Because Christians are totally being thrown in jail and fed to the lions. Happened just last week in Peoria.
Update 1: After pushing the submit button and going to lunch I realized that I had actually embedded the wrong video. This one will make more sense with the title:
Watch with amazement as this crack theologian from Holy Hills Baptist Church puzzles and puzzles over the deep meanings of Scripture and then cuts the Gordian knot with a decisive answer to a perplexing question.
I was more than a little surprised when an SFL reader passed along this excerpt from none other than John R. Rice who says very plainly that he doesn’t rule out tongues as being possible in the modern church.
Yes God May Give the Gifts of the Spirit Today, as He Chooses, Just as in Bible Times
Note that the blessed Holy Spirit gives certain gifts to people for the Lord’s service. Do I believe we can have the power of the Holy Spirit just as in Bible times? I certainly do. Nobody had all these gifts in Bible times and, of course, nobody can have all these gifts now in modern times. But, as far as I know, the New Testament churches were set up the same way, and the Bible teaching was the same, and the practices were the same as we ought to have now.
Yes, I believe in the fullness of the Spirit, an enduement of power from on High. I believe in the gifts of the Spirit as God gives them.
Now, here are some lessons, as you see in verses 8 through 10. What are these gifts of the Spirit in verses 8 through 10? To one, the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge; to another, faith; to another, gifts of healing; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues; and to another, interpretation of tongues — all these nine different gifts of the Spirit are mentioned here. Now, what are these gifts for and what about them?
Well, first of all, as far as I know these gifts are still available today. I do not mean available in the sense that you can ask for whatever you want about these gifts. The Bible never does teach that one can decide for himself what gifts to have. The Spirit divides “to every man severally as he will.”
It is true that the Scripture says, “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” I take it that that must mean that some of these works of the Holy Spirit can be the property of every Christian but that one cannot necessarily decide for himself, except that all should seek to prophesy.
We are expressly taught to seek to prophesy. That means speak for God, witness for God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:8 we are told, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me …. ” That part we are taught to seek. We are supposed to “covet earnestly the best gifts,” but we are never taught to covet the gift of tongues.
Now, are these gifts for today? They probably are. You would have to remember that they are not very often manifested even in the New Testament times. There is only one clear-cut case of talking in tongues in the Bible and that is in Acts, chapter 2. There are two other cases where languages are mentioned, but the Bible doesn’t say a gift of languages, and maybe it was and maybe it was not. No one has authority to say it was the miraculous gift of tongues since the Bible doesn’t say so. In the tenth chapter of Acts, in Cornelius’ case, and in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, that of a number of Christians at Ephesus, they talked in foreign languages. So let us just say that it was not very often that people had some of these gifts in Bible times.
John R. Rice,Speaking in Tongues
Now granted, Rice’s definition of “tongues” differs from that of most modern day proponents but I still wonder how many modern fundies would completely break fellowship with old John R. for not being a complete and total cessationist. Apparently, the Sword of the Lord who has published his book manages to ignore his belief in sign gifts just as well as they ignore Spurgeon’s Calvinism.
Cognitive dissonance is a beautiful thing.
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify the pastor, and to support him forever.
Q. 2. What rule hath the pastor given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A. All of them.
Q. 3. What do the scriptures principally teach?
A. The scriptures principally teach whatever the pastor says they teach.
Q. 4. What is the pastor?
A. Better than you.
Q. 5. Are there more pastors than one?
A. Not until the pastor’s son graduates from the Bible college in the trailer out back.
Q. 6. How many persons are there on the church staff?
A. There are three persons on the staff: the pastor, the song leader, and Chuck. Chuck is mostly just the pastor’s son in law.
Q. 7. What are the decrees of the pastor?
A. They’re all up on the wall of his study. He even got a doctoral decree a few years back.
Q. 8. How doth the pastor execute his decrees?
A. Sometimes he tells us Greek words and doesn’t even look them up or nothin.
Q. 9. What is the work of creation?
A. Most of our ladies do up a pretty good casserole.
Q. 10. How did God create man?
A. Perfect. Then women came along.
Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence?
A. This one time I didn’t go soul winning and I broke my leg a month later.
Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
A. Well…he let a whole bunch of us be born American. So I guess that’s something.
Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
A. Nope. Mine moved to Florida to be missionaries.
Q. 14. What is sin?
A. What isn’t sin would be a lot easier question to answer. It’s pert near everywhere.
Q. 15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
A. I’m not sure we’re allowed to talk about that. Maybe I’ll draw you a picture.
(feel free to continue on…)
I just follow the Bible. I just follow the obvious meanings of a 400 year old translation of a document written originally in languages I don’t speak, influenced heavily by cultures I don’t begin to understand, and by people who I assume looked, acted, thought and dressed just like I do.
I just follow the Bible. It’s not only a road map for life and God’s love letter to everybody who isn’t an Amalekite but it also apparently contains an uncanny number of direct statements about how much beat is acceptable in music and how one should pledge to the country’s flag — even though countries didn’t have flags when it was written.
I just follow the Bible. And the Holy Spirit. And my pastor who God sent to tell me what the Holy Spirit says the Bible means. Just last Sunday I learned that Job 31:10 is a seven-thousand year old sermon against twerking.
I just follow the Bible. And my cultural predispositions. And my inherent biases. And my economic expedients. And my filters of time, place, biology, psychology, technology, and personal experience.
I just follow the Bible. You’d better follow me too.