cannot rely solely on what God “shows,” while being willfully ignorant of what God “tells.”

Yes, God does show. But He also tells, with inerrant, infallible clarity.

The wise will pay attention to both.

Toby B. Holt is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.