PHOENIX, AZ—Local charismatic believer Bryan Potter declared Thursday on his Facebook page that he believes that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit have continued from New Testament times on into today, with the lone exception of the gift of discernment.
While Potter believes every Christian can speak in tongues, interpret, heal, prophesy, and more, he does not believe that followers of Jesus have the supernatural ability to separate truth from error.
“I believe all the gifts of the Spirit are active and available today, except the gift of discernment, which I don’t have to utilize, because it was a miraculous gift only for the apostles,” he wrote. “Although every service I go to at my Pentecostal church includes lots of wild, outlandish manifestations of the Spirit, we do not believe that Christians are called to take a few minutes to discern whether or not a particular teacher, doctrine, or alleged outpouring of the Spirit is genuine.”
“The gift of discernment was just for the early church, and is not available for us today,” he concluded. He argued that the gift had ceased with the apostles, and believers in modern times are not expected to use the slightest bit of discernment when determining whether or not a charismatic teacher is legitimate.
Comments are closed.