Tag Archives: Spiritual Gifts

COVID-19 Seems To Prove Cessationism

Cessationsim is the idea that more tangible, visible, gifts of The Holy Spirit are no longer given to believers. That, after the completion of scripture, they are only reserved, by God, as He sees fit to use. The outbreak of COVID-19 seems to discredit just about all those who claim to have these such gifts. We will look at two predominate gifts, The Gift of Prophesy and the Gift of Healing, in the season of COVID-19.

The Gift of Prophesy

The Greek word translated “prophesying” or “prophecy” in both passages properly means: to “speak forth” or declare the divine will, to interpret the purposes of God, or to make known in any way the truth of God. Predictive prophesy has been used in scripture on several occasions, most notably, all the prophecies about the coming messiah.

But false prophesying and false prophets exist too. Ezekiel 13:1-7 tells us they “prophesy out of their own imagination” and “who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!.. Even though the Lord has not sentp them, they say, “The Lord declares,” and expect him to fulfill their words.” Brutal.

So, how can we know if someone is a true prophet of God or has the gift of prophesy?

Numbers 12:6 makes it clear that God will prove him true and anything the prophet claims will be in perfect alignment with the nature and character of God and His will. A true prophet does not validate himself, but will be validated by God. If a prophet claims that they “decided” to become one, or was “appointed by man” to be one, they are false (1 Corinthians 12:11; John 5:31-33). God alone decides who will speak for him and how (1 Samuel 19). To validate them and their message, God empowered them to do miracles (Acts 14:3), BUT the miracles are not to be solely relied on but the consistency and unity of the message with God’s nature, character, and will.

A false prophet will be known by their contradictions to Holy Scripture (Revelation 2:20-21). Which is why they HATE being questioned or tested. But, this also reveals them as false too because we are commanded, by God, to “test everything, hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22) and “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1). They WILL produce spiritual fruit, good or bad. THEY will produce a fruit that is rotten and stinks of hypocrisy and contradictions. A fruit of disunity with God’s Word and will. And we CAN see it if we look (Matthew 7:19-20).

Thirdly, if the “prophesy” fails, the prophet is false. That means if the claim falls short in ANY WAY, its a lie, and the person is a liar (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). Signs and Wonders do NOT prove a prophet to be of God, even false prophets will be able to do them (Revelation 13:13-14; Matthew 7:22-23). We also look at the examples in scripture. They are specific. Very specific locations, persons, events, in such detail, they are undeniably true. Like, the birth place of the messiah, Micah 5:2. The virgin birth, Isaiah 7:14. Jesus’ return from Egypt to Nazareth as a child, Hosea 11:1. He will be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver! (Psalm 41:9; Zechariah 11:12).

A prophesy will cut so deep that it will effect the spirit of the hearers. We see all through scripture that true prophets were murdered because of the spiritual power of their words, from God. Jesus even points this out in Matthew 23:37. Jesus, himself, was murdered because his words are like a sword; and are divisive and offensive (Matthew 10:34-37). And we can go on and on about the amazing details of these prophesies, HUNDREDS of years before the events.

So, in keeping these four simple, biblical truths of discernment in mind, let’s look at validated true prophets.

True Prophets and prophesies.

Moses spoke forth God’s warnings about plagues (Exodus 9:14; 11:1; Leviticus 26:25). Deuteronomy 28:59 is brutal: “Then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting.” Another predictive prophesy from Moses. Ezekiel 14:21, Jeremiah 14:12, 19:8, 24:10, 49:17; 2 Chronicles 7:13, all predictive prophesy about plagues. And there’s more.

All the prophesies about Jesus, fulfilled (see cited verses above).

Isaiah prophesied in 700 BC that the Kingdom of Babylon will be overthrown and never recover (Isaiah 13:19). This happened in 539 BC, and Babylon never recovered. But, he didn’t stop there. He also revealed it would be reduced not nothing more than a swampland (Isaiah 14:23). When archaeologists excavated Babylon during the 1800s, they discovered that some parts of the city could not be dug up because they were under a water table that had risen over the years.

Ezekiel prophesied in 587 BC that the city of Tyre will be sacked AND that it will be completely destroyed, dissembled, and thrown into the sea (Ezekiel 26:12). Alexander The Great, did exactly that. He took the rubble from Tyre’s mainland ruins and tossed it – stones, timber and soil – into the sea, to build the land bridge so he could attacked in 333-332 BC.

By far, one of the greatest prophesies of all time; Daniel 9:25. This gives the literal time frame from a certain point all the way to the appearance of The Messiah. Beginning year of the prophesy is 444 BC. Now, we must keep in mind that the Jewish prophetic year was composed of twelve 30 day months; that means the Jewish prophetic year had 360 days, not 365 days. Daniel states 69 weeks of seven years each, and each year has 360 days, the equation is as follows: 69 x 7 x 360 = 173,880 days. So, 173,880 days, or 476 years, from 444 BC brings us to… 33 AD… when Jesus publicly begins his ministry… Now THAT is a divine validation!

So, there lies the issue. IF the gift of prophesy is fully functional, the same way it was in the biblical era:

Did anyone prophesy the coming COVID-19 pandemic?

Here we have a Pastor, Marlon Bolton, of Praise Experience Church of North Lauderdale in Florida, claiming to have prophesied it “weeks before Chinese authorities even identified the novel coronavirus strain.” then stated, “We prophesied about the stock market crashing. We even prophesied about the shortage of food in this season. Very accurate.” BUT, his “prophesy” accompanied a call for donations and the heretical “Seed donations” idea. He then said God showed him that seven plagues are “destined for our land. If you give seed offerings, I believe you’ll be covered for these plagues,” There are other really wild heretical things he does too [1, 2].

So, how do we know this guy is a false prophet? He’s greedy (2 Corinthians 2:17, Titus 1:7, 1 Timothy 3:3) and demands money in exchange for “spiritual blessings” (1 Corinthians 3:5-7, 1 Corinthians 4:6-7, Acts 8:18-23). And, his nonspecific simple “claim” has been exposed as false. The stock market didn’t crash, in fact, it is still higher than it was 5 years ago. There isn’t a shortage of food really, I can go into Walmart, today, right now, and buy food. I may be limited to how much I can purchase at one time, but food is there for me to buy. Then comes the “seven plagues that are destined for our land.” Time will tell how true this is but given all the evidence, his disunity with God’s nature and character and poor accuracy reveals he is false when tested.

Then, you have the biggest heretic and fraud of our time, Kenneth Copeland. Prophesying that the end of COVID-19 was a last week. On April 2nd he stated: “It is finished. It is over. And the United States of America is healed and well again.” [3]. Welp, that failed. It is still spreading and people are still dying and today is April 11th. But, he even gets more blasphemous. He states: “In the name of Jesus, standing in the office of the prophet of God, I execute judgment on you COVID-19. I execute judgment on you, satan, you destroyer, you killer. You get out. I break your power. You get off this nation. I demand judgment on you. I demand. I demand.” That’s a bold statement. Let’s test that against scripture. “Yet Michael the archangel, when he was disputing with the Devil in a debate about Moses’ body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” Jude 1:9. Hu, so this authority is reserved for The Lord. James 4:12 says “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.” and Psalm 50:6 “The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge! Selah” And I’m guessing that ONE judge, isn’t Kenneth. He has ZERO authority to “execute judgment” on anything. This narcissistic, self-idolatry, God’s Word contradictions are the fruit of a false prophet. Also, notice, he hates God’s will and God’s just judgements on the world through his creation, such as COVID-19. So, he’s a false prophet and heretic.

Here’s the deal, Time Magazine [5] and some psychic named Sylvia Browne [4] seemed to have just as effectively predicted COVID-19 as all those who claim to be receiving prophesies from God. That brings shame on the name of the Lord. That belittles the majesty of our Holy God. Why are there no truly deep and detailed prophecies like the ones in the Bible, about COVID-19? Simple answer:

The Gift of Prophesy and Office of Prophet are NOT functioning.

Because if they were, they failed miserably, invalidating themselves anyway. When you test these prophesies and the prophets against God’s Word, they fail. There is a reason why their prophesies can not rise above the level of a atheist psychic…

Okay, so the Gift of Prophesy and Office of Prophet are not functioning, as revealed by God’s ordained will through COVID-19. What about the Gift of Healing? Why not just heal everyone sick?

The Gift of Healing

The spiritual gift of healing is the supernatural manifestation of the Spirit of God that miraculously brings healing and deliverance from disease and/or infirmity (Matthew 4:24; 15:30; Acts 5:15-16; 28:8-9). So what did true divine healing look like in the Bible?

Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law sick with a serious high fever (Luke 38:39). Jesus heals Leprosy (Luke 5:12-14, 17:11-19). Jesus heals people who are paralyzed (Luke 5:17-26, 7:1-10). Jesus heals the blind (Matthew 9:27-31; Mark 8:22-26; John 9:1-12; Luke 11:14-23, 18:35-43). Jesus instantly transforms physical deformities (Luke 6:6-11, 13:10-17, 22:50-51; John 5:1-15). Jesus literally raised people from the dead (Luke 7:11-17; 8:40-42, 49-56; John 11:1-45).

Now all that was done by Jesus. But what did the Apostles, or those with the gift of healing do? 1 Corinthians 12:28 gives a progression of church maturity. First, of course, the apostles, then prophets that speak fourth God’s word because The Bible wasn’t completed yet. Then, the disciples of the Apostles, the teachers. Miracles to validate the Apostles and prophets before the completion of scripture. Then, the gifts of healing, helping, church organizing and leading in all sorts or languages and cultures. And then what? That’s it. Everything is all set up, the church is made, Apostles are validated by God, and Holy Scripture written and complete.

So, the Apostles, the selected few, went around and healed the sick (Luke 9:2-6; Mark 6:13; Acts 4:30, 5:16, 19:11-12, 28:7-9) But not just the “sick,” these dudes were raising the DEAD and instantly curing obvious physical deformities and undeniable physical conditions! (Matthew 10:8; Acts 3:1-10, 8:7, 9:36-41, 14:8-10, 20:9-12).

It is important to first note that Matthew 10:1, Jesus only gives this “authority” to heal, to only his closest disciples. 1 Corinthians 12:9,30 also shows that gifts of healing were not given to everyone. But do you notice something: only the Apostles are described as doing all these healings, even stated in Acts 5:12: “by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders…” And again, in Acts 8:18: “saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given.” Then, in the writings of the Disciples of the Apostles, such as Clement of Rome, Papias, and the authentic writings of Ignatius; they are not performing miraculous healings. So, we can, in fact, conclude that the gift of healing was given only to a select few. And after they passed away, we stop seeing people being raised from the dead and instant physical deformities and conditions being instantly healed.

With the spread of COVID-19, Where did all the charismatic pastors with the gift of healing go?

Why would they need to quarantine themselves? The Apostles didn’t. They went TO the sick, not concerned about themselves becoming sick. Why don’t they, the modern healers, GO TO those who are sick with COVID-19 and heal them?

A prominent Northern California mega-church, Bethel Church, whose members believe their prayers heal the sick and raise the dead is advising the faithful to wash their hands, urging those who feel sick to stay home, canceling missionary trips and advising its faith healers to stay away from local hospitals [7]. And this quote from the church says it all: “Though we believe in a God who actively heals today, students are not being encouraged to visit healthcare settings at this time, and moreover, are taught that even under normal circumstances, they must receive permission from both the facility and the individual before engaging in prayer,” Why are they not being encouraged to heal those in need? The Apostles WENT TO WHERE the sick were if the sick weren’t brought to them. And WHY would they need “permission” to engage in prayer? Who is their master, Bethel Church, or God?

Even Bill Johnson has subtle contradictions in his own statement: “Many visit Redding weekly, hoping that God will touch them. I am happy to report that many leave well and whole,” Johnson wrote. “But many others leave in the same condition in which they came. I refuse to blame God for this, as though He has a purpose in their disease. While Jesus did not heal everyone alive in His time, He did heal everyone who came to Him. His is the only standard worth following.” But, these people come to Jesus, through Bill Johnson, in faith, to be healed! He flat out admits that his gift of healing, fails. Is The Holy Spirit a failure? No! Therefore, their “gift” is not of the Holy Spirit, if it can fail. Then, he says this: “Healing happens, but it’s foolish to take unnecessary risks with your health and the health of others,” Hu, I guess the Apostles were foolish…

Considering the predominate church that claims to have the gift of healing, Bethel Church in Redding California; you would think they would be healing their community. Interestingly, As of April 9, 2020, there are a total of 19,472 positive cases and 541 deaths in California [9]. So… why aren’t these 19,472 infected being healed and why aren’t the 541 dead being raised back to life? In their very own county, there are 24 confirmed cases [10]. 18 people in isolation and 47 in quarantine, in their own region. Can they not send just one of their elders with the gift of healing to go heal those people? Apparently not.

Either their [Bethel Church] Holy Spirit is weaker than in the times of the Apostles, or it’s not the same thing. God’ doesn’t change, Holy Scripture is our guide and test; therefore, it’s not The Holy Spirit they claim to be “gifted” by. In fact, their own gifts seem to be powerless against a REAL TRUE health issue such as COVID-19.

Then we hear the excuse, “Well, there were things even the Apostles couldn’t do” referring to Matthew 17:16. But, Jesus didn’t say they couldn’t. Jesus first rebuked them for the lack of faith, and then flat out tells the Apostles it was due to their lack of faith (Matthew 17:17, 20). This sort of admission to justify why their gifts of healing fail is admitting they, themselves, don’t have enough faith in their own gifts; laughable.

The amazing amount of disunity and contradiction to God’s Word; and it become more clear the more you compare their actions and claims to Holy Scripture. God’s use of COVID-19 is a clear judgement on all these prophets and healers and their devoted followers. This seemingly “bad” virus is actually exposing the false prophets and false teachers. God is using it to shine light and expose evil deeds. And for those who continue in their faith in the false teachings and teachers, this is a judgment on them (Romans 1).

re here: https://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/living/religion/article241044316.html#storylink=cpy”

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COVID-19 and Closing Churches

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With the spread of the flu-like Covid-19 virus, government orders to close, and the community in fear of getting sick; at what point should a church close its doors and temporarily end meeting? To get clear guidance, we must seek God’s Word, and not our feelings or thoughts from our fragile emotional state. What did Jesus and The Apostles do? What did the early church do? What does Holy Scripture say?

What Did Jesus Do Around Sickness?

John 4:46-53 is interesting, not only is it a sickness healing, but Jesus brings up a interesting point.

⁴⁶Then He went again to Cana of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and pleaded with Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.
⁴⁸Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
⁴⁹“Sir,” the official said to Him, “come down before my boy dies!”
⁵⁰“Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed.
⁵¹While he was still going down, his slaves met him saying that his boy was alive. ⁵²He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at seven in the morning the fever left him,” they answered. ⁵³The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” Then he himself believed, along with his whole household.

Now, it doesn’t say WHAT the boy was sick with except the fact he was sick and was going to die. There is something interesting to note. Jesus didn’t travel to the sick boy’s house. Instead, healed the boy from the a distance. Right here, some people may use this as an example was to why self-isolation is acceptable for the church because God heals from a distance. BUT, that is a failure to see the REAL reason for this sort of RARE “distance” healing. Verse 51 would be completely irrelevant. That’s the point. The time and distance PROVES Jesus has divine healing powers. THAT’s the point. Not the distance. So, this is actually a poor example for self-isolation and God’s healing of the COVID-19.

Now, there was a very important point to be made, by Jesus. Jesus REBUKES the people, including the royal official. He literally says “you people,” referring to the crowds that follow him to see what he does and don’t really ponder what he says. He generally rebukes them for not believing in HIM as the living WORD and trusting the WORDS that he says as coming from God himself. Instead, these doubters need to see miracles for themselves in order to give some sort of self satisfying credence to his words.

There is a natural thing inside humans that if it tickles our senses, it feels more satisfyingly credible. This is also true for fellowship. If you meet people in person, or see people in person, and hear a pastor speak in person, and sing your favorite worship song in person; how much greater of the a feeling do you have than if you just watched it online. There is a natural and massive difference. Keep that in mind (1).

LUKE 4:38-40, a high fever

³⁸After He left the synagogue, He entered Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Him about her. ³⁹So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and began to serve them.⁴⁰When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him. As He laid His hands on each one of them, He would heal them.

Peter’s wife’s mother had “a high fever.” In this day, a fever of 101 would almost just feel like a hard days work. So for them to note, at this time, she had a “high” fever, means she was in bad shape. But look at Jesus, he “stood over her.” Jesus didn’t maintain any sort of “social distancing.” But it gets better, “all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him. As He laid His hands on each one of them...” They were physically bringing their sick, possible with viruses, to Jesus. And Jesus would literally, physically touch them. No gloves, no masks, no protective gear; just faith.

These people would have NEVER had an encounter with CHRIST JESUS, if “social distancing” was enforced legally and or culturally. Keep that in mind (2).

LUKE 5:12-14, Leprosy

¹²While He was in one of the towns, a man was there who had a serious skin disease [leprosy] all over him. He saw Jesus, fell facedown, and begged Him: “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” ¹³Reaching out His hand, He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean,” and immediately the disease left him. ¹⁴Then He ordered him to tell no one: “But go and show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses prescribed for your cleansing as a testimony to them.”

Though this translation does not specifically say “leprosy,” other early writings and translations do. It is a contagious bacterial infection that gets ugly quick. Jesus, in his human body, that gets tired, needs food and hydration, reached out his hand and literally, physically, touched him. There is a symbolic concept here too. This would, according to Pharisaic additional laws and jewish ceremonial laws, would make Jesus unclean. But, we know that Jesus is far from unclean, in fact, he is the exact, perfect opposite, he is perfectly sinlessly holy. BUT he TOUCHED an unclean, infectious person. He did not avoid them. He did not maintain social distancing.

There are countless more examples in Holy Scripture but the point is, Jesus and the Apostles didn’t shy away from infectious people: Matthew 14:34-36; Luke 17:11-19.

Here, people will make the argument “But Jesus was God, we are not.” Seems like a valid point. So, let’s look at the healing that the Apostles did AFTER Jesus had ascended to heaven.

The Apostles and Sickness

Acts 5:16

“Also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.”

Their faith and desire for God’s healing superseded their feeling to stay away from sick people. In fact, all the sick people and their friends and family were coming together. Remember, Jesus had already left at this point. This is just the first and early churches, after Pentecost. A mass sickness party was being held by the Apostles, and by faith, they were all being healed.

This would have never happened if the early church avoided meeting and maintained social distancing from all those who were sick.

Act 19:11-12

“And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.”

Acts 28:8-9

“And it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery; and Paul went in to see him and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him. After this had happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases were coming to him and getting cured.”

Again, no social distancing and avoiding meeting here.

So, we see that even the Apostles were not afraid of coming down with any of these diseases. They didn’t tell these people to say home and NOT bring their sick friends and family to them. They did NOT close their doors wherever they were at to avoid contamination. They WERE without Jesus, physically, and were on their own continuing his works.

Israel and The Church’s Historical Reaction to Epidemics and Pandemics

The 412 BC Epidemic

In 412 BC, there was an epidemic of an unknown disease, but it is often identified as influenza due to the described symptoms. It was reported in Northern Greece by Hippocrates and in Rome by Livy. It caused a food shortage in the Roman, and a famine was only prevented with food relief from Sicily and Etruria, and via trade missions to the “peoples round about who dwelt on the Tuscan sea or by the Tiber.” In other words, it spread.

In 520 BC Cyrus the Great allowed Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the Temple in 515 BC, but did not allow the restoration of the kingdom. During the time of the epidemic, Persia was in control of Israel; and Persia traded with the Roman Republic until they were conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BC.

Israel did not stop conducting their ceremonies, worship services, and religious festivals even though there was a epidemic spreading from Rome.

The Antonine Plague of 165 to 180 AD

This was an pandemic brought to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East. Scholars have suspected it to have been either smallpox or measles; deadly and highly contagious. The disease broke out again nine years later, according to the Roman historian Dio Cassius (155–235), causing up to 2,000 deaths a day in Rome, one quarter of those who were affected, giving the disease a mortality rate of about 25%. The total deaths have been estimated at 5 million, and the disease killed as much as one-third of the population in some areas and devastated the Roman army. The plague may have also broken out in Eastern Han China before 166 AD, given notices of plagues in Chinese records.

The church was in the dead center of this pandemic. It was a monster of a plague. COVID-19 looks like a small cold compared to this one. So, what did the early church do during this extremely dangerous plague?

Irenaeus, who was about 30 years old at the time and was a pastor at the Church of Lyon during the plague. He was indirectly a disciple of Polycarp, who was an actual disciple of John. He never paused his mission work. He didn’t stop meeting and fellowship. He even discussed his conversations and debates with Gnostics; which lead him to write Against Heresies. Any sort of social distancing was not mentioned by him whatsoever. The thought of closing his church doors and stopping his ministry work during the plague was not an idea he had. In fact, as the plague spread, religious construction of sacred sites was increased [1]. There was an increased desire to a divine solution and Christianity was there to provide answers. Studies have shown, that Christianity greatly increased, due to consistent ministry work, during three pandemics in the Roman era, the Antonine plague, the Cyprian plague, and the Justinian plague.

The Cyprian Plague of the 3rd Century

Carthage’s bishop, Cyprian, encouraged Christians to care for the sick and dying. They buried the dead and risked getting sick by taking in the sick. This was repeated other times in the early centuries of the church during epidemics. Christians introduced a new concern and standard of care for sick people [4].

Candida Moss, a professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Notre Dame, notes that an “epidemic that seemed like the end of the world actually promoted the spread of Christianity.” By their actions in the face of possible death, Christians showed their neighbors that “Christianity is worth dying for.” The author of the Christian Post article even states “Nearly eighteen centuries after the Plague of Cyprian, Christianity still prompts people to run towards the plague when virtually everyone else is running away.”[5]

On Easter Sunday in 260 AD, Bishop Dionysius of Corinth praised the efforts of the Christians, many of whom had died while caring for others. He said:

“Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves, and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains.“

Lymon Stone, a research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies and an advisor at the consulting firm Demographic Intelligence, in Foreign Policy, notes. “But it did something else, too: It triggered the explosive growth of Christianity,” he writes. “Cyprian’s sermons told Christians not to grieve for plague victims (who live in heaven), but to redouble efforts to care for the living. His fellow bishop Dionysius described how Christians, ‘Heedless of danger … took charge of the sick, attending to their every need.’”[6]

The Bubonic Plague, 1485–1551

Just about all of Martin Luther’s life ran congruent to the Sweating Sickness that spread throughout Europe. As a pastor and professor, he did not close his church doors and theological school. During the spreading sickness, he revolutionized organized and formal worship services that changed history. But it gets better. The Elector of Saxony, John the Steadfast, ordered Martin Luther, to leave. He refused. Along with his pregnant wife Katharina, Luther stayed in Wittenberg, opening his house as a ward for the sick [2,6]. Someone literally asked him if it is wrong for a Christian to flee the cities that are infected, you can read Martin Luther’s letter here. It is important to note that Martin Luther did NOT say it was wrong to flee or in our modern conduct, close churches and self-quarantine; of itself. BUT that it WAS wrong to neglected the needy because you close churches and self-quarantine. He basically said that if you have no family and not you don’t know of anyone in need, than fleeing is a good option. Here in lies the problem, what church or elder doesn’t know someone in need? What Christian doesn’t know someone who doesn’t know Christ? Is that not the ultimate eternally worth need? Martin Luther chose to stay to minister to the sick. He said:

“[N]o one should dare leave his neighbor unless there are others who will take care of the sick in their stead and nurse them…. we are bound to each other in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as he himself would like to be helped.“

Would Martin Luther close his church and self-quarantine during a pandemic? No, he didn’t even close and hide during one of the most deadliest pandemics in human history. He willingly, faithfully, and boldly, ministered to the sick.

The 1563 London plague

Church leaders gathered to address some issues and iron out what the orthodox biblical faith teaches in 1563 AD and 1567AD, and drafted what is known as the Heidelberg Catechism and Belgic Confession. All the while the 1563 London plague was raging. Social distancing and closing churches did not happen.

The 1663-1668 Plagues of Netherlands, England, and France

While the “Great Plague of London” was spreading, from the Netherlands, and to France, the church gathered in London and drafted the The Westminster Confession of Faith in 1664AD. An extremely important document that helped shape modern Church orthodoxy and maintain biblical reliance and understanding. Asymptomatic persons were, in fact, quarantined for 40 days, but just about all who were quarantined died; but the Church didn’t close. They took part in helping the sick.

The court of Charles II, together with lawyers, merchants and doctors, fled the city, but the poor could not. St Bride’s vicar, the Revd Richard Peirson, remained to witness the devastation to his parish community. The parish distributed relief to stricken families [7]. While the communities wealthiest persons, including doctors, fled instead of helping, the church remained [8].

The Broad Street Cholera Outbreak of 1854

Charles Spurgeon admired the Puritan ministers who stayed behind to care for the sick and dying during the Great Plague of London in 1665 [9]. Charles Spurgeon stated:

“During that epidemic of cholera, though I had many engagements in the country, I gave them up that I might remain in London to visit the sick and the dying. I felt that it was my duty to be on the spot in such a time of disease and death and sorrow.“

“During the outbreak, Spurgeon recognized his responsibility to be present with those who were sick and dying. This was not a time to be an itinerant preacher. This was a time to focus on caring for his church and the community in which he lived. He would not outsource this task to his deacons or other church leaders but remained in London in order to fulfill his duty. We know that the congregation continued meeting during those days because the church’s minute books contain records of congregational meetings carried on throughout the fall of 1854.

Amid all the pastoral challenges of the outbreak, Spurgeon and his deacons continued to receive new members, pursue inactive members, observe the Lord’s Supper, and practice all the other normal activities of a church. Not only that, but in retrospect, it was particularly during this time, when news of death raged all around the city, that Spurgeon found Londoners most receptive to the gospel.

As the pastor, Spurgeon not only continued to gather his church, but he also made himself available throughout the week, working tirelessly to visit the sick and grief-stricken.” [10].

Charles Spurgeon didn’t self-quarantine and didn’t adhere to social distancing. He went to the sick and ministered to them. The never stopped meeting and proclaiming the gospel.

The Spanish Flu, 1920s

The Christian Reformed Church convened at the Synod of Kalamazoo and drafted the understanding of God’s common grace in 1924. The Spanish Flu was raging, world wide. They did not close down their churches or cancel their synod. The churches in America, as a whole, did not close down or stop meeting.

Influenza A virus subtype H3N2, 1970s

The outbreak and discovery of the H3N2 virus, predominate pastors from around America met in Chicago and drafted The Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy. Also, during this time, in the 70s, the churches did not close during the spread of H3N2.

We see, that historically, and during much worse pandemics and plagues, the church did not close their doors and stop meeting. They, in fact, become part of the help and aid to all those who were sick; just like the Apostles before them. But what does other parts of the the Bible say about how to better address this issue?

The Ebola Outbreaks of The 1990s

Now as then, this power confounds and confuses Christianity’s critics. A recent article in Slate acknowledged that many of the people fighting the Ebola epidemic in West Africa were missionaries [11]. The writer, Brian Palmer, admitted that he “[didn’t] feel good about missionary medicine, even though [he couldn’t] fully articulate why.” He knew that he shouldn’t feel this way but he did.

Ross Douthat of the New York Times suspects that Palmer’s misgivings have something to do with the fact that the selflessness of the missionaries “unsettles” his “secular and scientistic worldview.” In that worldview, “helping people is what governments and secular groups are supposed to do.”[5]

“John Fankhauser, a missionary doctor, said: “I have a very keen awareness of the risks and the need to be extremely careful, but I also feel very called to what I’m doing,” says Fankhauser, 52, from Ventura, Calif. “I feel very confident that this is where God wants me right now.” With the exception of Doctors Without Borders, international aid groups moved at a glacial pace. The World Health Organization deferred to weak local governments to tackle the terrifying disease. Even the U.S. military response was predicated on the idea that American troops would not be directly providing care to people affected by the virus” [12]. It was up to the church. And if these Christians chose to follow “self-isolation” and “social distancing,” who would help these people?

God’s Word

Aside from Jesus’ example, and the Apostles’ example in Holy Scripture, we can find assistance in coming to a biblical response in other truths made in scripture.

Psalm 41:1

“Happy is one who cares for the poor; the LORD will save him in a day of adversity.”

There are two ways to look at this; is avoiding contact with the poor, caring for the poor? Is this being merciful and loving in that you care for their health enough to avoid them in the hopes of preventing getting them sick?

Here’s a problem. If you know you are not sick, then avoiding them is actually SELFISHNESS and UNLOVING to the poor. Because you are actually more worried about your self and your own health than to serve the Lord, willing to risk yourself for his Glory and their greater good. Making this argument, knowing your are not sick, exposes your selfishness, weak faith, and doubt in God’s protection.

So, if you are not sick, but yet you avoid taking care of the poor when given the opportunity, you are actually IN SIN. You don’t trust the Lord’s protection. You don’t believe in his divine healing. And you care more about your own life than the person you claim to love.

James 4:17

“So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn’t do it. “

Helping someone in need, is what is good. Physically caring for someone in need, is what is good. Caring for someone in physical or emotional need, is what is good. Avoiding all these, to keep yourself from getting sick, is not doing what is good; it’s selfish, non-sacrificial, lacking in faith, thus sin.

Mark 16:17-20

¹⁷And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages; ¹⁸they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” ¹⁹After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. ²⁰Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Now, this is huge. Jesus said these things “WILL accompany those who believe.” They can touch deadly things, even receive into their bodies deadly things, and yet, “WILL NOT hurt them at all.” and then right after that he said “they WILL place their hands ON SICK PEOPLE.” Again, all these “will accompany those who believe.”

Think about the gravity of this. WHY are you scared to touch sick people? The REAL question is, why do you NOT believe Jesus’ word here? To simplify it; Why do you not fully trust God? Do you not trust God will/can heal them? Do you not trust God will/can protect you?

Peter could walk on water! but, because of his weak faith, he almost drowned (Matthew 14:30). If Peter walked on water, why can’t you minister to sick people? If it is fear, Jesus directly addresses you:

Matthew 10:28

²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The “who” could be a “what” or another noun; person, place, or thing. That “thing” can also be COVID-19. COVID-19 has killed people, but it only kills this temporary body. Jesus flat out commands us to “NOT BE AFRAID” of COVID-19… Is your lack of faith leading you to disobedience?

John 10:11

“A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep but the hireling sees the wolf coming and flees”

This is a brutal revelation about pastors, elders, and church leaders. The wolf, is anything worldly that scares the weak and scatters the flock. This is exactly what COVID-19 is doing; has scared the flock and scattered it. Sadly, it appears that most pastors are just hirelings and not good shepherds, because they too have gone into hiding. Martin Luther said “For when people are dying, they most need a spiritual ministry which strengthens and comforts their consciences by word and sacrament and in faith overcomes death.”

1 Timothy 5:8

“⁸But if anyone does not provide for his own, that is his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.“

Now this is a very important COMMAND. YOU have a duty, a divine responsibility to take care of your household and family. Maintaining social distancing and avoiding contact with family and members of your household is in direct violation to this command. The things that are to be provided are care, love, fellowship, not just physical resources. Obligated to provide physical and emotional support and care. Even Bond-servant Masters are to care for their bond-servants as members of their household (Eph 6:5-9). So, this isn’t just limited to immediate blood-family.

Matthew 25:41-46

⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Now THIS is condemning. Social Isolation and avoiding fellowship risks THIS! Social Isolation and avoiding fellowship does not feed the hungry, hydrate the thirsty, not welcome the lonely and strangers, does not clothe the poor, and cold, OR VISIT THE SICK! Jesus literally says “sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Closing the church, stopping fellowship and corporate worship directly conflicts with what Jesus is getting at here.

The church, by closing and avoiding worship and fellowship, is neglecting those in need. And dumping the duties to try to care for the local church community violates what The Holy Spirit prescribes in 1 Cor. 12:21-26.

1 John 3:16-17

¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

What does that look like now? You see people in need, or know of a friend, family, or community in need; you have the resources to address that need and have been part of that community assisting in helping that need before; then suddenly, stopping, no longer helping because of fear of getting sick. You are not willing to lay down your life for the brothers and sisters in your community.

All of these raise the question:

Is risking infection unloving to your household?

It can’t be. The Apostles risked getting sick by healing people every day, Peter was married. Was he risking getting infected and then infecting his wife? No, it wasn’t a risk because God is soverign. In the eyes of the weak in spirit, yes, it seemed like he was risking getting infected and bringing the bug back home to his wife. But the element of a sovereign God is unfaithfully absent with that idea.

Is it then unloving for missionaries to take their families to dangerous parts of the world for mission work? Of course not. Is it a risk of danger, maybe. But is the fear of risk the problem? Yes.

The fear is being poor in faith. The fear is immaturity in faith. Peter feared drowning once he saw he was walking on water. What, is it selfish and unloving of him to risk widowing his wife to walk on water with Jesus? Is it selfish of Peter to lay hands on the sick, and risk being infected and taking the sickness back home to his wife? No. Peter was not in the wrong or acting in sin.

What Does The Bible Say About Quarantine?

So what happens when we become sick? Well, we should be quarantined; but not neglected.

Leviticus 13:4-8

the priest is to isolate the affected person for seven days. ⁵On the seventh day the priest is to examine them, and if he sees that the sore is unchanged and has not spread in the skin, he is to isolate them for another seven days. ⁶On the seventh day the priest is to examine them again, and if the sore has faded and has not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce them clean; it is only a rash. They must wash their clothes, and they will be clean. ⁷But if the rash does spread in their skin after they have shown themselves to the priest to be pronounced clean, they must appear before the priest again. ⁸The priest is to examine that person, and if the rash has spread in the skin, he shall pronounce them unclean; it is a defiling skin disease.

Here we see “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron” and laid out this process of a sort of quarantine. This skin disease spoken about is a bacterial infection of Leprosy, which is contagious.

This is about those who HAVE symptoms or ARE sick. This is NOT about people who DO NOT have symptoms of any contagious sickness. The context can not be used to justify quarantining healthy people. Because, then how could the priest examine the person and determine their cleanliness or uncleanliness?

If, your sick, stay at home. If you are NOT sick, YOU HAVE A DUTY TO SERVE THE LORD STILL. But, what if the government orders the churches to close?

Government Orders to Close Churches

Romans 13:1-7

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ²Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ⁴for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ⁶For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

This comes up a lot too, by pastors who close their churches at the orders of the state. They justify this action with the use of this verse. A major problem, though. This verse applies to governing authorities of good conduct. And “good” is defined by God. That means, if the governing authorities do NOT do what is good but, in fact, impose authority that which only God is owed, they they are not to be respected and honored; because they are NOT the one whom the respected and honor is owed. Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and give God what is God’s (Mark 12:17). Worship and praise is God’s, he owns it, and expects it, commands it; it is our duty before God himself. ANY governing authority that interferes with it, is due no respect or honor in regards to it.

Watching your church service from a live video feed is not corporate fellowship and worship. You have no interaction with the pastor or fellow believers. It is no different from you watching any other video instead. You may as well YouTube other churches and pastors that you’ve never met. It’s all the same.

Corporate Worship and Fellowship

Acts 2:42, 46

“devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts”

Closing church doors and doing live video feeds of worship services is NOT being “devoted to… fellowship, to breaking of bread…” It is just not possible. You can not break bread from a live Facebook feed. Fellowship is neglected, period. The early church was so on fire for Christ, they met every day! DESPITE Roman authorities AND Jewish authorities persecuting them.

The early church defied the Roman authority. The early church defied the Jewish authorities. The early church RISKED death, arrest, breaking the law, jail, prison, and diseases; yet, still were devoted to fellowship and meeting in their homes.

Hebrews 10:25

²⁵not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

As mentioned above, the early church was dealing with governing authorities, such as Rome and the Jewish authorities, ordering them not to meet. They risked legal issues, fines, jail time, prison, and violence. Yet, the author of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy Spirit, directly and absolutely states “NOT GIVING UP MEETING TOGETHER”.

Conclusion

We see that Jesus went to the sick and physically touched them and heal them.
We see that the Apostles went to the sick and physically touched them to heal them.
We see that the early church, and the church all throughout history did NOT close their doors (willingly) for government authorities and plagues.
Irenaeus of Lyons didn’t pause his ministry during the Antonine Plague.
Cyprian of Carthage didn’t pause his ministry during the Cyprian Plague.
Dionysius of Corinth didn’t pause his ministry during the Cyprian Plague.
Martin Luther didn’t pause his ministry during the Second Bubonic Plague.
The St Bride’s Christian community didn’t pause ministry work during the Great Plague of London.
Charles Spurgeon didn’t stop public ministry work during the Broad Street Cholera Outbreak of 1854.
The Church is commanded to be devoted to each other and to meeting, and not giving up in meeting. And no exceptions to this command were given.
The Church is to obey, show respect and honor, to worldly authorities, as so long as the authorities are doing what is good and just – as defined by God. But, by commanding the Church it disobey God, the worldly authorities are no longer due respect and honor. The Church is commanded to always give God what is always and forever God’s, which is obedience and worship; even if it requires disobeying worldly authorities.

We see throughout scripture the duty and responsibility for believers to care for the sick, physically. We see God commanding the church to NOT give up meeting, but to remain devoted to meeting together; no matter what the governing authorities impose or what worldly sickness is around. That closing churches and not meeting together, in fact, reveals a lack of faith and fear of worldly pressures over the duty of what God is owed; obedience and worship.

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Have Some Gifts of The Spirit Ceased?

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More specifically, has the gift of tongues, healings, and prophesying ceased? Right off the bat some will argue of course they have not citing some of their own witness accounts at their local church. BUT are those experiences the same as the ones described during apostolic age?

When individuals chosen by God performed miracles, they were to authenticate those persons as being directly inspired and influenced by God. Signs were meant to authenticate the ministry and message. The question is now, are specific signs still needed to authenticate the already established church and scripture?

Miracle Gift of Tongues

A more common gift claiming to manifest in the Pentecostal and charismatic churches is the gift of tongues. During church services and prayer, some will begin to ‘speak in tongues’ as they pray out loud or with others. They will speak in a incoherent nonsensical manner. The justification for the incoherence and babbling is that this is a divine heavenly language and only those meant to understand it do. Is that what took place in Acts and during the apostolic age?

We have already vastly studied the gift of tongues so we will not go into it in detail here. If you would like more detail studies see Speaking In Tongues and What Language do Angels Speak?.

It is important to note that the actual gift of tongues in the apostolic age was for NON believers (1 Corinthians 14:22). This sign shows the non believer that GOD can speak to them through people who have never studied their language. The gospel message is not limited by human tongue. This is a clear contradiction in most Pentecostal and Charismatic churches today as that most who ‘use’ the gift are praying over believers or privately in worship. Another contradiction is that the nonsensical babbling is also NOT a holy divine language. God speaks ALL languages and speaks to individuals in their language as seen throughout scripture. Incoherent nonsensical babbling is not biblical.

The real question is whether or not the actual gift of tongues (speaking in a actual language never learned) is still around. Paul does state that this gift WILL cease (1 Corinthians 13:8). It is also important to note that when Paul talks about the miracle gifts, they are only mentioned in his earliest epistles to the earliest churches and not in his later ones. The earliest writings of the disciples of the Apostles also shows that these miracle gifts did cease. All the disciples of John and Peter (Paipas, Ignatius, Clement, Polycarp) do not record a single instances of the gifts in use in their time. Later ancient church writers such as Justin Martyr, Origen, Chrysostom, and Augustine taught that those gifts only happened in the earliest days of the Church as well. Thus church history DOES show they did cease.

Did that gift make a come back?

According to the Azusa street revival it did. BUT was that the same as what took place at Pentecost and the same gift recorded in Holy Scripture? All one must do is look at the gift in scripture and compare. Again, the biblical account of the gift was speaking in a language that was never learned by the speaker to reach unbelievers. Was this the case at the Azusa street revival? No. Unfortunately that was the moment that kicked off the incoherent nonsensical babbling instead.

This is a tough one to support considering that after the Azusa Street Revival, missionaries were faithfully sent to Japan, China, and India with no language training under the assumption that the gift of tongues will manifest. “Numerous other Pentecostal missionaries went abroad believing they had the miraculous ability to speak in the languages of those to whom they were sent. These Pentecostal claims were well known at the time. S.C. Todd of the Bible Missionary Society investigated eighteen Pentecostals who went to Japan, China, and India ‘expecting to preach to the natives in those countries in their own tongue,’ and found that by their own admission ‘in no single instance have [they] been able to do so.’ As these and other missionaries returned in disappointment and failure, Pentecostals were compelled to rethink their original view of speaking in tongues” Alfred Garr and his wife went to India expecting to speak in supernatural languages, but they quickly learned that it was a delusion. May Law and Rosa Pittman went to Japan expecting to preach in Japanese but when they found that no one could understand their “tongues” they moved on to Hong Kong, thinking that they must have the gift of Chinese instead, but they were no more successful there. T.J. McIntosh was the first Pentecostal missionary to Macau, and though he fully expected to speak fluent Chinese his hopes were soon dashed. (Robert Mapes Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism). So what happened? Why couldn’t anyone genuinely understand them like the various cultures could in Acts? Because the incoherent nonsensical babbling uttered today is not the same as the biblical speaking in tongues.

Miracle Gift of Healing

Let us first look that the healings performed by Jesus and the Apostles.

Jesus fully healed people close to death (John 4:47-50) and raised people form the dead (John 7:11-17, 8:40-42, 49-56, 11:1-45). He instantly drove out possessed people (Matthew 15:21-28, 17:14-20; Luke 4:33-34; John 8:26-39). He healed those with high fevers, but not just any fever, it was high enough for it to be obvious and everyone to be concerned; not just a feeling (Luke 4:38-39). And these weren’t hurt feelings Jesus was curing, they were obvious DISEASES (Mark 1:32-34), like Leprosy (John 5:12-14; Luke 17:11-19) and blood diseases (John 8:42-48). He without a doubt, at that moment, healed people who were paralyzed (John 5:17-26, 7:1-10), literally and obviously blind (Matthew 9:27-31, 12:22-23; Mark 8:22-26; Luke 18:35-43; John 9:1-12), mute (Matthew 9:32-34), deaf (Mark 7:31-37), and crippled (Luke 13:10-17). Other OBVIOUS physical deformities undeniably instantly healed (John 6:6-11). The Apostle Peter heals a crippled person (Acts 3:1-11), Palsy (Acts 9:33-34) and raises people from the dead (Acts 9:36-41). The Apostle Paul heals a crippled person (Acts 14:8-10), casts out demons (Acts 16:16-18) and raises the dead (Acts 20:9-12).

Now as time went on we see that Paul or the other Apostles did not heal Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25-27), Trophimus (2 Timothy 4:20), Timothy (1 Timothy 5:23), or even Paul himself (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). If the Holy Spirit continued to heal, why were they not healed? It comes down to understanding the purpose of these miracle gifts.

Despite popular evangelical belief, these miracle gifts were to authenticate the authority of the Apostles. Once the Apostles were proven authentic, what was the purpose then? If the purpose was for physical healing, why weren’t those later healed by Paul or the Apostles? Why weren’t the later disciples of the Apostles also healing? Why is there no further healings recorded by any other Christian teacher or writer after the Apostles in early church history? When the gifts were mentioned, why were they all spoken about in past tense?

But what about those who claim to have been healed today?

Again, lets compare the healings recorded in scripture to the claimed healings today. Are there any eye witnesses to people being raised from the dead? Any instant healings of those who were blind, crippled, deaf, or paralyzed? The bible itself does not talk about people who have been healed from headaches, stomachaches, fatigue, anxiety, or any other illness that is not truly verifiable. In fact, Paul told Timothy to drink something for his stomachaches. Why not heal him? Irony is to see healers, healing people, yet wearing prescription glasses. Why not heal their sight? Why aren’t these godly healers quietly going to hospitals and humbly healing people in the greatest need? Why aren’t they volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House and healing those innocent suffering children? The answer is obvious.

The Miracle Gift of Prophesy

Proclaiming in detail events that will happen was a sure authentication of God. Revealing secret, private, specific details about someone that only God and the individual would know is a sure authentication of God. The Old Testament Prophets described details that were impossible for them to know. Like the actual birth place of Jesus 500 years earlier for example. A New Testament Prophet revealed a coming famine that would hit specific areas and the church acted and sent aid to those areas that will suffer from famine (Acts 11:28 and 21:10). This famine did occur in 41 – 45AD. But after the apostolic age, why are there no detailed specific prophecies regarding major natural disasters later?

The word ‘prophet’ and the verb ‘to prophesy’ ALSO means to ‘bring forth’. Just as the Prophets of the Old Testament brought forth the very words of God; the gift in the New Testament meant the same. Keep in mind, during the formation and foundation of the church, the Apostles were still living BUT they were traveling. How would a church hear the words of God if the Apostles had not written them down to read while they were away traveling? Thus, some were gifted with the ability to speak forth God’s words, the same words as the apostles recorded later. Those with the gift of prophesy could proclaim God’s truths in the absence of the Apostles and Holy Scripture. Once the Words of God were recorded by the Apostles and copies of Holy Scripture were given to the churches, later writings of the Apostles commands believers to TEST that they are told from people claiming to prophesy (1 John 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:20-21). Thus, as Paul writes in his later Epistle, it is SCRIPTURE that is complete and equips men for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Notice he does not indicate any future words from anyone prophesying. The Apostles themselves, nearing the end of their lives, point to all that has been preached by them in past tense (Galatians 1:8; Jude 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16; John 20:30-31; 1 John 5:13; 2 Timothy 3:14-17) and that everything necessary has been revealed (1 John 5:13; John 14:26, 20:31; Romans 2:16; Gal. 1:8-9; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Cor. 11:4; Acts 20:27; Ps. 19:7-14). Because, now that they have written everything necessary, no one is to add, subtract, or change what was taught (Rev. 22:10-18; Deut. 4:2; John 14:26; Gal. 1:8-9; 2 Cor. 11:4; 2 John 1:9; 1 Tim. 6:3; Ps. 19:7-14). So, the completed bible is not lacking and everything necessary has been revealed, the gift of prophesy is rendered useless now that it has completed its purpose.

NOT COMPLETELY CEASED

Since God is God, he will do as he pleases for his perfect will to be done world wide. What about societies in remote parts of the world where the language is unknown and they have no access to Holy Scripture? In situations like this, that are very similar to the the situation in early church history, God may very well choose to empower someone with the gifts so that these people can be reached. It wont be in babbling but of their own real language. These missionaries would be able to either speak Mandarin in China without ever having studied it OR the Chinese will be able to understand English without ever studying it. THAT will blow everyone’s mind and lead people to Christ! Is it possible, sure? Is it how it is done today, no.

CONCLUSION

When we simply compare the miracle gifts detailed in Holy Scripture and test the modern attempts of them with Scripture, we can clearly see that they are not the same. The gifts are NOT in use to the same extent that they were during the apostolic age. BUT we will NOT say they have fully or completely ceased because GOD is GOD and is the sole authority in the distribution and use of the gifts he provides the church. We CAN say however that the Pentecostal and charismatic efforts of these gifts are NOT the same gifts recorded in scripture. Hearing people babble is NOT the same as hearing a unlearned foreign language spoken. Seeing someone’s headache healed is NOT the same as witnessing a deformity perfectly healed or seeing the dead come back to life. The Pentecostal and Charismatic ‘experiences’ are more of a travesty and insult to the supreme amazing power of God as recorded in his word.

We pray that God grants the true miracle gifts to missionaries reaching unreached people groups and we pray that his undeniable and unquestionable healings take place to bring absolute glory to God.

If you have any questions or comments about this article please contact us or join our discussion forms

John of God, The Spiritual Healer from Brazil

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John of God is a fairly well known spiritual healer based out of Brazil. He has been interviewed by Oprah and featured on ABC News, Newsweek, and other international news outlets. He is a medium and spiritual healer that performs odd ‘surgeries’ that heal the individuals illness and spirit. He claims to be possessed by ‘entities’ such as dead saints and doctors. He claims that all his spiritual encounters and healings are done by God’s will. Given his region of the world is predominately catholic and mentions the ‘saints’ it would seem that the God he is referring to is The God of The Bible. BUT is he serving God’s will? Is allowing himself to be possessed by ‘entities’ God’s doing? Is he OF God?

The first major problem for John of God, to be actually ‘of God’, is when we read in God’s actual word, Deut. 18:10-12,14; he straight up contradicts The God of The Bible. Within the nation of Israel, the offense of medium or necromancer was punishable by death. Although that physical consequence is no longer required thanks to Jesus and his mercy, the spiritual death remains without repentance (Lev. 20:27). Despite explicitly contradicting God’s own word, which exposes him as a false prophet and teacher, people flock to him.

DOES HE ACTUALLY HEAL?

According to testimonies on his website and on the websites of his followers, of course, he does in fact heal. To validate some healings, the Australian 60 Minutes, followed 40 Australians who traveled to see John of God to be healed. They went through the healing process. John of God channeled an entity who then healed them. He would stick forceps deep into the nose of some and scrape the eye for others. Though none of their illnesses related to the nose or eyes, the ‘operation’ seemed to be conducted carefully. BUT, as James Randi and Joe Nickell who are investigators of such type of supernatural healings point out, these are nothing more than shock and awe acts. It only SEEMS hardcore when he uses knife to scrape someones eyeball or to stick surgical forceps deep in someones nose. The most extreme act that can be done by anyone to seem professionally surgical. The Australian 60 Minutes followed up with the 40 Australians who went to John of God to be healed, and found out that none of them were. In his interview with Oprah he then states that the healing is up to God, implying that some people he tries to heal, even after channeling spirits and scraping their eyes, still may not get healed. That’s an easy cop out considering all the time, money, and actions spent- only to have nothing happen. ABC News Primetime had a biased program special of John of God. They limited the skeptics time to just 19 seconds while boosting the time of Dr. Oz who was more sympathetic to John of God. There were 5 noted attempted healings. A man’s brain tumor shrank. BUT he also had medical treatments before going to see John of God. Why couldn’t the God of the universe make his brain tumor vanish? A second “healing” is someone who felt as though they suffered from chronic fatigue; who, after visiting John of God, feels better. Really? A third is of a man who HAS ALS; and he had no change. A fourth, an actress who had breast cancer, had no effect. A fifth is a paralyzed woman, who “walked” using braces to hold her self up. She can still not walk but “feels” something is improving, except her ability to walk. NOW let us consider the healings of THE SON of GOD and the Apostles.

Jesus fully healed people close to death (John 4:47-50) and raised people form the dead (John 7:11-17, 8:40-42, 49-56, 11:1-45). He instantly drove out possessed people (Matthew 15:21-28, 17:14-20; Luke 4:33-34; John 8:26-39). He healed those with high fevers, but not just any fever, it was high enough for it to be obvious and everyone to be concerned; not just a feeling (Luke 4:38-39). And these weren’t hurt feelings Jesus was curing, they were obvious DISEASES (Mark 1:32-34), like Leprosy (John 5:12-14; Luke 17:11-19) and blood diseases (John 8:42-48). He without a doubt, at that moment, healed people who were paralyzed (John 5:17-26, 7:1-10), literally and obviously blind (Matthew 9:27-31, 12:22-23; Mark 8:22-26; Luke 18:35-43; John 9:1-12), mute (Matthew 9:32-34), deaf (Mark 7:31-37), and crippled (Luke 13:10-17). Other OBVIOUS physical deformities undeniably instantly healed (John 6:6-11). The Apostle Peter heals a crippled person (Acts 3:1-11), Palsy (Acts 9:33-34) and raises people from the dead (Acts 9:36-41). The Apostle Paul heals a crippled person (Acts 14:8-10), casts out demons (Acts 16:16-18) and raises the dead (Acts 20:9-12).

Now, simply comparing, we see that John of God is NOT healing in the same way THE SON of God is healing or the Apostles. Its difficult to tell if he is actually healing anyone at all. IF John of God IS OF God, then why is he not able to heal like the Apostles? NOTICE, that he claims his healing powers come from other ‘entities’ that enter him. The Apostles’ healing power came from God himself.

IS HE ACTUALLY POSSESSED BY OTHER ENTITIES?

It is interesting to note that he does not drive out demons or people possessed by other spirits. That may have something to do with the fact that he claims himself to be possessed by other spirits. As we see in God’s Word, spirit possession does and can occur. The question is DO people gifted with the supernatural gift of healing need to be possessed by other entities (besides The Holy Spirit) in order to heal? There is ZERO accounts of angels possessing believers to perform miracles. So we can rule out godly angel possession. What does that leave us with now? Have you ever stopped to wonder why God forbid mediums in the first place? See, when people come to faith, and know the true living God, they are filled by HIS Spirit (Romans 8:9-11; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). Leaving no room for other spirit possession. Plus, why would you even need another spirit to enter you when you have GOD HIMSELF in you? BUT Hey, if John of God claims to be possessed by other entities besides The Holy Spirit (and can’t be godly angels either) than we can take his word for it because that is supported by God’s Word, just maybe not the kind of entities he thinks they are. In fact, we would concur that he is filled with non-godly entities because why else could he confidently contradict God’s Word and be deceived?

IS HE A CON-ARTIST?

There are some key points to consider. (1) He uses pseudo-medical operations unrelated to the area of issue and the same ‘operations’ used by previous exposed healing con-artists in the past. If he CAN heal AND is OF GOD, why not actually perform a real operation IF he is in fact OF GOD? The Apostles healed cripples and raised people from the dead; IF he is a supernatural healer of God, he should be able to as well? The major rhetorical question is, why doesn’t he? (2) He set up his own compound called the CASA where people from around the world spend thousands of dollars to go; if he is OF GOD, why doesn’t he heal from a distance like Jesus did or go to where the sick are, like hospitals? WHY does he have people spend thousands of dollars to travel and accept even more money from people once they get there (after spending thousands on traveling costs already)? Jesus not only healed while he was traveling but he ALSO went to places where the sick congregated; for free (same with the Apostles). Something interesting to point out here, there was a slave girl who told fortunes and made her master rich, but was possessed by demons (Acts 16:16-18). Have you heard of Simon Magus or Simon The Sorcerer? The people who followed this guy proclaimed “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God”, sounds familiar right? This guy was even baptized by Philip. BUT he did not have the Holy Spirit. Instead, he wanted to BUY the power and use it for material gain. But Peter sharply rebuked him (Acts 8:9-23). (3) The most obvious point to consider, if he is OF GOD, why does contradict God? (4) Satan, and demons have the abilities to do signs, wonders, and what seem to be miraculous things. Some who DID miracles in the name of Jesus, Jesus himself didn’t even know them (Matthew 7:21-23). Jesus warns us of false people who can do great signs and wonders (Matthew 24:11,24). Even in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was warned about false people who can do amazing things (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). Thus, miracles are not proof that he is OF GOD.

WHAT MAKES HIM ANY DIFFERENT?

When considering the slave girl (Acts 16:16-18) and Simon Magus (Acts 8:9-23), what makes John of God any different? Nothing really. They all performed amazing acts and gained a following of believers that made them wealthy and they all were not OF GOD. Simply calling your self John of God does not make you of God. Well, maybe it does in a different way; it identifies him as of God and ruler of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 5:19; John 12:31). The god who masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). But being OF GOD, the eternal creator of the universe, that is clearly a big no. And all one has to do is study The Bible to see.

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Who or What Is The Holy Spirit?

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Who or what is the Holy Spirit? Is it a force, is it supernatural energy, is it a person, or is it something else. Is it a thing or is it a being? Knowing who or what the The Holy Spirit is directly impacts who you know God to be. This article will evaluate what God makes known about The Holy Spirit.

What Does the Bible alone say?

It is important to notice that when the it is mentioned, it is a singular pronoun; this it is a “he” and not an “it”. In many places of the bible, THE Spirit is in the form of a masculine pronoun.

Matthew 28:19 names specific beings to baptize in the name of. The Father is a being, The Son, is a being, and The Holy Spirit…besides the fact it is a noun, it is also separated from The Father and The Son and given its own name. Jesus is of God, and in Ephesians 4:30, The Holy Spirit is of God as well. Acts 5:3 shows us that we can Sin against The Holy Spirit as well. He speaks to us and we can obey The Holy Spirit (Acts 10:19–21).

We see the uniqueness of The Holy Spirit as a being of his own but whom is also of God. Then, scripture, reveals even more about His personhood and unique involvement with God and his creation of the universe. He was involved in creation (Genesis 1:2). He empowers God’s people (Zechariah 4:6), guides (Romans 8:14), comforts and helps (John 14:26). He also gives authoritative commands (Acts 8:29).

You will start to notice similarities between The Holy Spirit and over all descriptions of God himself. This is important. His attributes are also revealed in scripture. He is life (Romans 8:2), has a unique will of His own like Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:11). He is omniscient (1 Corinthians 2:10–11), he is eternal (Hebrews 9:14), and is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7). Paul even explicitly states that He is God in 2 Corinthians 3:17–18.

His Attributes

Now, after noticing all His attributes, we see that he has the same attributes of God himself. A life giver, with the authoritative will, he is omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal. He spiritually empowers, guides, comforts, helps, and with absolute authority he commands. Therefore, given the totality of scripture we can know that The Holy Spirit is a being of and, at the same time, God himself. From here, we see the third person of The Trinity, the One Triune God of The Bible. The discussion of his unique will is addressed later.

Correct Interpretation of Scripture.

Much like correctly understanding adjectives verses pronouns, we must also correctly understand the words purposely recorded in scripture. Some will try and claim that The Holy Spirit is nothing more than a power force from God. They use Micah 3:8 and Luke 1:35 as proofs. BUT Micah 3:8 does not actually say that. “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord,” Notice Micah states that he is filled with power; yes, BUT who’s power? WITH The Spirit’s power, who “is of The Lord” This verse actually validates The Spirit having power, which, empowers people. The Hebrew word רוּחַ ruwachl is a pronoun meaning “by The Spirit”. The Septuagint text, in greek, renders this as a name of a person; ‘The Spirit’. Zechariah 4:6 make this clear distinction between ‘power’ and ‘the spirit’ “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” Luke 1:35 continues this distinction “And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born<sup class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-ESV-24920a" data-link="[a]”>[a] will be called holy—the Son of God.” The Holy Spirit here is a pronoun first. Second, The Holy Spirit has the power of the Most High (God). In light of all the verses stated above, we see that this being, has the power of God himself.

Human Description of The Holy Spirit moving/acting

Because, The Holy Spirit is just that, a spirit; how then do you describe his actions? By how the material world is moved around you. Much like wind or someones breath. You can’t see the wind but you feel and observe its effects. You can’t see someones breath but you smell its effects. When The Holy Spirit acts, all we see are the effects.

Wind is not, the moving of the trees. The movement of the trees is caused by something outside of the trees. In the same way, The Holy Spirit is not the effects or some sort of force or power, it is the cause and source of the force or power- God.

Exodus 15:8-10 is sometimes used to show that The Holy Spirit is nothing more than a descriptive word of a God like force. Again, they fail to see that the effects are not the being. They are quick to say that this is talking only about God The Father BUT God doesn’t have nostrils or breath either (also stated in the same verses). To say that this eliminates the possibility of The Holy Spirit being an actual being, is to also eliminate God himself because, it can not be talking about God either (with nostrils and breath). Therefore it is simply describing the act of God, of which, The Holy Spirit is also God (see verses above). There are other verses that describe God with human characteristics as well. When verses are used to attempt and discredit The Holy Spirit as a person they fail to see the flaw in their reasoning; since God The Father does not have human characteristics like breathing oxygen and nostrils, it is a self defeating argument and misinterpretation of scripture. This type of language is called personification.

No Name?

Other times some will argue that the Bible does not give names of The Holy Spirit like it does God The Father and The Son. But that is blind ignorance. “The Helper” , “The Spirit”, “The Holy Spirit”, “The Holy Ghost” are all names, pronouns, of the being. Calling him The Holy Spirit, is giving Him a name. That is a invalid argument from its premise.

Changing Pronouns

Acts 7:55 in the New World Translation is a poor and failed translation. Stephen was filled by The Holy Ghost and was empowered by The Holy Spirit to look into heaven. The source of the ability to see heaven came from The Holy Spirit. “being full of holy spirit” is not what The Septuagint and Textus Receptus states simply by attempting to remove “holy spirit” as a pronoun. The texts literally mean “THE Holy Spirit” in pronoun form according to the ancient greek texts. This is just proof that the New World Translation actually manipulates and changes its text to suit its desires instead of preserving what the texts actually say.

Neuter is no proof

The Holy Spirit IS gender-less in reality. The Holy Spirit is not male or female, in the same way God The Father is not actually male or female. To claim that because the Bible uses neuter pronouns in some instances when discussing The Holy Spirit is to also discredit the descriptions of God himself. The masculine use of God The Father and in the cases of The Holy Spirit is to express the leadership roles of it in cultural language forms. God is The Father because he is the head of his house (The Kingdom of God) and as creating head of the children of God much like a father is of his children. Neuter forms does not negate ‘being’ because both forms are still true in actuality and purpose. John 4:24 says “God is Spirit”. Which gender is that? The text uses a neuter noun for God. The neuter argument for denying The Holy Spirit is invalid.

Outside Influence

It is comical that some people who claim to know God and proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, denounce the Holy Spirit with ‘evidences’ sourced from other sources outside of scripture. They will rely on their own new age religious institution or even Encyclopædia Britannica, for example, instead of researching and understanding what scripture alone states as a whole.

Poor Examples

Some people claim to have been filled by the Holy Spirit, sing and dance like crazy in church, felt all warm and fuzzy on the inside for a while; then, returned to their daily routine of sins they enjoy. This is problematic for a number of reasons. First, John 16:8 makes it clear HE will convict the world of sin and cause righteousness in believers. Second, HE transforms us from children of wrath into children of God. He literally transforms our hearts and conforms our wills closer and closer to God’s Will. We produce spiritual fruit which are characteristics that reflect God himself. Third, when we are baptized into becoming children of God, he indwells in us, and never leaves us! HE does NOT just float into us, make us do and say a bunch of crazy things, then leaves us. Poor examples of immature believers or false converts are NOT proof of the nonexistence of the convicting and transforming power of The Holy Spirit. Absolute faith in Jesus Christ as Lord God and Savior and disgust for your sin is; because this is what The Holy Spirit teaches to those that know Him! The Gospel is what The Holy Spirit makes supernaturally known and declared in the hearts and minds of those who truly believe.

All The Biblical Texts Alone

The whole of the Bible describes as The Holy Spirit as a unique being and God at the same time. Thus, given the totality of what is stated when correctly interpreting The Septuagint, Masoritic Text, Textus Receptus, Alexandrian Texts, and Byzantine Texts, we clearly understand that The Holy Spirit is in fact a unique being and God at the same time; Thus, the importance of actually understanding The Triune God to fully and maximally know God himself.

Early Church History

It is interesting to point out about the understanding of The Holy Spirit as a being that distributes gifts of The Spirit and enabling believers to exorcises theses gifts in the Spirit through the Spirit. The Didache, a late 1st or early 2nd century writing describes The Holy Spirit distrusting gifts and how to determine if someone was actually filled by The Holy Spirit or another spirit when claiming to exorcises the spiritual gifts. Around c.155–160, Justin Martyr writes about the gifts of The Spirit. Right after him, Tertullian discuss the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 20 or so years after him, Irenaeus of Lyon does the same. All these early church writers are only, maybe, 70 years after the Apostles, who wrote scripture, with The Holy Spirit guiding them (the Apostles). This is not saying the later church writers were inspired by The Holy Spirit, they weren’t, or at least not like the Apostles were; but they are proof that the person, the being, The Holy Spirit was known in scripture, at the formation of the universe, the formation of the church, and known later. The idea that ‘The Holy Spirit as a being was later invented‘, just does not hold up in light of scripture and early church teaching of Him.

The Will of The Holy Spirit

With limited understanding of scripture or negative influences in interpreting or cherry picking scripture; some find it hard to see how The Holy Spirit has his own will, a part from the will of God The Father. It does seem like a difficult issue.

John 16:13-15 illustrates the will of The Holy Spirit. “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is Mine. This is why I told you that He takes from what is Mine and will declare it to you.” Wow. He will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears. He will declare that which glorifies Christ Jesus. But the absolute key here is the uniformity of wills. Though, The Holy Spirit has his own will, Jesus has his own will, and God The Father wills; all are perfectly on the same page with each other. What I mean by that is they are all in perfect agreement. They are perfectly unified with each other. The Holy Spirit’s will is exactly what Jesus and God The Father wills. Though having His own will, The Holy Spirit will never contradict or be in conflict with Christ Jesus or God The Father. The Triune God will have His will done in perfect unison and harmony.

The Holy Spirit helps, counsels, teaches, guides, gives spiritual life and baptizes, spiritual gift giver, enabler, empowerment giver, intercedes for believers, and literally indwells in believers; all to glorify Jesus Christ, all for God’s will to be done. The only people to know HIM, as a being, are those whom have been made spiritually alive, baptized, and indwelt; by Him. The only way to know Jesus as Lord God is by the work of The Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:11, 3:16; John 14:26, 16:13; Romans 8:14, 26). We can’t reason and debate our way into discovering Him.

Conclusion:

Given the total amount of truth revealed in scripture alone, we can see that The Holy Spirit is a unique being AND God. Thus, the only way to truly understand this is through The Trinity. The claim that The Holy Spirit is nothing more than a force or power comes from cherry picking scripture, misinterpretation of scripture, and using outside sources to influence misunderstanding of scripture.

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What Language do Angels Speak?

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Angels come from heaven and were created by God. They are either messengers from God or fallen angles, punished to earth and awaiting judgement with no hope of redemption. As messengers and servants of God, how do they communicate with mankind? There are a lot of writings on angels but what does God’s Word make known about angles? In this article we will look at how angles interact and communicate with mankind.

Rev 9:11 records a hierarchy of fallen spirits with an actual name in human language. In 2 Kings 1:2; 16 we see the name of another chief fallen angel and even could be another name for Satan of whom communicates through the language of that culture.

Angels from God, such as Gabriel, which means ‘man of God’ appears to people as a man and speaks to them in a real intelligible language of that culture as well. In Daniel 8:16 and Daniel 9:21 he uses his man-form and intelligible language in a dream and in person. In Luke 1:19; 26 we see Gabriel sent to relaying intelligible messages in real human languages in person. Jude 9 records the chief created angel, Michael, debating with Satan using a real human language. Jesus himself spoke a real intelligible language to Satan in Matthew 4:10 and those whom were possessed by Demons, replied to Jesus in real intelligible languages.

From all that is revealed about how angels communicate we see that they can speak the language of the culture they are sent to. Even in dreams they still speak the known real intelligible language.

What about “Tongues of Angels” in 1 Cor 13:1?

First, understand there is zero references to a heavenly language in all of scripture. Second, 1 Cor 13:1, when correctly understood is this: “having the ability to speak with “divine eloquence.” As one well-known Bible scholar put it, “Paul is simply saying that, were he to have the ability to speak with the skill and eloquence of the greatest men, even with angelic eloquence, he would only become a noisy gong”. Also read our article Tongues of Angels.

Fluid Babbling

Some will claim they have experienced ‘a heavenly language’ and heard it for themselves. First, truth is not based on how you feel or your experiences. That is the first biggest mistake. Second, Fluid semi-pattern babbling is not proof of anything other than it being babbling. In fact, if it is not a real intelligible human language, in contradicts what is recorded in scripture. That is not how angels spoke. That is not how the Apostles spoke at Pentecost, and that is not how Jesus sounded when speaking to Satan. All of these are recorded in scripture.

Conclusion

Angels, of God or fallen, all spoke in a real understandable language of the culture they were sent to and were in. There is nothing in Holy Scripture to justify otherwise. If an angel came to someone who spoke English, the angel would speak English. If an angel came to someone who spoke Arabic, the angel would speak Arabic. There are zero proofs for a ‘heavenly language’ from God himself in scripture.

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Open Letter to Faith Healers and their followers

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To all whom it may concern,

I am writing this to all those who claim to supernaturally heal in Jesus’ name and to all those who believe in these faith healers. I have three key areas of questions.

I want to start off and state that I do not believe the gift of healing has ceased absolutely. I absolutely believe God heals still to this day in the same ways he healed in biblical times as He sees fit when he wills it (1 Corinthians 12:9). My purpose for writing to you is to hopefully get you to see if what you are doing is actually of God for God, even if you feel or think it may be. I pray that I edify you, convict those whom the Holy Spirit convicts of misrepresenting God, and offer solutions.

(1) My first area of question is the type of healing performed. As I personally witness ‘healing sessions’ and hear from those who feel as if they have been healed I notice something important. Why are terminal illnesses not healed? I see a commonality in healers. They “rebuke” the sickness in “Jesus’ name” which is scriptural, and by all accounts in scripture, the sickness is instantly healed. Why are the majority of healers not rebuking cancer in hospitals? My second issue is type of healing of physical deformities. Why are the blind not given vision and the deaf not able to hear, instantly? A major question is why are healers not raising people from the dead?

The Apostles were given this gift and they performed all these specific healings. They healed terminal illnesses, gave the blind sight and hearing to the deaf; made the crippled walk and even raised people from the dead. If this is the same gift given by the Holy Spirit, why are modern healers not doing the same? And in just about every case, why are they not healed instantly? Is the gift not as powerful as it once was? Is rebuking and claiming in the name of Jesus less effective now than it used to be?

(2) My second area of question is the location of the healings. Most people will inevitably have a family member or friend go to the emergency room for an incident or health issue (of which why was it not healed to begin with if already known?). Why do the healers not go to the hospital and instantly heal them? A lot of these healers will also preach financial prosperity, what better way to save someone from financial hardship than by getting them out of the hospital sooner. The healer that is a friend of the family or even a family member can visit the individual in the hospital and heal them. Why don’t they? It does not even need to be a spectacular public event, it can be done just for that family.

If healers truly desire to glorify God and serve those in drastic need through healing, why do they not spend a majority of their time walking the halls of hospitals where a majority of those in drastic need are? A recent issue I noticed, was one healing session which was done privately at a home, healing aches and pains; while a family member was in the ICU at the hospital at the same time. It struck me as odd that they would ‘heal’ those who were willing to believe in the healing with less pressing issues, but did not go heal the individual who desperately needed it with obvious and serious health complications.

(3) My third area of concern is the healers themselves. Why do some wear glasses, have high blood pressure, diabetes, and other health issues that can be healed? I see training videos from healers that show how to heal your self, yet, they are wearing glasses because of their degrading vision. Why did they not heal their vision using the self healing technique they are teaching?

All these questions shed light on the real cumulative issue: Are these true healings performed by persons actually gifted by The Holy Spirit to heal? Followers of these healers will say that they know it is true because they were healed from aches and pains or witnessed someones pain go away, but my follow up question is this: Do they know anyone that was blind, crippled, on the verge of death, or was actually dead and raised back to life by this healer? If not, why only subtle less drastic healings?

The absolute purpose of biblical healing is to be such an undeniable miracle that people who witnessed it, and those who were healed, are absolutely compelled to worship God. It is done for people, in front of people, for all to know and see the absolute power of God. How powerful is that to talk to someone who was raised from the dead or to go to the gym with someone whom was born crippled but now can dead-lift heavy weights; Or even talk with someone who was born mute, or go to a concert with someone who was born deaf. What about going to the movies with someone who was born blind. Would that not be a daily powerful reminder of the power of God? Jesus rebuked people who depended on his miracles and not HIM because trusting in HIM is greater than needing to witness miracles in order to believe (John 4:48). (study: Acts 2:22; 14:3, Luke 9:1-2)

Let me make some important statements that puts healing in a real context. The Holy Spirit is not the only one who can and will heal people. Scripture makes it clear that people who don’t even know Jesus, can do miracles (Matthew 7:21-23). The Bible says that even some of these healers, who do not know Jesus, will claim it in Jesus name! (Matthew 24:24). So my question to you is, how do you know the difference? Now let me edify you and help everyone see the difference (1 John 2:18).

The type of healing is not the absolute indicator, the location is not the absolute indicator, and the claiming in Jesus’ name is not the absolute indicator; for all these can be done by another spirit whom comes as someone appealing and positive (2 Cor 11:14). The absolute indicator of healings from God, are these:

The true desire to heal desperately sick people- like in hospitals. People who knowingly have the gift of healing would desire to go where the most need is! In our modern world, the hospital is that place. In the Apostles’ day the community would bring out all the sick in the streets, in public. Jesus would go to where the sick were specifically as well.

The true faith that heals the greatest illnesses and disfigurements. People who knowingly have the power of God through their gift would be fearless in healing the blind, crippled, paralyzed, mute, deaf, and why not even raise people from the dead for God’s absolute undeniable glory and power!

The true message behind the healing. People who knowingly exercise their God given gift will be embolden by it. They will proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all they heal and to all those who witness the healing just as Jesus and the Apostles did. They, themselves, would know the source of their gift and the power of The Gospel when made visible in the works of healing.
The true backing of scripture. People who heal, would heal in the same way as Jesus, The Apostles, and the Apostles’ disciples; because it is the same gift from the same Spirit. Thus it will be congruent to the healings recorded in scripture. Nothing more (nothing greater than raising the dead), nothing less.
The true humility of the gift. People who heal do it for God. The Apostles did not take money or compensation for their free gift from God. They did not make money off of the families and people they healed. They did not want to take any credit or any gain for what God did through them.

God does desire to heal, but it is not always a physical healing that he does. Moses was not allowed to see the promised land and died soon after (Numbers 20:12). God allowed Satan to inflict illnesses and death on Job’s whole family (Job 1:1-22). Jesus even told the Apostles that some healings can only be done by prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29). This shows us that God’s desire of healing is of Spiritual healing which can be sometimes done through physical healing or even allowing sickness.

A blind man was born blind. He lived his whole life blind. He faithfully had people bring him to a pool in the hopes that something from the pool would heal him. The Apostles asked Jesus what sin his father committed for him to be born this way and live this way. Jesus stated that it was God’s Will that he was born this way and for God’s glory that he would be healed in this moment. Boom! Healed! and God was glorified (John 9). But don’t forget, this guy lived his whole life unhealed, begging to be healed, and that God purposely made him blind to begin with. (study: 1 John 5:14-15, 2 Timothy 4:20, 2 Corinthians 12:7–9, John 5, 1 Timothy 5:23)

My recommendation is for everyone to study the healings preformed by Jesus and the Apostles and compare them to modern claims. Then think about whether or not The Gospel Message was proclaimed as a result of the healing. Even ask yourself, if you believe in modern healers, do you know The Gospel message youself? If not, why has the healer not proclaimed it to you? We are commanded to TEST the spirits to know if they are from God. Do you test the healings and healers? (study: Matthew 4:24; 15:30; Acts 5:12-16; 28:8-9, 1 John 4:1-2)

True eternal healing comes by receiving and believing The Gospel message. This is why Jesus is the Great Physician because he is the only one who heals the soul from its sickness of sin. Any healing done without proclaiming the Gospel message is only superficial. It is possible that it could be from another spirit to keep you distracted from focusing and hearing on The Gospel. Healing is temporary anyway because we are all going to physically die. Only the supernatural healing of souls will give us eternal life. (study: 1 Peter 2:24, Revelation 21:4, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 4:23, 1 Cor 15:2, Eph 2:8)

My prayer is that everyone who reads this reflects on where they place their trust and focus. Do you seek the signs and wonders (which can be deceptive) or The Word (John 1:1). I pray that everyone receives and believes The Gospel of Jesus Christ and is not distracted or deceived by any other spirit or individual who tries to imitate the signs and wonders of God. I pray that the healing power of God, heals souls; and if deemed necessary by God, used through healing the flesh. But that the primary end is proclaiming the Power of The Gospel for God’s Glory alone for all eternity and not just in this life.

If you are a witness of someone instantly healed or is someone who has been healed from a terminal illness, blindness, deaf, mute, birth defects, other physical deformities, on the verge of death, or raised from the dead by someone exercising their God given Gift of Healing; please, I want to hear your testimony!

Please know, receive and trust in the greatest healing message of all: The Gospel Message

If you have any questions or comments about this article please contact us or join our discussion forms

The Gift of Supernatural Healing

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What does God say about divine supernatural healing and the gift of healing? What is the bible’s stance on ‘inner-healings’ like the Sozo Prayers? And are healings today the same as healing of the Apostles and the disciples of the apostles? It is important to state that it is not the position of The Gospel 4All that the gift of healing has completely ceased; however, due to recent history we do believe that it has changed but God reserves the right to gift it as he pleases, even to this day. This article will address the biblical understanding of divine healing and why this gift has changed to this date.

Jesus and The Apostles

The moment Jesus began his ministry work, he was teaching and healing (Matthew 4:23). It is very important to notice that The Gospel message accompanied his healings. Then Jesus gave the authority to heal to his Apostles and the gospel message was part of their healings as well (Luke 9:1-2). After Jesus ascended to heaven, the Apostles retained the authority and power to heal
(Acts 5:12-16). Then the gift of healing was given to other disciples as well (1 Corinthians 12:9).

Other Religions and Healing

Islam teaches incantations to heal bad jinn. Buddhist use meditation and mantra for inner healing. New Age and mystic healings use physical ritual to coerce a deity (or Universal Energy) into action or to manipulate an impersonal healing force. The biblical healing is much greater than what all the other religions try to imitate. Shamefully modern Christianity wants instant results and gratification so they will use new age rituals and ideas to ‘help’ the process of healing. What those Christians and everyone a part from Christianity who heal fail to see is that The Holy Spirit is not the only spirit that will use people and do amazing things.

Also read Supernatural Positive Thinking

The Other Spirits who ‘heal’

2 Thess 2:9

“that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,

Before the Holy Spirit descended after Jesus, even Egyptian scourers could mimic powers of God (Exodus 7:11-12). The people of God were even warned of people who could preform miracles that were not from God (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). Jesus even says that some will come doing miracles that don’t even know Jesus (Matthew 7:15-23). Jesus makes it clear there will be miracle workers who are not from God in the coming future (Matthew 24:24). Therefore a miracle healing IS NOT PROOF OF GOD if false prophets and false miracle workers can do it without God. Satan WILL disguise his efforts to lead people away making it appear they were from God (2 Corinthians 11:14)

The Holy Spirit’s Healing

Looking at what Jesus and the Apostles did, helps us see a difference between healings now and healing then.

Matthew 4:24; 15:30

“So his fame spread throughout all hSyria, and gthey brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and ipains [paralyzed with pain], jthose oppressed by demons, kepileptics, and lparalytics, and he healed them.”

And great crowds came to him, bringing with them uthe lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them,

Acts 5:16

“The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, pbringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.”

There are many other examples but there is one common detail about all these healings; they were chronic, undeniable, in some cases terminal.

Paralized
Possessed with Demons
Epileptics
Lame (mental retardation)
Blind
Crippled
Deaf
Mute
Verge of death
Actually dead

“Chronic and undeniable” can be understood as an health issue that causes dramatic and clear complications in physical mobility or appearance. Serious physical afflictions that cause impairment of proper body movement and use.

For headaches and stomachaches, the Apostle prescribed medical treatment; but why not a dramatic healing? Because it was not a visible affliction that people would undeniably see as an absolute healing from God. It could be treated without a miraculous healing (1 Tim 5:23).

Also read God, The Holy Spirit | By Christ’s Work Alone

What are the differences between Satan’s healing and God’s healing?

Since other spirits besides The Holy Spirit will do miraculous things, how are believers suppose to know when the Holy Spirit acts and when an ungodly spirit tries to do things to deceive people. The Holy Spirit makes it clear what HE will make known:

1 Peter 1:24

“ eHe himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we fmight die to sin and glive to righteousness. hBy his wounds you have been healed.”

Isaiah 53:3

“oBut he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

pand with his wounds we are healed.

Luke 9:2

“²And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.”

Matthew 4:23

“teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.”

The healings of Satan WILL NOT proclaim the gospel. His (Satan’s) healings will not accompany the gospel message! They will lead people into believing anything -even seeming spiritual in every way- so that those who buy into his healing, do not hear the gospel message WITH and IN the healing. That they eventually believe they do not need the gospel message to be healed.

When the Holy Spirit heals or uses a believer to heal another person; the healing WILL have these 5 elements:

It will proclaim the Gospel message and bring glory of the healing and from the healing to Christ Jesus and what he did on the cross.
It will heal a chronic and undeniable health issue that will be obvious to all so that God will be glorified by everyone who witness the transformation.
The individuals are fully and completely healed. People are not half way healed but fully restored. Exorcisms were and are also instant; and not a long drawn out process.
The healing process does not require chants, rituals, or any means outside of prayer and fasting.
The healing is a permanent SPIRITUAL healing which is the primary reason for the bodily healing (Romans 12:1-2).

What Do Ungodly Healings look like?

Ultimately ungodly heaings will make the person feel like THEY have the power based on what THEY do and how hard they try. They will not proclaim the gospel message in association with the healing and will focus primarily on the phyiscal/emotional aspects. Emotional satisfaction is the goal and the feeling of self fulfillment is the confused sensation of being healed.

1 John 4:1

“Beloved, tdo not believe every spirit, but utest the spirits to see whether they are from God, for vmany wfalse prophets xhave gone out into the world.“

Due to this easy confusion and easy deception we are commanded by God to TEST the Spirits. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit doing healings and miracles.

Also read The Self and The Center of Everything

Modern “Healings”

The common and modern phenomena of ‘healings’ are those who ‘feel’ they have been healed from ‘pains’ in their body in certain areas whether it is the neck, back, or other places. These modern healings are not obvious, not viable, not tangible, and not undeniable like the healings recorded in the Bible. They claim to be healed from shoulder pains, migraines, stomach aches, headaches, and so on.

The healer will apply physical pressure in the painful areas, babble a special chant and use phrases like “in the name of Jesus” and perform nonbibical rituals. The person would feel a rush of adrenaline and have a flood of optimistic feelings allowing them to feel ‘healed’ thus believing they are healed. The rush of excitement and inspirational feelings empower them enough to change habits in their life. But without the gospel message understood and associated to the purpose and reason for the healing; it is nothing more than emotionalism with no spiritual value.

Also read Your Feelings Do Not Determine Truth | Health, Wealth, Happiness, and Prosperity Teaching | Follow Your Heart?

The Sozo Prayer (Inner Healing)

This ritualistic psychological prayer system of ‘healing’ can be defined as “a unique inner healing and deliverance ministry in which the main aim is to get to the root of those things hindering your personal connection with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

The Sozo Prayer requires the presence of a certified mediator or guide who is trained to walk participants through a time of prayer and reflection that is supposed to facilitate intimacy with God. Intimacy with God is definitely something to be sought; however, the method of attaining intimacy via “a journey through the subconscious” is highly questionable extra-biblical concept. Intimacy with God is truly achieved by Bible study, prayer, fasting, regular church attendance, and obedience; not by a mystical “journey” through our past. Sozo Prayer attempts to enable participants to “heal your relationship with God to enable you to fulfill your destiny.”[1]

Our own sinful mind, sinful thoughts, and how we imperfectly perceive ourselves and listening to our corrupted subconscious is NOT intimacy with God. This is looking inward to ourselves for guidance and ‘truth’. It is a attempted to take the control of the healing for ourselves by ourselves without God. The source of truth and control for our lives and for our spiritual growth and healing is: God’s Word, which is holy scripture alone.

John 16:13; 17:17

“17 lSanctify them2 in the truth; myour word is truth.“

13 When tthe Spirit of truth comes, uhe will vguide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but wwhatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Without focusing on The Gospel and abiding in the Lord, we can do nothing (spiritual). We can influence and encourage a change of behavior or habits but our spirits go nowhere without abiding in Jesus (John 15:5).

Hebrews 12:1-2

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and wsin which clings so closely, and xlet us run ywith endurance the race that is zset before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, awho for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising bthe shame, and cis seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Eph 4:14

“ so that we may no longer be children, wtossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

Only focusing on the words of Jesus and knowing, studying, and understanding his truths can heal us from our past mistakes, traumas, and emotional scars. Any idea, doctrine, and scheme derived from mankind, is nothing without coming from Jesus for Jesus and by Jesus.

Also read Scripture Alone | The Holy Spirit or Emotionalism? | The issue of the Prosperity Gospel

The Gift of Healing
God did not explicitly state that the gift of healing has ceased. Do we see people raising from the dead? No. Do we still see people with extreme physical deformities, being physically regenerated and completely healed? No. So we DO see a change in the gift of healing. But God reserves the right and authority to give and not give the gifts of healing as He alone sees fit.

1 Cor 12:6-9

“9 ⁶There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. ⁷But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; ⁹to another faith <sup class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NASB-28644a" data-link="[a]”>[a]by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of <sup class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NASB-28644b" data-link="[b]”>[b]healing <sup class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NASB-28644c" data-link="[c]”>[c]by the one Spirit,”

There are different kinds of healing gifts but they are all for the common good. There is no ‘healing yourself privately’ as some healers claim; The Holy Spirit can work through people WHEN it benefits everyone for God’s Glory alone. The gift is willed by The Holy Spirit, and not the individual who tries hard to will it themselves.

Notice the plural gifts of healing. People can have the gift to heal emotionally and or physically but all of them come by The Holy Spirit to benefit everyone.

The Real Healing We Truly Should Long For

2 Cor 5:17

“17 Therefore, if anyone is iin Christ, he is ja new creation.2 kThe old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Rev 21:4

“4hHe will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and ideath shall be no more, jneither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

The true awesome and amazing healing is being completely healed from our old selves and our slavery to sin; being reborn as a new creation to become slaves to righteousness. The ultimate healing will come when EVERY pain, emotional and physical, will “be no more” and will pass away forever, the whole world, for all eternity!

Paul stated it best:

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.“ (Romans 8:18)

Also read The New You Forever | The Glorious and Blessed Hope

SUMMERY

Miraculous healing can be preformed by both godly and ungodly sources but only the godly source will proclaim the gospel with and in the miracle. The miracles are not willed by mankind but only come by and from The Holy Spirit and some times through mankind.

The healing we should be focusing on is not a carnal healing but a eternal spiritual healing and the coming absolute and ultimate feeling at the end of the age. The carnal healings in the Bible were to point us to the power and authority of Jesus Christ which was later given to the apostles. The healings now should still point us to the spiritual reality of our need for spiritual regeneration and the gospel message and not a carnal end result.

Miraculous healings are alive and well and have not ceased. Satan and evil spirits perform these every day around the world. The Holy Spirit will heal and use people to heal in different more subtle ways today as well. Would you know the difference? Do you know the gospel?

The Confusion with The Prophecy Gift

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Within the church we hear the phrases “they prophesied over me” or “they spoke prophetic utterances” But what does that really mean and is it of God?

First we need to understand the word being used “prophecy” and the biblical usage of that word as well.

A) In The Old Testament, specially selected individuals would be given divine truths from God Himself and they would relay those truths to the people. These truths were not from or by any other means. They would simply foreth-tell divine revelations from God. Primarily, Old Testament prophets would proclaim the will of God.

B) In The New Testament, something new happens. There are no prophets but Apostles. The Apostles made known the things of God through Jesus Christ and it was Jesus Christ that revealed the things of God.

In 2 Peter 2:1, Peter indicates that the old testament had false prophets but the church will have false teachers. Why won’t the church have false prophets but only teachers? Because The Apostles were used to complete the ‘new’ revelations from God. With the completion of scripture, everything is revealed in it. Now all the church can do is screw up in teaching it as how there is nothing new to prophecy.
In Jude 3, Jude is talking about faith in Jesus Christ and that it was “was once delivered unto the saints”. He is speaking past tense about the delivery of the revelations of God through Jesus Christ; nothing new is coming.
Finally, in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul explains a great deal here. Here he states that prophecy will end. He says it will end when “that which is perfect comes”. What is that? The word Paul uses τέλειος, teleios, ‘that which is perfect’ means: Brought to an end, wanting nothing necessary to complete, full grown, and mature. The ‘knowledge’ is what has been revealed- scripture. The ‘prophecy’ is what is being revealed. So what happens when everything revealed from the Old Testament and everything necessary that Jesus said and did has been recorded and all of it has been brought together? Scripture is complete, fully grown, mature, wanting nothing necessary to complete- that which is perfect. What did Paul say would happen to prophecy when the perfect has come? They will end. Scripture is complete.

What about the gift of prophecy that Paul talks about?

It is true some are gifted with a spiritual gift of prophecy. But again, does that mean it is the same kind of prophecy like Isaiah? Looking at what the gift does for the body of the church it is clear.

I Corinthians 14

Paul contrasts “other languages” and “prophecy” and points out that prophecy is greater. The reason why prophecy is greater is because it is declaring things of God specifically. The “other languages” are just talk, ideas, concepts, principles, perspectives and opinions that are not declaring the will and truths of God. He expands this point with ‘understanding’. What good is it being able to speak 7 different languages and not be able to explain God’s will. Its better to be able to make God’s will known and understood in 1 language than speaking all kinds of languages and not being able to explain and declare the truths of God.

Paul’s use of prophecy here is simply forth-telling and declaring the will and truths of God were those that hear and know and understand. This prophecy is not revealing anything new apart from scripture.

Let us keep in mind also that when Paul was writing this, the bible was not complete. And some church elders and visiting apostles could in fact still prophecy unwritten truths of Gods will; that would be later recorded. From the time of Jesus to the Holy Spirit’s leading of the choosing and closing of the bible there was maybe a 200 year gap. And during those 200 years, the kind of prophecy, that is now ended, would have still been used by God. The Shepard of Hermes is a non-canon writing written in the early 2nd century that even records how to test traveling prophets.

The Gift of Prophecy in the modern church with the completed scripture is the God given ability to understand and explain divine truths found in scripture. Gifted teachers of divine truths.

This easily gets confused with the kind of Prophecy like The Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. That is a kind of prophecy but not the same kind that is gifted today. We can come to understand the kinds of uses of prophecy by those verses above. There is a fundamental difference; New or proclaiming revelations from God.

New Prophecies were before the competition of scripture. They revealed new truths to the world and they are the conduit. EX: Old Testament Prophets and The Apostles
Proclaiming Prophecy is after the competition of scripture. They understand and proclaim pre-revealed truths to the world were scripture is the conduit. EX: Early Church Fathers and the modern church

In both cases, The Holy Spirit is still the empowering factor in both kinds of Prophecy. Both kinds are sourced from God himself and are divine in origin. The end result of both kinds of prophecy are also the same. The purpose is to make God’s will known and bring him Glory. It is a privilege and honor in both kinds as well to be given the ability to know and proclaim what is of God. In both cases the individual that is gifted is empowered to make these truths applicable to that date and time of history.

Please check out our prophecy test.

Tongues of Angels of 1 Corinthians 13

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This is the one and only go-to verse, 1 Corinthians 13:1, for people who believe there is a kind of language in heaven that is not of this world. Here is the major flaw in this thinking.

Paul is using a Hyperbole.

Hyperbole is a figure of speech.

Just like if someone went to a concert and listened to their favorite singer said “that singer has the voice of an angel”. That is a hyperbolic expression. The voice was not literally an angle from heaven voice. It is describing the positive effect from the human voice.

What is Paul saying then:

He said that it doesn’t matter if he speaks to people with his own language or if the Spirit gives him the ability to speak in another language he has never spoke before; its all useless if there is no love.

An interpretation that he is talking about a language of Heaven that angels speak to each other is a poor understanding of literature comprehension and adding into scripture what is not being said. Because of this failed biblical hermeneutics; people are confused and deceived.

Speaking In Tongues

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This is a very simple subject that is made difficult because of the hearts and minds of man. When we let The Holy Spirit speak through scripture and let Him tell us what he is saying in scripture we can see exactly what it is.

Acts 2, 1 Cor 12, and chapter 14 is where The Holy Spirit, through Paul, addresses this gift.
Tongue, διάλεκτος, G1258,

conversation, speech, discourse, language
the tongue or language peculiar to any people

Tongue, γλῶσσα, G1100,

the language or dialect used by a particular people distinct from that of other nations.

The different greek words denote the general nature or the specific nature language. But what they all have in common is it is a language used by people.

When Pentecost happened, everyone spoke in a language used by other people. What would be the miracle and spiritual gift look like? It would be this:

I do not know how to speak or understand Mandarin; I only speak English. A person who only speaks and understand Mandarin but does not understand or speak English. We run into each other. I begin to speak. I begin speaking fluid Mandarin. Or I speak English and the person perfectly understands and speaks back in fluid English. That would be a miracle, gifted by the Holy Spirit for me to speak in [the Mandarin] tongue.

The gift of interpretation of the tongue is just that. But how is interpretation then a gift from the spirit as well? It would be this:

I only speak English and run into two people who only speak Mandarin. As I speak English, one of the persons shockingly can understand, without any prior knowledge, what I am saying perfectly and then relays it to the other person in Mandarin. That person is given the gift of interpreting.

Is there some kind of heavenly language that is not known by man that sounds like gibberish in all languages? Paul address this easily. “I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a [unknown] tongue”. Besides Paul making it clear that unintelligible tongues are just ‘clanging dongs’ that have no meaning or value it is clear that a babbling gibberish sounded ‘holy’ language is out of the question and is not supported in scripture.

Is the gift of tongues and interpretation still being granted today?

This issue divides people and churches. We need to understand that if God wanted to grant these gifts today, he will. That is not what is being questioned. Its not can he grant these gifts but IS HE currently and still granting them presently. If it is being granted today, it will NOT in anyway conflict with scripture. The Holy Spirit directly influenced Scripture and is the only granted and would grant the gift.

Here is a simple test to know if it is of God or of another spirit (1 John 4):

Gift of Tongues Test:

AGREEMENT: It will agree with scripture
REAL LANGUAGE: It will be a real and intelligible language (1 Cor 14:10)
RELAY GOD’S WORD: It will relay Holy Scripture to a person of another language (Acts 2:6-12).
UNDERSTOOD OR INTERPRETED: It must be understood or interpreted for God’s Glory (1 Cor 14:27-28)
NOT CONFUSING: It will not be confusing but lead to the growth of faith (1 Cor 14:33)
HOLY SPIRIT DECIDES: It will be granted by the Holy Spirit alone, and not by excessive pray, fasting, or human will (1 Cor 12:11).

Conclusion:

Paul points out that it will in fact cease (1 Cor 13:8). It is not entirely clear when but that it was not intended to be a gift granted forever. With that said and looking at its use in Acts and the early church and comparing mission work world wide today; it is clear that the gift is not granted (or very rarely) like it was when the church was born. This is NOT to say it has forever ended or ended at all. But at the same time it is NOT granted like it was in Acts.

Some churches like the Pentecostal church and Charasmatic churches claim that they have the gift of tongues to this day much like the Montanist of the 2nd century. But with a simple comparison of Holy Scripture as interpreted by The Holy Spirit, the use of their version of ‘the tongue’ and the biblical witness of its use are not the same. In fact in just about all the cases, it is not in agreement with scripture in many ways. Therefore; it is not the Holy Spirit.

What then is it?

There are only two other explanations for people believing and acting as if they are gifted. The spirit of the anti-Christs or a false teacher or false prophet can deceive believers into thinking and believing something that is not true. Satan and false teachers use God’s Words in ways to get people to think and act in disagreement with The Spirit of Truth. They can do signs and wonders too. They can convince people to act in certain ways and do certain things. Their followers can actually believe that what they are doing is true. Ultimately they are lead away into trusting in their own works and efforts (the false gifts) and in the works and efforts of other men (signs and wonders) all dressed up as something in ‘jesus name’.

If at anytime a church or teacher claims to be speaking in tongues; be obedient to 1 John 4 and test with the biblical principles outlined in the “Gift of Tongues Test”.

Gold Teeth, Fillings, Flakes Cloud, and more

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Sense the 1980s some christian groups claim to have been experiencing a miracle from God. It began with the appearance of Gold fillings in teeth. It was first reported in South America and then spread to North America and spread through the 80s. A conference in Canada in the late 90s is what set off the phenomena more popular and more international. It has become to be known as “New Wine” groups and meetings from The Toronto Blessings Movement now generalized as the Blessings Movement.

Lets first see what God expects from us when it comes to things we can’t always explain.

2 Peter 1:3 “seeing that His divine power HAS granted to us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness, through THE true knowledge of Him who called us by HIS OWN glory and excellence.”
Proverbs 3:13-16 “13 How blessed is the man who finds WISDOM And the man who gains UNDERSTANDING. 14 For her profit is BETTER than the profit of silver And her gain better than fine gold. 15 She is more precious than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her.
Proverbs 8:10 “Take my instruction and NOT silver, And knowledge RATHER THAN choicest gold.
Matthew 23:17 “You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?”
Acts 3:6 “But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!””
2 Cor 11:3 “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
1 John 4: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
Matthew 24:24 “False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.“

Lets not read into scripture and take from it our own meaning but instead take the meaning that scripture itself is saying. Let scripture interpret scripture.

The Word of God is worth more than anything in this world. Worth more than Gold. The Holy Spirit will point to Christ as the means to the end and not anything of this world. But The Holy Spirit is not the only spirit that can and will do signs and wonders (miracles). Because of this God has instructed us to test them or our minds could be deceived to believe in the signs and wonders of something not from God. Now lets look at the ‘signs and wonders’ and claims of the Blessings Movement.

First lets look at the Gold teeth claims themselves. Christians were given new gold teeth by God, first recorded (by Blessings Movement supporters), then in Canada they were given fillings. The response to why the difference between whole gold teeth and fillings is that fillings were a greater miracle because they are more difficult than a whole new gold tooth. The Claim is that Gold miraculously manifests gold fillings in a persons tooth, or miraculously manifests an entire gold tooth. The reason, they believe, is to reveal his power and validate their faith. Sounds good.

So good that the leaders even told their followers that experienced it to go prove it by getting their teeth checked by their dentist. Dentist in Canada showed that the fillings were their work from dental records after members were encouraged to ‘prove’ the work of God. Even some leaders of a Blessings Movement groups recanted after they said God gave them a new gold tooth but then their dentists came out and said they did years earlier. Then a California group leader had his current dentist come forward and say that he did not put his new gold tooth in; but his old dentist came forward and said he did. See, the truth comes out. And all those people, before the truth came out, were genuinely convinced they witnessed a miracle. But they didn’t. They were deceived.

The first problem with the ‘Blessings Movement’ is easy to spot if your are not already deceived. The movement does not point to person and works of Jesus Christ and the cross. Even though they will say the words “in Jesus’ name”, the means to the end is the tooth and gold; not Christ. Johns first and main point in 1 John 4. The means to the end is Gold and not something greater than Gold, like the truth of God and his son Jesus Christ. The claims fail at the most basic of all Christian belief; that Jesus Christ is the center of it all. Jesus’ name is just used for the gold claims. An ATM of gold claims for a deceived and devoted following of a false teacher as warned of by Jesus himself (matt 24:24).

The second problem is the lies and inconsistencies in its leaders and blessings. The founders of the movement run into actual problems causing them to cancel events. Dentist come out and disprove the leaders gold filling claims (the gold cloud and gold flakes phenomenon is the same in its problems) If this is of God, why do they need to cancel the event? Did the dentists and news papers defeat The Power of God? Of course not. This means, when tested with scripture, that his ‘sign and wonder’ is not of God but of another spirit. So if Gold teeth is a bust, what about the rest of their ‘signs and wonders’ and teachings? We will test those claims later also.

My response: I believe in the creator of the universe. I believe in his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior that was crucified on the cross for my sins and my faith and trust in Him; through faith in Him and his Words, God the Father chose me and adopted me as his child, The Holy Spirit baptized me into becoming and remaining a child of God and preserves me until the day God calls me home. All because and through his son Jesus Christ. The Only Begotten Son of God, what he did is the center of the universal and all that is true. And a gold tooth is all I ask for and my mind is set on? Gold fillings are my means to an end in Jesus’ name? That is terrible. I don’t want my mind to desire anything other than the grace of God and his Love through his Son that transcends all the gold and silver this corrupted world could ever offer. I don’t need signs and wonders because Jesus though the Holy Spirit satisfies that in me. The person and work of Jesus Christ is my ‘sign and wonder’ and he alone is enough for me. Witnessing God work in his creation and the natural world is just a privilege and a bonus. He is my means to an end.

What is interesting, because of scripture, it doesn’t matter the details of the ‘sign and wonder’ because they all are to tested the same. As the Berean people did that, and Paul commended them for it; they searched the scriptures day and night to validate the teachings and signs of the apostles (Acts 17:10-15).

Followers of this movement will say that skepticism is making it “hard for them to receive the holy spirits gifts” because of the skeptical “attitude”. That idea is in sharp contrast to Gods word and 1 John 4. Automatically exposing that teaching as a lie. They will use 1 Thess 5:19-22 as their proof test but fail in correctly interpreting it. They draw their own meaning from it instead of scripture interpret itself. According to their idea, I am more powerful than God because I can tell God what to do and when depending on my attitude and he is powerless to act unless I change my attitude. They will draw from other verses their own ‘fulfilled prophecies’ and fail to understand the context and language usage of that time and culture. Ignorance, selfish interpretation, and leaning on their own understandings is their sin as they deceive millions.

I believe God works miracles today.
I believe The Holy Spirit will do what ever is necessary to draw the elect to God by pointing people to the power of the Cross and the person of Jesus Christ.
I do not believe it is the Holy Spirit doing any Gold fillings or gold teeth because of the leaders and the teachings and evidences against these movements. It maybe spirit lead, but its not The Holy Spirit – He points to the Person and Works of Jesus Christ who deserves all glory.

Sources:

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
“Dental miracles” the latest to hit Toronto, Christian Week, Mar. 30, 1999
Nederlands Dagblad, May 1, 1999
TV evangelists forced to recant claims of God’s divine dentistry, National Post, May 12, 1999
Struck by ‘Golden Miracles’, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 25, 2000
Gold Dust Phenomenon Stirs Up Questions Among Charismatics, Charisma News, Sep 8, 1999
“God ‘gives’ gold teeth to believers”, The Times of London, Apr. 17, 1999
TBN on Sept.13,1999

Statement of Faith: The Church

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The Church, the Body of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all believers of this present age (1 Corinthians 12:12-14;2 Corinthians 11:2;Ephesians 1:22-23,5:25-27).

The ordinances of believer’s water baptism as a testimony to Christ and identification with Him; Baptism is an important action of obedience for a Christian and signifies a person’s identification with Christ. Baptism is not necessary for salvation. It is an outward manifestation of an inward reality of trust in the sacrifice for Christ, of conversion, and of identification with Christ. The act of water baptism does not save anyone. Man is made right before God by faith alone, not by faith and baptism (Rom. 3:28-30; 4:3, 5; 5:1; Gal. 2:16, 21; Phil. 3:9; see also Acts 10:44-48).

the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of Christ’s death and shed blood (Matthew 28:19-20;Acts 2:41-42,18:8;1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

Through the church, believers are to be taught to obey the Lord and to testify concerning their faith in Christ as Savior and to honor Him by holy living. The Great Commission from the Lord is the primary mission of the Church. It is the obligation of all believers to witness, by word and life, to the truths of God’s Word. The gospel of the grace of God is to be preached to all the world (Matthew 28:19-20;Acts 1:8;2 Corinthians 5:19-20).

Christians are to live in peace with all men, suffering wrongs, false accusations, and misrepresentations with charity. However, Christians are free to defend themselves (Luke 22:36) and promote the truth of Christianity by correcting false teachings and refuting error (2 Tim. 2:25; 1 Pet. 3:15). Christians are to live in the world as examples of godliness and are not to participate in the sinful passions of the world.

The work of evangelism which means that believers must teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people in every nation (Matt. 28:19-20). Believers are to refute false doctrines, false religions, and whatever else might contradict the word of God; but are to do this without insult (1 Pet. 3:15) if per chance God would grant them repentance (2 Tim. 2:25).

Being a Christian means to participate in expanding the Kingdom of God. Every Christian is to work for this end according to the gifts given him or her by the Lord (Matt. 28:18-20; Rom. 12). Not all are pastors or evangelists or teachers (Rom. 12), but each Christian is expected to do his or her part to promote the gospel.

God calls qualified Christians to be ordained and to serve Jesus Christ in special leadership capacities and offices such as Elders, Deacons, Ministers of the Word, and Evangelists. The office(s) of pastor and elder is limited to qualified men only who are called by God, recognized by the body, and who meet the biblical standard of eldership (Titus 1:5-9). Women are not to be pastors nor elders and are not to hold positions of authority in the Christian Church where that authority is exercised over men (1 Tim. 2:11-15; 3:11-13; Titus 1:5-9).

Doctrine and teachings that deviate from the historical, orthodox, and biblical position of the Christian Church, throughout Church history are not Christianity. There are heresies that are damnable (denying the Deity of Christ, denying Christ’s physical resurrection, denying justification by grace through faith, etc.). There are heresies that are not damnable (advocating women pastors; practicing polygamy, divorce for convenience sake, etc.) There are also teachings within Christianity that are debatable whereas differences of opinion are not heresy and are left free for the conscience of the individual (eating or not eating meat, worship on Saturday or Sunday, etc.)( Rom. 14:1-12).

Statement of Faith: The Holy Spirit

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The deity and personality of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4). He regenerates sinners (Titus 3:5) and indwells believers (Romans 8:9). He is the agent by whom Christ baptizes all believers into His body (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). He is the seal by whom the Father guarantees the salvation of believers unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14). He is the Divine Teacher who illumines believers’ hearts and minds as they study the Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-12).

The Holy Spirit is not a force but a person who speaks (Acts 13:2); can be grieved (Eph. 4:30); has a will (1 Cor. 12:11).

The Holy Spirit is ultimately sovereign in the distribution of spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:11). Some of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, while by no means outside of the Spirit’s ability to empower now, no longer function to the same degree they did in the development and establishment of the church (1 Corinthians 12:4-11;2 Corinthians 12:12;Ephesians 2:20;4:7-12). He is not particularly visible in the Bible because His ministry is to bear witness of Jesus (John 15:26).

THE AMERICAN LIFE JOURNAL

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Tag Archives: Spiritual Gifts

COVID-19 Seems To Prove Cessationism

The Gift of Prophesy

So, how can we know if someone is a true prophet of God or has the gift of prophesy?

True Prophets and prophesies.

Did anyone prophesy the coming COVID-19 pandemic?

The Gift of Prophesy and Office of Prophet are NOT functioning.

The Gift of Healing

COVID-19 and Closing Churches

What Did Jesus Do Around Sickness?

The Apostles and Sickness

Israel and The Church’s Historical Reaction to Epidemics and Pandemics

God’s Word

Is risking infection unloving to your household?

What Does The Bible Say About Quarantine?

Government Orders to Close Churches

Corporate Worship and Fellowship

Conclusion

Have Some Gifts of The Spirit Ceased?

John of God, The Spiritual Healer from Brazil

Who or What Is The Holy Spirit?

What Language do Angels Speak?

Open Letter to Faith Healers and their followers

The Gift of Supernatural Healing

The Confusion with The Prophecy Gift

Tongues of Angels of 1 Corinthians 13

Speaking In Tongues

Gold Teeth, Fillings, Flakes Cloud, and more

Statement of Faith: The Church

Statement of Faith: The Holy Spirit

The Gift of Prophesy

So, how can we know if someone is a true prophet of God or has the gift of prophesy?

True Prophets and prophesies.

Did anyone prophesy the coming COVID-19 pandemic?

The Gift of Prophesy and Office of Prophet are NOT functioning.

The Gift of Healing

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What Did Jesus Do Around Sickness?

The Apostles and Sickness

Israel and The Church’s Historical Reaction to Epidemics and Pandemics

God’s Word

Is risking infection unloving to your household?

What Does The Bible Say About Quarantine?

Government Orders to Close Churches

Corporate Worship and Fellowship

Conclusion

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