SaintTexas
June 22nd, 2010, 10:25 AM
OK so I went to a website just now, to research a fairly well-known Pastor, who has been showcased here a couple of times as speaking the truth. I did this just for due diligence, since I had not heard of him before and wanted to know his beliefs. Here they are, and I've bolded the ones I don't really understand:
I numbered the 3 bolded ones so they will be easier to refer to...
So the things making me go :scratch
1. I really didn't know this.... or I did but he's worded it in such a way that I don't recognize it? What does he mean by this? Does this mean that even the thief on the cross had time to be "regenerated by the Spirit" before he died?
2. This gave me a red flag when I watched him on a YouTube video yesterday and he said "By His stripes we are healed - Jesus healed me of migrane headaches" so yes it appears that he is using this verse as a "healing verse"..... is this not a misinterpretation?
3. I thought ALL believers had the Holy Spirit?? As for speaking in tongues.. you know years ago I asked God to let me speak in tongues but I never could. What does that mean according to this doctrine?
Those healing stripes in the context of the passage he was quoting from Isaiah are for the healing of our sin. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our sins and by His wounds/stripes we are healed is the verse (and a lovely song we sing at our church when we take communion and you can hear it on most Christian radio stations).
There is a difference between salvation given to us as a free gift from the Lord totally undeserved, by His unmerited grace and favor, apart and absent from any work that we do (our works are filthy rags before Him and the works we do after we are saved that are pleasing to Him are the ones done by the Holy Spirit---see Ephesians, chapter 2 and read the book of Galatians). There is a clear deliniation of the sealing of the Holy Spirit upon our profession of faith and a filling in power that we can constantly ask for---this powerful filling has nothing to do with salvation. Our pastor just talked about this Friday night, but we were in a house fellowship, so I can't send you to a recorded sermon, but we were in Isaiah 6 and John (various places, try 14-16).
The thief on the cross was not part of the Church, so the regeneration of the HS would not apply to anyone outside the Church age. We are the only ones who can be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and the proof of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit (not works--we do work, but the work is not the fruit). The Fruit is in Galatians also.
I don't believe the Word shows at all that regeneration by the Holy Spirit happens before salvation. We are lost and totally in the dark before we confess and profess our belief. The Holy Spirit being sealed in us happens after this. How can one be regenerated before being sealed when we are spiritually dead before we confess and then receive the seal of the Holy Spirit? We are born spiritually dead but physically alive. We are reborn and become alive when we are filled with the HS and are spiritually alive forever and our physical body is mortal and corruptible and the promise is for an immortal and incorruptible body at the Rapture.
I have terrible ocular migraines that the Lord has not taken away permenantly. Paul asked for the thorn in his flesh to be removed, and the Lord said no because His grace was sufficient and His power worked best in Paul's weakness, and in ours. I hope the Ibuprofen will work, but I rely on the Lord when those migraines come and know that He does not allow them for nefarious purposes but that I might know Him better and find rest and comfort in Him. I have a very good friend who has been battling stage IV metastatic breast cancer for 8 years now, and she has never been cured, but her life is producing all kinds of fruit of the Spirit and a powerful witness to the Lord. It matters not if she is healed from cancer, because to live is Christ and to die is gain.
1 Corinthians---towards the end in the last few chapters---Paul goes into depth about tongues and prophecy. Read those. I just finished 1 Corinthians last night, and without breaking out my Bible, I can tell you that he said it is far more beneficial for one to have the gift of prophesy which edifies the church rather than tongues and there are quite a few rules with both that have to be observed because our Lord is a Lord of order, not chaos, and he would rather speak 5 understandable words to the church than thousands of unintelligible words to the church in a tongue in which no one understands or benefits from.
We are blessed in the Church in a very special way in the giving and sealing of the Holy Spirit which rests entirely on the work Christ did alone on the cross. We receive it by belief---that is the work of God (John 6) and it's the one in Revelation that is referred to in the letter to the church of Thyratira. Those who claim that there has to be more proof of belief are not rightly dividing the Gospel of the Lord. It's grace alone for salvation not works or grace +works. And some will come through the refiners fire with only their salvation, with their works burnt up or no works at all (see 1 Corinthians 3).
I numbered the 3 bolded ones so they will be easier to refer to...
So the things making me go :scratch
1. I really didn't know this.... or I did but he's worded it in such a way that I don't recognize it? What does he mean by this? Does this mean that even the thief on the cross had time to be "regenerated by the Spirit" before he died?
2. This gave me a red flag when I watched him on a YouTube video yesterday and he said "By His stripes we are healed - Jesus healed me of migrane headaches" so yes it appears that he is using this verse as a "healing verse"..... is this not a misinterpretation?
3. I thought ALL believers had the Holy Spirit?? As for speaking in tongues.. you know years ago I asked God to let me speak in tongues but I never could. What does that mean according to this doctrine?
Those healing stripes in the context of the passage he was quoting from Isaiah are for the healing of our sin. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our sins and by His wounds/stripes we are healed is the verse (and a lovely song we sing at our church when we take communion and you can hear it on most Christian radio stations).
There is a difference between salvation given to us as a free gift from the Lord totally undeserved, by His unmerited grace and favor, apart and absent from any work that we do (our works are filthy rags before Him and the works we do after we are saved that are pleasing to Him are the ones done by the Holy Spirit---see Ephesians, chapter 2 and read the book of Galatians). There is a clear deliniation of the sealing of the Holy Spirit upon our profession of faith and a filling in power that we can constantly ask for---this powerful filling has nothing to do with salvation. Our pastor just talked about this Friday night, but we were in a house fellowship, so I can't send you to a recorded sermon, but we were in Isaiah 6 and John (various places, try 14-16).
The thief on the cross was not part of the Church, so the regeneration of the HS would not apply to anyone outside the Church age. We are the only ones who can be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and the proof of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit (not works--we do work, but the work is not the fruit). The Fruit is in Galatians also.
I don't believe the Word shows at all that regeneration by the Holy Spirit happens before salvation. We are lost and totally in the dark before we confess and profess our belief. The Holy Spirit being sealed in us happens after this. How can one be regenerated before being sealed when we are spiritually dead before we confess and then receive the seal of the Holy Spirit? We are born spiritually dead but physically alive. We are reborn and become alive when we are filled with the HS and are spiritually alive forever and our physical body is mortal and corruptible and the promise is for an immortal and incorruptible body at the Rapture.
I have terrible ocular migraines that the Lord has not taken away permenantly. Paul asked for the thorn in his flesh to be removed, and the Lord said no because His grace was sufficient and His power worked best in Paul's weakness, and in ours. I hope the Ibuprofen will work, but I rely on the Lord when those migraines come and know that He does not allow them for nefarious purposes but that I might know Him better and find rest and comfort in Him. I have a very good friend who has been battling stage IV metastatic breast cancer for 8 years now, and she has never been cured, but her life is producing all kinds of fruit of the Spirit and a powerful witness to the Lord. It matters not if she is healed from cancer, because to live is Christ and to die is gain.
1 Corinthians---towards the end in the last few chapters---Paul goes into depth about tongues and prophecy. Read those. I just finished 1 Corinthians last night, and without breaking out my Bible, I can tell you that he said it is far more beneficial for one to have the gift of prophesy which edifies the church rather than tongues and there are quite a few rules with both that have to be observed because our Lord is a Lord of order, not chaos, and he would rather speak 5 understandable words to the church than thousands of unintelligible words to the church in a tongue in which no one understands or benefits from.
We are blessed in the Church in a very special way in the giving and sealing of the Holy Spirit which rests entirely on the work Christ did alone on the cross. We receive it by belief---that is the work of God (John 6) and it's the one in Revelation that is referred to in the letter to the church of Thyratira. Those who claim that there has to be more proof of belief are not rightly dividing the Gospel of the Lord. It's grace alone for salvation not works or grace +works. And some will come through the refiners fire with only their salvation, with their works burnt up or no works at all (see 1 Corinthians 3).