- Mar 28, 2005
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It is interesting that when Jesus healed the lame man at the pool of Bethseda there were many other disabled people there too, but He didn't heal them. But He healed all those who came to Him for healing.Healers never go to hospitals and tongues are not interpreted. Why should i believe in either?
So, He doesn't heal those who don't ask for it. That is why He would not have gone into a hospital and healed everyone. Also, He knew that those who followed Him just for the healings and the free lunches were just superficial believers. When He put the hard word on them to identify with His death, most of these superficial believers left Him.
So these healing evangelists get the big crowds who are not coming to Jesus to be identified with His death on the cross, and this is seen where the true gospel is never preached in those services. They are there just for the healing and signs and wonders, which makes them superficial believers as viewed by Jesus when similar crowds came to Him for the same things.
God is sovereign. He does things His way, and not when we demand it. It is not that healing is denied, but that God chooses Himself when and where to heal someone, not as a vending machine to produce it on demand.
Concerning tongues - we need to go to the text of 1 Corinthians 14 and see what Paul actually teaches about it. It is significant that in 1 Corinthians 1 he says that what he is teaching is not only for the Corinthians church, but for all Christians everywhere. His intention is for this letter to be read in all the churches, because what he taught the Corinthians was the right way to go about worship and doctrine and it applies to every Christian church, including those of our generation. We need to study the text of the chapter, because according to Paul it applies as much to us as it did to the Corinthians and every other Christian church. We need to study the text without overlaying it with the suppositions of those who have decided of themselves that tongues is not real today. I put it to you that you cannot show me one Scripture that clearly states that tongues and prophecy as taught in 1 Corinthians was meant to be temporary and was not for the church right through to the second coming of Christ. You can't, because there is no such reference anywhere in the actual text.
So, if you want to dream up your own opinions that's your affair, but don't expect me to agree with you that the Bible says these gifts were just temporary when the Bible says no such thing!
I will go as far as to say, because Paul was teaching Scripture, equivalent to the commands of Jesus through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and because He said that His friends were those who did what He commanded, we really do need to filter out the Cessationist teaching of those who decide not to take 1 Corinthians 14 seriously, and seek the Lord whether we are, in fact, being obedient to all that He commanded, either from Himself directly, or by the Holy Spirit through Paul.
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