Can Christians Interpret Dreams?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call, here’s this week’s question:Dear Dave and Tom:I was wandering through a Christian bookstore the other day and my eye caught a book on, Dream Interpretation, it looked a bit hokey.I know there are a few examples in the Bible but is that something that a Christian should practice today?

Tom:

Dave, here we’ve been talking about what’s going on in the church, we see, literally dozens and dozens of books that promote so-called Christian yoga.You wrote a book called, Yoga and the Body of Christ, to address that very phenomenon, but here we have dream interpretation.Now, in the first segment, I talked about this Christian university, and they gave a course, now here’s another course related to dream interpretation.This one’s only $347.78, Dave, you get 3 credits for it, it’s called, Wisdom Through Dream Interpretation.Psalms declare that God counsels us at night through our dreams, and they say Psalm:16:7I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
See All....“The dreams in the Bible illustrate this principle and all of us can learn to hear from God during the two hours of dream life that we have each night.In this course we will examine all 50 dreams of the Bible, seeing how God interprets the symbolism and speaks to His children through their dreams.”Now, can I issue one caution—now this is personal, this is a testimony, Dave, but if I have a pepperoni pizza with maybe a smattering of anchovies, I have dreams of that night you just can’t believe.

Dave:

Well, Tom, I always have dreams, and I don’t have them during just two hours, I have them all night.

Tom:

Who do you go to, Dave, to have them interpreted?

Dave:

Tom, here again, we’ve got the same old thing, we’re on the cutting edge, we’ve got a technique, Oh, we can interpret your dreams.Now let’s look at Psalm 16 verse 7:“I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel ( it doesn’t say counsel me in my dreams) my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.”That is, your inner thoughts.Yes, you can really think, I get some great ideas when I’m half asleep.I had an entire movie come to me one night in a dream, it was fantastic.When I woke up I couldn’t remember.Where am I going to go for an interpretation?There are a few dreams with interpretations in the Bible. How are they interpreted?Well, Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. God did it for him.God revealed the secret of this. Nobody else could.Now, God would reveal the interpretation of a dream if He had sent the dream and there was some purpose in it. But that doesn’t happen every night, but these people were teaching it.Have a pencil and paper by your bed, quickly write it down, and so forth, and now we are going to go through a technique.If the Holy Spirit interprets it through a godly person—you’re not an interpreter of dreams, and I don’t recall that this is something that is granted to everyone.

Tom:

Well Dave, I’ve read books by Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, by him; I’ve read Carl Jung, and most of Jungian analysis is dream interpretation, so come on, you know, I’m up on this.

Dave:

All right.So where are we going to go for this?Am I going to go to the Bible to try find interpretation of my dream?Okay, whatever my dream was.Now I’m somehow, going to try to make that fit into the Bible.I don’t think we need dreams to interpret the Bible.Oh, we need Bible to interpret our dreams?Well, but then is this dream— Did this come from God, is this something in addition to the Bible, some guidance that I need.When you just think about it from a practical standpoint, Tom, it just doesn’t work.

Tom:

Well, you know, I love Daniel’s approach. Actually what the scripture says.Did Daniel have to tell Nebuchadnezzar what his dream was before he could interpret it?I’d like to see some of these guys do that.

Dave:

Exactly.

Tom:

Again, this is so subjective. A person can come up with anything they want whether they spiritualize it or not, but it’s just another rip, it’s just another bogus, psychologically related thing that’s come into the church.

Dave:

Okay, Tom, so we’ve said why the teachers, why the promoters do this. Because they’ve got something nobody else and they can make some money out of this, number one.Number two: But why do people follow this?Because they are not willing to follow the Lord.I’ve heard so many people say, Well, I tried to believe the Bible, I mean I tried to follow the rules, I tried to follow Jesus, and I tried to do what the Bible says about my problem, and it just doesn’t work.Then, either the Bible is false or you didn’t follow the directions.What are the directions?You give up your own desires, your own ambitions. You are crucified with Christ and you want Him to have His way.If you don’t want to do that, then— Well, this is a great technique, I think maybe I could try that, I’ll even be willing to pay money for it.

Tom:

Yeah.Dave, you know this name, Edgar Casey, he claimed that through dreaming people are given access to their spirit and further, that all possible questions could be answered from the inner consciousness given the proper awareness.Edgar Casey, you want to tell us who that is?

Dave:

Well, he was an occultist, and he’s been a Presbyterian Bible teacher, Sunday school teacher, and he just got it from the demonic world.