Paul James

What is it about my post that makes you want to advise me to clean my own house before cleaning another man's house? All I have done is to say what the passage in Acts 2 actually says - that the tongues spoken by the 120 were distinct languages. Any believer who has the genuine gift of tongues will be speaking a distinct language. Although in most cases it is spoken in private to God who alone understands it; yet, there have been times when the language, although unlearned by the speaker, has been understood by a native speaker of that language during a group prayer time or in a church service.

There is no such gifting or ministry as Old Testament style prophets under the New Covenant. Also, the New Testament prophet is a ministry to the whole body of Christ, and this ministry is impossible in these days because the body of Christ is split up into many different religious "parties" or denominations without any unity or fellowship among them. Therefore anyone calling themselves a prophet might be recognised in their own select movement, but not anywhere else, so he could not be a prophet to the whole body of Christ. So modern "prophets to the nation" are frauds who are dreaming stuff out of their own heads, because God has never sent them.

Of course they spoke languages. Luke lists all the regional dialects that were spoken. What made the listeners marveled was that it was uneducated Galileans who didn't know any of those languages who were speaking all those languages because they spoke only Aramaic which was the prominent language. Acts 2 says that the 120 spoke in tongues "as the Spirit gave them utterance", which means they were able to speak all these languages which they had never learned. If you read the passage properly, you will see that it was not the hearing of the mighty acts of God spoken in their regional languages which brought the 3000 to Christ. It was Peter preaching in Aramaic under the powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit that cut them to their heart, convicted them of sin and caused them to cry out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" It is important to actually read the Scripture instead of parroting the brainwashing against the modern use of the gift of tongues as some who twist the Scripture are apt to do to make it read something that Luke never wrote.

Evolution is not fact. It is an unproven fairy story about how our world might have originated and developed. God didn't see any reason why we should know exactly how the world was created, otherwise He would have provided a comprehensive scientific text book with illustrations that explains exactly His method of creating everything. But He didn't. He just gave us the bare facts, just to inform us that He did the creating by just speaking it into being. Reminds me of the story about the old pastor who was questioned about what God was doing before He created the universe. The pastor replied, "Preparing hell for the over-curious!"

Replacing God's clear account of how He created the universe with evolution is basically a denial of God's Word. It is saying that God did not tell the truth in Genesis 1. Seeing that the Bible says that God's Word is the truth (John 17:17), anyone who says that Genesis 1 is not the truth, cannot really depend on any other part of the Bible, because if one part of the Bible is unreliable, then other parts also are. It means that God either lied, or He didn't inspire the Bible at all. I cannot see that any genuinely born again believer can hold that God is a liar or that the Bible is just the work of men and not of God at all.

How so?

No. I just read and believe what the Bible actually says. I agree with the Bible because it is God's communication with mankind. It clearly indicates that the universe created in six days, and has clear descriptions of what was created on each successive day. I don't agree with those who say it all happened over billions of years. If God wanted us to know that, He would have said so.

The reason why you can't see that Genesis 1 is absolutely true and that evolution is a total lie is that God has deliberately sent a delusion to those who refuse to believe the gospel of Christ so that the only option for them is the Judgment. Those who are genuinely born again of the Spirit of God know clearly that evolution is a lie and have absolutely no problem with Genesis 1 being literally true - that God spoke each stage of the universe and the world in an instant of time without having to use anything like evolution. One instant there was nothing and the next a whole universe of stars and planets spreading out almost to infinity. Concerning Christian "experts", anyone can put on the Christian "badge" and call themselves Christian, but that doesn't mean that they are genuinely born again of the Spirit of God.

God told Moses what to write as His account of the origin of the universe and our world. He never mentioned evolution. He said that He created the universe by speaking it into being over six 24 hour days. I believe what God says rather than what human "experts" have theorised. God's Word is truth and truth is stronger than theory and conjecture. "Let God be true and every man [by comparison] be a liar" (Romans 3:4). On this basis, Genesis 1 is truth, and evolution is a lie.

Moses fellowshipped with God as a man with his friend. He talked with God and God talked with him. God told him to write down what He was to say to him (Exodus 17:4; 34:27). Therefore, the first five books of the Bible were dictated by God to Moses as a permanent memorial for the Israelites to show their origins and to know that God is in total control of the universe and everything in it.

Actually He did, 2000 years ago. He came, performed many miracles, and yet was totally rejected and crucified by the people who heard His message and saw His miracles. He is going to come again, and every eye shall see Him, but for many it will be too late.

Most who never manifest any spiritual gift but are content with their three hymns, sermon and morning tea afterwards, going home full of tea and biscuits instead of the Holy Spirit, quote the above Scripture to justify their own position concerning the spiritual gifts. The Scripture says, "Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy." Many "Sunday Christians" go on about the importance of love, but ignore the rest of the verse, because manifesting spiritual gifts, especially prophecy is not for their religious observance.

There is a bit of an oddity about the way Jews recorded their genealogy. We do it by actual people. They did it by generational family groups initiated by the name of the patriarch. Seeing that individuals lived very long lives just after the Flood right up until the Lord limited the average life span to 120 years and later on to 75 years, Noah and his sons could have lived a very long time before their recorded offspring were born, and their offspring could have lived hundreds of years before the next particular person in the genealogical line was born, and so on. This could move the time frame back thousands of years more to when the flood happened. One archaeological fact that we have is that there is evidence of human habitation in North America as far back as 20,000 years ago. Whether it was there of a civilisation before or after the Flood, we don't really know. It is more likely to be after the Flood, because human society dispersed after that because of the Tower of Babel event. So, the Tower of Babel event had to have happened around 20,000 years ago. Also, we must remember that the genealogical records in the Bible trace just one line that led up to the birth of Christ, and there would have been many other lines branching out from the sons of Noah as they had sons and daughters over their lifetimes. Although I believe that the genealogical records are accurate, it may be too simplistic to make calculations based on each individual's actual lifetime. There has to be another answer somewhere to be in harmony with what is being discovered through archaeology, But then, I could be all wrong about this, and the date of the Flood was actually 4,400 years ago! :-)

There is a sediment layer that contains a complete fossil record of life that existed at the time of the Flood. These fossils could not have been there before the Flood, because there are sediment layers below them that have no fossils, which one would expect to be there if the fossil layer went right down to the bottom. And, if Evolution was true, we would see fossils below that contains evidence of intermediate species as one species changed to a higher evolutionary form. But we don't see any evidence of that. Instead, we see a sediment layer that was obviously caused by a catastrophic Flood which instantly killed the animals and fish (fossils of fish halfway through eating a smaller fish) and left their bodies in the sediment layer to fossilise over time. It is also interesting that these fossils show that the fish and animals are exactly the same as they are today, which shows that over around 11,000 years, no evolutionary process has taken place. It is also interesting that a complete set of dinosaur bones has been discovered in a place where a very large quantity of water once flowed and the position of the bones shows that the animal was swept up and rolled over and over in a massive flow of water that could only have happen in a massive flood. These bones were found well away from the Middle East region which shows that the Flood was not just a regional one as some suppose. Also, it shows that dinosaurs existed as late as 11,000 years ago when the Flood happened, and if that is so, they were there at the same time there was a human population.

As an old man, Darwin confessed that the notions behind his book "Origin of the Species" were the "unborn ideas of a young man". This was how he viewed what he wrote: not fact, but ideas that weren't necessarily much more than his own imagination, Evolution is not just a vague, unproven theory, but it is a total rejection of the God of the bible and the gospel of Christ. Godless "experts" have transformed the "unborn ideas of a young man" into a delusion that blinds folk to the reality of God and the truth of the gospel of Christ. It is in keeping with: "Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Over the 20 or so years on forums, I have seen all the discussions and "proofs" of Evolution, and none of the twaddle that has be trotted out in the name of science has proved anything. The "evidence" has consisted of the words, "probably", "possibly", "might have", etc. images of the evolutionary process have mainly been artists' impressions. No one has actually observed the process as it happened. So, I don't need to see any more "evidence" that I haven't seen already. I have examined all the evidence I need to see and am still convinced that Evolution is a nonsense fairy story put forward by those who reject that God created this whole universe in six 24 hour days out of nothing. The thing about a demonic delusion forming into a religion is that no matter what evidence, or lack of it, is put forward, the deceived doggedly stick to the fairy story like a young child believing in Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny.

Evolution is a demonic delusion to bring those who reject Christ to judgment. "and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness" (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12).

The dreams they interpreted were important components of the plan of God; for Joseph himself, and in Daniel's case, for God's purpose for Israel in captivity. The dreams were clear and God gave Joseph and Daniel the interpretation supernaturally. Also, the dreams were not for their personal guidance, but were information for others. They were also Old Testament. In the New Covenant, personal guidance is conducted by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and if a person is walking in the Spirit, he has no need of dreams for personal guidance. But then, the Holy Spirit is not limited in the way He works; dreams and visions may happen, such has Paul's vision of the Macedonian man pleading for help. But these dreams and visions are clear messages and not vague symbolic images that need the extensive catalogue of symbols for interpretation that are found on some New Age sites.

The Flood so changed the geography of the planet, that it would be impossible to find the location of the Garden of Eden. It could have been anywhere on the planet so any attempt to locate it would be totally fruitless.

Evolution is a religion based on godless scientists' faith in the theory. It totally fails the scientific method of observation, hypotheses, experimentation and testing. It has never been observed to happen, no one has successfully experimented with it, and it cannot be tested in the laboratory. Therefore it is not a science, but an alternative to Creation by a God they don't want to be morally responsible to.

It is when people speak in tongues in ways that Paul did not support in 1 Corinthians 14. I do believe that the babbling that goes along with kundalini manifestations like out of control jerking of the head, falling down, shaking, and uncontrolled laughter is of the flesh. True tongues is holy prayer to God and is spoken to Him in godly reverence, not uncontrolled babble in public meetings. Paul says that the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. This means that anything done in the Spirit is always disciplined and under total control, and is performed for a particular purpose.

I don't see that Mary, the mother of Jesus had a sister called Mary. Her sister was Elizabeth, the wife of Zachariah the priest. The Scripture says elsewhere that John the Baptist, Elizabeth's son was Jesus' cousin. Someone has their wires crossed somewhere. On another point, at the wedding in Cana, Mary put herself lower than Jesus so as not to obscure His glory. She humbled herself when Jesus said to her, "Woman, what I have I to do with you? My time has not come yet." He did not refer to her as "mother", and she accepted that Jesus was more important than her, and so she told the servants, "Do what he says", instead of taking charge of the proceedings herself. When Mary and the brothers of Jesus visited Jesus once during his ministry and someone said, "Your mother and brothers are here", He said, "Who is my mother and brothers? Those who believe and trust in Me." In this, Jesus placed his mother Mary in a place lower than ordinary believers in Christ. Yet there is a church that exalts Mary above everyone and makes her an object of worship. That is quite missing from the Biblical description of how Jesus treated Mary.

Quite true. When one takes a Scripture that means one thing, and twists it around to mean something else he is perverting the Word of God to support a false doctrine. The devil tried to quote Scripture to Jesus in the wilderness in the same way that false teachers quote 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 to support their false view of the gifts of the Spirit.

As far as the election is concerned, time will tell as to the final outcome. My comments about the false teachers and prophets have come from what has been recorded of what they have actually taught. There are Youtube videos that show these men actually teaching the false doctrines and perverting the true Charismatic movement, bringing it into disrepute. The evidence is plainly displayed for all to see.

As a matter of interest and information, I automatically reject all unsolicited personal prophecies, because they are most likely to contain a spirit of divination that could attack me in my body and my spirit. I don't even put the ones that might seem relevant on the back burner because of the same reason. I keep myself safe by totally and verbally renouncing them, and I would advice others to do the same.