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We could discuss the nature of confinement in Hell in a new thread on "The NT Case for Universal Salvation." Is anybody here interested?

(7a) Does Paul's command to "strive for spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1)," exclude speaking in tongues? (7b) What principles should guide our striving for spiritual gifts? The answer to (7a) is an emphatic No for 2 reasons: (1) Paul twice commands us to "zealously strive for" spiritual...

(7) I had just finished a tiring year teaching Theology at a Catholic university with overload course sections and I desperately wanted a restful vacation. But my first Friday off was disturbed by an insistent conviction that someone's death was imminent that should postpone my vacation plans...

What can makes apparent unanswered prayers for miracles so frustrating are the glorious exceptions to the rule. For example, I often pray in vain for a close friend Mike who suffers greatly from congestive heart failure. Yet I know a Catholic man who took his wife with congestive heart failure...

(5) I was Best Man in Dallas's wedding and after the honeymoon, he invited me over for dinner, after which the 3 of us went down to his basement to play table tennis. To explain what happened next, you need to understand how speaking in tongues can be a gateway to other gifts of the Spirit. The...

(6) Does Paul teach that all speaking in tongues must be interpreted? The answer of the modern scholarly consensus is "Of course not!!" C. K. Barrett and Hans Conzelmann are eminent secular (non-Pentecostal~) New Testament scholars who have written magisterial commentaries on 1 Corinthians...

In Pollyanna discussions of the power of prayer, there is an urgent need to keep it real. So I'm going to share 2 personal stories in which troubled believers tried in vain to cling to their belief that the God of grace loved them. This post shares the first account. (1) I was asked to...

Blaspheming Jesus is forgivable because the blasphemer may honestly believe Jesus to be a deluded fool. But if I watch Jesus exorcising someone and the Spirit makes me aware that a loving God is behind that exorcism, then I am blaspheming against something I know in my heart is godly because...

You need to reread 1 Cor. 12:30. This verse contains no "statements of fact" as you claim, but a series of questions inviting a negative answer. What is not clarified is WHY the answers are No and one must choose between these 2 possibilities: (1) Because God never intended any of these gifts...

(4) In desperation at age 16, I sought to regain my devastated faith by attending the Pentecostal camp meetings at Manhattan Beach on Pelican Lake (Manitoba). Of course, speaking in uninterpreted tongues was not allowed during the public evening services, but we were encouraged to tarry at the...

(5) Does 1 Cor. 12:29-31 imply that prophecy and speaking in tongues are gifts of the Spirit reserved for the chosen few? Many evangelicals cite 1 Cor. 12:29-30 in support of their claim that the gift of speaking in tongues is not divinely intended for everyone. This claim can be refuted on 4...

Bible scholars have understood "the millennial reign" in various ways. An important point to keep in mind is that the so-called millennium will occur neither on this earth nor on a remodeling of this earth: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had...

If you read my "Life Journey" thread, you might get the impression that my prayer life is a life of continuous miracles in answer to prayer. That impression would be false because that thread shares the highlights of my life in the Spirit. In truth, it seems like most of my prayers go...

(3) These 2 ecstatic and visionary childhood experiences made me hungry for more of God, or rather, more direct encounters with God. Bible reading and sermons didn't fulfill this need; so my attention was riveted to messages in tongues and the interpretations that often highlighted Communion...

(4) Did the tongues spoken in the household of Cornelius (Acts 10:44-47) and by the "disciples" at Ephesus (19:2, 6) express understandable human languages just as the tongues spoken on the Day of Pentecost did (2:4-6)? 4 points suggest that the answer is no: (1) The Greek "glossai" ("tongues")...

This thread is intended to complement my other thread on speaking in tongues by focusing on some of the key charismatic and paranormal experiences that shaped my faith and thought throughout my life. These experiences will eventually illustrate what it can mean to grow up Pentecostal and how...

The moderated service reminds me of the Azusa Street Revival of 1906-1008. The build remained open for 24/7. The services were unstructured and led by the Holy Spirit. People testified, shared, confessed, and even sang in the Spirit as the Spirit provided the melodies and lyrics. One boy...

The commonsense interpretation of Jesus' reaction to the address "Good teacher" is that Jesus distinguishes Himself from God and denied that He is good: "Why do you call me good. No one is good but God alone (Mark 10L17-18)." Notice how Matthew, in copying Mark, recognizes this and takes so...

(3) Does the 4-fold pattern in Acts in which speaking in tongues attests one's initial reception of the Holy Spirit mean that Spirit baptism requires the initial evidence of speaking in tongues? In 3 of the 4 initial receptions of the Spirit in Acts, it is accompanied by speaking in tongues...

Tommy Cool: "And 31 does not cover gifts of tongues neither does verse 4 .... you made that up... it doesn't say that.... it changes in verse 7 from gifts to manifestation." No, the use of the phrase "varieties of gifts" in 12: 4 sets up Paul's list of "gifts" in 12:7-10 and 12:28-20. The...