Silver and Gold Have I None

November 6

How can we be sure the words of the Bible are true for us today? How can we know the Lord didn’t mean the gifts and promises for just the early church? Some theorize that the extraordinary evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the first believers was necessary to ‘jump start’ the church.

They further believe that such means are no longer necessary because we have the entirety of the Bible—and that is all we need for effective Christian living. One major fallacy to that argument is the question that springs logically from it: How can having the Bible be enough if part of it isn’t true any longer?

I Corinthians 13:8-10 says, “Where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect comes, that which is in part shall vanish away.”

Has love vanished away? Has truth vanished away? Has faith vanished away? Do we discount the prophecies of His second coming? Have we cast away knowledge? No, it seems people of faith have simply found a convenient argument to rationalize their own lack of power! We can no longer say as did Peter in Acts 3:6 when he encountered the lame beggar at the Temple, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk,” so we argue the gifts of the Spirit away!

If we lack the faith or the power or the will to employ them, nobody should! But this doesn’t seem to be what God had in mind in Deuteronomy 7:9 where Moses said of Him, “God keeps His gracious covenant loyally for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commands. For a thousand generations? Indeed, this seems to affirm that His Word—all of it—shall stand forever!