Addressing the Charismatic Question, Part 2

This study of cessationism focuses on three essential questions. Focusing on the gift of tongues, Part 1 began to address the first of these: What were the gifts in the New Testament, and how does that biblical description compare to what is happening in contemporary charismatic circles?

Seven similarities provide strong evidence that the gift of tongues in Acts was the same gift of tongues in view in 1 Corinthians 12–14. In Acts and 1 Corinthians, tongues share the same source, recipients, substance, terminology and primary purpose. They also share the same connection to the other gifts and the same reaction from unbelievers.

Several additional exegetical comments might be made about the gift of tongues:

1. Some, not all

 

First Corinthians 12:8–11 and 27–31 make it unmistakably clear that not everyone received the gift of tongues (cf. 14:26). Note that there is no contextual or grammatical warrant for seeing 1 Corinthians 12 as one type of tongues (that only a few receive) and 1 Corinthians 14 as a different type (that everyone is to receive). Along those lines, Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 14:5 (“Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues”) is almost identical to his earlier statement in 7:7 regarding singleness. (“Yet I wish that all men were even as myself”). Thus, Paul’s wish does not indicate that everyone in the Corinthian congregation actually spoke in tongues.   Continue at Nathan Busenitz

Modern Healthcare: Are we Playing God?

There has always been a wide range of opinion and practice among Christians on the matter of medical technology. Soon after his conversion, my physician husband was taken aback when a woman in his congregation explained she was not going to visit a doctor to treat a thigh abscess, but was instead going to pray according to the instructions of James:

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (Jas 5:13-15)

She was waiting for God to heal her. Likewise, a friend of mine was devastated when a well-intentioned group of parishioners visited her to pray for her chronic back pain, and then accused her of having inadequate faith when she did not immediately improve.

There has always been a level of suspicion or unease among some Christians about medical technology, and it is not getting any easier. Healthcare is changing rapidly. The escalation in the number of ways we can manipulate the unborn human is regularly creating ethical dilemmas that we have never had to confront before. The developing scientific environment will demand a constant shift of focus and approach to the moral challenges, and new situations will require us to keep re-examining the subject. Rote answers won’t be enough.   Continue at Megan Best

Sexual Sanity and Healing Wounded Hearts

There’s little doubt that pornography is a modern-day plague. Though pornography has always existed in one form or another, the Internet has created a medium through which it can be disseminated both widely and discreetly. Almost an entire generation of boys has succumbed at one time or another, with a new generation quickly falling into all of the same traps. And it has not just been boys; many men have found the temptation irresistible (and, of course, not a few women). While there are some who try to downplay pornography’s impact on life and marriage, evidence is mounting that it is a terribly destructive force.

Two new books from New Growth Press address the issue head-on. One targets men who are struggling with pornography or any other manner of sexual sin and the other brings help and healing to women who have found that their husbands have an addiction.

David White’s Sexual Sanity for Men seeks to help men “understand that sexual sin starts in their minds and hearts and shows them how knowing Christ breaks their chains, builds spiritual brotherhood, and helps them take practical steps to re-create their minds in a God-focused direction.” This is a study or a course as much as a book. It is broken into fourteen chapters, each of which has five parts. The idea is that you will read one chapter per week, and one part per weekday, and hopefully meet with other men along the way. There is a downloadable leader’s guide that allows it to be structured as a group study.    Continue at Tim Challies

You Shouldn’t try to Forgive Yourself

One of the more interesting teachings that has crept into the Christian community is this idea of self-forgiveness.

Forgiving myself is the standard way it is talked about.

I’m not exactly sure how it became such an effective teaching in mainstream Christian consciousness, though I do have a pretty good idea where it came from.

Its roots are in the self-esteem movement as taught by our secular culture.

Only a person who is pursuing a high self-esteem would be tempted to think along the lines of self-forgiveness.

What I mean is this:

Typically a person who believes he needs to forgive himself has sinned in some way–hence the need for forgiveness.

All sin requires forgiveness in order to be free from it. We’re good so far.

However, rather than the self-forgiver seeking forgiveness from God alone, he believes that he needs something more–something in addition to God’s forgiveness. While he may think about and even know that God will forgive him of his sins, he also believes his personal forgiveness of himself is required too.

“Yes, God has forgiven me, but I can’t forgive myself for what I did,” is a typical response.

This is a major heresy because it adds to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of this it must be repudiated. Whenever we add anything to the Gospel, it mocks and marginalizes the work of Christ and it must be rebuked.

• Christ’s forgiveness of myself + my forgiveness of myself = heresy
• Christ’s forgiveness of myself + my acceptance of His forgiveness = forgiveness

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. – Galatians 1:8-9 (ESV)  Continue at Rick Thomas

By His Wounds You Are Healed

Bible studies for women have long been stereotyped as overly emotional and theologically shallow, following the assumption that women don’t flock to rigorous theological study and few women would be equipped to teach even if they did. Thankfully, this assumption is dying in certain women’s ministry circles. With the advent of the True Woman movement, and now The Gospel Coalition’s 2012 National Women’s Conference in Orlando, more resources by and for women are helping them study of the Bible.

Enter Wendy Horger Alsup, author of By His Wounds You Are Healed: How the Message of Ephesians Transforms a Woman’s Identity. She is also the author ofPractical Theology for Women, which was birthed out of a class she taught at Mars Hill Church in Seattled.

Alsup wrote By His Wounds You are Healed to show Christian women their spiritual inheritance in Christ and the wealth of transformative grace available to them because Christ paid their debt on the cross (9). But this book is not for the faint of heart. She does not write to cater to emotions or the latest fad. She writes to help women see the wealth of truth written in God’s Word. While there are countless excellent commentaries and studies out there on the book of Ephesians, the benefit of this study is that it was written by a solid, Christ-saturated woman with the hearts of women in mind. Women need theology and in-depth Bible study just as much as men do. Alsup understands that and answers the call. Keep Reading...

When Healing Does Not Come