When folks call the church asking for information about what we believe, 99% of the time what they really want to know is what we believe about the exercising of certain gifts of the Holy Spirit. People have very strong opinions with regards to this subject and they normally fall into one of two camps: […]

Things could get pretty wild at the worship services in the first century church in the city of Corinth. In chapter fourteen the apostle Paul says to them, 1Corinthians 14:23   Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will […]

The believers in Corinth were, in a sense, swinging for the spiritual fence in their use and abuse of the gift of tongues. When we get to chapter fourteen you’ll see that they were all speaking in tongues simultaneously without any concern for interpreting what was being said or for the exercise of other gifts […]

Issues surrounding the Holy Spirit and His gifts are fraught with either/or arguments. Here we’re going to see one of those areas where we tend to go to extremes and I’m going to suggest that both extremes are, well, extreme. The issue I’m talking about is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

Paul starts talking about various body parts claiming independent identity from the whole body. His point is simple enough: the true nature of your human body is that it is one body consisting of many necessary parts. He will argue from that very obvious illustration that the body of Christ on earth – His church […]

If the apostle Paul had been tech-savvy he might have produced a series of short parody videos showing the horrible manners of the believers at Corinth. Sure, they were exercising spectacular gifts of the Holy Spirit. But they were simultaneously tolerating all manner of sexual sin, they were promoting divisions, they were suing one another, […]

As chapter 12 draws to a close, the apostle Paul speaks of certain individuals being “first,” “second,” and “third,” with respect to the church. Let’s see what he meant and how it fits into his larger correction to the church at Corinth. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)

When it comes to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, cessationists and charismatics 100% agree on one thing: One day the gifts will cease. We just don’t agree on the day. To bring you up to speed, if you haven’t been following this series: • Cessationists believe certain gifts of the Holy Spirit have already […]

The controversy over the cessation versus the continuation of certain gifts of the Holy Spirit is as intense as I’ve ever seen it in. Cessationists are definitely on the offensive. One of their arguments is that continuationists are not very biblically astute. We’re not very smart, they say, when it comes to the Bible. (Pastor […]

I must reiterate something we established in our previous study about the gift of speaking in tongues. In this chapter, Paul has in mind their practice of speaking in tongues without any corresponding gift of interpretation. It is uninterpreted tongues that are the problem. When an utterance in tongues is interpreted, and is therefore intelligible, […]

When is “five” greater than “ten thousand?” When it comes to the words you speak in the public assembly of the church. 1 Corinthians 14:13 Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. The cessationist wants to read this as if it says, “therefore let him who speaks in a […]

You’re dead if you don’t; you’re the devil if you do. Those are the extremes when it comes to whether or not your church exercises the gift of speaking in tongues in its meetings. Dead or the devil – which is it? Well, it’s neither. Tongues is a gift still available to some, but not […]

If you feel prompted to speak in tongues in a meeting of the church, should you do so? If you feel prompted to prophesy in a meeting of the church, should you do so? We can definitively, unequivocally, with all authority, say…“Maybe!” Maybe you should speak in tongues or prophesy; maybe you shouldn’t. It’s not […]