2 Tim. 3:16-17 teaches that.
What ? You say
2 Tim. 3:16-17 teaches that "the written word provides
all things pertaining to life and godliness" ?
No, it doesn't. teach that.
2Ti 3:15
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise (se sophisai)
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God (theopneustos, God=breathed), and
is profitable (Ophelimos) towards (pros) doctrine (didaskalian), towards (pros) reproof (elegchon, proof), toward s(pres) correction (epanorthOsin, straightening again), towarda (pros) instruction (paideian, discipline) in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17
with the intention that (hina) the man of God may be
adequate to the present moment (artios), having been
made adequately fitted out in the moment (exErtismenos) for every good work (pros pan agathon ergon).
Verse 15 says the scriptures is sufficient to bring you make you wise enough to become saved through faith in Christ.
Verse 16 says
all scripture is profitable/useful
towards (pros) teaching, verification, correction and instruction concerning righteousness. (Not that all scripture is useful to bring you
into every teaching,
every verification,
every correction and
every instruction concerning
every righteousness).
Verse 17 says that all scripture is given
with the intention that (hina) the man of God
may be made adequately fitted out for every good work.
We can add to this passage,
1Co 13:8
Love never fails. But whether
there are prophecies, they will fail; whether
there are tongues, they will cease; whether
there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
Does this imply that once a complete compendium of the scriptures is assembled and published tongues and prophecy and knowledge will cease? Not really.
Imagine an army rebelling against a dictatorship, developing warcraft and weapons during their struggle and putting together manuals explaining what the strategies and weapons are and how to deploy them. The various manuals allow the soldiers reading them to become fully kitted out for every military action. The soldiers are told that when that which is perfect/complete comes, bullets and rockets will no longer be necessary. Eventually someone assembles a complete compendium of all the various manuals into one book. Some soldiers think that this compendium is what was meant by "that which is perfect/complete", so they refuse to use rockets and bullets, claiming that they hve been rendered obsolete by the arrival of the perfect/complete compendium.
This is the mistake that those rejecting tongues and prophecy are making. They are rejecting weaponry and strategies provided for them to wage the on-going battle on the basis of a misidentification of "that which is perfect.'
Tongues are a means by which we can bring our body under the control of the Holy Spirit , the Spirit directly moving the tongue with our faith and cooperation, without our fleshly mind stopping the tongue from saying the truths that the Holy Spirit is wanting us to confess. As we surrender our tongue to the Holy Spirit, our whole body gets turned in the direction the Holy Spirit wants us to be going. Those who reject tongues are allowing their flesh to continue to determine what truth is. Proof of this is the division and enmity they generate within the body by their animosity to those in the body of Christ who insist on deploying all the weaponry mentioned in the manual that kits us out for the spiritual battle. They are spending their time knifing their own comrades for using a category of weapons they erroneously disapprove of.
