The Illuminating Ministry of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit empowers the believer in his battle with the “flesh.” One of the ways the Spirit empowers the believer is by imparting spiritual truth and wisdom. “The Holy Spirit is the great Interpreter (John 16:13). Without Him all our efforts at fully understanding His Word are doomed to failure.” The Holy Spirit teaches the believer from the Word of God by illuminating the Scriptures. For example, 1 John 2:20 explains that believers will know the truth when they hear it because they “have an anointing from the Holy One.” According to 1 Corinthians 2:6-13, the Holy Spirit reveals “the depths of God” and enables the believer (“he who is spiritual”) to appraise all things (2:15). The result is that the believer is able to know the truth or will God as revealed in the Scriptures. Some have added “guidance in decision making” to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but there does not appear to be any biblical evidence of that kind of guidance apart from the work of revealing and making plain the Word of God. The obvious question then is whether impulses and feelings come from the Holy Spirit independent of His use of the Word of God. There appears no such biblical evidence. The one exception is Acts 16:6-10 where the Holy Spirit intervened directly in the travel plans of the Apostle Paul. However, since the Acts 16 event was during the apostolic period (i.e. before the canon was closed), it cannot be cited as support for the normal manner in which the Holy Spirit illumines the mind or ministers to believers in the current time.
posted by orthopodeo | 12:54 PM
9 Comments:
"since the Acts 16 event was during the apostolic period (i.e. before the canon was closed), it cannot be cited as support for the normal manner in which the Holy Spirit illumines the mind or ministers to believers in the current time."
why? that seems like a big assumption...are you pulling that conclusion from any text...or is it a presumption? I'd be curious to see you prove that by citing specific and relevant Scripture...
What part of Georgia are you in?
Mark
So, to reverse your statement, are you intending to say that events in the Book of Acts are to be normative for the church? I am not going to cite every biblical reference (since this would be too broad), but the New Testament as a whole would communicate that the guidance received by the Apostles can hardly be considered normative for the church (especially as they were appointed to a unique office). Even the Acts 16 event was not normative for the manner in which the Apostles received guidance for decision making.
John Mark:
I am in the coastal Georgia area (Savannah/Hilton Head). How about you?
"I am not going to cite every biblical reference..."
how about one?
I'm not saying one way or another...I'd just like you to demonstrate that from the text and not your deductive reasoning power.
According to 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, one work of the Holy Spirit is to impart spiritual truth and wisdom to the believer. Does the Holy Spirit impart spiritual truth and wisdom apart from the Scriptures (cf. 1 John 2:20)? I cannot find any biblical evidence to conclude otherwise. A systematic pneumatology (especially understanding the permanence and temporary nature of some of the gifts) would make sense why that is the case.
"I cannot find any biblical evidence to conclude otherwise."
it is clear you are not arriving at your conclusion from reading the actual text because you can not provide one. everything in your argument is resting on your deductive reasoning skills and not from the reading of any one text.
i-fox:
I mean this as kindly as possible, but you just do not understand how doctrine is developed. You really should receive some formal Bible training (of course, based on the nature of your posts, I assume you have not, or, if you have that your studies are not completed). It should be understand that the Bible is written for grownups, or else do not talk about it. As to your response to this post, how would the biblical texts cited and a biblical understanding of the apostolic office as a temporary gift form a textual understanding of the normality of Acts 16 (p.s. the question is merely rhetorical)?
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