My Theological Musings

              They no longer use crystal balls, but laptops.           I  will show you from the scriptures that the office of prophets and apostles is the very foundation of God's household; thereafter, I will give you some hints on how to exercise some discernment.               The Bible tells us in  Hebrews 1:1-3 that: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.          In short, in these last days (or in Greek,  ἐσχάτου) our focus is to hear the Son of God. He no longer speaks through the agency of the prophets as He did "long ago" (πάλαι), but through Christ Himself. The Bible is the written Word of God that we should always go to if we want to know who our God is

  In recent years, we have seen an increase in all kinds of flawed and some even blatantly  false teachings that pastors have no choice but to find ways to warn, educate and protect their flocks against these ravenous wolves.           It is not enough these days to just have a good Sunday sermon; even more important is both Word-based and proper theological grounding for your flock, and making sure that they are fully aware of the various kinds of false teachings these days. A lot of people "join" these groups without realizing what they are getting into.         Due to the widespread usage of social media, these influences are also spreading very fast and unknowingly affecting your church members . Overnight, we see such people appearing on the social media with all kinds of strange doctrines.           There are also many warnings a nd exposé made by individuals or groups about some preachers such as Kenneth Copeland, Peter Wagner and the New Apostolic Reformation, Kenn

  In Acts 2, we see that on the day of Pentecost, the disciples were baptised with the Holy Spirit. This was the fulfilment of what Jesus told them in Acts 1:8.          In this study you will see the chronological order and establishment of the Church based on the geographical expansion that Jesus spoke of.  "...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:8). Jerusalem            However, this  would not happen until Christ had been glorified. It is, therefore, sensible for the Lord Jesus to tell the disciples to "wait" in Jerusalem, because prior to this, the Holy Spirit had not been given yet.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?" (1 Corinthians 14:23)          The Greek word, μαίνεσθε simply means, "to be insane." Why did Paul use such strong words on the Corinthian church?           The answer is obvious. Nowhere did Paul have to deal with this  controversy over the gift of tongues, except in the Corinthian church. This was a rather unique problem due to their carnality and their spiritual arrogance with respect to the gift of tongues, which they had placed over and above the other  “χαρίσματα” (or gifts of the Spirit).            Paul had to spend an entire section of his epistle (all three chapters from 1 Corinthians 12-14) to deal with this issue.          I have found that in recent years, the old controversy which once split churches in the 70s-90s, has been revived again by certain individu