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Questions on the Holy Spirit #2 (The
questions were asked by email.) Do you believe in Spiritual Gifts? I do believe Spiritual
Gifts were given by the laying on the Apostles hands, see Acts 8.17-18.
We have a list of those gifts in 1 Corinthians 12.7-10. An important
point made in this passage was the source of these gifts was the Holy Spirit and
He determined who would receive a gift and which gift. There is no passage which
speaks of one receiving these gifts by any other means except by the laying on
of the apostle’s hands. One did not receive a spiritual gift from their
baptism, and there is no indication that those who had a spiritual gift could
pass it on to somebody else. The spiritual gifts were not to be used to
entertain people, but to confirm the word of God. I
know that a lot of churches talk about sanctification and how to be sanctified
you have to speak in tongues, but I never really understood that and how do you
know whether someone is really speaking in another tongue or just making up some
gibberish? You make a good
point and raise an important question. The tongues mentioned in the Bible were
other languages. In Acts 2, the apostles spoke in the languages of those
present. “And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we
were born?” (Acts 2.8) The miracle
was not in the hearing, but in the speaking. The term used is “speaking in
tongues” and not “hearing in tongues.” The miraculous part is that the
speaker had not studied or previously learned the language. It would be similar
if you or I stood up and started to speak Russian or French. (I am assuming you
have not studied either language.) They were not speaking, as you called it,
gibberish. The purpose of this gift was to be able to teach people in their
language and again the miracle would prove the speaker was speaking the will of
God. At My grandmother told me that whatever gifts were given to the apostles and
those that they touched, they stopped after that generation. Well, I beg
to differ with her on that point because I know and see miracles that occurs
everyday. And if God is the same today as he was yesterday, then why would
these signs and miracles stop? I understand what you are saying and will
not dispute that God is still the same today as He was yesterday. His power is
still the same and so is His character. However, is God dealing with man the
same today as He did during the Patriarchal Age? He spoke from |