> I'd say it means you've had religious quandries and chess on the brain lately. :-) Personally, I don't believe God talks to people (any more) through dreams and visions -- I believe he talks to us through the Bible. And, in an indirect sort of way, through other Christians, who may appear in one's life at opportune times with the answers that are sought. *shrug* I believe dreams and visions are no longer used by God now that the Bible is available to us. So my supposition about your dream is just that it was merely that.

Ah, religious quandries in the game of life... I think you've hit the proverbial nail on the head, Sam :-) I feel a great malaise coming between the two worlds, the secular and the spiritual. On the one hand is the doubting Scientist in me -- that part will not accept phenomena like demonic possession, prophetic visions, and healing miracles without having rigourous proof. The other side of me is the part overwhelmed by God. Because of this, I was baptized a follower of Christ on July 27th two years ago, when I was 30 -- as a direct result of a very powerful and personal vision. It was something I could not simply put aside.

You see, when you look to the Bible, and add together all the direct references to dreams and visions, and all the stories surrounding them, and all the prophecies that issued out of them, I'd say there's something like one-third of the Scriptures relating to dreams and visions. If, then, you throw in all the references to direct manifestations of God in our world, and all the miracles given as demonstration of his Sovereignty, something like three-quarters of the Bible falls under the purview of what skeptics call "irrational". And yet we profess to believe in it; in my case, I try to understand what I've been led to.

So I have my inner conviction of the unseen reality of God, far more real and greater than what the senses can see. Contrast that against the effects of the observable physical world, where evidence of "reality" is plentiful and readily reproducible. How do I reconcile the "reality" of the two worlds without being dishonest to myself?

Wolfspirit