Comments on: Why Charismatics are not New Testament Christians

By: arleigh

arleigh — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:58:17 +0000

Jesus admonitions were not in knowing scriptures but in obedience to the Father.
Except you become as litte children.
Not DR. of divinity.
Just think of the usefulness of a persons life here, compared to that of eternity,and the only value worth culturing is obedience to the Father, not scriptural independent intellect .
Considder Adam’s failure.
The tree of knowledge continues to do damage especially in the church . It is the greatest asset to the enemy, and is why it was important that Adam fell that way to Satan.
Isreal fell repidly doing what was right in their own eyes.
Like a lawyer looking for loup holes, christians search the scriptures for the limits of distance one can still maintain man approved religion.
The law is tangable ,easily manipulated.
The Holy Spirit on the other hand, is not .
One would do well, to confign their studdies to those things Jesus taught alone, and pray desprately, for the tutelage of the Holy Spirit ,to reveal what is necessary.
Answers to many issues men teach us to fear or not to fear, are best answered by God, not men.
I do not worship the Bible; I worship God ,in Spirit and in truth .
Paul’s teachings are not God’s word, he is self proclamed,inconsistant and disagrees with Jesus.
Primarily, Jesus did not teach grace , and was very consistant with his charictor in the old testament; performance /conciquences.

Conserning the Myan calander and current world events, man made and apparently natural, It is most important to know , what God want’s you to do today right now , and obey His instruction.
if like Joseph you are instructed to prepare for a fammon, then do it with God’s instruction as to what or how or when to store.
If He has not instructed you to store , doing so any way would be disobedience on your behalf.
Matthew 7;21,22,23,
It is not the miricals you perform independently ,but personal obedience due to desperate dependence on Him.

By: Tamber

Tamber — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:07:52 +0000

Your answer lifts the inetillgence of the debate.

By: Andy Moyle

Andy Moyle — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:39:47 +0000

I’m not sure that you have understood the gift of prophecy as understood by (certainly reformed) charismatics at all.

To start with, I have very high view of Scripture and I believe that prophecy in the New Testament age must be weighed in accordance with Scripture and in no way replaces it. Because I have a high view of Scripture, I do believe in the gift of prophecy in operation today!

Acts 2 is the beginning of the fulfilment of the OT promises that all will be able to hear from God personally. v17-18 show that the giving of the Spirit is for young and old, male and female and irrespective of employment status. Verse 18 “They shall prophecy” – so prophetic revelation has been opened for all believers.

Charismatics would see that some are especially gifted in prophecy – Romans 12 lists a number of gifts and includes prophecy – “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them, if prophecy in proportion to our faith…” Verse 38 would show us that the promise of the Spirit is “for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord calls to Himself” – that would include believers today!

Then there are those who themselves become a gift to the church – Ephesians 4:11 “And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”

Clearly those until conditions haven’t been met, so the ascended Christ is still giving those ministry gifts to build up the Church.
(I’ll be in hot water for apostles now! Three things on apostles. i)Apostle doesn’t mean Scripture writer as most didn’t and Mark wasn’t one of the 12.
ii)The 12 are “apostles of the resurrection” to be authoritative witnesses of the resurrection Acts 1:21.
iii) The Eph 4 ascension apostles are those in the basic meaning of the word apostle “one sent with authority” sent by Jesus to plant churches and to ensure good foundations, just like Paul did. Note the ascension gifts are still needed because we haven’t met all the “untils”.
Back to topic of prophets….)

I agree with you that if Christians are chasing after prophets for a word on how to live life they are missing the point. The main job description for a “New Testament Prophet” is to equip people to hear from God themselves. But that doesn’t mean that Charismatics are OT believers (but maybe some of the charismaniacs are acting that way!)

We all have the ability to hear from God for ourselves in a revelatory way – that was promised in the OT and became widely available at Pentecost. Some have much grace for prophecying (Rom 12:6) and should do so to encourage, edify, strengthen, comfort the Church and be agents of conviction 1 Cor 141:26. Others are gifted to equip others and should do so Eph 4:11-16.

I believe the gift Prophecy is still around today and not ceased when Scripture came. I would see “the perfect comes” (1 Cor 13) as Jesus’ return rather than canon of Scripture. It would be hard to put an exact date of the canon – the councils ratified what the Churches were holding as authoritative.

There are plenty of reformed charismatics around who honour, love and obey the Bible and what the Spirit is doing and want to see Jesus glorified in all that we do. And we do certainly believe in the priesthood of all believers!

God bless you and thank you so much for the Sermon Browser plugin – it is being used mightily!

By: Dr. Bob Childree

Dr. Bob Childree — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:38:24 +0000

Arleigh-

I am familiar with the Mayan calendar ending a CYCLE in 2012. But ending a cycle just means the beginning of another- no big thing! I did look at 2012 listings on YouTube and am amazed at the fantasies people will construct just for kicks. It reminds me of the Dan Brown fantasies. I would encourage everyone to ignore the wierd stuff altogether, as it has even less to support it than the various predictions of the date of Christ’s return, which are groundless altogether!

I would suggest that anyone truly interested in the Mayan cycle ending in 2012 would do well to wait until 2013 to begin any serious study of it. That would be much more time efficient. Personally. I am far more interested in the question Jesus asks in Matthew, where he says, “When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth?” I vote “no,” or perhaps “very little.” It is a rhetorical question that seems to demand the “no” answer, sadly.

Bob

By: Arleigh Crisman

Arleigh Crisman — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:00:23 +0000

Bob Have you read or seen any of the information on the Myan calander ending 2012? Just punch up 2012 on ” you tube “. Tell me what you think . arleigh

By: wigrd

wigrd — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:21:28 +0000

I shall pray for you Arleigh.

I’m absolutely sure God loves you just as you are.

Keep on blogging!

By: Arleigh Crisman

Arleigh Crisman — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:34:42 +0000

It occured to me , that though much of what is shaired can be viewed as idealistic, and well it is . I remember Jesus saying , no man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is worthy of the kingdom.
This is a tough row to hoe, for me . looking back at sucesses does have some encouraging to it, a false sense of accomplishment, if thinking this success be my own ,dare I forget God’s interaction through out my live. Paul said press toward the mark, and I think to my self , how ? How more than walking in the tutelage of the Spirit , can one be better defigned ? I confess that I have not sold all, and walk the streets homeless. I wonder if as Christians in this culture haven’t altogether rewritten Jesus words to fit them self, rather than conforming to His word . I have met people that actually do live on the street witnessing to the world wearing white.
I don’t know the effectiveness of their work , yet if in deed they are obedient ,one can do no better than that. There is something to be said for having very little,(been there ,done that). And I have to admit this curent situation I am in with all the stuff i am trying to sell and get rid of, is frustrating.
Pray for me will you .
arleigh

By: Arleigh Crisman

Arleigh Crisman — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:48:18 +0000

today i made a stupid mistake, I was factng a particular direction on my property, and from with in, i was warnred not to go there, but in my haste to go, i ignored the warning. now i have 3 bee stings to remind me to behave.

By: Dr. Bob

Dr. Bob — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:53:44 +0000

I agree with you. The scriptures I read always seem to have conditions associated with them. There are scriptures that could be misused as prooftexts for unconditional love though, such as the story of the prodigal son. Another would be the one, ” I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Another misused one would be “no man can pluck them out of the father’s hand.” Still another would be that “he died for the sins of the whole world.” Taken out of context there are about 42 scriptures with which one could weave a case for unconditional love and eternal security. But any serious study of scripture would have to include at least (surprisingly) 42 New Testament scriptures that warn of loss of eternal life, falling from grace, making shipwreck of one’s faith, and so forth. As for unconditional love, that is the error that leads to the doctrine of ultimate reconciliation, that in the end even Satan will be restored to his original relationship with God. Even serious Bible students may get off on rabbit trails that ignore the full counsel of scripture, but honest ones will get back on track when they start trying to include the 42 or so scriptures that contradict their rabbit trail theology. I have done that myself. Doctrine which does not include the full counsel of scripture is just error. If your circle includes “security of the believer” but does not include the 42 scriptures (at least) which warn against losing one’s salvation, then the circle needs to be drawn larger. Good theology must include both sets of scripture.

So, yes, I agree with you fully.If God did not spare the angels who sinned, why should he spare a profligate “believer.” And why should He spare a “doubter” who is not even a believer in Jesus Christ, His only begotten son?

By: Arleigh Crisman

Arleigh Crisman — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:11:40 +0000

Bob ,
Haven’t seen any new posts lately. Has the site been abandoned ?
I’d like to discuss a teaching I am hearing more often lately.
the phrase is “God’s unconditinal love” thee are no scriptures to support it and terre is actually the greater evidence against it . Our relationship with God Is completely conditional,bothe old and new testament scriptures bear this out in all God’s promisews and warnings to isreal and all Jesus teaching as well. Where do men get the idea God’s love is unconditional ?
It seems to me the abuse of the word does more dammage than good ,countradictory to the meaning of salvation and the gospel , at least to me it seems .
What are your thoughts ?