I guess what I am thinking is that I don't believe that everyone receives gifts from the Holy Spirit. I don't believe in tongues as they are practised by Charismatic churches. I see no difference between that and the trances that shamans go into when they are possessed by non-Christian spirits.
I still remember when there was the laughter movement within the charismatic churches, in which they claimed the Holy Spirit manifested Himself within the congregations with hysterical laughter, in which whole congregations simply rolled around the churches, holding their bellies and laughing. Hello, people. Our God is not the author of confusion. God, in the scriptures, always has a point. They may indeed have been possessed by some spirit but the Spirit of God is not that of being drunk with laughter. There is nothing that points to God at all in such nonsense.
I don't believe that there are any modern day prophecies as they relate to the time of the end, or even the individual. I will be happy to change my mind on empirical proof that any Christian anywhere has given any prophecy pertaining to an individual or a world event that has come true since the dawn of Christianity.
It would seem to me, that just as the miracles of Jesus stood out as exceptional and supernatural - raising the dead, for instance in front of many people who surely had seen enough death to know what death meant, that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, would also be exceptional and supernatural in form - such as the visible tongues of fire that descended upon the disciples at Pentecost, and the resulting miracle that each man heard the gospel in their own language. I don't understand how such a practical application and explanation of tongues evolved into the gibberish speaking in tongues that some churches now believe in.
Sometimes one hears of exceptional stories of strength, such as lifting a car off a person. A gift of hospitality or mercy, it seems to me, would show itself as exceptional. Allowing for differences of personality, I know of no one who is exceptional in a way that would strike me as miraculous. In other words, I don't believe that God shares his glory or credit. When God speaks, there's no doubt who's speaking. If there is doubt, it's not God but one's own wishful thinking.
I think that there is a problem in reading the scriptures about these gifts that were given to the early church for its survival. Just as the snake handlers take up snakes and drink poisons based on Mark 16: And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
I do not believe that God meant us to go willy-nilly picking up poisonous snakes or drinking poison. And if he did not mean that, he can't either have meant that the church would necessarily always have the power to cast out devils or speak with new tongues. Miracles are a sign to those who do not believe. They were essential for the early church. It seems to me that they are now handled by some churches, as though God is a trick pony that the church can make jump through hoops for entertainment purposes.
Can you pick and choose among snakes and casting out devils without admitting that there is a problem in being consistent in one's interpretation of Biblical passages? When the scriptures say that whoever has faith the size of a mustard seed has the power to move mountains - are we to take it to mean that we should move mountains?
However, I do believe that if for some reason, God wants me at Place "B" there is no obstacle that can stand in my way that God will not move. My interpretation or understanding of that scripture is both literal and not literal, depending on how you look at it. The snake handlers would say that it is not literal.
I think that, in the entire context of Mark 16, and including what happened to Paul when he was bitten by a serpent and did not die, that God was speaking of accidental encounters with serpents and involuntary encounters with poisons. The situation Paul was in for instance, took place in front of people, who saw then the power of God. I believe that God was saying that he has our life in his hands, and when he says we die, we die and not before, regardless of accidental encounters with serpents.
As Jesus said when Satan tempted him with the notion of throwing himself off a cliff because "...it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone."
Jesus responded, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
So clearly we are warned by this example to be careful how much weight we put on any one Bible verse as what they say is conditional upon others, conditional upon common sense.
Layla
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