Posted on 05/14/2015 2:58:15 PM PDT by OK Sun
New rules also loosen restrictions on baptism, divorce, and parents of teens.
For more than a decade, the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board (IMB) disqualified candidates who spoke in tongues or who had been baptized in churches that disagreed with the convention’s view of baptism.
Similar rules barred divorced people or those with teenagers from being missionaries.
That changed Wednesday, when the IMB’s trustees, at the prompting of their new president David Platt, approved a new, simplified set of rules for the agency’s more than 4,800 missionaries.
Missionary candidates must affirm the doctrines found in the Baptist Faith and Message statement of beliefs, be baptized by immersion, be a member of a SBC church, and demonstrate an “intimate, growing relationship with Christ.”
Previous rules required would-be missionaries to have been baptized in an SBC church, or in a church that held SBC-like beliefs about baptism. Candidates baptized in a church that did not believe in eternal security—the idea that true Christians can’t lose their salvation even if they sin--or a church that views baptism is a sacrament were rejected.
The new rules allows those who were baptized by immersion and who are members of an SBC church to be candidates.
The changes also address the question of charismatic worship and prayer practices, which have been controversial for Southern Baptists. Under the previous rules, candidates who spoke in tongues or had a “private prayer language” were barred.
Under the new rules, speaking in tongues does not disqualify missionary candidates. Too much emphasis on charismatic gifts, like speaking in tongues, could still lead to discipline.
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(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Kind of hard to translate for the deaf too.
Bad idea.
Strange fire. Leviticus 10:1-2a.
“Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD....”
The Holy Spirit gave us ALL of the following gifts. Do not cherry-pick the gifts.
1 CORINTHIANS 12
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
12 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 2 You know that at one time you were unbelievers. You were somehow drawn away to worship statues of gods that couldn’t even speak. 3 So I want you to know that no one who is speaking with the help of God’s Spirit says, “May Jesus be cursed.” And without the help of the Holy Spirit no one can say, “Jesus is Lord.”
4 There are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given to believers by the same Spirit. 5 There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord. 6 There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people.
7 The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all. 8 To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge. 9 To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. 10 To others he gives the power to do miracles. To others he gives the ability to prophesy. To others he gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others he gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others he gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages. 11 All the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives gifts to each person, just as he decides.
Speaking in tongues is apparently a phenomenon happening in the rapidly growing church in China.
I read “Jesus in Beijing”, and the book mentioned the occurence of tongues for many (not all) Christian movements in that nation.
A simple reading of St Paul’s letters about speaking in tongues shows they are merely foreign languages, not pentecostal jibberish. That is why they needed translators or should keep quiet.
A simple reading of Paul’s letters shows we are told, “Do not forbid the speaking in tongues.”
If this is true and real, I pray Jesus would do it through me some day.
FROM THE TRANSLATORS TO THE READER, KJV original preface.
Even the translators knew what TONGUES meant in scripture.
http://avbtab.org/av/avPre.htm
§ 6 [Translation necessary.]
• 1 But how shall men meditate in that, which they cannot understand? How shall they understand that which is kept close in an unknown tongue? as it is written, Except I know the power of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh, a Barbarian, and he that speaketh, shall be a Barbarian to me. [1Cor.14]
• 2 The Apostle excepteth no tongue; not Hebrew the ancientest, not Greek the most copious, not Latin the finest.
• 3 Nature taught a natural man to confess, that all of us in those tongues which we do not understand, are plainly deaf; we may turn the deaf ear unto them.
• 4 The Scythian counted the Athenian, whom he did not understand, barbarous; [Clem. Alex. 1° Strom.] so the Roman did the Syrian, and the Jew (even S.Hierome himself called the Hebrew tongue barbarous, belike because it was strange to so many):
• 5 [S.Hieronym. Damaso.] so the Emperor of Constantinople [Michael. Theophili fil.] calleth the Latin tongue, barbarous, though Pope Nicolas do storm at it:
• 6 [2. Tom. Concil. ex edit. Petri Crab.] so the Jews long before Christ called all other nations, Lognazim, which is little better than barbarous.
• 7 Therefore as one complaineth, that always in the Senate of Rome, [Cicero 5° de finibus.] there was one or other that called for an interpreter: so lest the Church be driven to the like exigent, it is necessary to have translations in a readiness.
• 8 Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth aside the curtain, that we may look into the most holy place; that removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water, even as Jacob rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, by which means the flocks of Laban were watered [Gen.29:10].
• 9 Indeed, without translation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at Jacob’s well (which was deep) [John 4:11] without a bucket or something to draw with: or as that person mentioned by Isaiah, to whom when a sealed book was delivered, with this motion, Read this, I pray thee, he was fain {compelled by circumstances} to make this answer, I cannot, for it is sealed. [Isa.29:11]
As far as I've ever heard, Pentecostals use it that way.
Not like they're missing anything. Pentecostal Tongue-speaking looks something like this: Agoo Mcfarshmoosmaka babalokasha eelborogo.
Though sometimes you might just get grunts and dog barking, or maybe even quacking like a duck.
The Holy Spirit also gives us Apostles and Prophets, but never promised that He would always continue to give them. Know any Apostles walking around and clearing out hospitals lately?
But we can forbid them if they're not speaking tongues, which is indeed the case. Problem solved.
[Know any Apostles walking around and clearing out hospitals lately?]
I do know Apostles and prophets, and people are being healed. Miracles happen all the time. The reason why there aren’t more miraculous healings here in America is because people don’t believe in them.
The LORD gave us the gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Where did the Bible say these gifts ever ended? How can you say that just evangelists, pastors, and teachers are for today and not the apostles and prophets? All are needed for the End Time Church.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ EPHESIANS 4:11-13
Paul said, 1 Corinthians 14:18 KJV, I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: The whole chapter is very meaty teaching. Ends the chapter with Let all things be done decently and in order.
Really? How about some names?
Many Pentecostal churches have apostles and prophets.
[I do know Apostles and prophets.]
The book of Joel talks about these gifts in end times
JOEL 2
“And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
We are living in the last days.
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