I'll tell you EXACTLY why--because no one know what they are, but they're in the Bible so people want to embrace them and then they screw it all up. "What's YOUR Gift" people ask. Gift driven churches, like Paul was laying down some kind of authoritative list. And people go nuts with it, roll on the floor, foam at the mouth, "in the Spirit." Charismatic TV evangelists dupe millions with staged healings and false promises and p.s. send me your money.
Gifts are a way for people to make contact with the supernatural, to locate themselves in a supernatural world. Gifts give people self-definition, empowerment to be or do a certain thing. It also lends a sense of entitlement: "I should have this role because I have this gift." Gifts are not for the person possessing the gift--Gifts are for the Church, for advancing the Church, for bulding the Church of God--not foaming around on the floor.
AND people panicked by gifts. "That's of the devil" says they, and let them say it, God will judge them. Speaking in tongues? Satanic. Except that it happened in the Bible all the time. Why do people fear the work of God? Cuz they fear the unknown.
People overindulging in self-centered empowerment. People panicked at displays of religious gibberish. And in this world of 'science, brave science' how could we NOT expect the claims of supernatural empowerment to be met with resistance, even in Christian quarters?
I'll tell you why
I'll tell you EXACTLY why--because no one know what they are, but they're in the Bible so people want to embrace them and then they screw it all up. "What's YOUR Gift" people ask. Gift driven churches, like Paul was laying down some kind of authoritative list. And people go nuts with it, roll on the floor, foam at the mouth, "in the Spirit." Charismatic TV evangelists dupe millions with staged healings and false promises and p.s. send me your money.
Gifts are a way for people to make contact with the supernatural, to locate themselves in a supernatural world. Gifts give people self-definition, empowerment to be or do a certain thing. It also lends a sense of entitlement: "I should have this role because I have this gift." Gifts are not for the person possessing the gift--Gifts are for the Church, for advancing the Church, for bulding the Church of God--not foaming around on the floor.
AND people panicked by gifts. "That's of the devil" says they, and let them say it, God will judge them. Speaking in tongues? Satanic. Except that it happened in the Bible all the time. Why do people fear the work of God? Cuz they fear the unknown.
People overindulging in self-centered empowerment. People panicked at displays of religious gibberish. And in this world of 'science, brave science' how could we NOT expect the claims of supernatural empowerment to be met with resistance, even in Christian quarters?