DO NOT GET TOSSED ABOUT BY ALL KINDS OF STRANGE TEACHINGS
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from the Afrikaans Version: Moenie rondgeslinger word deur allerhande en vreemde leringe nie
Translator: Lynda Botha
Someone wrote and asked me the following, and I quote the person's words to you below:
"I just want to know if it is true what our pastor preached that some gifts no longer exist. He delivered a sermon from 1 Corinthians 12. He also said that apostles and prophets no longer exist because Matthew, Luke, etc. is dead.
Can you please comment on this? "
Since I obtained the highest regard for the theologians of this denomination, my first perception upon reading this letter is that something radical must have gone wrong with this particular pastor’s thinking before he appeared on the pulpit.
For example, the kind of thing that goes wrong with your thinking if you take a few deep swigs of the communion wine first, before making your appearance on the pulpit.
I can still understand, although with great difficulty, when someone erroneously gives Doctor Luke the title of an apostle or a prophet, because a pastor receives thorough theological training otherwise he would not have been a pastor in that denomination – But to say that the Holy Spirit no longer distributes certain gifts just because some people are no longer living, shows that this pastor, in my opinion, either lost his mind completely or at least temporarily.
One can only hope that his problem was not much bigger like some of the great theologians’ who are questioning Jesus' virgin birth etc.
I cannot think of a Scripture within the Word of God that suggests that the gifts or anything else the Christians of the biblical period received, would no longer be given by our loving God to us today, No.
For example, let's look if the gift to speak in tongues, which are one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, was depended on being an apostle or prophet.
In Acts 10 our Lord says to Cornelius in a vision, that he needs to send some men to Joppa to fetch Simon Peter so that he could tell him about the Gospel of Jesus.
We read:
ACTS 10:5 “Now send some men to Joppa, and summon a man name Simon Peter.”
ACTS 10:6 “He is staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.”
ACTS 10:23 “So Peter invited the men to stay for the night. The next day he went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa.”
Peter was then amongst other believers at Cornelius’ and while Peter shares the Gospel to Cornelius and his family, the following happened:
ACTS 10:44-47
44 “Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.”
45 “The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles too.”
46 “For they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God. Then Peter asked,”
47 “Can anyone object to their being baptized, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?”
Note that –
Peter was doing nothing else but preaching the gospel when this happened:
ACTS 10:44 “Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.”
Later Peter defended his actions of going into an uncircumcised house to preach the Gospel and he concludes with the following:
ACTS 11:16 “Then I thought of the Lord’s words when He said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
ACTS 11:17 “And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift He gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”
Do you see?
It was not Peter or his apostleship that caused the events which happened.
Praise the name of our Lord !
It was our Lord who doesn’t let Himself be hindered by anyone.
He did not let Himself be hindered then and neither will He let Himself be hindered today.
There are theologians, because of their own unbelief, who preach what I would call evil from their pulpits.
These types of theologians disregard large parts of the Word of God as if it no longer applies to us today, because of their unbelief and in some cases to appease the people.
As for example the following Scripture in the Word of God:
JAMES 5:14-17
14 “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.”
15 “Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.”
16 “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
17 “Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years!”
James said that Elijah was as human just like James and the people of that time.
James, Elijah and all the faithful people of that time were also human just as we are today.
I must not degrade the workings of the Holy Spirit to hide my diminutive faith.
Remember what the Word of God said:
HEB 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
HEB 13:9 “So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas…..”
Our Lord remains the same now, who functioned then. He still functions the same today just like yesterday and the day before yesterday just like He did ages ago.
Our unchanging God wrote with regards to the functioning of the Holy Spirit:
1 COR 12:4-11
4 “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.”
5 “There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.”
6 “God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.”
7 “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.”
8 “To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.”
9 “The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.”
10 “He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.”
11 “It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.”
How wonderful to conclude this letter to you while I sing in my heart!
1 TIM1:17 “All honour and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen One who never dies; He alone is God. Amen.”
Greetings,
Sakkie