Pastor John, in the last podcast episode and episode 214, you addressed recent allegations

claiming that while you are open to prophecy and tongues today, you don't seem necessarily

convinced enough to advocate that others pursue these gifts themselves.

You corrected that, and you said that there are very good, exegetical reasons for your

confidence.

Explain those reasons for us here.

Right.

What I said was, in 1 Corinthians 1439, it says, earnestly desire to prophesy and do

not forbid speaking in tongues.

And I said, I think that is a command that we should still obey today and that I try

to.

And my way of understanding prophecy is not as infallible, scripture level authoritative

speaking, which is I think the way John MacArthur would take it and other folks, I take it as

something that God spontaneously brings to mind in the moment and because we are fallible

in the way we perceive it and the way we think about it and the way we speak it, it does

not carry that same level of infallible scripture, level authority.

And here are some reasons for why I think that's true and why I think it's still valid.

Today, 1 Thessalonians 5 and 19, do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but

test all things, hold fast to what is good.

Now that text is different from 1 John 4, 1, where it says, test the spirits to see whether

they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

There you test a person to see if he's a false prophet and you hold fast to the true

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