Does your church preach on spiritual gifts?

No, the BIble is sufficient. The job of the Pastor is to expound upon what the Bible says. The measure of any ministry is how faithful they are to the Scripture. II TImothy 3:16-17 says that Scripture equips us for every good work, which means it is sufficient for the soul. A Pastor/Teacher's job is to be as faithful to the Scripture as possible.

It is no good if the BIble is innerant if it is also not sufficient. If you want, I can provide a number of other BIble references, but right now I have to get out a letter to some people.

 

Yeah, I know what you’re saying but without someone to explain and teach it, the Bible is of little use to the seeking individual. See Acts 8:30-31. I realize people get the heebie-jeebies when someone says the Bible is not sufficient, but it just isn't. The inspired and inerrant word of God, yes. But I'm yet to see a bible open itself up and explain itself to a person. It takes a teacher, and the better equipped that teacher is the more effective he will be.

 

Zenas,

Acts 8, the person needed guiding into the Scripture. This is not an attack on the sufficiency of Scripture, but the necessity to understand the sufficient scripture. If anything, this may be an attack on the perspicuity of Scripture, not the sufficiency.

Let me be honest with you, for years I have been speaking that innerancy is not enough without sufficiency. I will give verses later, I am working on a major report that needs to get out today. But once done and after prayer at church in 3 hours, I will get you verses.

 

Whoa, whoa....back up the truck, chuck! The Bible IS absolutely sufficient! By the very definition of the word it is. Sufficient is being as much as is needed. The Bible is definitely that or God would be continuing to give scripture to man today. When He gave the last words His Word was sufficient.

What is not sufficient is man today. They want to be spoon-fed instead of spending the time searching scripture for themselves. It's not like you get it all overnight, it takes a lifetime of study and still we can not possibly glean all that is within scripture. Scripture defines scripture. Scripture interprets scripture. When Jesus was asked questions how did he often respond? Scripture. When tempted by Satan, how did he respond? Scripture.

God gives each individual exactly what they need exactly when they need it. One can read the same passage of scripture every day for a week and get something new each day. The Bible is wholly sufficient because it's author is wholly sufficient. 2Co 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

 

My baptist church teaches that ALL Christians have been given a spiritual gift from God as our "re birth", and up to us to discover that Gift and use it for His glory and in the church!

 

In my analysis below, I want to begin that if the doctrine of Sufficiency is not true, the Roman Catholics are right to include other things into the BIble, like tradition.

Yet, what does the Bible say?

II Timothy 3:16-17 seems rather clear in it's assessment that the Bible makes the man of God, "thoroughly equipped for every good work." This screams sufficiency.

The Bible, on several occasions, notes that the Bible is completely sufficient by stating several times, "you shall not add to it or take away from it." (Dt 4:2, 12:32, Prov 30:5-6, Rev 22:18). In those instances, the Bible is proclaiming that in itself, it is sufficient.

Thus, the Bible is sufficient. There are other verses we can bring out, but overall, the Bible is clear that it is sufficient for our life.

 

Ruiz and DiamondLady, this may be more a matter of semantics than real disagreement. However, if the Bible is sufficient we don't need teachers and preachers. Let's just give everyone a bible, encourage them to read it and watch them grow spiritually. I have been wasting my time teaching Sunday School these last 25+ years, and Ruiz, you are certainly wasting your time preparing and delivering all those sermons. But if we didn't, we would have some people with really strange ideas concerning our faith because the Bible just isn't clear about a lot of things. Even those of us who have lived with the Bible all our lives find ourselves in sharp disagreement with one another over what it means. E.g., Calvinism v. Arminianism; dispensationalism v. preterism; elder led churches v. congragational churches, etc.

As for tradition we do rely heavily on it, whether we want to admit it or not. For example:

1. Most of us meet in dedicated buildings without any scriptural authority to do so.

2. We observe Sunday as the Lord's day, although there is no clear mandate for it in scripture.

3. Our church services usually include an invitation, but there is no scriptural authority for doing this.

4. The canon of scripture must be based on tradition because the Bible doesn't tell us what should be included or excluded.

5. Our churches band together in different denominations and within denominations we have associations and conventions, all without scriptural authority.

I could go on but I think you get the drift.

 

Sufficiency does not mean we do not need teachers, in fact because it is sufficient we need people to expound on it. Perspicuity is what people usually say negates teachers, but even there this is not an attack on perspicuity to have teachers, rather it is an attack on individualism. Americanistic individualism is never taught in the Bible. American individualism is not an attack on perspicuity or sufficiency because it is adamantly rejected in the Bible.

 

You're talking apples and oranges. Sufficiency of scripture doesn't have one thing to do with whether or not we meet in a church or a home, or the apple orchard or any of the other things you listed. Those things have nothing to do with whether or not a person grows in their spiritual walk. Truth is if you did give everyone a Bible and...here's the key...they actually READ it, the truth is they WOULD grow spiritually!

None of us have wasted our time teaching and preaching, because the real truth is people don't read their Bible and study it as they should. They do depend upon the preacher and their SS teacher, small group leaders, etc., for their understanding of scripture.

God's Word is sufficient.

 

that is WHY God gifts men though to teach/preach the Bible, as being fully suuficient in and by itself, still needs to be 'rightly divided!"

 

You have taken this thought out of context of the verse. That verse does not say anything about preachers or teachers rightly dividing for an individual. That verse plainly says, "Study to shew THYSELF approved anto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." !!Timothy 2:15. It definitely applies to preachers and teachers as well, but moreso for each individual, on their own, studying God's Word.

 

its not either/or as some seem to be treating it, but that each individual should required to study the Bible and glean its truths and apply them, but that also God gives further instruction/insighted from gifted teachers/pastors/theologians!
After all, isn't this what we all do with notes in our study bibles?