Crossroad

OK . . . . let’s get started with the questions from ‘An Assigned Measure.’ BTW- these questions are copied and pasted on so any typos and such are the fault of the medium (texting to email). Also, if I received many questions that cover the same topic, I will only answer one of those, so if you don’t see your question, look for one that is similar.

Why you gotta pick on baby’s feet?

They can’t fight back!

What should I say or do for those stuck Christians? It’s as if one I know isn’t seeking and seems2not care, concluding on her own terms.

Well, the Bible gives us a couple of things to do. First is to go after them. We are not to sit back and just let them slide along. We need to go after them with love and concern. After a season of that, if they still will not turn from sin or their own wants (we must be discerning here- there is a difference between struggling with sin, and just not caring and diving into it) then we are to begin a process called church discipline. Meaning that we are to not even eat with them. This is only for people who say that they are Christians but will not live like it. You should seek the council of a pastor and leaders within the church to fully walk this out.

Does the church engage in self mutilation? Is it the foot’s job to contact the surgeon or is it the body’s?

Great question. It’s both. The foot should tell the body when it needs help. In the real body, it does- with pain, etc. The body should respond to the need. Likewise, in the real body, if the foot is diseased and cannot be cured, you cut it off so the whole doesn’t go down with it. As with the above question, sometimes the member that will not be cured needs to be put out.

If the Holy Spirit is in you does that mean you should be able to speak in tongues?

Let me state this with no hesitation- absolutely not. 1 Cor 12:7-11 says that the Holy Spirit gives gifts as He chooses, but the same Lord is behind them all. 1 Cor 12:30 even asks the question “Do all speak in tongues?” with the implied answer being ‘of course not.’ To state that everyone should have the same gift is to TOTALLY ignore the whole point of 1 Cor 12. Read that chapter and you will see exactly what I mean.

So is the list in romans 12 6 and on in the order of authority?

No. In it, Paul is not even really talking about spiritual gifts as much as he is talking about Christians ‘getting after it.’ 1 Cor 12 has a list of gifts in order, but then Paul makes absolutely clear that no one gift is more important. They are all needed, even though some are meant to establish parameters of operation. For example, the apostles were the founding authority of the church and should be followed as closely as possible. Does that make them more important than someone with the gift of mercy? No. They just had a different role.

Can’t people have more than 1 gift. Aren’t we all supposed to be servants & able to teach other brothers? Can you have more than one gift in different parts of your life?

In a nutshell, yes. People can have more than one gift. I think I touched on this last night, but there are commandments that supersede gifting. While some are gifted to be evangelists, we are all called to evangelize. While some are gifted to serve, we are all called to serve one another. In a way, you could say that God gives us gifts so we can find places to serve and that we can know Him better through it. There are times that we have to do things that are outside of our gifting. This is also so we can know Him more. No one is ever ‘let off the hook’ because of a lack of gifting. Consider Moses in the OT. God knows what He is doing. Because God is the Giver of the gift and ultimately sovereign over them, He could ‘change’ a person’s gift in their life if He so desired. I would think it more likely that He would ‘add’ a gift however.

How do Pentecostals and charismatics reconcile the verses that one gift is no more important than another? That is if they believe tongues are on a higher degree of spirituality than another gift.

Mostly, they use the verse from 1 Cor 14 in which Paul says he wants everyone to speak in tongues. This is funny (that some C’s and P’s say that this makes tngs the primary spiritual gift) because in the paragraph, Paul is actually saying that prophecy is more important. There is something to be learned in the knowledge that Paul wants us to pursue the Holy Spirit and seek for Him to gift us and the church more and more.

Do you think spiritual gift tests work? What is the difference between a spiritual gift and a calling?

Yes, I do think they can work. But not as well as the actual ‘doing.’ Consider it this way, you can take those tests that tell you what kind of job you would be good at, but you don’t know until you do it. If a gifts test gives you some ideas as to where you should start trying out your gift, great! But, you might find that the test wasn’t exactly dead on as you work it out. What I am saying is- don’t take a test, get a result and then say ‘That’s it! I know my gift and I’m doing that no matter what!’ God might be using the gift test result to get you moving, only to show you later that your true gift is something else. A calling is different in that it is a urging from God to take up a specific post. You might, for example, feel called to be a pastor and be gifted to lead or administrate. Gifts help us live out our callings. And vice versa.

Is contributing to Christian charities via the church considered tithe? Scriptures?

‘Via’ the church, yes. Outside the church, no. This is a huge question and I don’t want to get too lengthy with these, but here goes. What we are commanded to do is to be generous to the brothers and sisters in the church (1 Tim 6, Titus 3). Most of the texts regarding giving in the NT have the church in mind (remember, the church is the people, not the building). The idea of the tithe (as carried over from the OT) was that by banding together, we can do more than apart. I can get into this further if need be, but suffice it to say this: if you are not in a church, you are outside of God’s will for you. If you are not helping support that church, but are a leech, the same is true as well. What we want today is to go to a church, enjoy all its programs, but give our money wherever we want and even IF we want. That is not God’s way. If we are supporting our church, and God puts it on our heart to support a ministry that exists outside the people we have committed to, then that is a call God is giving us above and beyond what we are already doing. Taking from our tithe to do that is to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul,’ as the saying goes. Again, this issue is deep and needs much more explanation than is allowed here. If you are in big disagreement here, ask yourself this question- does your disagreement stem from not being able to do what you want to do?

Does the gift of tongues still exist in today’s church?

The schools of ideas that govern spiritual gifts come in two major categories. First is called ‘cessationism.’ It’s the idea that the spiritual gifts do not exist today. There are divisions within the school, like ‘semi-cessationist’ which would say that gifts do exist, just not the ‘sign’ gifts like tongues and miracles. The opposite is, obviously, the non-cessationist, which says that the gifts are in operation today. There are good arguments on both sides and I think that there is room for disagreement. I think that anyone who says ‘if you think such-and-such way about spiritual gifts, you are not a Christian’ is wrong. Having said that, I cannot be persuaded by the arguments for the cessationist views. They are, to me, unconvincing. I do believe that the gift of tongues is in operation today. I am not sure that I think that many of the ways that it is used in churches is the true gift. For example, in some Pentecostal churches, many people are ‘speaking in tongues’ all at once in a jumbled confusing manner. That goes against clear Scriptural commands. I don’t see how the Holy Spirit would sanction that.

Where does the text say that there is a gift of discernment? Why are there diff gifts in diff places?

Discernment is actually not in this list, but in 1 Cor 12. As for different gifts in different places, I’m not sure exactly what is meant. If you mean ‘within the Bible,’ then the answer is because Paul was writing to different groups of people in different places at different times. He wanted to make sure the people to which he wrote had the info they needed to walk the Christian life out as best they could. If the question means ‘in different places in the world,’ the answer is that God knows what areas need which gifts. The Father loves His children and wants to care for them. He knows what they need.

Off Topic

On the week to week basis, I will get to these if I can:

What’s the book you said had a blasphemous sentence is the middle?

The Shack. There is actually more than one. Is there some good in the book? Yes, without question (ex.- personifying God’s love and grace, personifying the love for one another within the Trinity). Is there some bad? More than the good unfortunately (ex.- the calling of authority sinful, mocking of attempts to properly interpret the Bible, a total misrepresentation of the nature of the Atonement and the Cross). Should you read it? Short answer: probably not. Long answer: depends. If you feel that you are very spiritually discerning, then MAYBE, but only to help others navigate it. If you know that you have more to learn (remember last night’s warning from Paul not to think more highly of yourself than you ought- Rom 12:3), I would stay away from it. If you are seeking a spiritual high or encouragement- read the Bible.

How do we start the changes necessary to transform the church and its
blatant hypocrisy?

Well . . . how about an easy question!! Truthfully- you start with yourself. My old pastor told me ‘If you want to shoot hypocrites, get a mirror.’ It is out of concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ that we should begin to confront the church, and if that is not our motivation, then we should stay quiet because in truth- we are the hypocrite. There should be loving confrontation. Having said that, saying that we should not confront people is the same error on the opposite end of the spectrum. Over aggression or passivity are not the ways of Christ. And then there is the most Biblical, least obeyed commandment in the NT- church disciple. The reason there are so many hypocrites in the church is because there are so many non-Christians allowed to masquerade. Consider 1 Cor 5 or 2 Thess 3- for example.