Subject: Age of Miracles - Past or Present |
Bible Note: Rowdy, the first thing a person has to come to grips with is your original question---has the age of miracles passed? If it has, then the unavoidable conclusion is anything miraculous is not of God. Other the other hand, if that age has not passed, then of course what God does miraculously through the gifts should line up with the instruction Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to give the church in his letters, especially 1 Corinthians, which is about all we have on the subject. But another problem may exist, in that, even if some operation of the gift of tongues, for example, is not strictly in line with instructions in 1 Cor. 14, can we really conclude that it was not of God, or at worst, of the devil? Didn't Paul have to correct that church in some of what was going on in that respect? Did he yell at them and say what they were doing was of the devil? Was it not the Holy Spirit operating, not the devil, and yet they still needed instruction such as (1) you need an interpreter too, or (2) do it one at a time, etc.? Not sure I can figure that out. If you have any thoughts there, let me know. The bottom line though is that in everything, God (particularly Jesus, John 16:14) should be glorified. And we are told God is not the author of confusion, so there should be no confusion. Finally, if it is truly a God-given gift, a miraculous power, it will be something that the person could not have done on his own but only by the power of God, Who should therefore get all the honor and praise, not the individual. Don't know if that answers your question, but those are my thoughts for the moment. Phil |