Hearing God’s Voice

Abstract

The extra-biblical revelatory experience or, in common parlance, ‘hearing God’s voice’, is frequent among Pentecostals. These experiences involve the possibility of direct contact with God by the Holy Spirit apart from Scripture or human intermediaries. This article draws on the findings of an Australian PhD study to show that the theological approach of Pentecostals in the sample correlates more closely with the Catholic tradition than with the formal theology of their own tradition. This is largely because the Catholics share the Pentecostal position of experiential continuity with the biblical characters rather than the discontinuous framework of the Protestant tradition. Alignment occurs at all facets of the experience, including its content and function, and in the hearing, recognising, and response phases. The study highlights the deficits that have arisen as a result of the misalignment with Protestant theology and offers several helpful correctives for Pentecostal theology and practice.