Posted on 03/21/2018 8:45:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
No, that divide cannot be bridged. The Holy Spirit is at any time capable of manifesting gifts in believers. Denial of the power of the Holy Spirit is too fundamental an issue to paper over.
I speak from experience.
It cannot be bridged because cessationists have basically blasphemed the Holy Spirit. They should have taken the admonition to test the spirits or test all things.
The Apostle Paul explained it quite well saying, “Look, there’s speaking in tongues and all that but it isn’t much more than noise absent the Gospel of love.”
You and I have had our disagreements, but not one this issue. On this issue, we 100% agree.
It gets no more dangerous than denying the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s just one of those things a person should never do. The Pharisees did it, and it didn’t work out any better for them than it does for anyone else.
One can sit back, listening to the discussion, and note how little scripture is cited by either side.
What you are saying is 100% correct and the example you are using is the best way to explain it. Cessationism flies in the face of many things taught by the Lord and His disciples about a faith lived by the power of God.
“It gets no more dangerous than denying the power of the Holy Spirit.”
More dangerous than corrupting, faking, and prostituting the power of the Holy Spirit?
Yes I have seen much of John Mac’s work on this and he is right on some things and wrong on others.
Thank you, DV—you summed that up very well and concisely.
Both are equally dangerous.
Absolutely. Your examples represent scams and impostures. They are bad but in no way to be compared with actually denying the power of the Holy Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit elects to fill an individual or a church/assembly—and if the filling/pouring out results in the manifestation of spiritual gifts—it is not our job to question or deny Him. That is playing with fire. DV called it blasphemous. I cannot argue with that characterization.
+1
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>> “Denial of the power of the Holy Spirit is too fundamental an issue to paper over.” <<
I agree fully with that statement, but fakers are just as vexing as deniers.
The Holy Spirit does not work where theatrics do.
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The image site doesn’t allow public access, (403) so your images do not show.
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The Holy Spirit has never lent his power for the advancement of persons.
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It’s not a one-for-one comparison, but consider this. Paul was informed that some were spreading the Gospel for wrong motives. Here is his response,
Philippians:
15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will;
16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;
17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.
18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.
Now the Pharisees, by contrast, saw a great manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power—the raising of Lazarus from the dead—and here was their reaction:
John:
47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs.
48 If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,
50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”
The result of denying the power of the Holy Spirit was far more dire than corrupt motives re the preaching of Christ.
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Mis-application of scripture!
A charletan pretending to do the works of the Spirit advances only the work of the adversary.
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But do the acts of the charlatans lead them into a murderous rage against Jesus?
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