Disciple Up #95
What Is the Anointing?
By Louie Marsh, 2-13-2019

The Passages Involved:

⁸  Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. ¹⁹  They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. ²⁰  But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. ²¹  I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 1 John 2:18-21 (NIV)

Disciple Up # 94

The Holy Spirit Pt 5 – Blasphemy Of the Holy Spirit

By Louie Marsh, 2-6-2019

Several Different Views on this topic, I’ll present the major ones and then discuss my own take on this question.

The Texts In Question:

²²  Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. ²³  And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” ²⁴  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” ²⁵  Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. ²⁶  And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? ²⁷  And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁸  But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²⁹  Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. ³⁰  Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. ³¹  Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ³²  And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12:22-32 (ESV)

Disciple Up # 92
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pt 3
The Perpetuity of the Spiritual Gifts, Pt. 1
By Louie Marsh, 1-23-2019

This can be a controversial topic. Not as much as it used to be but it is still an area where Christians disagree. So we approach this in the spirit of openness and this being a non-essential where it’s ok to have differing opinions.

Important book on this – Counterfeit Miracles By Benjamin B. Warfield, Copyright 1918

Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (November 5, 1851 – February 16, 1921) was professor of theology at Princeton Seminary from 1887 to 1921. He served as the last principal of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1886 to 1902. After the death of Warfield in office, Francis Landey Patton took over the functions of the office as the first president of seminary. Some conservative Presbyterians[1] consider him to be the last of the great Princeton theologians before the split in 1929 that formed Westminster Theological Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

 Disciple Up # 91
Spiritual Gifts Pt. 2 – Defining the Gifts & A Disciple Up Follow Up
By Louie Marsh, 1- 16-2019

How to define Spiritual Gifts

The necessity of doing so

The difficulty of doing so – there are no definitions in Scripture and very few examples of the gifts in use where they are clearly labeled as those gifts.