25
We will not multiply quotations, but must give the following,
because of its bearing upon our own position.
`We quite understand, and fully sympathise with those who, like ourselves,
have spoken or written on 1 Thessalonians 4 as being the great charter of
our hope of the Lord's coming. But we ought thankfully to relinquish it
when we find we have a better hope (our italics), which we can enjoy all
the more because we need not reproach ourselves with having robbed
Israel of their hope, which is only postponed, and will yet have a wondrous
and literal fulfilment for them' (Foundations of Dispensational Truth, Dr.
E.W.Bullinger).
We trust that sufficient has been set before the reader to lead
to the conviction that the hope before the Church of the Acts
was in entire harmony with what `the prophets and Moses did
say should come'.
No. 5
The Gifts of the Spirit, and the Abrahamic Promise.
The present study was originally suggested by a correspondent
who, among other things remarked, `Surely the Charismata
cannot come under this heading'. This is certainly an important
point, and if it can be shown that the endowment with
supernatural gifts, which was the peculiar privilege of the early
Church, is unrelated to the testimony of Moses and the prophets,
or goes beyond anything they have said, then it will be necessary
for us to reconsider our position.
We begin our investigation, where spiritual gifts first make
their appearance, namely, in Acts 2. The day of Pentecost
having fully come, and the number of the twelve having been
completed, a most wonderful thing happened: