“More than a few pastors have wondered whether they are being theologically dishonest in saying that the ‘sign gifts’ are no longer operative in the church today. True, the charismatic movement gives us great reason to be suspicious, and it is a pleasure to be prejudiced and bigoted sometimes, especially when Benny Hinn is involved, but do we not have to admit that such charismatic goings-on were present in the Church of the New Testament? Well, no. The question goes far beyond the fact of charismatic excesses. The central issue in all of this is the preservation of the doctrine of sola Scriptura . . . The easiest way to illustrate this is to consider the office of prophet, and the nature of prophecy. What happens when someone stands up in a church service and prophesies? He says, in effect, ‘Thus says the Lord,’ and then a message follows. A man who hears these words and believes them is obligated to treat the words he hears as the Word of God. The only way for him to contradict this is by saying that he believes them to be words from God but for some reason he does not really have to treat them as words from God. But this is contradictory” (Mother Kirk, p. 63).
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