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Signs and Wonders:
The Signs and Wonders movement is a movement based upon carnality and flesh. The Charisma Crooks continue their godless rip-off of the ignorant masses, all the while blaspheming the Holy Spirit and making a mockery of Jesus Christ to the watching world. But the Bible makes it clear that signs and wonders are for the Apostles and for the age in which they ministered.
The Book of ActsAs we turn to the Luke’s historical account of the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Book of Acts, the verse references showing tongues as a sign belonging primarily to Israel with a specific purpose to the Jew are as follows:
Acts 2 There were other matters to settle. What about Gentiles? What about the half-breed Samaritans that were BANNED from Temple worship? And what about the disciples of John the Baptist who were BANNED and persecuted? Well, God provided SIGNS for the Jews to settle those issues, also. Jesus told the apostles that the transition would begin in Jerusalem, spread throughout Judea and even hit the dreaded region of Samaria before finally going to the entire Gentile world. And the Holy Spirit gave SIGNS to fulfill Acts 1:8 beyond question in the eyes of the Jews.
Acts 8:13-17
Acts 10:44-48
Acts 15:12
Acts 19:1-8 Not once in the book of Acts do we see “tongues” or any of the sign gifts taking place in a local church setting. Not once does an apostle preach about tongues. Not once does this or any other SIGN take place that doesn’t have some part in God’s revelation of Jesus Christ as the risen Savior to the Jews!
The Necessity of Signs To The JewPaul started right off teaching the Church in Corinth by telling them a Biblical FACT: “Jews require a sign” and “tongues are for a sign” to unbelieving JEWS. He introduces his letter in 1 Corinthians 1:22, saying, “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.”The Jew requires a SIGN because God TOLD them too. The Jews accepted Moses because he showed them SIGNS (Exodus 4:9 & 17). He appeared with signs and lead them for forty years with signs. We read in Numbers 14:11, “And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?” Moses was a Jew leading the Jews, just as the apostles were Jews leading Jews. And once the ministry of Paul transitioned to a ministry to the GENTILES, the signs ceased. But 1 Corinthians was written as this transition was taking place, hence the discussion of sign gifts. Every legitimate prophet of God performed SIGNS to meet the requirement of their Jewish hearers. Notice that Jonah went to the gentile city of Ninevah and only PREACHED, just like we do today. I have yet to see any of the modern GENTILE apostles claiming to have apostolic gifts ever produce any legitimate SIGN that compares in any way to the unmistakable and irrefutable Biblical signs. They’re a bunch of FRAUDS. Not to mention, most of these are uncircumcised gentiles!
Book of DeuteronomyAuthentic signs produced by JEWS for Jews is the Biblical standard. Do a word study on “signs” in your Strong’s Concordance and you will find that SIGNS are for the JEWS. A couple of examples in Deuteronomy include: Deuteronomy 6:22, “And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes.” The EpistlesGetting back to Paul’s letter to Corinth (the ONLY letter he or any other apostle even MENTIONS tongues and signs), Paul confronts with two major facts. First, they are CARNAL (1 Corinthians 3:1-4). Second, their emphasis on the apostolic sign gifts is uncalled for because they are SIGNS for the Jews. Paul reiterates: The sign gifts as given inMark 16:15-18, served as signs of Apostleship (men who happened to be circumcised JEWS and whose first ministry was to circumcised Jews according to Acts 1:8, Romans 1:18 and elsewhere). This is explained in Hebrews 2:3-4: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” Notice the SIGNS are PAST TENSE being “confirmed” by “signs and wonders”. The apostles bore witness to the Resurrection and confirmed that what they taught was true by working “signs and wonders, and with divers miracle…” You won’t find a SINGLE Gentile EVER performing these signs and wonders unless a Jewish audience is present, and you will only find that in Acts. Again, Paul says this same thing to the Corinthian believers in 2 Corinthians 12:12, “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” To deny that these were specific gifts belonging ONLY to apostles is to deny SCRIPTURE. How much clearer can it be? Gentiles can NOT be apostles. And there isn’t a single Jew alive today who can meet the Biblical level of PROOF and make any legitimate claim to being an apostle or of having been able to perform the signs that the apostles performed until Revelation 7! As a matter of fact, by the time Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, not even HE was performing the SIGNS of the book of Acts. He admits in 2 Timothy 4:20, “Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.” Why don’t you heal him Paul? Is there something wrong with Paul? No. Nothing is “wrong”. The transition period is over. The purpose for those sign gifts in Acts had ended. The church was established and the Gospel had covered the Jewish population and was now heading into the gentile world, for which SIGNS are not required. If you do a little background, you will find that 1 Corinthians was an early New Testament epistle, which is why there is no other reference to the apostolic gifts anywhere else in the New Testament. This was written DURING the time that Acts was taking place. How sad that the modern church fails to meet the level of discernment demonstrated by the Church of Ephesus in Revelation, of whom Jesus says, “thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.” We must understand the Bible in its intended context. This is what we are COMMANDED to do in 2 Timothy 2:15, “rightly dividing the word of truth.” (ALL new translations hack out the word “study” in that verse.) God’s word must be understood in it’s purpose and context. Proverbs is practical wisdom. Psalms are for practical praise. The Gospels are historical. If you use these books for other reasons, you end up in a cult or simply off the deep end—making for a sure tragedy. Paul spoke of the original set up of the church in 1 Corinthians 12:10. He speaks of, “the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.” In 1 Corinthians 12:28, he speaks of the structure saying, “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” Then, he clarifies that these gifts are limited by God’s will and that we must understand the limits and purposes. In 1 Corinthians 12:30, he asks the rhetorical question, “Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?” The obvious answer is, “NO.” Paul then spends most of his discussion about sign gifts straightening out errors in the Church at Corinth. Keep in mind; this is during the time of Acts and the transition. In 1 Corinthians 13:1, Paul brings gifts to their proper level in our minds by pointing out, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” Paul then tells us that prophecies, tongues and knowledge (meaning NEW revelation) will cease. This is the context of future-telling prophecy, speaking with unlearned tongues and new extra-Biblical revelation. The Bible came and put the lid on new revelation. The signs ceased because the need and purpose ceased to exist. This is what he says in 1 Corinthians 13:8, “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” The fact that Paul was till exercising apostolic gifts is understandable since this letter was written during the transition period. That is why in 1 Corinthians 14:39 he says, “Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.” It’s not forbidden in Corinth at this time because it was still the apostolic age of transition. But if we “rightly divide”, we will see that ALL sign gifts including speaking in unknown (unlearned) tongues, the gift of healing, future-telling prophesy, etc., are gone and never mentioned after Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. In the face of all of this is the fact that those who DO claim to practice these gifts completely VIOLATE Scripture’s rules for such gifts and do so boldly and without conscience. The so-called gift of prophecy today is nothing less than a sanctified psychic “ministry”. Today’s false version of “tongues” are meaningless gibberish and an act of BLASPHEMY, making a mockery of God the Holy Spirit. God assumes that we will use common sense. Yet, He obviously saw our day of insanity with all the Clownsville, holy laughter, flibberty-gibberish, smack-down stupidity blamed on the Holy Spirit as it is. 2 Timothy 4:2-4, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
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