Nagging questions about spiritual gifts today!
There is a lingering fascination with spiritual gifts in the modern church, but that doesn’t mean there is anything close to a unity concerning spiritual gifts and how they are to be practiced today. Churches run the gamut from a full rejection to a full embrace (some would argue an unhealthy embrace) of spiritual gifts. The truth may lie somewhere in between. Any serious study and pursuit of a biblical practice of spiritual gifts have to deal with these five nagging questions: 1. How many spiritual gifts are there? Are there eight? Fifteen? Twenty-four? There isn’t a uniform answer to this because the New Testament authors never give us a clear answer. We see lists given in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4, but the word for “gift” is used elsewhere, prompting some to expand the list. Others go with Romans 12 as the only legitimate list for today, rapidly narrowing the field of available spiritual gifts. How many spiritual gifts does the Bible actually list? 2. Are all the ...