02-26-2012, 06:23 AM
I understand Jeremy, and I am very cautious as well, both to not accept all that I see and hear, as if it is always of God, nor to despise all that I see and hear, as if it must never be of God. We are instucted by God, in Holy Scripture, not to believe every spirit, but to test the spirits, whether they be of God or not.
I have been reading through all the statements tonight from the early Greek and Latin Church Father's and Teachers from about 150-250 A.D. namley...Justin, Ireneaus, Tertullian, Origen, and Novation...and I noticed something that I hadn't before.... That though they all make referance to the gifts of the Holy Spirit being demonstrated in The Church of their generations, among which are mentioned the ability of some to "speak in all kinds of languages", they also give witness that the heretics/false teachers and their various groups of followers who were outside of The Church in their day, were also seen to demonstrate various "signs and wonders" as well, but were considered by them to be not genuine...and not just the Montanist group (which Tertullian later considered to be true Christians who had the true gifts of the Holy Spirit), but also various "gnostic" groups as well, which were way off into major doctrinal error.
It seems not much was different in the early Church of the mid 2nd to the mid 3rd century than our own in this respect.
So far I have not seen "the gift of tongues" being refered by these as being of the "ecstatic" type, but rather of know languages of men, yet unlearned by the mind before hand.
Shlama,
Chuck
I have been reading through all the statements tonight from the early Greek and Latin Church Father's and Teachers from about 150-250 A.D. namley...Justin, Ireneaus, Tertullian, Origen, and Novation...and I noticed something that I hadn't before.... That though they all make referance to the gifts of the Holy Spirit being demonstrated in The Church of their generations, among which are mentioned the ability of some to "speak in all kinds of languages", they also give witness that the heretics/false teachers and their various groups of followers who were outside of The Church in their day, were also seen to demonstrate various "signs and wonders" as well, but were considered by them to be not genuine...and not just the Montanist group (which Tertullian later considered to be true Christians who had the true gifts of the Holy Spirit), but also various "gnostic" groups as well, which were way off into major doctrinal error.
It seems not much was different in the early Church of the mid 2nd to the mid 3rd century than our own in this respect.
So far I have not seen "the gift of tongues" being refered by these as being of the "ecstatic" type, but rather of know languages of men, yet unlearned by the mind before hand.
Shlama,
Chuck