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No.
Ding -- fight begins ... but I won't post again on this.![]()
The problem with the New Testament gifts is that they only seem to come to people in certain denominations. This is most evident in the "gift of tongues" in that just about an entire congregation can be endowed with this gift in one church, and in the church across the street, amazingly no one has it. It's also a strange coincidence that these gifts have only began to reappear when the Pentecostal movement began in the early 1900s. In fact, between about 100 AD and 1900 AD, almost no one spoke in tongues. Now all of a sudden all you need to do is pull up to your nearest AoG church to find flocks of people with the gift.
If anyone did an in-depth historical study of Christianity and the charismatic movement, specifically involving the "gifts of the spirit" referred to in this topic, you would see the strong correlations that would hint to these gifts being man-made and not Spirit driven.
Maybe because people are being taught that the gifts have ceased? So they arnt being trained in spiritual things.The problem with the New Testament gifts is that they only seem to come to people in certain denominations. This is most evident in the "gift of tongues" in that just about an entire congregation can be endowed with this gift in one church, and in the church across the street, amazingly no one has it. It's also a strange coincidence that these gifts have only began to reappear when the Pentecostal movement began in the early 1900s. In fact, between about 100 AD and 1900 AD, almost no one spoke in tongues. Now all of a sudden all you need to do is pull up to your nearest AoG church to find flocks of people with the gift.
If anyone did an in-depth historical study of Christianity and the charismatic movement, specifically involving the "gifts of the spirit" referred to in this topic, you would see the strong correlations that would hint to these gifts being man-made and not Spirit driven.
I could turn that around and say is the only reason you have the gift because your church believes they are real? In other words, is the gift a real Spirit-led thing? If so, why is the most important factor as to whether you have the gift or not dependent on what doctrine your church believes. Should that even matter? It's kind of like seeing demons. Why are the people who believe that you can see demons the only ones who ever see demons? To bring it back to tongues, why doesn't anyone in a Baptist church ever break out in the gift of tongues? Why is the gift of tongues so commonplace now, when it was virtually nonexistent for centuries?
Once again, do an in-depth sociological study. Look up the history of these gifts throughout the last 2,000 years. Then look up the Azusa street revival in the early 1900s and the beginnings of the Pentecostal movement that has taken the religion by storm now a century later. The idea that these gifts are Spirit-led just does not make sense in this context.
The problem with the New Testament gifts is that they only seem to come to people in certain denominations. This is most evident in the "gift of tongues" in that just about an entire congregation can be endowed with this gift in one church, and in the church across the street, amazingly no one has it. It's also a strange coincidence that these gifts have only began to reappear when the Pentecostal movement began in the early 1900s. In fact, between about 100 AD and 1900 AD, almost no one spoke in tongues. Now all of a sudden all you need to do is pull up to your nearest AoG church to find flocks of people with the gift.
If anyone did an in-depth historical study of Christianity and the charismatic movement, specifically involving the "gifts of the spirit" referred to in this topic, you would see the strong correlations that would hint to these gifts being man-made and not Spirit driven.
I could turn that around and say is the only reason you have the gift because your church believes they are real? In other words, is the gift a real Spirit-led thing? If so, why is the most important factor as to whether you have the gift or not dependent on what doctrine your church believes. Should that even matter? It's kind of like seeing demons. Why are the people who believe that you can see demons the only ones who ever see demons?.
And again, let me caution people here. This above all is a very slippery subject. Consider Matthew 12. Jesus was casting out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit. There were some who claimed He did it by the power of the devil. Jesus told them flat out that doing so was blaspheme and the one and only sin that's unforgiveable.
So if someone today works a gift, and someone else denies it is by the Holy Spirit... well, 2+2= what?
You may not work Spiritual gifts, but think twice (and even thrice) before you discount them in others. You skate on verrry thin ice when you do.