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The Misinterpretations of Pentecostals (Part 2) By Dillion Riecke (Editor’s Note: Last week we ran the first part of this article. Dillion pointed out that those who claim to perform miracles today are being presumptuous. They take it for granted that God will do what they ask. In essence they are taking for granted the authority to perform such “miracles.” ) Now, as stated above, of course there's a more prominent reason faith healing, prophecy, revelation and speaking in tongues do not exist today: they are miracles, and these miracles that are of the first century do not exist today. It is made apparent to us in the Bible that the point of miracles is to confirm the word of God. We find an example of this in the Old Testament in Exodus. In Chapter three and four God shows Moses how to confirm his word if the people did not believe with three signs (the serpent rod, toggling his hand being afflicted with leprosy when he put it in and out of his cloak, and the water turning into blood). In the New Testament, Hebrews 2:1 – 4 further makes this point evident to us. So, therefore, as described in the Bible, the word of God was confirmed by these miracles, wonders, prophecies, revelations, etc, and was made complete into the Bible itself. And, as stated also in the Bible, that explicitly means that there is no more need for any of that.
Now, one other thing Pentecostals believe is that Christians should use
instrumental music in their worship. The short answer to why this is incorrect
is that we don't have biblical authority to do so. Everything we do in worship
should be done with authority. This authority issue is found in the Bible, in
the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-16). We are to do exactly what God says
and to not deviate away from that (and that includes things like adding
instruments). Of course, the Jews of the Old Testament were told to use
instruments (Psalms 33). But every time someone tries to say that we can use
instrumental music in worship they pull from the Old Testament. This is because
there are no mentions that we should in the New Testament. The reason you can't
just pull things like that from the Old Testament is because much of it doesn't
apply to us today as (there might be some who protest that author uses
authority issue )Christians, because it was old Jewish
law; before Christ came with the new law. With that same logic (that you can
pull from the Old Testament Jewish law to justify something) then we could look
at Exodus 21:23-25 “And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for
life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for
burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” and Leviticus 24:19-21 “And if a
man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to
him; Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a
blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And he that killeth a beast,
he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.” and
claim that we are entitled to hurt someone (physically) as equal as they have
hurt us. We know that this is just not true, however. Matthew 5:38-39 states “Ye
have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5 makes several changes
from the Old Law, but of course there are more than just those. Look at
Leviticus 1-7 for example. Do we still do animal sacrifices as Christians? No,
of course not. So why then would Psalms 33 be more anymore applicable? The fact
of the matter is, it's not. But, if you need any more proof, look at Ephesians
5:19 “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord;” We are to sing and make melody in
our hearts, not with instruments.
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