Us, Them and The Holy Spirit

Mark Dunagan
11/23/14 - Sunday Morning

Them, Us and the Holy Spirit

In Old Testament and New Testament times the Holy Spirit inspired various men to speak and record the word of God (2 Peter 1:20-21) and work miracles (Galatians 3:5).  In the Corinthian letter we are told that such activities by the Spirit would cease (1 Corinthians 13:8ff). The purpose of this lesson is to examine the question, “Did the miraculous operation of the Holy Spirit give believers back then an unfair advantage over us today?” 

Knowledge of the Truth

The Holy Spirit inspired prophets and the apostles to speak the word of God and record it (2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Corinthians 2:9-13), yet we forget that this was only for a few. The vast majority of believers in the Old and New Testament did not speak by inspiration. Even in the day of miracles, many Christians did not work miracles or speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:30). In addition, no single prophet revealed all the truth. They revealed the truth that God wanted them to reveal, but often they never saw the fulfillment of their prophecies or did they completely understand everything they predicted (1 Peter 1:11-12). Today every believer has access to the complete word of God in print — something that most believers in the Old and Testament times never had. 

Bible Study

Did the Holy Spirit give them an unfair advantage when it came to interpreting Scripture? Among the denominations and even among some members of the church of Christ I hear people talking about the Holy Spirit enabling them to see things in the Scriptures that no one else can see. There are a couple of problems that I see with this view:

• Seeing that the Bible is the product of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17), it does not make any sense to me that His communication would not be clear to all who love the truth.
• I find the Holy Spirit speaking through people in the Bible and thus revealing Scripture, but I never find the Holy Spirit giving certain individuals a secret key to understanding what He revealed. Paul simply told Christians that they could understand his insight when they read what he wrote (Ephesians 3:3-5). This would not be true if the Holy Spirit gives each individual a special or unique interpretation.
• What I have found dangerous about this view is that it enables one to believe or teach false doctrine and then defend such views by claiming that the Holy Spirit is helping them see something in a passage that others can’t see. Thus, one can teach something completely contrary from the text, ignore correction from the text, and smugly view those who are trying to correct one as being unenlightened.

Paul appears to have dealt with people like this, he plainly noted that the person who is truly spiritual  is the person who respects what the apostles actually wrote (1 Corinthians 14:37).

Even during the First Century when the New Testament was being revealed and recorded, Christians were exhorted to study the word of God (2 Timothy 2:15), correctly handle the text of Scripture, and stay within the bounds of Scripture, not adding or subtracting from the text (2 John 9; Revelation 22:18-19). The Psalmist did pray that God would open his eyes to see wonderful things in God’s law (Psalm 119:18), but I believe we can agree that such wonderful things could be seen by all good and honest hearts (Psalm 19:7ff).

Evangelism

At first glance having miraculous powers would seem to give them an advantage in the realm of converting the lost. Yet, the periods in the Old and New Testaments when more miracles were performed than other times, i.e. during the Exodus and the early ministry of Christ, were equally periods of tremendous unbelief (Matthew 11:20-24). Jesus worked miracles — and they crucified Him (Acts 2:22). I don’t feel we are at a disadvantage here:

• All the miracles that God wanted recorded for all time are in Scripture (John 20:30-31). 
• Today we can look back and see the entire picture. We can see the prophecies in the Old Testament and their amazing fulfillment in Jesus or history.
• We can also see what the Bible said and then note how man’s technology and science only confirms what the Bible plainly said when no mere mortal could have known such things: Isaiah 40:22; Job 26:7.
• So the further we get from the miraculous times of the First Century we are also given more evidences that only prove the point that the Bible is the inspired word from the Creator. Just recently science discovered that there is a tremendous amount of water trapped within the earth. Yes, there is water in the planet sufficient to flood the planet — if the Creator so desired, “on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open” (Genesis 7:11).

For years various denominations have taught that man is so depraved and sinful that the word of God is insufficient to penetrate his heart and therefore a direct operation of the Holy Spirit must happen to a person before they can believe. If this was true, then I would be really mad at God:

• Why would He tell us that the word of God is powerful and the power of God unto salvation, if the Bible was actually weak and powerless (Romans 1:16)?
• God is actually the problem in modern attempts at evangelism. For Bible’s are plentiful today and the gospel is being preached far and wide, on the radio, television, across the Internet and just about every congregation has a website — yet just about every church is complaining about the difficultly in converting people (denominations and the Lord’s church). If God is the one who must first enable one to even understand the gospel and believe it — then He is clearly not doing His job.
• The Bible is filled with examples of people believing — and nothing is said about some enabling by the Spirit. Rather the key is an honest and good heart (Luke 8:15). In Acts 2 the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles — yet 3000 people that the Holy Spirit did not come upon believed and were baptized (Acts 2:37-41).   In Acts 10 Cornelius was ready and receptive long before the Holy Spirit came upon him (Acts 10:33).
• This view also accuses God of playing favorites. If He really wants all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), then why are so many lost — if what really makes the difference is His direct intervention?
• When Stephen told his listeners that they were resisting the Holy Spirit he was talking about them resisting his preaching and the preaching of the prophets that was inspired and not some mysterious influence apart from the word of God (Acts 7:48,51)

Faithfulness/Temptation/Sin/Morality

Did the Holy Spirit give them an unfair advantage when it came to remaining faithful, staying pure, keeping oneself unspotted from the world and resisting temptation? I would argue no:

• The inspired and miracle working apostle Paul still had to exercise self-control (1 Corinthians 9:27). The gifted Timothy was told to flee youthful lusts (2 Timothy 2:22) and resist being timid (2 Timothy 1:7). And the gifted Corinthians struggled with being carnally minded (1 Corinthians 3:1ff). The Galatians had spiritual gifts, yet were in danger of falling away (Galatians 3:5).
• It is easy to forget that the generation that had spiritual gifts, saw the miracles and heard inspired preaching was equally exhorted to put forth effort in living a godly life. Passages such as Galatians 5:16 or Romans 8:13 were written to that type of audience.

Conclusion

The Holy Spirit revealed all truth (John 16:13) and today we have access to that same truth (Ephesians 3:3-5). Like the Ephesians, when we read Scripture, we can understand the Scriptures just like Paul understood them. The Holy Spirit worked miracles, and we can read about them and be edified. The encouragement, incentives and motivation that the Spirit offered First Century Christians is the same encouragement and motivation that we are offered in the Word of God.

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net