Skeletor 🧼🧽🫧

Hey guys; I had to get a new phone and it apparently lost all my old NGL messages 😞 But I have a new link, so we can start fresh!! ngl.link/themuppetpasto…

@iWomansplainer This is exactly what the prophets did. Most ministers are too afraid to cover the sad books. Yet much of the Bible is there to tell us it’s OK to be sad and furious. We treat these emotions like a disease.

Don’t listen to people who suggest you need to stifle your ugly emotions, simply snap out of your bitterness, etc etc etc. Take the ugly emotions to God. Cry out to your Heavenly Father… in anger, in rage, in bitterness, in wherever you’re at. Lament. He cares and He loves you.

@farmingandJesus They all look the same!

@TheMuppetPastor Right? I know an Asian when I see one!

Guess who this pastor is 🥹

@farmingandJesus Only an idiot would miss it!

@TheMuppetPastor It’s obvious. Duh!

@farmingandJesus Knew it!!!

@TheMuppetPastor Yes

It was kind of a chaotic mess because people didn’t know which books were treat and apostolic versus false. But yes, people had some access to a single gospel or epistle. It was rare to have them all together. I just have to be honest and admit that most Christians for the first 1500 years didn’t have access to a Bible the way we do now.

@TheMuppetPastor You seem to be talking about canonization what they selected to be biblical. Believers had the written word. They were. they were highly literate. The NT is the most copied ancient literature. The Holy Spirit made sure the church had the apostolic teaching.

The Hebrews had the Hebrew Bible, yes. The New Testament was canonized in the late 300s. And the average person didn’t have a Bible in their hands until the printing press was invented. I love and value the Bible. I know I am privileged to have it. But I also think we have recency bias when we forget that most historical Christians never owned a Bible they could read regularly.

@TheMuppetPastor It was finished before the temple was destroyed. The Jewish scribes had it all. The late 300’s is Catholic/Orthodox lore. It was always in the hands of the Jews.The early Jewish church had scripture pages and passed it around to the churches.

@TheMuppetPastor God only speaks through His word since the Bible was finished

If the Bible says to test the spirits and all the spirits are wrong, doesn’t that make it seem like perhaps you have a bias? I know you’re arguing your interpretation of the scriptures. I don’t agree with it because it think it misunderstands the context. I respect that it is your opinion but you haven’t given me a reason to change my mind because I don’t interpret it the way you do. And sorry, that’s not a dismissal. I am just being honest in that I don’t see what you’re seeing nor do I find the arguments compelling. Everyone interprets scripture differently.

The "completed Bible" isn't the end point. The truth was once and for all delivered to the saints by the end of the first century in the form of the scriptures. A formal table of contents with a fancy cover isn't relevant. I don't deny all miracles. They certainly happened from the creation of the universe to the end of the first century AD. I deny they happen after that. And a guilt by association statement like that is beneath you. You are way better than that. Nor am I being cynical. I AM testing the spirits and so far, the ones that claim miracles still happen through men today are failing that test with a score of 0. It is from the scriptures that I made my case, Skeletor. An argument you haven't yet touched.

The sad God of cessationism lacks power, and binds Himself only to a Bible , which itself testifies of God frequently speaking to others audibly and without record in scripture. We don’t know exactly what God said to Deborah, Nathan, Hilda’s, Anna, Huldah, yet we know He did even if the exact words aren’t in the bible. I understand many people lie, but this is tossing out the baby with the bath water. 1 John tells us to test every spirit against scripture, not outright deny it. Who are we to disregard this?

What I am saying is that this statement is incorrect. God communicates with people all the time. Muslim converts tell us Jesus came to them in a dream. The Holy Spirit inspires and puts things in our mind. Yes, shelter is inspiring, but it’s not the only source. The Bible itself tells us that many people heard from God and the conversation wasn’t recorded, so there’s no scriptural reason to think it must be in the Bible. Also, the Bible was not completed until the late 300s and the average person couldn’t afford one to read until the printing press was invented in the 1500s. That means God wasn’t communicating with anyone who lacked a Bible, which is most all Christians? Or that we can only hear from him now that we all have it for ourselves? I just don’t think this position is well thought out from both a historical and biblical lens.

@TheMuppetPastor Respectfully, that’s a serious mischaracterization. Cessationists believe that God is all-powerful & do not believe he lacks any power or ability. It is not a matter of power. It is simply a matter how we believe he reveals himself to us **today.**

@scripturesvoice @LizzieMarbach It doesn’t. And that’s the kicker.

@LizzieMarbach @TheMuppetPastor I know how much you value Scripture. Sincerely. This naturally leads to asking: where does Scripture teach that God only speaks to us through Scripture?

@DimeApologist It’s just not true. God has always spoken outside the Bible.

@TheMuppetPastor I never thought this common saying was cessationist per say. I think it speaks more to those who disregard the Bible as being God's voice for the modern mind.

Why would anything need to be added to scripture? The Bible itself has many examples of people who heard from God, yet their message wasn’t added to scripture. So why would that be necessary? The Bible isn’t a repository of everything God said. John tells us Jesus said and did many other things not recorded in the gospels. We have what the Holy Spirit gave us, but it’s not exhaustive.

@TheMuppetPastor @avine26 If people are declaring that "God told me to tell you..." then these quotes should be added to Scripture as they are as important as anything else God has declared. But... are we to add anything to Scripture?

In which continuationists out themselves as believing in a different God.

Again, that’s your interpretation, but it’s not what the early church would have reported. They didn’t have the completed bible for 350 ish years, and even then, reading it was largely the role of priests, since books were very expensive before the printing press. Having the bible wasn’t possible for most people until the 1500s or later. Yet miracles have been reported for each of those centuries. I think that abject denial of all miracles is just as bad as Benny Hinn lying about miracles; it’s the exact opposite end of the coin. Unbelief’s extreme as opposed to gullibility. We can’t be suckers, but we can’t be cynics, either. The Bible tells us to test every spirit, not deny them outright. I’m sorry that you haven’t ever seen miracles personally, but that doesn’t make them false. I am not arrogant enough to tell people what they didn’t see or didn’t dream. It’s not my role to believe or disbelieve; it’s rather to test the spirits against scripture.

Saying "that's just my interpretation" is a dismissal, Skeletor. Missionaries and Muslims are exactly what I mean when I say we only hear of these things through a telephone game. I'm 51. I've seen a lot of people who claimed they could perform miracles. I've even had people pray over me to heal my physical heart issues (which I'm still dealing with). Never once have I seen anything miraculous. An excerpt from my commentary on 1 Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 13 – Duration of Miracles Many people call this chapter “the Great Chapter of Love”. Those that do so, miss the point and ignore the context entirely. While there is some good stuff on agape/love in this chapter, it is set up as a foil for miracles to better understand the nature of miracles. Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. Miracles are useful, but when performed without love, they are useless. The church had been using the miracles the way they had as pagans, lifting themselves up and drawing attention to themselves instead of edifying the church. The pagans do all the things opposite of agape/love. So if you are doing it like the pagans, you’re doing it wrong is what Paul is writing. 1 Corinthians 13:8-10: “𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑡ℎ: 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙; 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒; 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑙𝑒𝑑𝑔𝑒, 𝑖𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦. 9 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑤𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡. 10 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦.” Here is the meat of the thought of this chapter. Agape never fails – this is the foil I spoke of. Love doesn’t fail, but miracles do. The stated purpose of miracles was to confirm that what was being taught was from God (Mark 16:20; Heb. 2:1-4). The miracles listed here, then, are representative of all miracles, especially in that they are the miracles related to conveying information from God. All of them will fail or cease. Of a type – it is imperative to note that the three miracles listed by Paul here as representative of all miracles are of a single type. They are all means of conveying doctrinal information. Whatever “that which is perfect” is, must be of the same type for the comparison to have meaning. “That which is perfect” is also a means of conveying doctrinal information or this contrast makes no sense. Contra-comparison – prophecies, languages, miraculous knowledge – all means of conveying doctrinal information – are partial, incomplete, subperfect. However, there is coming a means of conveying doctrinal information that is whole, complete, perfect. When that which is perfect arrives, the partial means of conveying doctrinal information will be done away with. Complete means – the only complete means of conveying doctrinal information is the Bible. It thoroughly furnishes us to every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17), it is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16) and it is the source of faith (Romans 10:17), not miracles. It saves (James 1:21). Conclusion – when the NT was fully delivered (2 Pet. 1:3; Jude 3), the purpose of miracles (confirmation of the Word) would end and so miracles would cease. I personally believe that his happened naturally. The apostles alone could pass on the ability to do miracles by the laying on of their hands. John was the last apostle to die. After the last person the apostles laid hands on to pass on miracles died, miracles were no longer seen in the world, at least not performed by men. Some might argue that miracles ceased after the end of the Jewish Wars or with the fall of Jerusalem (which is how this directly connects to the overall point of this blog). However, I firmly believe that a number of inspired letters of the Bible were written well after that event, which alone confirms that miracles had not ceased yet. John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and Jude were all written after the fall of Jerusalem. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13: “𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑, 𝐼 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑, 𝐼 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑, 𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑: 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝐼 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑛, 𝐼 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠. 12 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑤𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑎 𝑔𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠, 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑙𝑦; 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒: 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡; 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝐼 𝑎𝑚 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛. 13 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑡ℎ 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑡ℎ, ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒, 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒; 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦.” In closing this thought, Paul says that miracles are like child’s toys. They were for the infancy of the church while it was maturing, being established. When the church was grown up, when it was matured and fully established, it was time to put away the child’s toys. Those today who still think that they perform miracles or that miracles still take place need to put away the childish things and spiritually grow up. Paul writes that we see our reflection poorly in the mirror in the time of miracles. This is because the mirror of the partial means was a poor mirror. However, when the standard of righteousness is fully delivered, we will see clearly because the mirror is clear. It would be possible to hold their lives up to the whole Bible, the whole standard, to clearly see if they measure up. This is the better way he spoke of transitioning from distribution to duration of miracles in 12:31. He ends this point by saying that faith, and hope, and agape (love) are those things that endure. The greatest though is agape because one day, even faith and hope will be gone, replaced by direct experience and the thing hoped for…being in the presence of God in Heaven.

@sola_chad How is it a misrepresentation? I am referring to what he said and why I think it’s demonstrably wrong.

@TheMuppetPastor Terrible misrepresentation man. You’re better than this. Also, you could have quote tweeted me 😂

@CS_Bodan Correct

Regardless of whether cessationism or continuationism is true, if someone says 'God told me x, y, or z' and it contradicts His clearly revealed Word, they are deluding themselves and have not heard from Yahweh

@billman71 EXACTLY

@TheMuppetPastor If “the perfect” was the completed Bible, then God left the church without it for 1,700+ years. The canon wasn’t known, accessible, or owned by ordinary believers until the 19th century. That timeline makes the cessationist view impossible.

@JoeGBigpoppi God communicates with us frequently. That doesn’t mean the message is for the Bible. But it is for the recipient. The Bible is done but God isn’t.

@TheMuppetPastor Are you disregarding these passages of scripture? What need would there be of some special revelation or signal or messages from God Himself? This is akin to the lesson from Luke 16:30,31

No, that’s not at all what scripture says. It never says that gifts will cease nor does it call them childish things. That’s your interpretation. Missionaries give frequent reports of signs and wonders. Muslims testify that Jesus came to them in a dream. We may not believe this, but that fault is our own. I can’t draw the conclusions you’re drawing unless I was purposely looking for it beforehand.

Yet those same scriptures indicate the purpose of miracles, why they have ceased, and when they ceased. We also have zero evidence of anyone performing them today, only a bunch of charlatans and telephone game reports. Miracles in scripture were obvious, undeniable supernatural workings of God through men (John 3:2; 11:47; Acts 2:22; 4:16), not the fakable, theatrical stuff we see today. You say that "the God of cessationism lacks power" as if you worship a different God, but Paul wrote that the power of God unto salvation was the gospel (Rom 1:16) not miracles. Paul called miracles "childish things" (1 Cor 13:11). It's time to put away the toys and grow up in the proper faith.