God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
The excessive preeminence given to the Holy Spirit in their devotions and their preoccupation with gifts, ecstasies, and “prophecies” has tended to neglect of the Scriptures. Why be tied to a Book out of the past when one can communicate every day with the living God? But this is exactly the danger point. Apart from the constant control of the written revelation, we soon find ourselves engulfed in subjectivity; and the believer, even if he has the best intentions, can sink rapidly into deviations, illuminism or exaltation. Let each remind himself of the prohibition of taking anything away from Scripture or adding anything to it (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18–19). Almost every heresy and sect has originated in a supposed revelation or a new experience on the part of its founder, something outside the strictly biblical framework.
According to Augustine, the true Church consists of those who have repented and believed, who are spiritually united to Christ as their Head, and who live holy lives as evidence of their mystical union with Him. Those who do not manifest a transformed life, he characterized as Christians in name only, not genuine
