[Fantasywriter]

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.

[BenLurkin]

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.”

[lurk]

One can sit back, listening to the discussion, and note how little scripture is cited by either side.

[editor-surveyor]

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[Bodleian_Girl]

Bmrk.

[boatbums]

The questions that should be asked when engaging spiritual experiences, Brown insists, are, 'Is it God or not?' Is it contrary to Scripture? Is it in harmony with the larger testimony of Scripture? What kind of fruit does it bear?" "So we use the creedal test and the moral test — what does it teach and what kind of fruit does it produce — and based on that we come to our respective conclusions," he explained.

Though I would never assert God cannot or will not use what are called the "gifts of the Holy Spirit" in today's time, I don't believe a large percentage of what calls itself demonstrations of the Holy Spirit is valid. The tests of Scripture and the fruit of such experiences MUST BE our priority. Human pride is sadly behind much of the abuses in churches today. Because of that, the genuine can be missed or exploited.

[Fantasywriter]

‘Brown, who’s also the author of the upcoming book, Playing with Holy Fire: A Wake-Up Call to the Pentecostal-Charismatic Church, where he chastises Pentecostal and charismatic churches for their spiritual gullibility, sexual sin in leadership, misuse of finances, doctrinal error, personal flakiness, and misuse of “prophetic” utterances, even as he maintains that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today.’

Well that sure sounds familiar. The Corinthian church had so many members with the gift of tongues, they sounded like a babble-fest bc they all spoke at once. Yet the above excerpt describes them pretty well. They had sexual sin and a host of other issues. Paul wrote his fingers to the nub trying to get and keep them on the right track. I.e.: the gifts of tongues, prophecy, etc., are no guarantee of spiritual maturity.

[captain_dave]

The most important question is: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

[metmom]

Not when cessationists state that anyone who speaks in tongues is demon possessed.

When I first got saved, I had a guy I worked with tell me that and to avoid contact with my best friend because she got saved through an AoG church and spoke in tongues.

[metmom]

One preacher I listened to brought up a very interesting point.

He said that this is the wrong question.

It’s not whether the gifts are for today or not, but if what is being manifested by Christians, especially in the way of tongues, is the actual NT gift of tongues, if it’s the same thing.

I found that a very interesting and relevant point.

[af_vet_1981]

Michael Brown, a messianic Jewish scholar, charismatic theologian and host of the Line of Fire radio program, told CP that "the charismatic movement has done a poor job of policing itself. There's really no question about that."

The first sentence capitalizes "Jewish" and uses lower case for "messianic" (Christian). Why capitalize one and not he other ?