Subject: Who decided that the extraordinary gifts |
Bible Note: Hello BMyers, Possibly you could elaborate on your statement that "The statement was made that the Holy Spirit no longer raises people from the dead or heals them."? You disagreed. I can certainly appreciate your experience as a paramedic and that through this medical assistance people can and have been resuscitated. However, I think there's a significant difference between being resuscitated (vital signs restored)and having someone who's been dead 3-4 days being raised back to life. Would you not agree? The former could more clearly be assigned to the advances of medicine while the latter would clearly be a miracle of the Holy Spirit! I think the point being made is this: One being raised from the dead is not a normative occurence. God is sovereign and He can and does heal. However, in all of scripture we only have 8 individual examples given. Surely if God intended this type of miracle to be a common, i.e. normative experience of His miracle working power, we would find more evidence of it in the Bible:-) Make no mistake about it, the Holy Spirit is very much alive and operating in our world today quite in keeping with the Lord's promise in John 14:16-17ff. Speaking the Truth in Love, BradK |