Acts 10:47 Peter clearly declares to those present that since the Gentiles who got saved evidenced the same tongues that the Jews evidenced at Pentecost there was no reason to deny them water baptism. Acts tells us plainly what's going on with tongues among the Gentiles.
Yet one of your doctrinal explanations to do away with speaking in tongues has tongues serving as a sign to believers, when Paul says they are a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. Maybe your doctrinal reason isn't all that weighty in this case.
It is not a matter to be taken lightly. But if as I contend that the gifts of tongues, prophecy and knowledge ended in 1 Cor 13:8 and the Holy Spirit does not operate contrary to the word of God then we have a situation.
A lot of cessationist theologians and Bible teachers-- those who think certain gifts have already ceased-- don't believe I Corinthians 13 teaches your position. John Calvin called the idea that the perfect has come before death or the end of the age 'stupid' or 'foolish' depending on the translation of his commentary on the chapter.
Take a look at the internal evidence for what Paul is talking about. Probably, before Paul actually wrote the epistle, he had an idea of what he was going to write. He probably knew what the Spirit had put on his heart, at least part of it. He had heard those who'd come from the household of Chloe. He probably knew much of what God wanted him to write. So he gets to chapter 1, and he writes a bit about the Corinthians utterance and knowledge. And he writes I Corinthians 1:7,
"So that ye come behind in no spiritual gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Paul did not envision a time between the writing of His epistle and the coming of Christ when the Corinthians would come behind in any spiritual gift. And certainly he would include the 'utterance' gifts in that statement, the very gifts he would address in great detail in the passage.
There is nothing in I Corinthians 13 to indicate that Paul has the completion of scripture or St. John dying when he writes about the coming of the perfect. But if we compare the topics he addresses to the topics he addresses in the next two chapters, we find something interesting.
Chapter 13 discusses: 1. tongues 2. prophecy. 3. The coming of the perfect.
Chapters 14-15 discuss: 1. tongues 2. prophecy. 3. The state of the believer in the resurrection at the second coming.
We've got to look at the actual themes in the epistle. I think you don't want these spiritual gifts to be active today. Maybe you've had a bad experience, or just don't think that something your church doesn't have or doesn't do should be around today. I don't know why. But I don't see any reason from the text to go with your interpretation.
Something a lot of Dispensationalists don't realize is that if there are two witnesses still yet to come, they will prophesy and do miracles like shutting up the heavens. So prophecy and miracles can't cease until these two witnesses complete these ministries of theirs. Some Dispensationalists say that these gifts ceased for the church age and restart after the rapture. But that's based on their theories, not scripture. There is no reason to say these gifts ceased only to restart. And if these gifts somehow challenge the canon, then it doesn't make sense that they would continue during the Tribulation period either.
The fact that even under a preterist reading, the two witnesses who prophesy have to come after the last 'amen' in revelation is important to note.
As far as questionable practices of Pentecostals go, I'm sure you could find some. But there are 200 million plus Pentecostals and multitudes who have come to Christ through the movement since it began. What about the work of the Spirit in winning these souls to Christ? And of course there are multitudes of people who can testify to having come to Christ after seeing supernatural healings or experiencing them themselves.
I haven't read it yet, but Keener wrote a book, Miracles, fairly recently. Originally, it started as a footnote to argue against liberals who said that the miracles of Christ were embellishments added to the text later. He was arguing that recent and contemporary evidence shows that people testify to miracles in their own current time. It turned into a 1200 page book.
Numerous people can testify to prophecies that encouraged them in areas the one doing the prophesying couldn't know about. I've gotten prophecies encouraging me to minister. I can't figure out why the Devil would give people prophecies encouraging them to evangelize, reach out to international students, etc. A lot of people experience prophecies that encourage them in their call to ministry. That's a fairly commonly occurring type of prophesying. A lot of prophesying that happens of this sort is the sort of thing that the person doing the prophesying couldn't know. And there cases where I went one place and someone prophesied something to me to encourage me, and I went somewhere else to a group where the people there aren't the same as at the other place, and I get the same prophecy.
The real doctrinal issues are whether the Bible teaches that God only speaks through the Bible, and whether I Corinthians 12-14 gifts continue until this day. I Corinthians 1:7 indicates that they continue until the return of Christ. And the Bible nowhere teaches that God only communicates through the Bible. There is ample evidence that He communicates and reveals Himself apart from scripture (e.g. through creation in Romans 1, the acts of Jesus that couldn't fit all the books in world in John, the thunder clap in Revelation that John wasn't able to write down, the things that the man caught up into the third heaven wasn't allowed to say in II Corinthians, and the numerous references to genuine prophets in the Old and New Testaments whose prophecies were not written in the Bible.)
There is grave concern when we examine the modern Pentecostal church. Much of what it engages in is highly questionable from a biblical perspective.
Much of what it engages in is also very clearly Biblical. I suppose the Corinthians may have engaged in some highly questionable activities from a Biblical perspective. That didn't mean that God didn't give spiritual gifts, even to them.
Now if the Holy Spirit is not going to operate outside of Gods word then to attribute to the Holy Spirit the activity of familiar spirits is the same thing that you threaten me with is it not?
Calling an evil spirit the Holy Spirit might qualify as well, but it isn't the example Jesus addressed of the unpardonable sin. We do need to be careful with how we speak about the Spirit and about judging spiritual things.
