Bible Think Tank

This site is designed to help you interact with others about God's Word. I further some thoughts we developed during morning and evening gatherings at church. I have my NT translations from the original Greek to English. Also, I have book reviews and other current events.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

SGs - Word of Knowledge

What is a Word of Knowledge?

See the following Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12:8

This spiritual gift is a special revelation of the Lord's truth. It was especially useful during the time period in the Church in which all the books of the NT had not yet been written and widely circulated, but it is still useful today. When a local church or the Church is struggling with a particular doctrinal issue, it is this gifted person that the Spirit uses to instruct the congregation in the truth of God. This person does this by taking the Word of God and explaining it to the group. In situations in which the Bible does not specifically address the question at hand (e.g. before the closing of the canon, or certain specific modern moral dilemmas like human stem cell research), the person often alludes to relate passages of God's Word and makes applications that the congregation can use in beginning to assess the Lord's will on the matter.

Honestly, many of the issues we face today are not explicitly talked about in the Bible. It is men and women gifted with the word of knowledge that have a width, breadth, and depth in knowledge and understanding who can comb through all of God's Word and tell us the pertinent Scriptures to the dilemma.

The obvious question for non-"charismatic" evangelicals is "how highly do we esteem comments made that are above and beyond the Scripture?" Are their words inspired in the same way the authors of Scripture were inspired? Should we equate the word of knowledge given today with any Scripture? For me, flat out, there is no raising of these statements to the par of Scripture. But God has given this gift for the upbuilding of the Church and He has also given the gift of discerning of spirits to the Church as well to aid in balancing a rogue use of this gift. I would hate to dismiss God when He tells us through Paul "do not forsake prophetic utterances" (1 Thes 5:16).


Who Had This Gift in the Bible?

Most of the NT writers employ this gift in their epistles. Think of how they used OT statements and breathed fuller life into them in applying them to circumstances in their own day. I think especially of James who did this frequently in his epistle.

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