Tongues, Healing & Prophecy, What The Bible Really Teaches - Cessationism vs Continuationism

Moore's Corner Church

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Hello, in this video, I'd like to speak to you for a few minutes about the spiritual gifts, the true versus the counterfeit.

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In Acts chapter 2 verse 4, it says, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the

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Spirit gave them utterance. As you know, there are many people today who talk about the gift and how they may have the gift of speaking in tongues.

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Notice what the scripture says, the apostles spoke with other tongues.

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And then in verse 6, it says, when the sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak each in his own language.

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So according to the Bible, on the day of Pentecost, they spoke with other tongues, that is other languages.

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That's exactly what it says. People today would have you to believe that tongues is basically some sort of gibberish where you cannot discern what's being said.

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And oftentimes they'll point to passages like 1 Corinthians chapter 14. But if you read 1

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Corinthians 14, Paul is actually rebuking those in the church because you have the true gift of tongues, which is another language.

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The apostles didn't know how to speak all these other languages, and yet the Holy Spirit gave them utterance to do so.

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That's the true gift of tongues. But when they're babbling and it's incoherent, that's the abuse.

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So there's the true and then the counterfeit. And then of course you have healings.

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Now I believe that God can and probably does heal people.

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I don't doubt that. I believe you can pray that someone be healed and God could. And certainly we all agree that he has the ability to miraculously heal people.

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And I don't doubt that God is doing that. But to have a faith healer, as you see some of these guys like Benny Hinn, he'll bonk someone on the head or hit them with a sport coat and they kind of flop around on the ground for a while and they claim to be healed.

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Again, there's the true spiritual gifts. The apostles have the ability to heal. And then there is the counterfeit, the true and the counterfeit.

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I knew one guy who was a Pentecostal, I guess, a nice guy, but we disagreed on this.

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And he wanted to prove me wrong that no, the Holy Spirit, faith healers speaking in this tongues, which is gibberish.

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He wanted to show me that I was incorrect and bring me to a Pentecostal understanding about these things.

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So he showed me a video on Facebook or YouTube, this guy or woman in a wheelchair and they got hit or faith healer touched them or said something and they got up and started shaking and claimed to be healed.

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He said, look, it's right there. The person was miraculously healed. And I said, well,

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I don't just accept that. And because I didn't automatically believe it, he said, you don't have faith.

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He said, you don't even believe in the Holy Spirit. He said, now, let me just be clear.

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I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the miracles and the works of the Holy Spirit that are recorded in this book.

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Some video though on YouTube or Facebook. I don't know what's going on there.

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Having faith is believing what God has said in his word because I don't believe somebody on Facebook.

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The two are not the same. Having faith is in God and in his word, not because I don't have faith or just believe.

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Here's the thing. God talks about we should be holy. He says we should be ready.

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We should be sober. We should be alert. The Lord gives us many exhortations.

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Being gullible is not one of them. So I'm not just going to believe any little thing I see on Facebook and YouTube.

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And I don't mean to be rude or dismissive or combative about these things.

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I just don't believe everything that I hear or everything that I see. And the scripture talks about,

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Jesus himself talks about many false prophets and even false signs and wonders.

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So having faith in God, faith in the Holy Spirit, it's about this book and God's revelation, not whatever people are claiming today.

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One final point, because again, we're talking about the spiritual gifts, the true versus the counterfeit.

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I do believe that God can heal and he may heal if you pray for someone who's sick.

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God could heal that person in a miraculous way. Is it possible that someone could have the gift of tongues?

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I'm open -minded enough to where if I experienced it, if I saw it, okay, but I'm not going to believe just any claim.

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And one final passage, because really this whole question comes down to the argument between cessationism and continuationism.

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And people say, well, where do you get this idea? Because clearly there's tongues and signs and miracles and healings and prophecy in the

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Bible. So where would anyone get the idea that these things have ceased? Well, in 1

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Corinthians chapter 13, the apostle Paul, he writes in verse 8, love never fails, but whether there are prophecies, they will fail.

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Whether there are tongues, he says, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish for we know in part and we prophesy in part.

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But when that which is perfect has come, and that which is in part will be done away.

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So I believe what he is saying is once the perfect has come, that is

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God's new Testament revelation of himself, which was complete by the end of the first century.

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It is that point tongues will cease, prophecies will fail. The miraculous gifts that were in operation performed by men, by the apostles, that ceased in the first century.