GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT by A. F. Ballenger

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jun 27, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 26.

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT.

By A. F. Ballenger

WILL the Lord withhold His gifts from one who is walking in the light, and who is wholly consecrated, and keep him back from manifesting the fulness of power because the church is backslidden?—Most certainly He will. For Him to do otherwise would be to bring His truth and His name into disgrace. If those born blind or lame or dumb, were being healed by the ministers of any worldly church to-day, that church would thereby be brought into great prominence, and every act of its members would be closely scrutinized as the acts of the people of the church whom God was approving by miracles and wonders and signs; and the God who gave the power for working these wonders and signs would be measured and judged by the sins of the people of the church thus prominently pointed out and honored.

But did not Christ, while a member of the Jewish church, perform His wonderful miracles of healing? Yes; but in order to save the reputation of God, he was compelled to denounce the sins of the Jewish church, and finally to repudiate them before all the world.

The Jewish church claimed to be the only representatives on earth of the true God. They claimed this when they were more wicked than the Gentiles. When the Gentiles heard their claim and saw their crimes, they blasphemed. Paul says they did. They not only cursed the Jews, but they blasphemed the God of the Jews. This is not strange. The Jews claimed to be like Jehovah. The Gentiles therefore judged Jehovah by the Jews. They knew they robbed widows, and committed adultery. They knew they did all this when they heard them making their long, loud prayers on the corners of the streets. This made them angry, and they blasphemed both the Jews and Jehovah.

Paul presents it thus: "Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you." Rom. 2:21-24.

Jesus came to save not only sinners, but the reputation of His Father. And in order to do this, He must tell the truth about His church. And He did. He declared in the hearing of the Gentiles that the leaders in the church were whited sepulchers,—rotten at heart, were robbers of widows, pious hypocrites, a generation of vipers. When the Gentiles heard this they stopped swearing at Jehovah. They saw that His professed church was misrepresenting Him. They listened to His gracious words. When the Jews ordered them to arrest the Son of God, they refused, and said, "Never man spake like this man."

Christ's miracles followed the cleansing of the temple. "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple; and He healed them." Matt. 21:12-14.

He could now perform His mighty cures without bringing honor to a dishonorable church, and without bringing dishonor to Jehovah. By calling the Jewish church a den of thieves, Jesus was able to work miracles, while a member of that church, without bringing disgrace upon His Father. But His faithfulness in rebuking the sins of His church cost Him not only His membership in that church, but His life.

The church of to-day is not free from its hypocrites and whited sepulchers. It is not free from its generation of vipers and its robbers of widows. And, again, the Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of them. And, again, Jesus must come into the temple and cleanse it before it can again be written that "the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple; and He healed them." Who will follow the example of Christ? Who will go into his pride-filled church, which he knows is full of unconverted men and women whose sins are a disgrace on the Christian name, and cry at its festivals and fairs and oyster suppers, Babylon "is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird"? This is the first step for a consecrated man to take who is seeking the gifts of the Spirit while holding communion in a world-loving church. But his power to cast out devils may be purchased at the cost of his being cast out of his beloved synagogue, and finding a home with some humble church "everywhere spoken against." And from the church which will not be cleansed, Christ, in the person of His true disciples, will depart, uttering the fearful words, "Behold your house is left unto you desolate."

But could not some one who is not a member of any church, who is consecrated, be intrusted with the gifts of the Spirit?—No; for the gifts of the Spirit are given to the church, not a disconnected, irresponsible individual. "God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." 1 Cor. 12:28.

"The church of the living God" is "the pillar and ground of the truth." 1 Tim. 3:15. It is not an invisible, intangible, irresponsible nonenity, but a real, tangible body, made on purpose to be looked at—"Ye are the light of the world"—and handled, and read—"Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." 2 Cor. 3:3. Of Christ it is written, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." John 1:14. But He has returned to His Father, and we see Him no more, only as we see Him in the flesh of the "church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."

No attempt was made by the glorious apostolic church to hide its literal organized existence, and thereby shirk the responsibility of the influence of unworthy members. It had power to cleanse itself from its Ananias and Sapphira, and to strike such terror to the hearts of the hypocrites on the outside that "of the rest durst no man join himself to them." This repudiation of church organization so common to-day is the swinging of the pendulum to the opposite extreme from the tyrannical organization of a fallen church, and is intended to escape the responsibility of church membership, and the unpleasant duty of cleansing out those who "trespass" and who "will not hear the church" and repent of their sins. Matt. 18:15-17.

Yes, the absence of the confirming signs and wonders to-day is a solemn, silent, infallible proof of the presence of sin in the church. God is defending His honor from disgrace. He is withholding His witnessing wonders from a lukewarm church to save His reputation both in heaven and earth.

But how long shall this disgrace continue? How long shall God be compelled to testify against His church? When the unbeliever challenges the church to show the miracles which are plainly promised, we who believe the promises, explain their absence on the ground of the presence of sin. But this is a disgraceful confession. It is a confession from the church that her relations with the world are such that her Head can not fully identify Himself with her without bringing Himself into disgrace.

Who that reads these solemn truths will sense the sad situation, and take the matter to heart? Reader, are you zealous for God’s honor? Does the condition of the church concern you? Do you “sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof”? Do you “weep between the porch and the altar,” and cry, “Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach”? Who will begin to cry to God for cleansing, both for himself and the church, “and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth”? To this the writer has dedicated every power of body and mind. And he can bear testimony from personal experience to the fact that God will respond with His witnessing power just as fast as ministers and people are purged from their sins, which separate them from the power of God.

A. F. BALLENGER.