Dr Paul Allen

The New Testament epistles list specific spiritual gifts in six different passages. Consider the table on the next page. What is obvious is that these lists are all quite different. No one list has all these gifts, and no gift except prophecy is mentioned on all the lists (prophecy is not mentioned in 1 Cor. 7:7, where only the subject of marriage and celibacy is under discussion, but it is certainly included in the “whoever speaks” of 1 Peter 4:11). In fact, 1 Corinthians 7:7 mentions two gifts that are not on any other list: in the context of speaking of marriage and celibacy, Paul says, “Each has his own special gift6 from God, one of one kind and one of another.” These facts indicate that Paul was not attempting to construct exhaustive lists of gifts when he specified the ones he did. Although there is sometimes an indication of some order (he puts apostles first, prophets second, and teachers third, but tongues last in 1 Cor. 12:28), it seems that in general Paul was almost...

1 Corinthians 14:26–40 a) Contribution To Worship By All 14:26 26 What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. “What then shall we say” shows that Paul expected the Corinthian believers to draw the right conclusions from the principles of love and edification of the local assembly. The first rule for the expression of spiritual gifts is that no gift is unimportant and no gift should be set aside. People baptized in the Spirit will have the fullness of the gifts available for the health of the church. “Everyone has” means that everyone should have a part and contribute something to the building up of the whole assembly. Over too much of church history, the body of Christ has been paralyzed, with clergy dominating the laity and smothering their gifts.80 We are not to be like a theater audience, where one or several pai...

1 Corinthians 14:20–25 20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. The Corinthians needed to accept what Paul was teaching. He knew how they loved the free expression of the Spirit. He anticipated that some would already be closing their minds to what he was writing. Some might be finding fault, becoming angry, or feeling ill will. The person who is mature is willing to give up the lesser for the greater, to turn from that which seems good in order to have something better. Children do not develop deep-seated malice or habitual faultfinding, however. So as far as “evil,” or malice, is concerned we should remain like infants. But in our thinking and understanding we need to be mature adults. It takes mature thinking to receive teaching on spiritual gifts, especially with regard to ministering them in love. But Paul expected it of the Corinthian church—and God expects it of us all. 21 In the Law it is written: “Through...

1 Corinthians 14:1–40 The whole of chapter 12 leads to the recommendation to “eagerly desire the greater gifts” (12:31). In chapter 13 these gifts are placed under the direction of a high, holy outflowing love. Now, with this love in mind, chapter 14 begins to give practical directions for the exercise, or operation, of these spiritual gifts . Again and again in this chapter we see how love is the guiding principle of these practical directions. Though chapter 12 shows that all the manifestations of the Spirit are necessary and beneficial, the Corinthian believers needed special direction and guidance concerning the operation of two: tongues and prophecy. Chapter 14 gives most of its attention to them, though many of the basic principles could be applied to other gifts as well. 1. PROPHECY EDIFIES THE CHURCH 14:1–5 1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. Here Paul echoes 12:31 about spiritual gifts. All believers are to pur...

Icon of the Pentecost (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Now that God had acknowledged the Church as the new temple, the next thing was to pour out the Holy Spirit on the members of the Body. What Jesus promised as a baptism is pictured here as a filling, that is, a full, satisfying experience. Some try to make a distinction between being baptized in the Holy Spirit and being filled. Actually, the Bible uses a variety of terms. It was also a pouring out of the Spirit as Joel prophesied (Acts 2:17–18, 33); a receiving (and active taking) of a gift (Acts 2:38); a falling upon ( Acts 8:16 ; 10:44; 11:15); a pouring out of the gift (Acts 10:45); and a coming upon. With this variety of terms it is impossible to suppose that the baptism is any different from the filling. Remember, too, that since the Holy Spirit is a Person, we are talking about an experience that brings a relationship. Each term brings out some aspect of the Pentecostal experience, and no one term can bring out all th...

One month ago, John MacArthur hosted a conference titled “Strange Fire.” The conference opposed the so-called “ prosperity gospel ” and with it the excesses of “charismania.” But somewhere along the way all things charismatic and continuationist got swept up into the conference conversation, too, igniting a strange online conflagration of its own. The conversation prompted a variety of questions from listeners of the Ask Pastor John podcast. Before boarding a flight for the Middle East , John Piper agreed to field a few of the questions, particularly: If you’re a continuationist (believing the supernatural gifts of the Spirit continue still today), why doesn’t this show up more often in your ministry? Why do you not seem persuaded enough to advocate that others pursue the gifts of tongues and prophecy today? How do you define contemporary prophecy? Are there charismatic abuses that need to be addressed? Open, Cautious, or Advocate? At the conference, Piper was characteri...

Charismatics generally define the gift of tongues as a devotional prayer language that is available to every believer. This prayer language, according to its proponents, is not bound to the linguistic structures of earthly, human languages . In other words, it is not a real language — but rather “angelic” speech which supposedly transcends human language. But therein lies a problem. On the one hand, the charismatic version of tongues does not consist of real human languages. On the other hand, Acts 2 makes it clear that the tongues spoken at Pentecost were real human languages. So how can modern charismatics justify a type of “tongues” that does not fit the biblical description in Acts 2? Proponents of modern tongues usually answer that question by asserting that there are at least  two types  of tongues in the New Testament . Charismatic blogger Adrian Warnock summed up the charismatic position l...