ArchivedThe Latter Rain of the Last Days: Now or Future? :: Re: AineoRe: Aineo
I am only going to comment on this part of your post. LuckyStrike wrote:However, apart from the Apostles, there is no recorded instance of the Spirit being "poured out" on anyone else. This violates the logic of your position, which necessitates that the Spirit be "poured out" on all believers.
Your arrogance and insistence that you have a corner on God's revealed truth can easily be disproved for those who actually understand the Bible. Acts 10:45-48
45 And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. 46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, 47 "Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?" 48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days. NAS
BTW, I disagree with you because your interpretation is nothing more than an arrogant attempt to prove yourself right and all who disagree with you wrong, including many emininate Bible scholars that advocate dispensationalism.
The churches in Antioch and Rome were established by men and women other than the Apostles. Therefore the Holy Spirit was poured out on those who established these and other churches. Your sophomoric attempts to undermine God's truth for your own agenda comes through all your posts.
Acts 2:17-18
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
The last days is not found in the prophecy of Joel but was added by Peter under divine inspiration. In the OT this phrase designates the Messianic era of the kingdom of God (Isaiah 2:2; Hosea 3:5). The age of the Gospel is therefore one stage in the realization of the blessings of the Messianic age. In the OT era, the Holy Spirit was given primarily to people who occupied official positions in the theocracy of Israel-kings, priests, and prophets. The new mission of the Holy Spirit was to rest upon all flesh, that is, upon all of God's people and not only upon the official leaders. The promise that this new outpouring of the Spirit would result in a new manifestation of prophecy, of visions, and of dreams, was fulfilled in the experience of the apostles and prophets of the NT era. It was the Jewish belief that the Holy Spirit, who had inspired the OT prophets with their message, had been silent during the Inter-Testamental Period. Peter asserted that the Holy Spirit had now become active again in a new manifestation of God's redemptive purpose. This is seen in the last words of Acts 2:18, where Peter added to the prophecy of Joel the statement, and they shall prophesy. This new manifestation of prophecy was not so much foretelling the future as forth-telling the meaning of God's redemptive work through Jesus the Messiah.
(from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press)
Acts 2:17
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God. In the Hebrew and the Septuagint the expression is more indefinite-`And it shall come to pass afterward,' or 'in the futurity' [wªhaayaah (OT:1961) 'achªreey (OT:310) keen (OT:3651), kai (NT:2532) estai (NT:2071) meta (NT:3326) tauta (NT:5023)]; but the meaning is the same, as is evident from Isaiah 2:2, and Micah 4:1, where "the last days" denote the time of the Messiah. And they are so called as closing up the ancient economy, terminating all preparatory arrangements, and constituting the final dispensation of God's kingdom upon earth. (Compare Hebrews 1:1, "God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son;" Acts 9:26, "Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared;" 1 Corinthians 10:11, "They are written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the world are come.")
I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. As the copiousness of this gift is denoted by the 'pouring out' (cf. Proverbs 1:23; Zechariah 12:10), so its universality is expressed by its being for "all flesh;" the one in contrast with the mere drops of all preceding time, and the other in contrast with the restriction of the Spirit to certain privileged persons or classes under the ancient economy. Accordingly, the prediction goes on to interpret itself in detail. First, there is to be no distinction of sex.
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy - that is, shall speak by divine inspiration and with divine authority. (The foretelling of future events is not necessarily included in the prophetic gift, as meant in Scripture.) This indiscriminate employment of both sexes, with which the prediction begins, would strike the devout part of the audience as remarkably fulfilled in the hundred and twenty inspired disciples, among whom, there can be no doubt, that women would form an observable portion. Next, there is to be no distinction of age.
And your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. This is expressed in accommodation to the mode in which the Spirit operated under the old economy, but need not be held to announce a continuance under the Gospel of precisely the same kind of communication. In the New Testament, at least, we find visions and dreams to be rather the exception than the rule. Finally, there is to be no distinction of rank.
(from Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Acts 2:17
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
[It shall come to pass] It shall happen, or shall occur.
[In the last days] Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, after these things, or afterward. The expression the last days, however, occurs frequently in the Old Testament: Genesis 49:1, Jacob called his sons, that he might tell them what should happen to them in the last days, that is, in future times-Heb. in after times; Micah 4:1, "In the last days (Hebrew: in later times) the mountain of the Lord's house," etc.; Isaiah 2:2, "In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains," etc. The expression then properly denoted "the future times" in general. But, as the coming of the Messiah was to the eye of a Jew the most important event in the coming ages-the great, glorious, and crowning scene in all the vast futurity, the phrase came to be regarded as properly expressive of that. It stood in opposition to the usual denomination of earlier times.
It was a phrase in contrast with the days of the patriarchs, the kings, the prophets, etc. The last days, or the closing period of the world, were the days of the Messiah. It does not appear from this, and it certainly is not implied in the expression, that they supposed the world would then come to an end. Their views were just the contrary. They anticipated a long and glorious time under the dominion of the Messiah, and to this expectation they were led by the promise that his kingdom should be forever; that of the increase of his government there should be no end, etc. This expression was understood by the writers of the New Testament as referring undoubtedly to the times of the gospel. And hence they often used it as denoting that the time of the expected Messiah had come, but not to imply that the world was drawing near to an end: Hebrews 1:2, "God hath spoken in these last days by his Son"; 1 Peter 1:20, "Was manifested in these last times for you"; 2 Peter 3:3; 1 Peter 1:5; 1 John 2:18, "Little children, it is the last time," etc.; Jude 18. The expression the last day is applied by our Saviour to the resurrection and the day of judgment, John 6:39-40,44-45; 11:24; 12:48. Here the expression means simply "in those future times, when the Messiah shall have come."
The expression in Hebrew is, "I will pour out my Spirit." The word "pour" is commonly applied to water or to blood, "to pour it out," or "to shed it," Isaiah 57:6; to tears, "to pour them out," that is," to weep, etc., Psalms 42:4; 1 Samuel 1:15. It is applied to water, to wine, or to blood, in the New Testament, Matthew 9:17; Revelation 16:1; Acts 22:20, "The blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed." It conveys also the idea of "communicating largely or freely," as water is poured freely from a fountain, Titus 3:5-6, "The renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly." Thus, Job 36:27, "They (the clouds) pour down rain according to the vapor thereof"; Isaiah 44:3, "I will pour water on him that is thirsty"; 45:8, "Let the skies pour down righteousness"; Malachi 3:10, "I will pour you out a blessing." It is also applied to fury and anger, when God intends to say that he will not spare, but will signally punish, Psalms 69:24; Jeremiah 10:25. It is not infrequently applied to the Spirit, Proverbs 1:23; Isaiah 44:3; Zechariah 12:10. As thus used it means that he will bestow large measures of spiritual influences. As the Spirit renews and sanctifies people, so to pour out the Spirit is to grant freely his influences to renew and sanctify the soul.
[My Spirit] The Spirit here denotes the Third Person of the Trinity, promised by the Saviour, and sent to finish his work, and apply it to people. The Holy Spirit is regarded as the source or conveyer of all the blessings which Christians experience. Hence, he renews the heart, John 3:5-6. He is the source of all proper feelings and principles in Christians, or he produces the Christian graces, Galatians 5:22-25; Titus 3:5-7. The spread and success of the gospel is attributed to him, Isaiah 32:15-16. Miraculous gifts are traced to him, especially the various gifts with which the early Christians were endowed, 1 Corinthians 12:4-10. The promise that he would pour out his Spirit means that he would, in the time of the Messiah, impart a large measure of those influences which it was his special province to communicate to people. A part of them were communicated on the day of Pentecost, in the miraculous endowment of the power of speaking foreign languages, in the wisdom of the apostles, and in the conversion of the three thousand.
[Upon all flesh] The word "flesh" here means "persons," or "people." See the notes on Romans 1:3. The word "all" here does not mean every individual, but every class or rank of individuals. It is to be limited to the cases specified immediately. The influences were not to be confined to any one class, but were to be communicated to all kinds of persons-old men, youth, servants, etc. Compare 1 Timothy 2:1-4.
[And your sons and your daughters] Your children. It would seem that females shared in the remarkable influences of the Holy Spirit. Philip the Evangelist had four daughters which did prophesy, Acts 21:9. It is probable also that the females of the church of Corinth partook of this gift, though they were forbidden to exercise it in public, 1 Corinthians 14:34. The office of prophesying, whatever was meant by that, was not confined to the people among the Jews: Exodus 15:20, "Miriam, the prophetess, took a timbrel," etc.; Judges 4:4, "Deborah, a prophetess, judged Israel"; 2 Kings 22:14. See also Luke 2:36, "There was one Anna, a prophetess," etc.
[Shall prophesy] The word "prophesy" is used in a great variety of senses:
(1) It means to predict or foretell future events, Matthew 11:13; 15:7.
(2) To divine, to conjecture, to declare as a prophet might, Matthew 26:68, "Prophesy who smote thee."
(3) To celebrate the praises of God, being under a divine influence, Luke 1:67. This seems to have been a considerable part of the employment in the ancient schools of the prophet, 1 Samuel 10:5; 19:20; 30:15.
(4) To teach-as no small part of the office of the prophets was to teach the doctrines of religion, Matthew 7:22, "Have we not prophesied in thy name?"
(5) It denotes, then, in general, "to speak under a divine influence," whether in foretelling future events, in celebrating the praises of God, in instructing others in the duties of religion, or "in speaking foreign languages under that influence." In this last sense the word is used in the New Testament, to denote those who were miraculously endowed with the power of speaking foreign languages, Acts 19:6. The word is also used to denote "teaching, or speaking in intelligible language, in opposition to speaking a foreign tongue," 1 Corinthians 14:1-5. In this place it means that they would speak under a divine influence, and is specially applied to the power of speaking in a foreign tongue.
[Your young men shall see visions] The will of God in former times was communicated to the prophets in various ways. One was by visions, and hence one of the most usual names of the prophets was seers. The name seer was first given to that class of men, and was superseded by the name prophet, 1 Samuel 9:9, "He that is now called a prophet was beforetime called a seer"; 1 Sam. 9:11,18-19; 2 Sam. 24:11; 29:29 , etc. This name was given from the manner in which the divine will was communicated, which seems to have been by throwing the prophet into an ecstasy, and then by causing the vision, or the appearance of the objects or events to pass before the mind. The prophet looked upon the passing scene, the often splendid diorama as it actually occurred, and recorded it as it appeared to his mind. Hence, he recorded rather the succession of images than the times in which they would occur. These visions occurred sometimes when they were asleep, and sometimes during a prophetic ecstasy, Daniel 2:28; 7:1-2,15; 8:2; Ezekiel 11:24; Genesis 15:1; Numbers 12:6; Job 4:13; 7:14; Ezekiel 1:1; 8:3.
Often the prophet seemed to be transferred or transported to another place from where he was, and the scene in a distant land or age passed before the mind, Ezekiel 8:3; 40:2; 11:24; Daniel 8:2. In this case the distant scene or time passed before the prophet, and he recorded it as it appeared to him. That this did not cease before the times of the gospel is evident: Acts 9:10, "To Ananias said the Lord in a vision," etc.; Acts 9:12, "And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias," etc.; that is, Paul hath seen Ananias represented to him, though absent; he has had an image of him coming in to him; Acts 10:3, Cornelius "saw in a vision evidently an angel of God coming to him," etc. This was one of the modes by which in former times God made known his will; and the language of the Jews came to express a revelation in this manner. Though there were strictly no visions on the day of Pentecost, yet that was one scene under the great economy of the Messiah under which God would make known his will in a manner as clear as he did to the ancient Jews.
[Your old men shall dream dreams] The will of God in former times was made known often in this manner; and there are several instances recorded in which it was done under the gospel. God informed Abimelech in a dream that Sarah was the wife of Abraham, Genesis 20:3. He spoke to Jacob in a dream, Genesis 31:11; to Laban, 31:24; to Joseph, 37:5; to the butler and baker, 40:5; to Pharaoh, 41:1-7; to Solomon, 1 Kings 3:5; to Daniel, Daniel 2:3; 7:1. It was prophesied by Moses that in this way God would make known his will, Numbers 12:6. It occurred even in the times of the gospel. Joseph was warned in a dream, Matthew 1:20; 2:12-13,19,22. Pilate's wife was also troubled in this manner about the conduct of the Jews to Christ, Matthew 27:19. As this was one way in which the will of God was made known formerly to people, so the expression here denotes simply that His will would be made known; that it would be one characteristic of the times of the gospel that God would reveal Himself to mankind. The ancients probably had some mode of determining whether their dreams were divine communications, or whether they were, as they are now, the mere erratic wanderings of the mind when unrestrained and unchecked by the will. At present no confidence is to be put in dreams. Compare the introduction to Isaiah, section 7,12.
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Acts 2:17
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
[In the last days] The time of the Messiah; and so the phrase was understood among the Jews.
Rabbi Tanchum says, "When Moses laid his hands upon Joshua, the holy blessed God said, In the time of the old text, each individual prophet prophesied; but, in the times of the Messiah, all the Israelites shall be prophets." And this they build on the prophecy quoted in this place by Peter.
[Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy] The word prophesy is not to be understood here as implying the knowledge and discovery of future events; but signifies to teach and proclaim the great truths of God, especially those which concerned redemption by Jesus Christ.
[Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:] These were two of the various ways in which God revealed himself under the Old Testament. Sometimes he revealed himself by a symbol, which was a sufficient proof of the divine presence: fire was the most ordinary, as it was the most expressive, symbol. Thus he appeared to Moses on Mount Horeb, and afterward at Sinai; to Abraham, Genesis 15; to Elijah, 1 Kings 19:11-12. At other times he revealed himself by angelic ministry: this was frequent, especially in the days of the patriarchs, of which we find many instances in the book of Genesis.
By dreams he discovered his will in numerous instances: see the remarkable case of Joseph, Genesis 37:5,9; of Jacob, Genesis 28:1, etc.; 46:2, etc.; of Pharaoh, Genesis 41:1-7; of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4:10-17. For the different ways in which God communicated the knowledge of his will to mankind, see the note at Genesis 15:1.
(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)
| View Parent Message View dfilename Return Home |