Family of God: Re: [Church_of_Christ] Re: Holy Spirit 3

heb12347 wrote:
> ED: As far as I know coc/sof believe the fulfillment of Joel 2 began
> on Act 2 Pentecost and continues throughout this age. I certainly do.
> Everyone baptized receives the gift of the HS. But to equate the gift
> with its manifestation leads to misunderstanding. On Pentecost the
> apostles were baptized in the HS in fulfillment of the promise in Joel
> 2. The people saw and heard, v 33. Peter told them to be baptized and
> they would recieve the "gift of the HS, for the promise is to you . .
> . as many as the Lord calls", vs 38, 39. They were baptized but
> nothing is said of any manifestations. In fact, we find the opposite,
> v 43 it's the apostles doing the wonders & 5:12, 13 again the apostles
> alone so much that no one would dare join them. Then in chapter 8 we
> learn about the laying on of the apostle's hands that produced some
> visible results (inferred). In chapter 10 we discover Cornelius and
> folks got the same thing the apostles did in order to demonstrate that
> Gentiles are welcome. Next, we find in Corinth the manifestation
> (12:7) of spiritual gifts had become a problem, chapters 12-14.

You've made a distinction between the gift of the Holy Spirit and its
manifestation. But on that day of Pentecost, standing there listening to
Peter, would we have made that distinction?

Peter says that what we're seeing is a fulfillment of Joel 2, and then
Peter goes on to remind us of what that passage says, including the
pouring out of God's spirit on all humanity who call on the name of the
Lord (not just the apostles), resulting in sons and daughters
prophesying (not just the apostles), and old men (not the apostles)
dreaming dreams and young men seeing visions, and servants, both male
and female (not just the apostles) prophesying, and then Peter says this
promise is for us, our children and all who are far off.

I'm not asking, "What happened?". I'm asking, "What did God promise?"

If God promised "spiritual gifts" to all who called His name, why don't
we see them being exercised today?

The possibilities as I see them:

1) God did not promise "spiritual gifts" to all who call on His name.
Whereas I recognize this as a possibility, it seems to me that the text
has to be manipulated somewhat in order to make this claim.

2) God promised such gifts, but then, for whatever reason, decided that
He didn't mean "all who call on His name", but only "some" in the first
century.

3) God promised such gifts, and has made them available to all who call
on His name, but most of us have quenched the Spirit by refusing to
believe His promise.

4) Other?

Don't take my posts here as meaning that I've decided which of these
possibilities is true; I haven't. What I have decided is that the
doctrine with which I grew up, that "we know" miracles ceased in the
first century, is not a truly defensible position.

--
Kent West <")))><
http://kentwest.blogspot.com

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