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4. The distinction between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God is a moot one relative to the issues related to Cessationism. Slick dodge, though.

It is not moot and it is no dodge -- sorry you couldn't grasp the concept. Just helping you to navigate as to which Kingdom is the one that will be on the earth's surface when Jesus returns after the Tribulation. It will not be the Kingdom of God (which is not of this world ="kosmos"). It will be the Kingdom of Heaven, reconstituted and instituted, therefore it will not be perfect inasmuch as it will contain humans who still are infected with sin (but will not be permitted to engage in sinning (not until, that is, that their father is released from bondage for a short time and they rebel).

5. The fact remains . . . The coming Kingdom of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is a most plausible focus of the I Cor 13 mention of “when that which is perfect comes.”

You've published a lot of opinions not backed up by Bible facts. Please give me the Scriptural exegesis for your assumptions that leads directly to your conclusions, and which is compatible to the broader context.

The commands of The Christ is that His disciplers were to make disciples, who through maturation would then become disciplers for the next generation of disciples, successively through hundreds of generations of this method down to our time.

The purpose of a discipler is to have engrafted enough of the Scripture to draw a disciple's attention to the teaching of the Holy Spirit through the correct handling of that Precious Infallible Holy Word; and be under enough control of the Holy Spirit (infilled) to impart the instruction with both absolute precision and selfless love, despite resistance and rejection of false prophets and false doctrine. (Mt. 28:18-20, 2 Tim. 2:1-2, Phil. 3:17-19, 3 Jn. 9-11 for starters)

It is clear that life-long discipling is absolutely necessary in Christ's operations of the churches -- and that knowing the mind of The Christ would not be a bootstrap operation of an individual operating outside of the sphere of discipling. If one is trying to be a "self-taught" Biblicist, that would be contrary to the system that was decreed, set up, and practiced in the New Testament churches --as practiced by The Christ directly with His own disciples, and as a mechanism and a model to them.

Unhappily, though, this "self-taught" paradigm has spread throughout Christendom, "charismatic" or otherwise, and has supplanted prolonged personally supervised Biblical discipleship as God's principal method for bringing spiritual maturity by which The Faith is spread and implemented.

Such self-taught individuals, being undiscipled, seem to invariably produce incorrect doctrine (2 Pet. 3:15-18, where "unlearned" or "untaught" means "undiscipled"). One such variation is the false doctrine of "the perfect" (where perfect = finished, completed, mature, fully-formed, of full age) being something else than the complete, full, and now closed progressive revelation of His Word. That Word which is completely available to mankind now is completely sufficient for both imparting The Faith, and instructing in every phase of obedient practice.

- Today, a word of wisdom apart from that which already exists in the Word would make the Word imperfect (and it is not). A believer-disciple who can digest "strong meat" (Heb. 5:14) can discern both good and evil, when guided by the Holy Ghost speaking through the Word of Righteousness, is sufficient to find God's Will in a situation as The Spirit gives wisdom of application. Since the arrival of the completion of revelation, another word of knowledge cannot surpass it.

- Today, if there were inspired prophecy (and there is not) which could add to that which is already given, it would falsify the concept of the completion of revelation. But since it cannot, it would be redundant.

- Today, an unearthly tongue cannot move a soul more greatly to repentance and belief than the Holy Spirit's conviction spoken from the pages of The Bible, especially when on the tongue of a full-aged teacher/evangelist who is under the control of the Spirit. Neither can it improve a believer's practical maturity than when engaged in rightly dividing the Word of The Truth does.

- Discerning of spirits is not produced by some unevenly distributed talent outside that produced by Biblical maturity. Discernment is based on knowing the scope of that which The Holy Ghost has already revealed and which the mature disciple has exercised.

- Today, there is no forcing of the instant healing of a physical wound, infection, or debility on demand by, say, laying on of hands or slapping on the forehead. That kind of result is claimed but rarely, if ever, experienced; it is anecdotal and always seems to be reported but not judicially provable (though it is true that doctors provide the "hospitable" conditions, but The God applies the healing).

Without arguing or debating, it is my belief that the gospel characteristics of the so-called "charismatic renewal" is incorrect according to the Holy Scriptures, so it is another gospel of a different kind. What this practice seems to be is an attempt to short-circuit the otherwise lengthy experiential process of growth toward spiritual maturity developed through extended discipling and application. The claim by "charismatic" practitioners is that instant wisdom, knowledge, healing etc. can somehow be magically summoned on demand without obedience to Christ's commands to know the truth. Instant spirituality didn't work for the apostles. They had to impart spiritual development by progressive teaching (1 Thess 2:2,15), followed up by implementation of that teaching and rejecting an alternate doctrine.

In actuality, newborn spiritual infants today do need milk (1 Peter 2:2), the Word of The God (they do not need practice in glossolalia or divination by waiting for unlearned and untaught knowledge to suddenly appear)! But the corollary is that every one that useth milk (alone) is unskilful in the Word of Righteousness, for he(she) is a (spiritual) babe -- no matter what the chronological age or education. They have yet not been discipled through the newborn babe stage (brephos)(1 Pet 2:2); the infant (naypios)(Heb. 5:12-13) stage; the children stage (paidion)(1 Jn 2:13c); of which at that point have not yet brought acceptable fitness to instruct others in The Faith. They think they can lean on their own understanding.

The "strong meat" belongs to them that are grown up in the Lord--are of full age--who by reason of using Scripture (not infant-church gifts which have now ceased of themselves, vanished, been replaced by the perfect completed revealed Word of God), can discern by careful application. These are the ones who have graduated to the young adult (neaniskos)(1 Jn. 2:13b, 14b) stage, and then, through continued study and application grow into the fatherhood/elderhood final wise counselorship quality.

You will note that the ones displaying adulthood have overcome the Wicked One, and it is the Word of God (not charismatic gifts stated) that abides strongly in them. They will also be strong in administrations (pastors and ruling elders), operations (teachers and deacons), and evangelists, who can successfully wield the Sword of the Spirit, the "hrema" = spoken Word of God (Eph. 6:17b; Rom. 10:8,17), while controlling their mouth and its written products (Jas. 3:1,5,8,10).

The problem here is that today, Spiritually-awakened (converted but not regenerated) seekers may come into the assembly, desiring growth; but in the wrong company become sidetracked into seeking instant spirituality promised through acquisition of gifts described as active in the first-century (but which are in fact no longer available to them), thus leading to frustration and disbelief.

These gifts helped confirm The Lord's proclamation of The Kingdoms to them that saw and heard Him. They also helped confirm their testimony to the ones who had not seen or heard Jesus--all according to His Own Will. This special exercise of the gifts produced the "teleo" = finalizing (perfection) of The Truth in its final unrolling. But upon The Completion, the elements that produced the final Fruit, those elements (supernatural signs, wonders, and miracles gifts from the Spirit, Founding Apostles, Inspired Prophets) could no longer improve on The Perfection, and hence were dismissed. Therefore they disappeared, once the Greatest Gift of The God was now in the hands of the churches.

If one draws a seeker into trying to possess gifts they are not to seek after, gifts that are now not available, gifts which were always dispensed by the Will of the Spirit, not ours. they will be doing that instead of seeking after The Faith (1 Tim. 1:5) and The Scriptures which produce salvation (1 Tim. 3:16), and spiritual maturity through engrafted Scripture (Jas. 1:25). Faked gifts cannot produce this.

The sign of abiding in the Vine is that the fruit of disciples is more disciples (Jn. 15:8, 16)! The fruit of the Spirit is the character of The Christ formed in the regenerated believer-disciple, progressively visible and achievable through greater submission to the control of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18-21, Gal. 5:24-26,Phil. 2:3-8). Seeking after dead "giftedness" will only produce, at the best, dead branches; and at the worst, dead souls afire forever; whereas in whom the generative seed, the Holy Word would have produced gestating and new-born souls into the Kingdom of The God. What a tragedy.

6. You might consider returning to your disciple. Seems to me some things in your theology were left undone or need a tune up or overhaul. Though I'd suggest finding one more Biblically grounded, this time.

As a matter of fact, I did exactly what you suggested, excepting the pejorative part. I have within the last hour called my discipler, Dr. Fred Wittman, and run the exchanges and this counsel to him verbatim. His pronouncement was that my comment here is precise and thorough, and completely within limits of the context of the whole Bible. That's two earthly witnesses. But it is also the Spirit witnessing with my spirit, and his spirit--but apparently not with your spirit.

Apparently my theology engine seems to be well tuned up, firing on all 3 cylinders for the Word of His Power (Heb, 1:3), and rolling well on Route 66. This road includes the section through Romans, and the ground is not only Biblical, it is the theme of the whole Bible. (It's so hard to be humble, isn't it?)

Just for the record, though, is it the indwelling Holy Ghost that is furnishing the tone of your responses, is it your current discipler, or is it just -- your spirit? This is not an attack, just a request for sourcing. It would be nice to know to whom to attribute your answers and "corrections." Is it the Holy Ghost that is teaching you to vilify both myself and the one missionary, discipler, and servant of The God, who has precisely translated the New Testament, toward which he has dedicated many years? Living without salary and other work, trusting in the Lord's provision? And through the Happy Heralds site giving you sound counsel? Freely?

(This is me asking these questions, but God does not seem to be putting brakes on--I hope I am not disappointing Him in contending for The Faith. But blame me for putting it this way. I'm not approaching you sidewise.)

Thank you for demonstrating your stage of erudition and graciousness! It will be remembered -- in prayer for your vision and growth.

(Gal. 6:1-5)