6 But the servant replied, “Look, in this town there is a man of God; he is highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let’s go there now. Perhaps he will tell us what way to take.”
Is the same true for the prophets today? Not one of you who say prophets still exist have given proof of one infallible prophet.
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So in other words, in order to believe what the Bible has to say about prophets being in the church, someone on this board has to give you proof? I haven't carried a video camera around with me to video tape every prophecy I've received or seen given in church. In the Bible, the testimony of witnesses is evidence, but you dismiss it as hearsay.
They didn't have the completed written word of God aka the complete sealed book of prophecies from then til Jesus' return. We have a book that tells us beginning to end, they didn't. We have all we need.
So now that we have the book, we don't have to believe what the book says or do it? The problem is, the Bible doesn't teach that. I Corinthians 1 gives us an idea of what chapter 13 is about when Paul writes of coming behind in no spiritual gift waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our having the Bible does not make our speech, knowledge, and understanding superior to Paul's either. Even many non-Charismatic or non-continualist authors realize this. Even Reformed preachers and theologians have realized this, like Martin Lloyd Jones, John Calvin, and even the anti-charismatic John MacArthur says the passage is referring to the eternal state.
Familiar spirits communicate with one another. This isn't prophecy, but sharing of information by them about those involved in the "prophecy". I would love to believe that this was real prophecies that this man was giving, but again, the burden of proof falls on you. Prove it. Hearsay proves absolutely nothing.
I tell you about a man getting very specific prophecies and you seem to draw a conclusion or imply that this comes from a familiar spirit? Based on what? You don't even have any hearsay or any evidence whatsoever to condemn the man or the gifts he is operating in. Why should I bear a burden of proof? If you encounter a prophecy you test it. I don't see how one is obligated to dig up prophecies from other places and times and judge all of them, or how I am required to give you some sort of proof of the events of a church gathering I witnessed.
The Bible shows that prophets can get very detailed information, like Elisha knowing what a foreign king said in his bedroom, or the specific personal prophecies that Samuel or Agabus gave. The Bible does not teach that only familiar spirits do such things. The Bible, speaking of the body, says that to one is given the word of knowledge.... to another prophecy by the same Spirit. So if there is a believer in Jesus who professes the same faith in the same Christ, and then he gives a prophecy, what is your basis for condemning him of hearing from demons? Would have done that if you had lived in the first century?
It seems like your idea of people who operate in certain spiritual gifts is formed from some kind of characterature you've made of certain TV preachers and maybe some people you've seen in real life. If you were an unbeliever and went to a church with the same brand-name or no-brand name you go to now, and met a hypocrite or someone who was weird, you could post the same kind of thing about preachers who preach on salvation, or against all pastors or elders of churches.
I encountered a man online who thought elders were evil. When he was a child, he said his dad turned evil after becoming an elder and some elders kicked him out of a church because they said he was divisive. He let his experience and his attitude he developed from it effect his interpretation of scripture. He ended up thinking of much of the Bible as an account of Paul teaching the wrong things, though he accepted much of Pauline theology. It's possible to do the same sort of thing with other ministries and gifts, like the gift of prophecy or tongues, interpretation, miracles, etc. Jesus warned there would be false prophets, but then said He was sending prophets of His own. Jesus sent true apostles, but there were also false apostles. There are also immature believers who can fall into carnality, disorder, and various other problems.
Who is to say that her headache wasn't caused by one, and your "word of knowledge" wasn't just info passed from one spirit to the next and then to you? How do you test it?
There are some things you come to know as you grow in your relationship with God. The way John said to test the spirits was that every spirit that confessed that Christ is come in the flesh is from God. I take this to mean the readers were testing the spirits manifesting through other peoples' words, moreso than testing their own spirits.
Someone could also ask you how do you know your faith in Christ isn't some kind of demonic deception, that you just thought you were convicted of sin, but how do you know that demons did not convince you that you were, or some other such line of reasoning. I don't see where the Bible teaches us to have this type of suspicion. Paul wrote 'Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Hold fast to that which is good.'
If you go into it thinking that the prophecies are all going to be the words of familiar spirits, that's despising prophesyings. If a church shuts down prophesyings to prevent the possibility of familiar spirits doing anything, then it can quench the Spirit. The Bible says not to do that. You judge or weigh prophecies carefully after they are spoken.
I do accept what the bible says. It seems you are one of the ones who are incapable of accepting it. I don't believe we are seeing true prophecy or gifts today that helped to found the New Testament. If it's happening, prove it. It should be really simple to do, right?
Have carried a tape recorder around with me every day from the 1980's?
Is God sounding trumpets and appearing in pillars of fire or profound undeniable visions? No, I don't think so.
God can sound a trumpet if He wants to, or have angels 7 trumpets if He so chooses. And what vision is undeniable? The person receiving the visions sees it. Anyone else that wants to be a scoffer can deny it even if it is real. The prophets faced plenty of scoffers.
Like I said already, I believe in personal revelations that will lead us on the path God has chosen for us, give us insight into his Word, answered prayers, chance meetings with people that make a difference, even healing (not instantaneous).
Show me in the Bible where God has limited the types of revelations He gives to those things. She me where it says He no longer has either the power or the willingness to heal instantaneously. Why do some genuine believers still get healed instantaneously? Would you tell the person doing the ministering or the person receiving healing the healing wasn't genuine because it was instantaneous?
We don't see miraculous instant healing, we don't see dead people being resurrected,
Maybe you don't. Maybe I've only seen the former a few times. My wife may have witnessed the latter when she prayed for a fellow who wasn't breathing after a car accident in a crowd full of Muslims back before I met her.
All things are possible to him that believes. Do you believe that?
I think what we are seeing is familiar spirits working deception in the minds of those who refuse to see the truth. Their faith in God is based on this and this as a foundation is not stable.
There could be some of that. But there could have been some of that in the first century as well. What do you do when people DO pass the test that I John gives of testing the spirits to see if they are from God? What do you do of those who believe and confess that Christ came in the flesh or exercise these spiritual gifts? On what basis do you accuse them of having familiar spirits? Would that be the same basis you would use the judge the apostles of the same thing if you were living in the first century?
There are also those who don't believe what the Bible teaches about spiritual gifts and therefore reject them. Or they may have had a bad experience with people claiming to have a message from God, who, out of emotion, want to quench the Spirit and despise prophesyings, writing them off before they even hear or consider the message.
Why can't anyone in their churches tell the difference in real and fake?
I just think you have a limited set of experiences and treat them as if they are representative of reality. Some people have a gift of discernment of spirits.
Every forerunner of these types of churches has been debunked.
What is a forerunner of these types of churches? Are you talking about historical figures that zone has been talking about? I haven't addressed all of the articles. I just skim forums sometimes. The Parham article had some inaccuracies in it. Most Pentecostals don't identify with either Parham or Seymour. It's not a movement based on allegiance to certain historical figures. It isn't named after them or other leaders like Lutheranism or the Weslyan movement. I look at some of the statements, like Sanford being Parham's 'mentor'. Really? What is the evidence for that. Parham went with Sanford to an evangelistic crusade, did not like some things he saw, and went elsewhere.
What do you mean 'debunked'. If Parham believed in British Israelitism, does that mean nothing he did had any value? I could show you some quotes from Luther you would seriously disagree with, as would most Lutherans. I could also show you his rant against the Jews. Does that mean God did not use Martin Luther? Did Wesley's relationship with his wife mean he did nothing useful? Have you ever sinned or had a wrong idea on some issue.
It is ironic how readily some of the posters and the sources they quote will call the views of others 'heresies' when they are defending a divisive position which contradicts scripture and leads believers to disobey the commandments of the Lord when it comes to spiritual gifts.