I CORINTHIANS 13:
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. QX: AHHHHHHH, A KEY POINT. WHEN?
The deception from hell contends that when John the Beloved ran out of ink at the end of Revelation, then THE PERFECT HAD COME.
What hogwash! Ink on pages is going to be THE PERFECT vs THE LIVING WORD, THE CHRIST--JESUS?
What a short route back to idolatry! Just because the idol is an ink on paper version of God's Spirit breathed Word doesn't make it less offensive in God's eyes.
Satan is gleeful. He gets people sidetracked into a very limiting, ego driven, flesh driven; intellectually focused; given to rigidity; given to narrowness; given to authoritarian judgmentalism etc. sort of idolatrous philosophy of man masqurading as 'Christian righteousness.' . . . . masquarading as even THE TRULY TRUEST, MOST LOFTY, MOST PURE, MOST HOLY, MOST RIGHTEOUS, TRULY TRUEST TRUE TRUTH!
And all the 'lesser idiots' who haven't 'our lofty study and brilliant understanding;' 'our clarity of vision and holiness;' . . . are deamed heathen beyond the pale or some such. Satan is indeed gleeful. Idolatry always thrills him. Anything but worshipping THE LIVING WORD; THE LIVING GOD--THE FATHER, THE SON, THE SPIRIT.
And there's nothing slicker than getting well meaning honest believers sidetracked into a very seductive hypocrisy, heresy of worshipping their specific personal/reference group's idiosyncratic version of worshipping ink on a page otherwise known as [in hushed reverent tones reserved for true idols] THE WUUUUURRRRD OF GAWWWWWHHHHDDD!
No, THE BIBLE is
1) NOT A LOGICAL solution to THE PERFECT in this chapter. 2) NOT A SUFFICIENT solution--especially when compared to THE RISEN CHRIST RETURNING IN PERFECTION AS THE PERFECT CONQUERING KING TO SET UP HIS PERFECT KINGOM OF PEACE.
10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
If we were to do some thoughtless mental contortions and gymnastics sufficient to delude ourselves that the perfect is supposed to be the ink on pages in a book--WHAT could we imagine would be the imperfect that disappears? Does the Old Testament disappear? Not hardly!
Have all other BOOKS disappeared? What nonsense! Have all other examples of ink on pages disappeared? Worse nonsense!
CLEARLY for anyone thinking past the depth of the width of a human hair, CHRIST is the ONLY plausible solution for THE PERFECT to come. Further evidence is availabe in the chapter.
Have prophecies passed away from God's ordained use in The Body of Christ? Not by a long shot! Oh, there are blind groups where they QUENCH Holy Spirit in direct violation of Scripture and He avoids overcoming their free wills to force Himself on their sanctimonious little/big group. But that doesn't mean Holy Spirit is hobbled across ALL of Christendom and the globe.
Holy Spirit is having a grand time raising people from the dead after prophecying that such will happen to so and so--in Mexico and in China and I think also in Africa. And, there were a number of prophetic warnings documented well ahead of time about 9/11.
In my own life, I've been somewhat grieved yet blessed that I heard correctly that XYZ pastors and spouses were going to be disciplined in stern ways within a year. And it happened--not one of the alternative ways described but both ways.
I and many, many folks I've noted to be most in Love with Jesus and most intimate with Him, The Father and The Spirit than others in my experience--this class of people of all walks and stations in life--and all shapes and sizes and plenty of flaws, BTW--this class of people have persistently had waves of experiences of accurate prophetic ministry in their lives.
It's also logical and Biblical when one simply takes the text at face value and applies it functionally as Scripture indicates in one's daily life. Usually Child-like faith has the easiest time experiencing such.
Tongues? Not hardly! One close friend prayed at 3 different visits to 3 different Native American tribes at the end of her ministry visit. She just thought se was praying in tongues quietly as others prayed also--most out loud at the same time. But afterwards, in all 3 cases, an older person standing near her would ask her where she'd learned the lofty version of their Native language. They told her she'd given a beautiful perfectly pronounced version of the Gospel story in the high status version of their Native language which few alive even knew any more.
There are thousands of similar experiences abroad in the Church at large, today. Clearly, the New Testament was and is a manual for CHRISTIANS OF ALL AGES TO OPERATE FROM, with it serving as a guide until CHRIST RETURNS. Nothing else makes much logical sense regardless of the intellectual contortions and rubber Bible stuff the naysayers pontificate with.
Hmmmm, prophecies, tongues--ahhh wellll, surely knowledge has ceased!!!! SUPER IDIOCY! AS SCRIPTURE foretold, it has mushroomed and spread far and wide across the globe--all kinds of knowledge. And, it has puffed up accordingly. But even righteous spiritual knowledge has mushroomed. AND HAS YET TO EVEN APPROACH PERFECTION!
So, we prophecy in part; know in part and certainly love in part. IT'S THE BEST WE CAN DO EVEN IF WE MEMORIZE EVERY WORD OF INK ON THE PRINTED PAGE. CLEARLY, THE PERFECT HAS NOT COME, YET.
BUT PRAISE GOD, THE KING IS COMING. THE PERFECT ONE SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD IS COMING.
IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME, THE PERFECT ONE WILL REIGN OVER HIS PERFECT KINGDOM IN LOVING PERFECTION.
THEN, AND ONLY THEN does it make sense that there will no longer be a need or function for Holy Spirit prophecies, tongues and knowledge poured through flawed human critters leaving all still seeing through a glass darkly.
THEN AND ONLY THEN will we SEE THE PERFECT ONE FACE TO FACE AND KNOW AS WE ARE KNOWN.
Nothing else makes the faintest sense for anyone thinking deeper than the atoms on the surface of a hair.
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
EVEN WHEN THE PERFECT KING COMES AND REIGNS IN PERFECTION, LOVE , FAITH, HOPE WILL STILL REIGN SUPREME WITH HIM. But prophecies will be unnecessary as His wisdom and knowledge will be scribed on our hearts and shared freely, liberally to all living in that exalted realm.
Tongues will THEN be unnecessary as Holy Spirit and the light of God's Wisdom and Knowledge will be as available as the enlivened air we breathe in that exalted realm.
Alas, many folks have had poor teaching. Many seize on the poor teaching for psychological reasons. Many become entrenched in it because it's all they've ever known. Many buy into it because their families or reference groups insist on it or ostracize them.
It doesn't matter; satan doesn't care what the excuse is for the bibliolatry. He's just gleeful to side track people's devotion to THE LIVING WORD, THE FATHER, THE SPIRIT.
Satan had MUCH rather have people fiercely defending and insisting on endless tidy little boxed constructions on reality rather than submitting moment by moment to the still small voice of The Lord.
Sigh.
Hebrews Chapter 1
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God [is] quick, (ie living) and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
2 Peter 2:12
But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
2:13
And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
2:15
Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
2:16
But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
2:17
These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
2:18
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
James 3:13
Who [is] a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Jam 3:14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
Jam 3:15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but [is] earthly, sensual, devilish.
Jam 3:16 For where envying and strife [is], there [is] confusion and every evil work.
Jam 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, [and] easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Jam 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.