What Does The Bible Say About Bad Dreams Or Nightmares?

Does the Bible say about nightmares or bad dreams and their meanings?

Dreams and Visions

God used Joel the Prophet to write of a coming time when dreams and visions would be the method for God to communicate; at least for some and that was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost and during the first century church but today, that is the exception I believe because we have the whole Word of God and the whole counsel of God with the Old and New Testament. Of course God can still use a dream to try and make you think about something that He might be calling you to, but sometimes dreams are so random that they cannot be used to make decisions on, at least without some godly counsel or telling some of your close Christian friends. Joel in writing of a time yet to come wrote “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit” (Joel 2:28-29). This was to come just “before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes” (Joel 2:31b). So dreams and visions are biblical and they can still have meaning to the believer, but when do you know if it’s from God or not?

Nightmares

Everyone that I know of has had nightmares or dreams at one time or another and sometimes they’re just about as strange as can be. What reasons we have nightmares is often a mystery because dreams come in such a random way that their cause is about impossible to determine, however there is some evidence that the last thing a person was watching and listening to or reading about can be a source for dreams, including nightmares. Whatever the last few thoughts a person had before drifting off into sleep, might make the leap from the conscience into the place where dream are (REM). What we don’t know is why some people have nightmares while others never do and why some only have good dreams while others seem to only have nightmares. This we do know; there seems to be a connection between watching violent movies with extremely graphic violence and video games with similar content and having
nightmares.

A Message from God

It is so difficult when someone asks me about a dream they had. They describe something, sometimes bizarre, sometimes normal, and they want to know what it means. They want to know if it’s a message to them from God. I say it depends upon whether it matches up with what the Bible teaches and if it glorifies God because we hold to the Word of God as absolute truth and we know God seeks to have the Son of God glorified, so if that dream is a message about doing something that the Bible teaches and that will glorify Christ, then yes, it may be God’s way of telling you to do something. The only thing is that we can’t be absolutely certain what dreams mean and if they’re absolutely sent from God. In a few cases, it is very clear but in most, we just don’t know for sure.

Biblical Examples

There are dozens of Scriptural examples where God sends a dream to someone to reveal one of His purposes for them or someone else. There was one that even a pagan king had that was a warning from God (Gen 20:1-7), there was Jacob’s dream of the ladder with angels descending and ascending from heaven (Gen 28:10-17) and of course the so-called “dreamer,” Joseph, so-called because of his brothers who detested him to begin with and his dreams angered them…but in time, the dream came true and for their good (Gen 50:20). The Apostle Peter had a vision (Acts 10:9-15) but that is much different than a dream. The point is, we cannot limit God and He can choose any method or any person to communicate to through a dream, but it is only relevant if it isn’t contrary to biblical doctrine. If it is, then the source might be from the enemy instead.

Conclusion

Only God knows what our dreams may mean and why we have nightmares. Perhaps a nightmare might come from God after we’ve sinned and not confessed it or we’re cheating someone out of something. Whatever the case may be, it may cause us to do something for God that we might not have done otherwise. Every dream may not have meaning or a purpose, but for those that you might believe do, all you can do is lay it next to Scripture and if it doesn’t square with the Word of God, it’s nothing more than a random dream that comes by chance and you certainly can’t build a doctrine or belief on it.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.