and could all the wierd-stuff goung on in charismania-&-pentecostilism-be=demonic!!---what about =the faith once-delivered? what did JESUS say=about seeking-signs?? whats wrong with=simply believing GOD S WORD?? how many=thrills & chill's does it take?? i thought THE GOSPEL was the power??? not 1 little select=gift??

HELLLLLPPP! FROM->AL DRISCOL-ALL ALONE IN DRY-NEW-MEXICO!!

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

Answers

Jesus did signs and wonders Himself. He did warn abotu false prophets doing false sign and wonders, but he sent forth prophets and apostles Himself. The apostles did signs and wonders.

Jesus told the Pharisees that an evil and adulterous generation sought after signs when they asked Him for a sign to authenticate His ministry. (They may have been asking for Him to give a predictive prophecy of an event in the future to verify His ministry based ont he book of Deuteronomy. He gave them the sign of the prophet Jonah, which related to His being in the earth thre days and three nights.)

Jesus said that an evil and adulterous generation sought for a sign, but He did not say that all who sought signs for whatever reason were evil or adulterous. The apostles in Acts 4 asked God to do signs and wonders for Jesus' sake. They had been persecuted. God answered their prayer and the apostles did signs and wonders. Many believed.

The issue is not one of believing in signs and wonders OR believing in God's word. Gifts of the Spirit are a part of the teaching of God's word. If we believe in God's word, we will believe in this teaching also.

That is not to say that we are to believe everyone who does a sign or wonder. We must hold firmly to the apostles' doctrine. Even in the Old Testament, Israel was told that if a prophets sign came to pass, and the prophet said to worship other gods that they were not to heed him. Signs and wonders have a place in drawing attention to the gospel, but there are lying signs and wonders as well. We must follow the truth of Christ.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

Go easy on the peyote there, Tonto!

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

when is the last time you raised a dead person? i have to admit all of my funerals have been just that, we buried every one of them. i've never spoken a language i don't know either. is it because of a lack of faith. are these spiritual gifts for us today? there are many things going on in the name of Jesus today that He has nothing to do with. ask simon (acts 8) how those gifts were imparted to people other than the Apostles. why didn't Phillip just impart gifts to people in samaria? when did an aposle lay hands on you who are "spiritually gifted". where there are tongues they will cease (1 cor 13)

-- Anonymous, August 29, 2000

Bobby,

I've never raised anyone from the dead either. We only see that the apostles raised one person from the dead in Acts. (Some might say that Eutychus was raised from the dead, or that Paul was raised from the dead when regular believers gahtered around him after he was stoned.)

One missionary in the Papuan province of this country is said to have raised a young child from the dead. After that the village he was ministering opened up to the gospel and eventually the whole village was won to Christ.

I know someone else who, years ago, saw a motorcycle get hit by a car. The driver lay on the ground, with other people around him. This young woman's car was stuck in a traffic jam. She got out of the car (sensing the Lord urging her to do this) leaving her guitar, bags, and man she was dating in the bus. She went down to where the man was and started praying in Jesus name and commanded the man's spirit to come back into his body in Jesus name. Before this whe was not breathing. After she commanded his spirit to come back into his body in Jesus' name, he inhaled and started brathing after that. When she finished praying she looked around and saw this crowd of people (the vast majority of people around here are Muslims.) They were starying at her. She said put take the guy to the hospital.

When she went back int he bus, she could sense the guy she was dating was upset with her. He was a Christian, too. But later he commented on how he didn't like her to just leave him in the car and leave her stuff, and that she could get hurt (by the Moslems) going out there and doing stuff like that.

You mention the story of Simon the sorcerer. Notice that the Acts 8 account says nothing about the apostles laying hands on the Samaritans so that they might receive miraculous gifts. Rather, it says that the Samaritans had been baptized in the name of hte Lord Jesus and ast ye thte Holy Spirit had not come upon any of them. The apostles went there so that they might _receive the Holy Ghost._ The text doesn't say that the Smaritans exercised any 'miraculous gifts.'

Simon tried to buy the ability to impart the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands. The text does NOT say that he tried to buy the ability to give out miraculous powers.

Why did Peter say that Simon had not part or lot in imparting the gift of the Holy Ghost? POeter did not say it was because Simon was not an apostle. Peter said it was because his heart was not right toward God.

Why did Philip not impart the Holy Ghost? Good question, and an interesting one, theologically, since these people had already been baptized. The issue in this passage is not the Samaritans not creceiving 'miraculous gifts' until he apostles coame, but that of the Samaritans having to wait til the apostles came to receive the Holy Ghost. While all scritpure is profitable for doctrine, we should also keep in mind that the gospel, in this passage, is passing from being preached only among the Jews, to also being preached among the Samaritans. The Samaritans were like a mix between Gentile and Jew. They had some unorthodox religious beliefs. Later, Peter was also involved in bringing the gospel to Gentiles, after the Samaritans had been reached. These were pivitol momests in church history.

It is interesting that Philip did not stay around apointing elders and laying hands on people to receive the Holy Ghost. Philip would prach the gospel, baptize, and leave quickly. He just disappeared all of a sudden after baptizing the Etheiopian eunuch. Some people say that appointing elders is the work of evangelists, but we don't see Philip, the one directly called an 'evangelist' in scritpure doing this. Timothy may have done this. Scripture tells him to do the _work_ of an evangelist, and says that he and others ministered 'as the apostles of Christ.' Appointing elders was part of the work of others identified as 'apostles' as well.

The scriptures do not teach that the 'miraculous gifts' were given through the laying on of hands. Scripture does not create the two categories 'miraculous gifts' and 'non-miraculous gifts.' Scripture speaks of spiritual gifts- 'charismata.'

The Bible says that spiritual gifts are given as the Spirit wills, not exclusively thorught he laying on of apostles hands. Timothy received a gift through the laying on of hands of the elders. Paul writes of being able to pray to be able to interpret tongues (I Corinthains 12.) We also see on one occasion that the Holy Spirit came on some men after they were baptized and Paul laid hands on them. this is recordded in Acts 19.

Spiritual gifts can come through the laying on of hands of an apostle, or through the laying on of hands of elders, or in response to prayer, or however else the Spirit wishes to give them. The idea that 'miraculous gifts' are _only_ given through the laying on of hands of hte apostles is not found in the scriptures.

-- Anonymous, August 29, 2000