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

Tongues as Other Languages in Acts 2

Hello, in this video, I'd like to speak to you for a few minutes about the spiritual gifts, the true versus the counterfeit. 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 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. Notice what the scripture says, the apostles spoke with other tongues. 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.

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

And oftentimes they'll point to passages like 1 Corinthians chapter 14. But if you read 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is actually rebuking those in the church because you have the true gift of tongues, which is another language.

The apostles didn't know how to speak all these other languages. And yet the Holy Spirit gave them utterance to do so. That's the true gift of tongues. But when they're babbling and it's incoherent, that's the abuse.

Healing, Faith Healers, and the Counterfeit

So there's the true and then the counterfeit. And then of course, you have healings. Now, I believe that God can and probably does heal people. 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. 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, they'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.

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. I knew one guy who is a Pentecostal, I guess, a nice guy, but we disagreed on this and he wanted to prove me wrong that, no, the Holy Spirit, faith healers speaking in this tongues, it's just gibberish.

He wanted to show me that I was incorrect and bring me to a Pentecostal understanding about these things. So he showed me a video on Facebook or YouTube, this guy or woman in a wheelchair and they got, you know, hit or faith healer touched them or said something and they got up and started shaking and claimed to be healed.

They said, look, it's right there. The person was miraculously healed. And I said, well, I don't just accept that. And because I didn't automatically believe it, he said, you don't have faith. He said, you don't even believe in the Holy Spirit.

He said, now let me just be clear. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the miracles and the works of the Holy Spirit that are recorded in this book. Some video though on YouTube or Facebook, I don't know what's going on there.

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

Discernment, False Prophets, and Biblical Faith

Here's the thing. God talks about we should be holy. He says we should be ready. We should be sober. We should be alert. The Lord gives us many exhortations. Being gullible is not one of them. So I'm not just going to believe any little thing I see on Facebook and YouTube.

And I don't mean to be rude or dismissive or combative about these things. I just don't believe everything that I hear or everything that I see. And the scripture talks about, Jesus himself talks about many false prophets and even false signs and wonders.

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

I do believe that God can heal and he may heal if you pray for someone who's sick. God could heal that person in a miraculous way. Is it possible that someone could have the gift of tongues? 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. And one final passage, because really this whole question comes down to the argument between cessationism and continuationism. 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 Bible. So where would anyone get the idea that these things have ceased? Well, in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the apostle Paul, he writes in verse 8, love never fails, but whether there are prophecies, they will fail.

Whether there are tongues, he says, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away for we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come and that which is in part will be done away.

So I believe what he is saying is once the perfect has come, that is God's New Testament revelation of himself, which was complete by the end of the first century. It is at 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. I'm Pastor Michael Grant. Thanks for watching.