The Real Christian Interpretation of Dreams

"Our dreams are a second life. I have been able to penetrate without a shudder those ivory and horned gates which separate us from the invisible world." - Gérard de Nerval

Some believe that Satan could be sending you intimidating messages as dreams but there is little evidence in the Biblical scriptures about Satan's involvement in this. The Bible tells you to trust in God, to submit yourself to Him and rest assured that He will solve all problems in your life. Here, we look at the interpretation of dreams in Christianity.

Over centuries, civilizations around the world have used dreams, rather their interpretations to regulate the functioning of community. Dreams and the interpretations were a part of many religions including Christianity. In olden days, a priest of high order interpreted dreams. Though, there is no evidence to prove if realistic interpretation was given then.

The old testament of the Bible reveals that God would communicate with His children through dreams and visions. This is found in Num 12.6: And He said, "Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream".

Like other religions of the world, Christianity gives significant importance to biblical dreams. There are mainly two types of dreams - Prophetic dreams and Warning dreams.

Prophetic Dreams: The prophetic dreams are concerned with things of direct relevance to the dreamer. The Bible says that anyone could have a prophetic dream from God. The meanings of prophetic dreams are not clear and would require an interpretation. The Bible calls the prophetic dreams "dark sayings" and these dreams belong to God (Genesis 40:8).

In the Old Testament, for instance, "My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches".

Christians around the world believe God helps people interpret their dreams and this is most evident in one of the many Biblical stories. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream concerning the future of his country and he forgets about it.

Later, he asks his wise men to tell him about the dream and its meaning. Remember, the only other person who knew about the dream is the God. Later, God reveals it to one of the wise men - Daniel.

Warning Dreams: Christianity interprets warning dreams as ones which warn the dreamer. It is believed that these dreams are God-sent and imply what would happen in the near future.

For instance, an Angel of the Lord appeared in the dream of Joseph (father of Jesus Christ) and said: "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him".

Christianity interprets the dreams concerning the will of God as warning dreams. Later, when Herod is dead, an angel reappears unto Joseph and says "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life".

Symbols are nothing but icons or images that have sacred significance in religious interpretation of dreams. These symbols are known as dream symbols. The origin and the ancient traditions of these symbols date back to prehistoric eras the when majority of the people were not able to read or write.