The Bible, particularly Acts 2:17-18, speaks of God pouring out his Spirit on all people in the last days, resulting in sons and daughters prophesying, young men seeing visions, and old men dreaming dreams. I heard recently that a Moravian leader said to his people not to allow dreams and visions to be shared in the Moravian Churches. This may be wrong; there is a time a place for everything! God’s Word is true. The use of spiritual gifts, during what some call “end days,” is a subject that has different understandings and beliefs. So many Moravians think the gifts were temporary and since the last Apostle died there is no need for them; only the Bible. Encouragements are there in God’s love to be open, because we may need them in the future more than ever to help us through difficult times as a Church.
Yes, there are Moravians that believe the Spiritual gifts even dreams and visions will be happening and should be important for all true churches and should be allowed as long as they are in line with scripture. Afterall, the Bible mentions various spiritual gifts, including prophecy, tongues, healing, miracles, and more, which were believed to be given by the Holy Spirit to empower believers.
My Moravian Theological Seminary Graduatge School (1977) and before that my George Fox College undergrad experience (1973) taught me to be a healthy skeptic. So, it’s good to question the gifts, but the reality is the Bible does mentions them. A good question I’ve asked ise there any historical evidence that the supernatural gifts of the Spirit were still in operation after the Apostolic Age?
Did this supernatural activity cease after the last Apostle died? I don’t think so. At Moravian Theological Seminary I studied some of the early Christian leaders after the last Apostle died. I’ll share a couple quickly.
Old time Christian thinker and scholar – Justin Martyr who was martyred around 165 AD recognized the gifts. He said, “it is possible to see amongst us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit of God”. Another old time leader Tertullian who died in year 217 believed in them. He was an important early Christian theologian who was used to shape the vocabulary and thought of Western Christianity. He along with several others, actually mention the use of supernatural gifts like tongues and prophecy long after the first century.” He believed very strongly that miraculous gifts were present in the church, though false teachers also display such signs.
Here in Anchorage, Alaska, we know of rare healings, occasional miracles in our sphere of influence and even very limited use of tongues. Yes, they happen from time to time, we know that, but we need to be careful that they are real gifts and not over use them.
The Word of God is primary; always, and we should be careful, because there are too many leaders and Churches, especially the prosperity Gospel people that have resorted to fakery and trickery to emotionally feed their members! We should not be overly attracted to the gifts. It can create too much emotion, and disorder, but instead we should keep in mind that we do things that draw us closer to the Lord, mature and grow us in the faith, and understanding of His Holy Word, the Bible.
And we should not accuse Moravians or anyone from the pulpit. We cannot sharply accuse from our pulpits, “When you leave the Church you will sin!” or say, “Too many sleep”. Instead assure that whatever is shared is from the Word of God and it is ok to talk of sin and a sleepy Church, but it should be laced with God’s love to draw the sinner to repentance and actively serving our Lord and Savior.
It is my view as a Bishop that we should seek kindness and love more than the gifts. Regardless of the specific view we may have on spiritual gifts, love is emphasized as the most excellent gift, as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”.