The List of Manifestations of the Spirit

There is but one list of manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the entire Bible. It is broad enough in its descriptions to include virtually every sign or evidence there is that the Holy Spirit is active. And that is, after all, what manifestations (phanerosis) are, signs that the Holy Spirit is producing something in the moment. These miracles are like a neon sign: the breath of God sparks into visible light which evidences that the Holy Ghost is at work, then the spark ceases and the light goes out. Shine on, shine off!

Though the Holy Spirit is resident in the believer, the spark is not. It ignites according to the will of the Spirit for the common good at whatever moment the Spirit deems appropriate. It is therefore an error to look upon the list of manifestations as ministries, THEY ARE NOT!!! They may reoccur in a believer's life, they may not. A believer may manifest all of them over some interval, he or she may manifest only a few. They are merely the signs that follow them that believe. The annotated list below, cross-referenced to scriptural examples of that sign occurring is offered for whatever benefit you might derive.

THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

A Word of Wisdom: a discourse of reasoning (i.e. how to best go about a thing) inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is not the same as being wise or experienced, nor is it the garden variety of wisdom--it is an instance, a flash, of dam-busting, mountain-moving inspiration whose insightful benefactions accrue to the church rather than the inspired. It's the sort of thing the human mind would not produce apart from the inspiration of God. (Acts 15:28-29)

A Word of Knowledge: a discourse revealing information or awareness that would be impossible to know apart from the inspiration of God. This is not about being intelligent, or well-learned, or psychic. It is God dropping, like a coin into a slot (clink, clank!), something into one's consciousness that he or she would otherwise never know, and which benefits the body rather than the "knower". Healings are wrongly attributed to this manifestation in many circles. If a healing is called out, that IS NOT A WORD OF KNOWLEDGE, that is a gift of healing! I suppose I shouldn't get too ticky-tack about that, at least those doing so have faith and are moving in the Holy Spirit, but sort of bugs me nonetheless. (Acts 5:1-11; 13:8-12)

Faith: a conviction inspired by the Holy Spirit which in turn inspires the body. We all need faith, it's the currency of heaven. It's what makes things possible, but there are moments when the Spirit zaps one of us with a faith which inspires the rest of us to believe and act. (Acts 27:21-26)

Gifts of Healings: God's grace multiplied through a variety of healings for the benefit of the body. This does not refer to therapy over time, but to instantaneous or timely cures, miracles not medicine. There is an unusual feature in this manifestation: both the word "gifts" and "healings" are plural, they don't travel alone! Like Santa with a satchel, the grantee of this manifestation passes out these gifts until they're all gone. When the Holy Spirit manifests healing, expect an outbreak--not just a healing, but healings.

There are gifted healers (see this for the discussion of such), but that is not quite the same as the manifestation in question. Undoubtedly, those so gifted will be visited by this manifestation over and over again, but the manifestation could fall on any at anytime, not just the healers. I should also point out that this is not the same as an answer to prayer. Healing is ours through the atonement of Christ and accessible to all through faith and prayer, but that is not the same as a Holy Ghost outbreak of healing determined according to his will rather than our prayers. (Acts 5:15-16; 19:11-12)

Operations of Powers: exercisings of God's powers resulting in miracles which benefit the church. The plural thing is working in this manifestation too, although the context is not as discreet as in healing. The performance of a miracle, let say raising the dead, actually involves more than one power (e.g., reanimation, reconstitution, healing, etc.), whereas a healing has remedying a malady in focus (e.g., leprosy). Therefore, the plural is not as indicative of an outbreak as it was in healing. On a side note, as much as my modern mind would like to classify casting out demons as a working of power, the Bible, almost uniformly, lumps that miracle in with healing. (Acts 20:9-12; 28:3-6)

Prophecy: a public discourse emanating from the Holy Spirit, spoken for the strengthening, encouragement, and comfort of the body. This is NOT prognostication nor handicapping the Spirit's move! The kingdom is not the stock market nor a horse race, and that kind of behavior is just out of order and illegitimate. I wish national ministry figures, like Pat Robertson, would stop fomenting that awful error! There is no need for prophecy to even mention the future, although it may. There is no NT precedent for prophetic words spoken privately, that would go against the stated purpose of manifestations profiting withal. Personal "words" spoken in private are out of order out of hand.

Prophecy is not to be taken as authoritative. Prophecies can never stand against Apostolic witness (the NT) and are subject to the scrutiny of the body to determine whether or not they are legitimate. If they don't measure up, they should be tossed aside as easily as a preacher would toss the rough draft of a sermon in the round can file. If a speaker is found to have spoken apart from the Holy Ghost, that does not mean he or she should be taken out and stoned! That's OT, and a different dynamic in prophecy. Correct the error, shrug it off, and move along.

Personally, I don't believe prophecies should be prepared in advance of delivery (note the exception below), recorded for posterity, nor vetted by the few, the proud, the ordained. Other prophets can judge prophecies without cloistering them for deliberations like the college of cardinals, and making the speaker or the congregation wait with baited breath to see what color smoke rises from the chimney. Even if something is really foul, we can always call fire down from heaven, or inspired by Ananias and Sapphira, call for the offenders to be slain in the Spirit. That certainly would produce an edifying, howbeit chilling, affect withal!

I could see one who is gifted as a prophet speaking prophetically without necessarily manifesting prophecy. At its root, prophecy is fundamentally public speaking; spiritually, the assumption is that the speech is inspired divinely. Since a prophet has an ongoing ministry of speaking prophetically, he or she may be inspired at times other than at the moment of speaking, and may in fact be prepared to speak in advance of delivery. For the non-prophet, however, I would anticipate prophesying to occur in the moment of inspiration-- shine on, shine off. (Acts 4:8-12)

Discernings of Spirits: discriminating what spirits are active [in people] to benefit the church. How do we tell whether or not a manifestation is inspired by the Holy Spirit, the human spirit, or an unholy spirit? How do we know that someone is demonized? If we don't see the obvious, we won't, and cannot with certainty, without God revealing it.

This is not psychic ability, there are no mind-readers or heart-sifters in the Kingdom of God, no freaky Rasputins that have the ability to stare into your soul. This is not sharp insight or perceptive wisdom. It is discerning of spirits, not discernment alone! It is an instant distillation of Holy Spirit acuity into what spirit is acting in a person, condensed in the consciousness of the recipient, for the moment it's needed for the good of the body. Shine on, shine off.

Plurals are present in the phrase for this manifestation too, for similar reasons, I think, that they are present in the gifts of healings. Since this will often be a companion miracle to casting out devils (one sort of healing), its manifestation is a prerequisite to, and must synchronize with those instances of healing that involve demons. (Acts 16:17-18)


Kinds of Tongues: an utterance in an unknown language. Whereas there are occasions when some hearer of the utterance will know the language, the speaker never does. This is always manifested when a believer is baptized in the Holy Ghost, and is volitional for the believer thereafter, but that does not translate into any believer speaking tongues at any time for public consumption. That is the error Paul was trying to correct at Corinth. To speak in tongues for public consumption, the Holy Spirit must inspire the speaker to do so specifically in that moment.

The use of the plural for kinds and tongues signifies that a person manifesting tongues need not speak in the same unknown language he or she has spoken before. The speaker does not even need to end an utterance in the same language that he or she began it in! Another level of mystery and marvel is added to this remarkable sign when we consider that kinds includes tongues that are not human language!

It is disrespectful and incredibly arrogant to label tongues as the mindless babbling of the ecstatically overwrought. Instead, we should see it as a miracle wrought by God. Any church that despises prophesying or prohibits tongues is clearly out of order and operating against the command of God. Any church doing so, and any purported teacher teaching so, is in rebellion and needs to repent.

Interpreting Tongues: giving the meaning of an utterance of tongues to bless the church. This is not literal translation (the interpreter is not given the power to parse the tongue), but a revelation of the meaning conveyed. The interpreter has no more understanding of the tongue spoken than the speaker! The plural in this phrase is limited to the word tongues, i.e. not the interpretations of tongues, which means there is but one meaning for an utterance, not a selection of possibilities. There may be more than one language spoken, but there is only one message.

The interpretation is always in a language known to the interpreter. When a tongue is spoken for public consumption (as opposed to personal blessing at a reduced volume), it must be interpreted. (Acts 2:14-28)

********************************************

There you have it, the list of signs and wonders that make up the toolbox of the gifted. Any of the gifted may be inspired to use any of these tools in his or her ministry, but some gifts revolve around the consistent, repeated manifestation of certain of these signs. When the Holy Spirit decides it is time for one of the gifted to pick up one of these tools, the lights come on; when that instance of use is over, the lights go out. The tool is taken out, the tool is put back in the box. When practicing the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, we always need to remember this simple motto: "shine on, shine off."

The List of Spiritual Gifts

It's time for the list. This, of course, represents only my cobbling together of what the Word says about the subject. One could see it somewhat differently and still be correct. Hopefully, this will help you see things from the broadest perspective, while giving you the detail necessary to grasp what each gift is.

THE SPEAKERS

Apostle: one sent by God to a people to establish the church among them. There is an administrative (supervisory) aspect to this gift, but it not directly associated with hierarchical office (as with the Mormons)-- its authority is confined to its function. (1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11)

Evangelist: one who announces the good news to the public (which hasn't heard it yet). It's not foundational (like the apostle or teacher), because it's tasked with making people believers, not making believers into a church. (Ephesians 4:11)

Prophet: one who proclaims and interprets what God is saying to the church. The prophet speaks to strengthen, encourage and comfort God's people. This gift is not about prognostication, nor has it anything to do with hierarchical office. (Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11)

Exhorter: one who speaks to urge others on in matters pertaining to God. I really see this as a subset of the prophetic gift, but can see someone being an exhorter without being a prophet. (Romans 12:6-8)

Linguist: one who speaks and interprets tongues in public. No, you will not see it listed this way in the scriptures, this is my synthesis of what is said about it there. Not everyone who speaks in tongues in public will be a linguist, but those who are linguists will be interpreters. This (as in the case of the exhorter) is a subset of the prophetic gift, but it is possible to be a linguist without being a prophet or a prophet without being a linguist (I Corinthians 12:28)

Pastor: one who tends the flock of God. This gift has both administrative (supervisory) and speaking (teaching) aspects. Whereas the apostle establishes the church, the pastor maintains it. That is not an institutional task, but an interpersonal one-- it's about the sheep not the sheepcote. This gift is directly associated with the supervisory church office (elder/bishop) which is as close as the Bible gets to validating anything hierarchical in the church. The pastor is always a teacher and a leader, but it is possible to have teachers or leaders who are not pastors. (Romans 12:6-8 [leader], 1 Corinthians 12:28 [teacher/governor], Ephesians 4:11)

Teacher: one who instructs the church in the commands of God and how to apply them to daily life. This is a subset of the pastoral gift, but it is possible to be a teacher without being a pastor. (Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11)

THE SERVERS

Server: one who attends to things that need to be done (similar to a Deacon). Everyone in the body serves in some capacity, but this gift does it in inspired, focused fashion. This is not necessarily the same as the office of Deacon, that is supervisory, this is functional, but I would think the office of Deacon would often be filled by those who are gifted as servers. By way of interest, Philip, the evangelist was a notable example of one who served in the office of Deacon, but was gifted as other than a server. (Romans 12:6-8)

Giver: one who shares his or her substance with the church. Some folk are appointed by God to be channels of blessing to the rest of the church. Everyone gives, but the gifted do so in ways enabled only by God. That, however, does not equate with being rich! (Romans 12:6-8)

Sympathizer: one who alleviates the suffering of others in the church. This is a mercy ministry. Everyone in the family of God is expected to show mercy to the family of God, sympathizers do so at an exemplary, Spirit-inspired level. (Romans 12:6-8)

Miracle Worker: one who exerts supernatural power. Everyone in the body of Christ can move in the supernatural, this gift does so on a marked, consistent basis without any necessary connection to preaching. (1 Corinthians 12:28)

Healer: one who heals the sick. Everyone in the body of Christ can pray for the sick, anyone in the body can be used by God to bring a miraculous healing to someone who is sick, but the healer ministers this wonder on a consistent basis without any necessary connection to preaching. (1 Corinthians 12:28)

Helper: one who addresses the petitions of the needy. Everyone in the body should respond to the needs of their brothers and sisters, but some are enabled to do so in a particularly dedicated fashion. This may seem a replication of the gift of giver, but I think it involves more than substance and sustenance. Though this ministration is part of the duties entailed in the office of Deacon (as with the server), the gift is functional whereas the office is supervisory. Possessing this gift doesn't mean one will hold that office (1 Corinthians 12:28)

Leader: one who steers and superintends the church. The offices of Elder (overall oversight) and Deacon (service supervision) are the actual supervisory positions in a church, but their biblical descriptions do not necessarily specify what gifts one must possess in order to serve in them. In its formative stages, a church will be supervised by its apostle; thereafter, it may be supervised by some other gift acting in the office of Elder. The qualifications for that office specify functionally that an elder be instructive, but that is not quite the same as saying the elder must be gifted as a teacher. I could see the possibility of someone being gifted as a leader, capable of passing on effective instruction, but not gifted as a teacher, or any other speaking gift for that matter. What that implies in regards to the concept of church leadership vested in a plurality of elders I'll leave to you. (Romans 12:6-8 [governs], I Corinthians 12:28 [administration])

******************************************

One could debate the way I condensed this number and these particular gifts from the stew of the three passages we have been discussing. Since all of the lists are representative and none is exhaustive, the possibility exists that there could be gifts that are not found in any of these lists. I don't think that's true, but I can't prove it. Someone could see the cross-referencing differently than I have as well. Regardless, what we all should be able to agree to is that God intends each of us to express the gift he's placed within us, and whatever your gift, God has given you the manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all. I hope this series helps you express both.

Greater Gifts: Spiritual Ontogeny

There are two features of the gift list in 1 Corinthians 12:28 that are particularly worthy of notice and dissection. Even though I've talked about one of them before here and here, the truth always bears repeating, so here I go again...

This list presents the gifts in an extending or telescoping fashion. The ordinals modifying the list are not rankings of gifts per se, but a demonstration of how they arise in time during the development of a church. The counsel in v. 29 may seem to indicate that a qualitative discrimination is intended, but I don't think it fits the context. Would Paul have spent all that effort to illustrate gifts with the body analogy-- pointing out how needed each gift was, how much care and respect each one needed from the others, how necessary it was to be the gift one was intended to be, only to chuck it all with one verse at the end?

In other words, would Paul have said, "Be a toenail, we need toenails, your unavoidable destiny is to be a toenail, but desire to be a head!" I don't think so! Even though Paul does use the comparative (μείζονα) in v. 29, he did not do so to negate all that he had said from vs. 12-27. Then what was he saying and why did he follow up his arguments with chapters 13 and 14? My reading is that the Corinthian church was completely out of order when it came to the practice of manifestations and spiritual gifts.

When they assembled, everyone was trying to one-up everyone else in speaking with other tongues. The spiritual development of the body was arrested, the telescope jammed, and the full scope of gifts was not arising and functioning as it should have. Everyone was stuck on what, really, was an initiation experience that everyone went through. Yes, it was a sign (manifestation), but it had no practical import corporately, other than to evidence that someone had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. 

After the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the only good publicly speaking in tongues has is when it was combined with interpretation.

Interestingly enough, the fact that tongues is listed at all in v. 28 means that somewhere along the line in the development of the body, people will be gifted with an ongoing ministry of speaking (and interpreting) tongues. Granted, it will be when other body parts are more fully developed, but it is most certainly envisioned as a viable, body-blessing ministry. The rhetorical question of v. 29, then, is a self-evident corrective which reminds the Corinthians (and us) to practice everything according to its spiritual ontogeny.

What's the Point of Spiritual Gifting?

In a series of posts last year (here, here, here and here), I discussed the realities of how leadership (eldership) actually gets expressed in the modern church. Some of what is said this post will touch on some of the same material, but from a slightly different perspective. You may find it helpful to take a look those articles in conjunction with this posting, hence the links for your convenience.

When he dealt with the subject of spiritual gifts, Peter divided them into two classifications: speakers and servers. Paul divided them into two different classifications (what this post will develop) of two classifications. In Ephesians 4, he presents them in terms of the equippers and the equipped; and in 1 Corinthians 12, he presents them in terms of the foundational and the following. 

As I have argued before, the ordinals used in 1 Corinthians 12:28 refer to the sequence of emergence, not to comparative importance. Paul's point in using this demarcation was to show the proper development of gifts in the body from those first appearing to those appearing after some development. He was not setting up a hierarchy of value as much as he was trying to get the Corinthians to not be fixated on tongues to the exclusion of other gifts, important gifts needed for the church to properly develop. 

Certainly, his aim wasn't to offer v. 29-31 as a qualitative gradient that would allow future cessationists to dismiss the miraculous.

The body of Christ, in any area, starts with one, or at best a very few people. Generally, that one was sent there by God to be his representative and to establish his kingdom in that place-- the very definition of the ministry of an apostle. When the apostle starts his work in any given place, he is the body of Christ, and whatever ministry comes forth, comes forth through him. As the Word, signs attending, begins to reap a harvest of souls, folk are added to the one and the body grows.

As the body grows, God raises up people from among those the apostle's ministry has added to speak forth as he leads them for the strengthening, encouragement and comfort of God's people-- the very definition of the ministry of a prophet. The church is thereby established as ministry is expanded beyond the apostle to the prophet. Therefore, it can be said that the apostles and prophets are foundational to all that is built upon their work in the time which is following. 

As growth and development continue, God raises up folk who can teach those who have come to believe in Christ what he has commanded and how to apply that word to daily living-- the very definition of the ministry of a teacher. Once the body is at the place where some greater measure of folks have become disciples of Christ, ministry expands into a host of more specialized giftings. At that point, the fact that not all are apostles, or prophets, or teachers, or work miracles, or heal, or speak in tongues, as a ministry, becomes self-evident. 

A obsessive fascination with, or a "self-appointment" to a particular gift out of place or prior to its time only hinders the proper Spirit-directed development of the body; hence, Paul's dissertation to the Corinthians on the subject. 

The list of gifts found in Ephesians 4, which we tackle now, is perhaps the most misunderstood of them all. Today, especially in some of the newer church movements, these gifts are seen, it seems to me, as expressions of authority rather than as functional utilities. Polity is established on having people serve in the "offices" of apostle and prophet, rather than understanding these things as endowments which serve a need in the body.

I believe this is a misappropriation of the scriptures, and practically, breeds cult-like authoritarianism rather than Christ-like service. Rather than misappropriating the names of apostle and prophet, why not borrow the tried and true and use the term, bishop. Church leadership is established, very clearly, by the New Testament in the office of elder (or bishop). If one can see that folks with differing gifts can serve as elders, the fight for biblical polity and proper understanding of gifting is half won!

There are four gifts mentioned in the list in Ephesians: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers. Listing them this way, rather than as five, acknowledges the particular grammar of the passage, even though other lists mention teaching separately. Evidently, in the context of Ephesians 4, it is the teaching aspect of pastoring that is being highlighted by Paul, rather than more administrative functions.

What these gifts have in common, and what is focused upon in this text is that they serve a preparatory function within the body of Christ. The named four (the "some" in the text) are equippers, whereas the unnamed masses are the equipped. The aim is that some in the mass will eventually be one of the four, and all of the mass will become functioning parts of the body doing the work the Spirit of God has gifted them to do.

What is the means by which equippers take the raw material of Adamic flesh and build it into the body of Christ? It is the Word. The proclamation of the Word to the unbeliever brings new birth; the presentation of it to the novice is what inculcates truth; the application of it is what guides the established. In the kingdom, faith is what matters, and faith arises on the wings of the Word. So, the most fundamental quality of these four gifts is not authority of position, but God-given ability to proclaim the word within the context of their gift.

Presenting pastoring in the unusual fashion he did (with teaching emphasized), I think, clinches the argument.

Apostles proclaim the word among a people which has not heard it in order to establish the church of Christ among them. Evangelists proclaim the word to folks that have not heard it so they might receive the good news of the gospel. Prophets proclaim the word, fitted for the moment, which helps folks be built up in it. Pastor/teachers proclaim the word to people who need to apply it to living with understanding. All of them endeavor to move folk along on the pathway to maturity and to their own service in the body through functional gifting.

So spiritual gifting is never about the titles or authority of leaders, but always about maturity, health and function of the body.

Although the passage in Romans 12 leads into its gift list by associating them with the expression of God's grace (as does the Ephesian passage), and although it focuses upon how the gifts are used (as does the greater Corinthian context), its take on gifts is unique in demonstrating how we actually "act" in the gifts. It's not a list of nouns but verbs. It's not about prophets, servants, teachers, exhorters, givers, rulers, or empathizers, but prophesying, serving, teaching, exhorting, giving, ruling, and empathizing. That may be a subtle distinction, but an interesting one regardless.

What do I think that distinction tells us?

Among other things, it tells us to use the gift in producing the results of the gift. I could go on and on about what that says about our modern fascination (er, distraction?) with strategy and techniques, but I'll do my best to stay on task! Suffice it to say that the ability that grace deposited in us (gift) is not only sufficient to produce its intended result, but it should be relied upon to do so. The gift within us should not remain idle; it should not be suppressed (by ourselves or others); method should not be substituted for it; and its compulsion should not be considered secondary. Instead of wondering what the experts think about a ministry endeavor, we should be asking ourselves what the gift of God within us is inspiring.

That is not to say that we should be uncooperative and unsubmissive to the body of Christ around us, that is contraindicated by the concept of body itself. It does mean that what the Spirit intends to get done through us won't get done because the Grand Poobah (read vision-caster) has a plan we become cogs in, or that a consultant figured out a really good way to do that kind of a thing, or that we have achieved some level of preparation that now qualifies and certifies us to do it. No doubt, those things can be useful in building a successful organization, but what do they have to do with a temple indwelt by the Spirit of God?

All of us have had our fuse lit by the Spirit of God. In grace towards us, God dropped a bit of spiritual nitro into our souls which infused us with an energy that self-organizes the matter of life into its foreordained design. The gift itself compels us to produce the effects of the gift. Jesus experienced this, Paul did too, so should we. The gift is the tiger in our tanks, so with faith in in the promise of God, take that tiger by the tail and go for the ride of a lifetime.

Manifestations of the Spirit vs.Spiritual Gifting

How are we to understand the concept of spiritual giftedness given the complex descriptions of them throughout the New Testament? Peter speaks of them once, Paul four times, none of what is said in one place overlays what is said in the other places neatly. Confusing, perhaps, but I think we can clear things up a bit, so let's take a deeper look.

What is a spiritual gift in the first place? In a nutshell, spiritual gifts are resident abilities granted by God to the born-again, which are different from person to person so that every need of service is covered and every believer is needed by every other believer in the body of Christ. These gifts can be looked at from different angles and thereby appear quite distinct even when referring to the same thing, which explains why Peter and Paul were able to present them so differently every time they mentioned them.

Peter saw them in their most fundamental nature. According to that angle, spiritual gifts (χάρισμα) either result in someone speaking or someone providing some non-verbal service. That's a helpful division because it means the preacher isn't the only one gifted or used by God in the church. He's not even the only one who speaks! Peter specifically states that each one (ἕκαστος) or everyone, in the church is gifted by God as either a server or a speaker.

Paul saw things a bit more layered. According to that angle, the results of being "inspirited" (πνευματικῶν) by the Lord can be seen in three different facets of functional inspiration. On one hand, these are expressions of grace (χαρισμάτων); on another, they are utilities, or services rendered (διακονιῶν); and lastly, they are the spiritual influence, or energy, that produces the intended outcomes (ἐνεργημάτων). Regardless, they were all inspired by God in everyone (πᾶσιν), and each of them have been given the manifestation (φανέρωσις) of the Holy Spirit.

In other writings, Paul gives lists of gifts three times. Some of the details in each occurrence are repeated, or are similar, some are different. In each instance, he approaches the subject from a slightly different perspective. I'd like to think those perspectives correlate to what he wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. In other words, I see one of Paul's lists emphasizing the grace that is responsible for the gift's expression, in another the utilitarian result of their inspiration is emphasized, and in the third the motivating, or enervating, quality that compels them is what is in view.

Because this is so, there are two types of inspiration behind those qualities generally called spiritual gifts today.

One type of inspiration is the endowments of utilitarian grace, which could properly be called gifts. The other type is those spontaneous, momentary inspirations of spiritual power that is better, and more accurately, called manifestations of the Holy Spirit. A gift is something that is resident within the gifted person and correlates to the gift/service/working level mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. A manifestation is a momentary effect or evidence that the Spirit of God is in action through a person and which correlate to the list in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11.

Gifts are taken to the self and possessed. They remain with the possessor over time, though they may go through a developmental process over that time. They are without repentance from God's perspective and so cannot be lost. Gifts are the body part a believer is. Every Christian is gifted by God with some resident ability or abilities that make that believer of indispensable utility to the body of Christ. Giftedness is just part of the nature of being born of the Spirit.

Manifestations flash on and then dissipate. Like a neon sign announcing the Spirit is open for business, they turn off when that business is done. They may or may not be indicative of that person's resident giftedness, they may or may not be something that recurs. They are the privilege, one or all of them, of any who are born of the Spirit and so are gifted in the body.

I would liken these spiritual skills and manifestations to the plying of a trade in the world at large. Though each trade has it's own skill and art, generally limited to that trade, each tradesman still has a toolbox. The individual tools in a tradesman's box may look a little different from similar tools in others' boxes, yet every tool box has a hammer, some kind of wrench, a screwdriver, a cutting implement, some kind of tape, a measuring device, etc.

You get the picture-- all the tradesmen use the same basic tools despite the differences in what they do. I liken this tool "interchangeability" to the manifestations of the Spirit. It is the task at hand, as determined by the Holy Spirit, that decides which tools get used and how. No tradesman uses only a hammer, nor is one sentenced to use only a saw, just because he or she used one once, or even because he or she happens to be a carpenter.

The Apostle Paul, not wishing us to be ignorant about how the Spirit inspires what he does, laid out this basic concept: in God everyone is gifted, and all the gifted can manifest the Holy Spirit. Your gift doesn't determine what you manifest, the Holy Spirit does, in the moment according to his will. Your gift will be apparent to others over time, what you manifest is never apparent until the moment it flashes on. Some gifts, of course, will manifest some things more than others, but any of the gifted can produce any of the manifestations.

I think we need to expand our horizons and whet the appetite of our expectations in regard to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God means more for us than we are generally satisfied to receive. The Holy Spirit isn't cheering us on from the sideline, he's in the game with us-- in fact, he's our uniform and padding. We're all meant to play, and he intends us to win! Regardless of what position we may play (how we are gifted), we are all meant to evidence the miraculous moving of the Holy Spirit (through manifestations).

Where Did Evil Come From?

There is evil in the world. Everywhere.

A biblical worldview would even see that there is a cabal of unseen conspirators promoting that evil. How did it manage to sprout like weeds under the eye of an omniscient, omnipotent God and where did it come from in the first place? To answer "the Devil" is too facile and actually leaves the question intact unanswered. The Devil is evil (it's in his very name!) and he certainly is the source of much that is evil, but then, where did his evil come from?

The Bible tells us that mankind is inherently evil-- an uncomfortable thought when applying it to oneself, yet readily understandable when applying it to others. Nonetheless, they surely are, and I attribute their evil to the same source as the Devil's. It wasn't God, he is inherently good, at least it wasn't him directly. God is the ultimate free moral agent: he is conscious and rational, with powers of will and choice. 

When God made mankind and angels with similar powers as he possessed and set them free in creation, the root of all evil was laid.

How can those abilities which so distinguish humans from the plethora of the living be responsible for evil? A definition would be helpful before proceeding: evil  is simply that which is not good, and more fundamentally, that which is out of harmony with the ultimate good, which is God. Evil is the "un-God." When choice and will were expressed by man or angel independently of, and in opposition to God, evil was born. 

Evil, then, is the risk inherent in freedom.

All that was made was made as a home for mankind, the crowning achievement  of God's creation. When humans embraced evil and thereby shattered the crystal purity of that pristine environment, they alienated both the creation and the creature from God and what was good. As a result, sin, death and evil, which are the fruit of such a choice, have spattered everything in the universe, alive or  inanimate, with their rot. Man, beast and the environment we live in have all been tainted by evil. 

Creation still bears the fingerprints of God, but its smudges betray, all too clearly the evil cost of image bearers going their own way instead of God's.

Evil came from us.

Interpreting the Whore of Babylon

In Revelation 17 we are introduced to the enigmatic figure of the Whore of Babylon who sits by many waters. She's riding on a strange, fantastic, Scarlet Beast, which seems the very picture of a symbiotic relationship to me. Who or what do these mysterious figures represent and why are they joined at the hip? Let's take a little ride of our own...

Whores function as sexual substitutes, providers of sexual pleasures without the entanglements of a committed relationship. God means for those experiences to occur only within the context of heterosexual marriage, so prostitution short-circuits the righteous directive of God for an upright life. Throughout the Bible, God applies the sordid concept of prostitution to the sin of serving gods other than him, the one, true God. Substituting the false for the true was an affront to decency and fidelity, and worthy of judgment. 

The prophets of the Old Testament, in bringing God's word of rebuke to idol worshipping Israelites, called their sin "harlotry" and "adultery." Instead of living in a committed relationship with the living God and seeking the blessings they wanted and needed from him, idolaters exchanged the true God for one of their own making. God, who could not be managed nor massaged, was jettisoned by the unfaithful and replaced with gods who at least gave the appearance that they could be. 

Wonder where they got that idea from?

Idolatry was part of the Devil's hijacking scheme mentioned in my last post. The Devil's plan, from the earliest times in human history, has been to subvert and steal the redemptive promises announced in the protoevangelium. There is a governmental component to his plan-- the Devil wants to rule, and there is a religious component to the plan-- the Devil wants to be worshipped. Until he can manage to get the human race to worship him instead of God, having them worship something other than God would do.

The governmental aspect of the Devil's plan is centered around bringing the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, into worldwide political dominion (as covered in the last post). The religious aspect is the subject of this post and revolves around the figure of the Whore. Revelation 17 shows both aspects of the Devil's plan linked as part of one overarching strategy by displaying the figures for each together, one riding the other.

The scarlet beast is the Antichrist Scheme, the Whore is the Spirit of Idolatry.

In the Devil's plan to separate humanity from God and to torpedo whatever possibility of reconciliation there might be, his prime strategy has been substitution: the Devil for God, the Antichrist for Christ. In order to achieve that ultimate objective, he had to hijack the promise to Eve (protoevangelium) first. So, deep in the past, at Babylon (ie., Babel), the Devil hatched a substitution plot, where the Whore was offered as a displacement of Eve (or, from the perspective of ultimate fulfillment, Mary).

This was the root of the Mother/Son imagery which is part of ancient idolatrous religion the world over.

Highlighting a few details concerning the Whore may be helpful:

1) She is riding on a scarlet beast, which means that even though she may seem to be in control, she is actually only being carried forth by the Devil's efforts as he wills; 

2) She is of Babylon, which means that is where the effort first found traction; 

3) She is of Babylon so she will have a Roman connection; 

4) She is the mother of all harlotries, therefore the genesis of all idolatry; 

5) She is a prostitute which means she has a certain utility that will make her worthless once accomplished; 

6) She is the mother, which points to a hijacking of Eve's promise from God; 

7) She is the mother of all abominations, which means she is the genesis of practices (in the name of spirituality) that make God gag; 

8) She is drunk on their blood of God's holy people, so she is a murderer of and the implacable foe of true believers in Christ.

Point #5 comes into especially clear focus in v.16. Even though the Whore represents perhaps the most successful of the Devil's stratagems through time, she actually deflects attention away from him and is thereby hated by him. It makes a lot of sense, for even in our contemporary culture, even the pimp hates the whore.

She is first mentioned in Revelation 14:8 where her fall is announced by an angel. Her evil influence in the world is likened to wine and its effects. Her name comes up again in 16:19 in association with the seventh bowl in which God makes her drink the wine of his wrath, the very picture of poetic justice. So important is she in understanding the unfolding of redemptive history, chapters 17 and 18 form an interlude which takes the reader aside from the flow of prophetic time just to take a deeper look at her. It's necessary, for she is a mystery that cannot be understood by man apart from divine illumination.

It has not been uncommon, since the Reformation, for the figure to be interpreted as the Roman Catholic Church, despite the fact that most of the Reformers did not take the Petrine remark as a reference to Rome. Evidently, the references within the description of the whore were clear enough to them without any other scriptural references. Exactly how clear are they?

In 95 A.D. there was only one city in the entire world that could have fit the description, and since then, no real contenders have emerged. There are only a handful of great cities renown for sitting on seven hills (or mountains): Rome and Constantinople are the most obvious, a case can be made for Jerusalem (but a lame one in my mind). Either of the capitals of the Roman Empire could be made to fit the rest of the description through chapter 18, but Jerusalem doesn't even come close. When Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, it ceased being the center of idolatrous worship in all but name only, which leaves Rome standing unassailable as the target of the figure.

That's not the same as saying that the RCC is the whore, but there is a great deal of sense in seeing her that way, especially in light of 18:4-5. I think the whore imagery reaches far beyond the halls of the Vatican, but suffice it to say, I think she knows her way around those halls in the dark!

Satan's Antichrist Scheme

The one word that describes Satan, as well as any could, is proud.

Hubris led him to the conclusion that he could manage things as well as his Creator, even better, and he was more worthy of adulation too-- the ultimate narcissist. He thought this way despite being in the very presence of God and being graced with great intelligence. When you experience the Almighty as he actually is, and then come to think as Satan did, nothing remains that God could show of himself that could alter that opinion. The Devil was intractably lost as were all those angelic beings that rebelled with him.

Even apart from that rebellion, Satan cannot ever learn from his mistakes. Pride hardens the categories and seizes the mind, and dooms the prideful to endlessly repeat the same errors. Satan is a one-trick pony, forever trying to accomplish his aims by using the same means over and over again. Since the Fall, he keeps working the same tired plan in an attempt to thwart God's ultimate aim of redeeming mankind from the Fall. 

In his mind, the Devil cannot conceive of an invention of his failing.

In the garden, God announced the protoevangelium, the first gospel message, in the midst of his curse upon Eve. A glimmer of hope for humanity, it spelled the Devil's doom. It was cryptic enough for the Devil not to fathom, even though I think he understood it much better than we often do. I think he grasped that it was the woman's child, not the man's, and he seemed to pick up God's subtlety in the using a collective singular noun (seed) with a singular masculine pronoun (he). That meant one particular son was in view rather than offspring in general, a point Paul was able to apply to God's promise to Abraham as well. 

I'm absolutely certain that Satan picked up on this by the time the promise was reiterated in substance to Abraham. Why? Because it's revealed in his strategy of dealing with that promise--namely hijacking it. The basic outline of the plan he developed involves displacing the seed promised through Eve and Abraham (and Isaac and Jacob since they were the heirs of the promise) and undermining the place of the Jews as the seedbed. So his plan focused on substituting a seed for the seed and the destruction of the Jews as the seedbed.

Up in smoke goes the plan of God, at least in the mind of the Devil. A flawed strategy for sure, but one which the Devil's pride causes him to repeat over and over again. By the end of time, he will have tried it eight times! In the last couple of iterations he comes closer than ever to succeeding, but in the end, Christ steps in and throttles his efforts. This is what I call, the Antichrist Scheme.

In the 17th chapter of the Apocalypse, through the use of the symbolic imagery of the seven heads of the Scarlet Beast, John spells out the efforts made to ply this scheme throughout all redemption history. Up to the time of the writing of the Apocalypse, so in past history, five iterations of the scheme had been attempted. At the time of writing, effort number six was winding up. Efforts seven and eight were coming in the future (so some time after 95 AD). 

The efforts all centered around dispossessing or disposing of the Jews, and then, if he got that far, offering his shill as the "God-man". The gospel promise, which was funneled through Abraham and accrued to the benefit of all mankind, had to be undermined, undone and displaced. Some schemes got farther than others, but all fail, ultimately, because of divine intervention. Six are actually recorded in scripture and attempt #8 (the last) is defeated by the physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Satan's Attempts at the Antichrist Scheme

The five kings who are fallen, and the one who is:

1) Egypt under Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus (ca. 1446 BC)

This was an attempt to undermine the gospel promise by destroying the promise of land to Israel (the seedbed). If one aspect of God's promise is derailed, all promises are called into doubt. God may call his Son from Egypt, but if one doesn't trust God's word of promise, one can never be redeemed. So God raised up Moses and Joshua who led the people to Canaan by divine interventions and thwarted this attempt.

2) Assyria under the dynasty of Sargon II (ca. 722 BC)

The ten northern tribes of Israel (Samaria) were exiled from the promised land (seedbed) and an attempt was made to besiege Jerusalem and destroy Judah (under Sennacherib, Sargon's son). God intervened in response to Hezekiah's prayer, and Judah was delivered and stayed in the land insuring that a remnant survived to see the promise.

3) Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar (ca. 586 BC)

In his third foray into Judah in 19 years, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, razed the Temple, and deported what was left of the population after the siege and two earlier deportations (605 and 597 BC). Thus, the Babylonian Captivity began; it was not ended until God intervened by appointing Cyrus to deliver the captive Jews (539 BC). Had God not sent Cyrus, the Israelites would never have returned to the promised land, and God's promise would have blown away like dust in the wind. 

4) Persia under the influence its highest noble, Haman (ca. 475 BC)

Though a "champion" of Israel under Cyrus and other emperors who followed, under Xerxes (Ahasuerus, and particularly his prime minister, Haman) Persia became a murderous foe of the Jews. Haman scheduled the slaughter and plunder of all the Jews throughout the empire and the hanging of his archrival, Mordecai. God raised up Esther for such a time as that and through her intervention and God's favor, turned the plot back on Haman's head. If Haman had been successful, there would have been no Jews left to receive God's promise

5) Seleucid Empire under Antiochus Epiphanes (ca. 165 BC)

Dubbbed, "the King of the North" by Daniel, under Antiochus, this kingdom  attempted to eradicate Jewish customs, to destroy all the Bibles (scrolls) it could, and modeled the abomination of desolation which the Antichrist will replicate in the Great Tribulation. God intervened by granting the forces of the Maccabees a stunning, upset victory which resulted in the purification of the Temple (which is celebrated in Hanukkah), and eventually, independence for Israel (after 40 years of war). Antiochus sought the complete assimilation of the Jews into his Greek, pagan Empire which would have destroyed the seedbed Messiah was to be planted in.

6) Rome under Tiberius, Vespasian and Hadrian (ca. 33-135 AD)

The Messiah, the promised seed, began proclaiming his gospel of salvation during the reign of Tiberius. Satan had unsuccessfully tried to kill Jesus as an infant through Herod's demented decree to slaughter the innocents. He would continue to press that effort during Jesus' ministry, apparently succeeding through the betrayal of Judas and the sentence of Roman Procurator, Pilate. Killing the seed would definitely destroy the promise and open the way for the Devil to accomplish his aims, but God raised Christ from the dead and overturned Satan's plan. 

When the forces of Roman General Titus (under Emperor Vespasian) finally broke into the besieged city in 70 AD, no stone was left unturned in Jerusalem. The Temple was utterly destroyed, the city was left an uninhabitable ruin. It forced a depopulation of the city by the Jews for some time, but in 135 AD, after another rebellion by the Jews against Rome (Emperor Hadrian), Jews were banned by law from the environs of Jerusalem all together. Thus they became another part of the Diaspora. Perhaps this seems irrelevant in light of Jesus' death and resurrection, but that still left the unbelieving Jews bereft of promise, and all Jews without a homeland. 

God's promises get fulfilled, or the one who promised them isn't God-- he's either too powerless to be God, or too unrighteousness.

God's intervention had already delivered the promised seed (Jesus), which provided redemption to all who believe on him. With that, one might suppose that the Devil was a pound shy and a day late in his efforts, but sin and death have continued on since then, and the Devil still roams about seeking someone to devour. Why? Because nothing is complete without the Jews. Though the focus of God's redemptive work shifted to the Gentiles after the Jews' rejection of Christ, undermining the promise of land still holds the potential of taking the promise of the seed with it in the minds of humans who still need to believe in Messiah in  order to be saved.

The king who is to come for a short time, and the eighth:

7) Germany under Adolph Hitler (ca. 1933 AD)

Apart from world domination, Hitler's aim was to eradicate the Jews, once and for all. He had them systematically rounded up within his domains (which was where most Jews lived at the time) and killed approximately two-thirds of them. The unseen hand of God guided the situation into the defeat of the Nazis and set off a migration, unexpected by the world, of Jews to their ancient homeland in Palestine. The end result was resurrection of the nation of Israel in May, 1948.

After the failure of seven schemes, the Devil actually found himself in the worst situation ever, with Israel reestablished and the gospel reaching into all the world, EVEN AMONGST THE JEWS! He has one more flare to fire, and it will be the one that gives him the greatest whiff of victory but then suddenly delivers the most crushing defeat.

8) The Ten Horns under the Antichrist (ca. SOON!)

After the cataclysms of the Epic of Magog and the Sixth Seal, the Antichrist will step into the vacuum created by them and establish his hegemony over ten nations in his region. He will sign a treaty with Israel establishing peaceful relations for seven years and which grants Israel the right to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

As the Temple is nearing completion,* and similar to Antiochus Epiphanes before him, he will enter the Temple, curtail expected activities, install his False Prophet as high priest and idol of himself as the object of worship, and kill those (they'll be Jews) who refuse to worship him as God and take his mark of submission. He will be defeated and destroyed by the Return of Christ.

In his pride the Devil has attempted to one-up God over and over again, only to fail over and over again to achieve his ultimate aim. Even at the end of time, when he knows failure awaits him, his pride will compel him to bang his head against that wall one more time. He'll get farther than he ever did before, but end, nonetheless, in dismal failure just like every time before. 

*Since the only acceptable sacrifice before God (the Lord Jesus Christ) has already been offered and received, and that sacrifice was so perfect in its qualities that one offering was sufficient for all time for all people, I do not expect that God will allow any sacrifice of a lesser, and at best presaging nature, to be offered in his name again.