Pentecost, not Pentecostal

Last post, we looked at how the Bible says the charismatic gifts have ceased. God appointed and promised the apostles this.  He confirmed the teaching of the old testament prophets. He did not do that for us. The apostles had signs of being prophets so that there words would be accepted as prophecy, demanding our acceptance and belief. The cessation of these gifts is attested to by the early church as well as modern Jews (see quotes below). Those who claim to speak in tongues or prophecy, or get signs from God, are really claiming to be prophets, and are therefore, false prophets. But why does this happen?

• First of all, some are just lying.
• Jeremiah 14 tells us that not all claims of prophecy are true.
• 1 Kings 13:11-22 tells us that even a well meaning believer can do the wrong thing and go against God by lying about prophecy. 
• Matthew tells us that people will go to hell who thought they were doing the right thing of prophesying: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ -Matthew 7:21-23
• Secondly, the Devil can say nice things about God and cause prophecy and signs
• False prophets will arise and show great wonders. show signs and wanders lead away the elect. Matthew 24:24
• 2 Thessalonians tells us the coming of the lawless one is accompanied by power and signs wonders.
• The 2nd beast in revelation works great signs.
• The real danger is that when people think “God” is talking to them, that voice is indistinguishable from that of Satan. After all, Satan comes and deceives. He uses Scripture (and twists it) and often is disguised as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
• The Devil can work through prosperity and spirituality (the eye of needle in 1 Timothy 6:10), we get complacent and think we did it all.
• Pain can backfire, like when Job was driven to God and the Psalmist who cried out to the Lord in his anguish.
• Powerful beings do good things for people to get them to trust them and think they are God, so they look to experiences instead of words of Jesus, then after a while, when it matters, they let them down. God does not manipulate emotions. The Holy Spirit does not work in emotions. Feelings used to lead you astray
• These movements were not the Holy Spirit: Montanism, Spiritualistic Fransiscans, Enthusiast movements of the Schwarmerei, Charismatics like Pentecostal.
• Lastly, even true prophesying does not indicate one's state of grace.
• Balaam prophecied
• Judas healed and cast out demons
• Ciaphas prophesied by the Holy Spirit that it was good for one man to be handed over to die for the people.

Jews don't believe there is continued prophecy (1 Maccabees 4:46; 9:27; 14:41, 2 Baruch 85:3, Josephus, Against Apion 1.37-41, Jewish Chronology, Seder Olam Rabbah, chapter 30, Babylonian Talmud: Tosefta Sotah 13:2, Yoma 9b, Sotah 48a, and Sanhedrin 11a)

Clement of Rome in 95 AD wrote a letter to the Corinthian church rebuking every problem that Paul rebuked except tongues. Why did he not mention tongues or miracles?

Justin Martyr (~160 AD) visited many churches but never once mentions tongues in his lists of spiritual gifts.

Origen (~250 AD) in his voluminous writings argues against Celsus by stating that the sign gifts of the apostles' age were temporary and were not exercised by Christians in the 3rd Century.

Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.) "[Corinth] is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur, but now no longer take place." [Homilies, XXIX, 1]

Augustine (354-430 AD) said in speaking of Acts 2:4, "In the earliest times, the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spake with tongues....these were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit...that thing was done for a betokening and it passed away."

Herman Sasse

“The recognition that the revelation in Christ is not something inconclusive or relative stands and falls with the primacy of the apostolate over prophecy. Wherever prophecy asserts its independence and power, it is a threat to the finality of the revelation that happened once in history, of which the apostolic office bears witness. Christ’s church is an apostolic, not prophetic church. This does not mean a quenching of the Spirit. Rather it expresses the conviction that revelation has taken place, that the word of God is no longer only given and assigned to a human being here and there, but that the Word has become flesh.”

“The ‘apostolic church’ is a poor church. It has no marvelous new revelations, no knowledge of higher worlds, and no possibility of proving its faith by reason. It lives from the witness of a few men who were neither religious geniuses, nor ethical heroes, nor original thinkers. The only authority for the unverifiable things they said was that Jesus Christ had sent them and that they were witnesses of His resurrection.”