HoHum:
A. Alvin Slaughter- I’m convinced more now than ever That we don’t serve a god of the mundane But God of the supernatural You see, when we worship him in faith He will always meet us at the point of our needs Dry, fleshly worship is not enough Get ready, get ready to be completely drenched and covered by the power of the spirit For He alone is our peace God is all the power we need The power to make new, He has the power to save So today as we worship Him, I pray the power of God will fill your life to overflow with the latter rain. It’s the latter rain, It’s the latter rain
How do we account for the fact that the miraculous gifts especially the gift of tongues were absent from Christians from the end of the first century until more modern times? one given.
Read Joel 2:20-32
C. We know from Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost that Joel 2:28-32 applies to the coming of the HS on that day. Peter quotes these verses from Joel in Acts 2:17-21.
D. Some go to the book of Joel and spiritualize the former rain and latter rain (KJV) as found in Joel 2:23 just a few verses before the section Peter quotes as fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.
Former rain is the HS at Pentecost. Latter rain is the HS being poured out today as people are able to do what was done on and after the Day of Pentecost as seen in Acts.
we do not have proof that this verse is talking about the NT age because Peter nor the NT makes any reference to this verse as being fulfilled in NT age.
Sometimes there will be reports of a revival going on in a certain place and then along with that reports of massive harvests of crops. “Look this is a fulfillment of Joel 2 and latter rains”
In this context Joel is saying that God is going to make up for the food that the locust ate up. Joel is about a plague of locusts which was consuming Judah and how to understand this tragedy. Simply put, In biblical context, the former rains refers to the autumn rains and the latter rains refers to the spring rains as seen in the NIV. No need to spiritualize this.
Joel and the HS use this fact of the locust plague to talk about the future Day of the Lord. Joel is a typical OT prophet in that this is used as an object lesson of something far off in future.
To say that the former rain is the outpouring of the HS on the Day of Pentecost and that the latter rain is the outpouring of the HS in our day as seen in Pentecostal and charismatic circles is speculation. John MacArthur says this: The “former and latter rain,” have nothing to do with Pentecost, the twentieth century, or the HS.
I like what Thomas Edgar says about this: There is no biblical evidence that there will be a reoccurrence in the church of the sign gifts or that believers will work miracles near the end of the church age. However, there is ample evidence that near the end of the age there will be false prophets who perform miracles, prophesy, and cast out demons in Jesus’ name.
WBTU:
Regardless of what we believe, we cannot ignore the abundant testimony claiming that miraculous events are occurring today. The amount of testimonies are overwhelming.
Most commonly there are tongues. Two kinds of tongues are reported. One they call a heavenly language. It is a rapid utterance of non-decipherable strings of syllables. The other is the speaking of unlearned foreign languages and in some cases have been verified as true.
Many reports of sick people being healed and even reports of people being raised from dead.
Gifts of supernatural knowledge and prophecy have been reported. One preacher regularly revealed what someone in the audience was struggling with, and he was always right.
Some have long practiced snakehandling, been bitten and have had no ill effects.
A popular practice in some circles is “slaying in the Spirit,”- causing someone to lose consciousness and to collapse through a mere gesture or suggestion.
A church in Toronto made news by claiming that in their services God was turning ordinary dental fillings into gold and causing people to be able to see out of glass eyes.
Thesis: What are some explanations for modern day miracles?
For instances:
Natural Explanations- not supernatural, explained by natural processes
Psychological
Psychosomatic healing- a physical ailment is the result of some kind of mental trauma.
Tongues speaking also can be explained psychologically. Kurt Koch reports that one person was told to repeat a short prayer, such as “Lord help me,” 500 to 800 times a day. “Then your tongue and consciousness will get used to it and suddenly you will speak in ‘tongues.’” Koch comments, “HS does not need repetitive exercises or any training of the subconsciousness.”
Tongues speaking might also be a result of self-hypnosis, emotional exhaustion, or exalted memory. “In delirium an illiterate servant spoke at length in Latin, Hebrew and Greek. Later it was learned that when she was employed in the home of a language expert, she had heard him recite long passages in these languages.”
They are fake.
Unscrupulous people who turn out to be frauds.
Many news reporters have exposed these frauds on television.
There are many naive and gullible people in the world, and many who know how to manipulate them and take advantage of them.
This does not explain all of these phenomena.
Supernatural explanations- source is something or someone beyond the natural world
From God
This is what we have been dealing with over the past couple of weeks. Bible reports many miracles performed through the power of God. We have ruled this out for present day events.
This does not mean that God is unable to work miracles today or unable to give miraculous gifts today. It means that he has chosen not to do so.
One day God is going to put an end to this world full of sin and that will be miraculous.
“But I saw a genuine miracle,” or “I was personally healed by a miracle,” Read carefully Matthew 7:21-23: Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers
If it is supernatural but it is not from God, then how do we explain it?
Satanic
Talked about the Latter Rain earlier and we need to be concerned with these verses that clearly talk about the end times:
Matthew 24:24-25
Revelation 13:3, 12-14
Revelation 16:13-14
Revelation 19:20
Does the devil go to church? The kingdom of darkness is here more than they are out in the notoriously sinful places of the world.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-10.
2 Thessalonians 2:9. These are the three main words for miracles. “Counterfeit miracles” really does not give the proper idea. One translation says, “signs and wonders that serve the lie.” They are really supernatural events but not from God.
These “miracles”, which in the past have been used so effectively in laying the foundation for the church, will be redirected to purposes of deceit. they will not be “counterfeit” but genuine supernatural feats to produce false impressions, deluding people to the point of accepting lies as truth.
Vs. 10- Why would Satan and his forces do works that are good and beneficial for mankind? To deceive those who “did not receive the love of the truth”. A possible goal is a movement based solely upon experience, with a diminished place for sound doctrine.
Can demonic power be at work in the life of a God fearing person, a person who acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Right after Peter’s Good Confession in Matthew 16:23: Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!
Are those who practice such things and believe such things be guilty of the unpardonable sin known as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? No. Look at this more in a future sermon.
So What?
Do not seek such gifts! Doing so makes one vulnerable to demons.
Pray for those caught up in these entanglements, and share with them to try to rescue them. Speak the truth in love. The same miraculous phenomena which occur in certain Christian movements today also occur in obviously pagan and demonic circles. It seems probable that demonic powers are the true source of any really miraculous activity occurring today. This of course is not what is believed by those involved; they are victims of Satanic deception. Remember, these people are victims, not the villains.
We do not need to allow a group of charismatics to exert influence over others in the church and lead them astray. Those practicing these “gifts” need to be confronted. Even if they are not a threat to the church as a whole then need to be taught better.
Make sure we are educated on these matters. 1 Corinthians 10:20: The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.
