The ultimate and full purpose of spiritual gifts thus stands revealed. They are to bring men face to face with the reality of the Invisible God. To make the Church realize that the Holy Spirit is ever present and all true ministry springs from Him who is her only source of life and power and to make the unbeliever equally conscious that God cannot be forgotten and that sin dare not be trifled with.
One word here; it is surely a serious thing to accuse God of withdrawing these gifts if the real fact is that the church lost them through lukewarmness.
Are spiritual gifts for today? Why not? The burden of proof surely lies with those who say "No" rather than those who say "Yes". There is nothing in Scripture, reason or experience to make us believe that the gifts of the Spirit are not for today - every one of them.
I find it interesting that both sides of the cessationist argument claim that the burden of proof rests on the other side. In this case, I with Gee.
HT:DB
2 comments:
Good blog. Just surfing through and found you.
Greetings from Alabama.
http://www.marketplacechristian.blogspot.com
And this openly and embarrasingly exposes one of the entrenched preconceived approaches to Scripture. No one who is first save would ever come to the conclusion that the gifts have ceased by reading Scriptures, as Rogers and Hammerstein observed "You've got to be taught".
And in one the most colossal wrestings of Scripture that rivals the II John refernce to prospering, men use the I Cor. 13 - "tongues will cease" as a platform for the ceasing of the gifts. With excegesis like that you can prove that Jesus was an alien by His words "I am not of this world."!
MacArthur is good on a wide range of issues but he must be sifted when it comes to many others. So sure about everything, it makes me nervous when some are so cemented, like it scares me when some are so mircurial.
The exact balance? Me!
Post a Comment