SIGNS AND GIFTS BEFORE AND AFTER ACTS 2 8
Pastor J. C. O’Hair
In I Corinthians 12:8 to 11 and I Corinthians 12:28 we learn that God gave certain gifts to members of the Church during the years covered by the Book of Acts. These gifts were exercised by the Corinthian saints who were neither unusually spiritual nor faithful, most of them were quite the opposite. (I Corinthians 3:1 to 8; I Corinthians 6:5 to 9).
What is the meaning of I Corinthians 13:8 that certain gifts would pass away? The most Scriptural dispensational explanation I know of is printed in a pamphlet by A. E. Bishop, published and distributed for 25 years by the Moody Bible Institute.
Read carefully and prayerfully some statements copied from this pamphlet:
“Is it the Spirit of God or Satan who attempts to revive the sign-gifts that were divinely retired after having fulfilled their purpose? Every widespread attempt to revive them has, without exception, resulted in confusion, divisions, injury and disgrace.”
“Is it the Spirit of God or Satan who turns the eyes of sincere Christians back to Pentecost and away from the goal placed before them in Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians?”
“In the latest Epistles of Paul not only is it noticeable that the sign gifts are nowhere in manifestation, but a different order is brought forth by the Holy Spirit for the correction of prevailing hobbies and fanaticisms.”
“A careful study of the Epistles, especially of the latest Epistles of Paul, which give the normal course of the Church during the present dispensation, would dismount-all from their hobbies, eliminate the last vestige of Judaism from their lives and teachings, and would adjust things in general, placing secondary things in their place and first things where they belong.”
“If we give heed to this fact, it will be easy for us to see later on why God, who is sovereign in the giving of signs, afterwards retired completely the sign gifts.”
“In contrast with the sign-gifts of I Corinthians 12, limited to a portion of the believers and operative only during the Book of Acts period, let us note the non-sign gifts of Ephesians 4:10.”
“The fact that the Bible does not give a hint of the manifestation of the sign-gifts after the close of the Book of Acts, must carry convincing evidence to the careful student who compares Scripture with Scripture, that they have been retired.”
What is your answer to the first two questions asked by the writer of this pamphlet entitled, “Tongues, Signs and Visions Not God’s Order For Today?” This answer, of course, is Satan and not the Holy Spirit. In another paragraph in this same pamphlet the writer states that the normal course of the Church is set forth in Paul’s Epistles written after the close of the Book of Acts and he suggests that, which every steward of the mysteries of God (I Corinthians 4:1 to 5) should know, the fact that all other Scriptures must be interpreted, applied and appropriated in the light of the different and new order, the signless and If religionless” program in Paul’s Epistles written after the close of the Acts period, in which now abide, faith, hope and love. (I Corinthians 13:13).
Read carefully I Corinthians 12:28 what God set in the Church and ask why the carnal Corinthians exercised those gifts and they are not exercised today by the most faithful and spiritual.
Note again in the “Bishop” pamphlet: “Also after careful restudies of the Book of Acts and of the Epistles written before its close, I am convinced that those who contend for a purely kingdom dispensation covering the Book of Acts period are as much deceived by Satan as are those who contend that the sign gifts are still in the Church and would be in manifestation everywhere if God’s people were in a healthy spiritual state and exercising faith to that end.”
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