Thanks again for your engagement, Bryan. Assuming the sign gifts are necessary, what are the spiritual consequence for those who abuse them or are abused by them? Does the NT give any clue regarding what the consequences of misusing the sign gifts might be?
First, I think we should clarify what "abuse" is. Given our differences on this issue--what you might suggest is "abuse" might not be something we'd consider to be abusive. And vice versa. The point is that it works out best for both of us to clarify here. And I doubt we could even come to agreement on that clarification, making this an even more difficult conversation. It's obvious there are "abuses" on both sides/camps of this debate. We all are abused and abusers at some level.
For example, I'd say that to neglect your child, is abusive to your child. So if I say that cessationists are corporately guilty of abusing the Holy Spirit and the gifts He gives because they neglect to eagerly desire them, pray for them, ask Him to display His healing and revealing ministry, and genuinely seek how His gifts are designed to be tools of loving one another and building up one another in the Body of Christ, would I be correct or would I just be guilty of broad-brushing with inflammatory language in a way that might be preventing the very ownership of the abuses that I so desperately want cessationists to take?
Second, however much I acknowledge the existence of "abuses" of the gifts in my own local circles and attempt to do so in the larger charismatic context, I doubt it can ever be done in a way that satisfies the critics of continuationism who already view our current practice of the gifts as demonic clairvoyance and/or fleshly nonsense. Why talk about the "abuses" of the gifts- if even what we'd consider the loving healthy use of the gifts- you consider to be cheap counterfeits that are mere parlor tricks? If their very existence is in an abuse to you or cheapens what you say is the real thing, I don't see how "acknowledging" abuses of the so called "fake thing" serves any purpose.
The resistance you've experienced from continuationists to own any of the "covering for false teachers" allegations is due I think to this very thing. I also think to follow you down this one sided "roman road" questioning toward that inevitably only righteous and responsible way to dealing with what you think are abuses of rather unnecessary gifts, without saying something here, would only serve to help ignore abuses that are going on in your circles.
I think as long as you can maintain confidence in labeling as "pornographic divination" and "twisted clairvoyance" what we believe to be genuine works of the Holy Spirit, it is unlikely we'll respond to any admonitions to call out in a manner you'd like to prescribe for us, the false teachers you say we're providing cover fire for. Is it unreasonable for us to respond negatively, with a slight to moderate kick, to how you think we should handle abuses, if in the same breath you attribute to Satan what we believe are real gifts/works of the Holy Spirit?
I think that the fact many of us, including the conservative scholarly continuationists are responding to your camp in the way we are should be evidence to you that something other than a lack of discernment or corporate gullibility and irresponsibility are at play here. It should tell you that something other than a proud defense of something that's ultimately a lie is going on. It should tell you that something other than a lack of wisdom and massive corporate delusion over the modern nature and use of these gifts is what is driving the passion behind prioritizing challenging you rather than the crazy false teachers you'd like for us to target.
As far as experiencing abuse and misuse in my own circles, I have to say my experience so far with the gifts has been a rather healthy one. I've never felt a sense of urgent responsibility to police my own circles without also seeing that my "need" to do that seemed to stem from a lot of fear and skepticism that came quite naturally to me. For years prior I'd made judgementalism and fear a virtue by calling it discernment. It's taking a work of the Spirit for that pattern to be rooted out of my life.
Third, when thinking of the spiritual and scriptural consequences of those that abuse the gifts and those that are abused by them, I think of the gospel. What does it mean to see all these "abuses", evident on both sides, through a gospel lens?
