Sign gifts

inquiry

Hi,

I was just wondering the church's position on the charismatic movement
(aka sign gifts), namely speaking in tongues, gift of healing, signs
and wonders?  Is the church open to these gifts?  Would you have any
references or materials or responses that would be helpful my further
study of this issue?

response

All of us on this team are not necessarily members of Peninsula Bible 
Church, though we are generally close to PBC in our beliefs. You may 
hear from more than one of us on the Paraclete Forum team.

My mentor Ray C. Stedman believed that all the spiritual gifts were 
given by a Sovereign Spirit, thought not all were in use all of the 
time.

His book "Body Life" explains this fairly clearly,

http://pbc.org/dp/stedman/bodylife/

Ray has a series of four messages on true and false gift of tongues,

http://pbc.org/dp/stedman/tongues

Ray was not opposed to speaking in tongues as long as the Biblical 
standards were met.

Were he here with us, I think that Ray would say that the major "sign 
gifts"--such as raising people from the dead, major public miracles, 
flames of fire at Pentecost, and the like, were given to clearly mark 
the beginning of a new age--the age of the church. The New Testament 
was not then completed. The need for major sign posts decreased as 
the Bible as finished and really available.

I have never seen anyone here teach against the existence of all the 
gifts of the spirit. But we have also not had any major divisions 
over signs and wonders issues either. I expect our guidelines in case 
of problems would be drawn from epistles such as First Corinthians.

best regards,