Cessation
or His God, is God
When it comes to the miraculous spiritual gifts, I’m a bit of a hybrid.
After my conversion as a teenager, I desperately wanted to be able to speak in tongues, like some other Christians I knew. For some reason, the Anglicans and Presbyterians I knew didn’t, or couldn’t. And neither could I.
Acts needs to be interpreted in context. The signs Luke recorded for us were for the blessing or cursing of unbelieving Jews. They were a warning that the end was near. It was the end of the “Abrahamic rift,” so a reversal of Babel. Sign language at the beginning, sign language at the end, and the Word in between. Despite the signs, many of them hardened their hearts like Pharaoh (Romans 9).
What we do see today is miracles at the frontiers. Christianity is booming in many countries today, even Muslim ones, mostly due to miraculous signs and dreams. I have a friend who was a missionary in the Pacific, and definitely not into the gifts. He witnessed some amazing things, and said that even though it was his own ministry, he just felt like a spectator. He was on a gospel frontier.
We in the West are not at the frontier. We have the Word of God and in many cases we reject it. If we do see any miraculous signs, it is because our leaders are Pharaoh and Herod. The glory is departing. The frontier is crossing us. The miracles we see today are the counterfeits of Jannes and Jambres. We demand a sign and the antichrists make fire fall from heaven. But these manufactured signs signify not the beginning for our culture, but the end, as they did in Egypt, and in Herod’s Egypt in the first century.
See also End of the Abrahamic Rift, Three Babylons, Bloody Throne, Bloody Frontiers and That Which Is Perfect.
May 25th, 2011 at 2:13 am
I smiled as I read what you wrote – a smile of understanding. I can so relate to what you describe. God started stirring my heart in these things after I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. While I was there it occurred to me that we only “play church” here in the US. I wrote about it here… http://kwinrc.blogspot.com/search?q=playing+church
It was a short time after that when God began teaching me new things, things of His Spirit. It was time of moving to a new level with God. He taught me about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Being a former Presbyterian, this was far from a cake and cookies time of my life. I wrote about this too… http://kwinrc.blogspot.com/2010/08/baptism-of-holy-spirit.html
Peace to you…
May 25th, 2011 at 9:28 am
Hi Kelly
Thanks for your reply.
Well, I still don’t speak in tongues, and I think it was a sign for unbelieving Jews. I do think we are prone to “playing church” in the West, but that’s because we are affluent. There are many Christians who obey the Word but could be more open to the things of the Spirit (myself included), but there are plenty of Pentecostals (not so much the old school but the modern ones) who tend to disregard the Bible. I think that is also a form of playing church. It’s the Presbyterians I read that seem to get worship right, and this comes from their study of the Bible.
My friend in the Pacific didn’t witness any speaking in tongues. It was dreams and other occurrences that brought people to the missionary.
All the same, I’ll check out your posts.
Thanks for visiting
May 25th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
As a mover from Pentecostal to Presbyterian, I smiled too as I read your post. The Assemblies of God church I used to belong to was so eager to get “the blessing” they used to coach us on “practicing” glossolalia. I got so worked up one time that I faked it with consciously admitting to myself that I was faking.
One way to tell what’s wrong with a church (or group of churches) is to see what part of the Word they can’t stand. Western Churches HATE the prophets. We are in the apostasized church of Ezekiel’s day and the Spirit has left the Temple.
May 25th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
“…what part of the Word they can’t stand…” Good observation. Might also be one reason for the confusion over the apostolic era. It was a prophetic period – Trumpets. Pentecostals want Trumpets all the time. Non-Pentecostals pretend it wasn’t Trumpets. The solution is the historical context: AD70, and the end of the Old Covenant.