Are Christians given empowerment to do all the works Jesus did? Bethel and their resurrection claims

I attended a Reformed seminary. I heard plenty of foul language and course sexual references. The president of the seminary officiated the marriage of his daughter to her girlfriend.

Which Reformed seminary?

There are conservative Reformed seminaries and liberal ones. For instance, I wouldn't even consider PCUSA to be Christian, let alone Reformed.

What I mean by Reformed is OPC or PCA or similar institutions.

By the way, TD Jakes takes a very liberal view of homosexuality and he is Pentecostal.

Unfortunately I attended NBTS, a liberal Reformed seminary, not knowing such godlessness and decadence existed in so called holy institutions.

I left the PCUSA because of their unbelievable falling away from God’s Word. I refused to set aside my integrity in order to be ordained by them.

I would agree that PCUSA would be abominable. It's a whole different world from PCA or OPC and there are other conservative Reformed organizations.

By the way I am in essence a Reformed Baptist although I'm attending a church now influenced by Grace Brethren.

So, they don't share my exact theology.

I live about 40 minutes from a PCA congregation. I’ve heard good things about them and think I’ll check them out.

So what is the scale for suffering that is to be expected?

When in North America, let us say the decade of the 1990's, as a time frame, was someone beaten, raped, tortured or executed, specifically for being a Christian?

He actually prays for people to suffer so its safe to say the scale is profoundly substantial.

Oh my!! I pray I have never prayed that.

Why don't you believe the simple explanation? The "greater" simply means more. Jesus went to the Father, so His works ended, but the apostles works continued, because they had many years left on Earth.

I am not mentally ill or something. I just let the Holy Spirit lead me and give God the glory. My baby nephew wouldnt be alive if God hadnt been fighting for him.
I dont take pride in the gifts of God. Most try and wonder why things dont happen but their hearts are full of pride. God doesnt respect people and even less the prideful
I believe God gives us certain strenghts. Everyone could heal but I believe God gives specific people an eye and strenght or certain decernment that another might not have.

There is more than one reason one may keep silence. It is sometimes prudent not to ask why.

all those seminaries suck and are unbiblical thats my opinion. Jesus never asked people for money to come learn the word of God. these people are mechandising christianity conservative or liberal why would i pay hundreds of dollars to listen to something Jesus said should be free?
no seminaries in the bible or early church times either. its recent development.

Where were you twenty years ago? You could have saved me $20,000. 😆

Where I went to seminary they told us to put our Bibles away because we won’t have time to read them as a student. Pretty pathetic.

@dcontroversal on the other hand where he attended did a study/overview of the Bible two times a year. They didn’t read the entire Bible two times a year but they did a study/overview of it two times a year. Now that’s money well spent, and it shows with the knowledge he shares.

Actually, it is biblical. In the time of Elijah/Elisha, there were schools of the prophets. And, Jesus was operating a seminary of sorts, based on his perfect teachings.

I have mentioned that as a younger man, I was involved in a cult. The founder was an ignorant man with no theological education, who did not understand Greek, Hebrew, Church History, Hermeneutics, or the Bible for that matter. He supposedly studied day and night for 6-8 months and realized everyone else was wrong by his own diligent studies. I am guessing he was reading a lot of cultic materials because I recognize where he got some of his teachings from.

Every cult leader thinks he is the valiant defender of the true gospel, and that his ability to discern is more than most people. Vanity fuels the formation of such organizations. In reality, they are being deceived by their own fallen nature and Satan.

At this point, I would not have a head pastor who was not taught in a sound seminary, I don' t think. If I did, he would be a rare exception.

Having a good education doesn't guarantee orthodoxy, though, and many seminaries teach false things such as denying the inerrancy of Scripture.

I will agree that the Holy Spirit teaches each true believer, but he uses the means of the Church, and teachers are part of the gifts God has given. I do not negate the contributions of teachers that don't have degrees, either. But, I have no issues with educated and paid pastors and teachers.

Some of them, especially in Reformed seminaries, are ordained pastors with real experience.

Actually I think it is a shame when the Church doesn't pay pastors and teachers a liveable wage. I am not talking about extravagance like the prosperity gospels, but a liveable wage.

However, we are getting off into a lot of side trails here

There are a ton of heretical seminaries out there.

You’re being too kind by referring to them as heretical. They’re borderline demonic. Upon graduating from NBTS, I told the person in charge of seeking donations from alumni to save his stamp because that godforsaken institution will never receive a penny from me.

Charging for seminary classes is not merchandising the gospel at all, because seminary classes aren't "spreading the gospel". Rather, they are teaching people how to read the original languages, how to unpack Scripture, how to preach, and how to care for people. The worker is worthy of his (or her) wages, and professors need to eat too.

Why are you specifying this question to North America?

Don't you realize that Christians are beaten, raped, tortured and executed on a regular basis by Muslims, amongst others, in other countries?

North Americans seem to be so ethnocentric. I am North American, but it makes me sick to realize that my countrymen are so selfish.

I think that's why dispensationalism is so popular, by the way. They don't want to imagine that they may suffer through a portion of the events in Revelation.

By the way, don't you watch the news? There are church shootings all the time. The reason given might relate to race or some other reason, but I think some of them just involve hatred toward Christianity.

Abel was killed by Cain because Cain's works were evil, and Abel's were good. There are those who belong to Jesus, and those who belong to Satan. Satan's offspring seek to kill the righteous. They may not announce that is the reason because they may not even know the reason themselves. They are irrational beasts, according to Jude. But, it is true that the offspring of Satan have persecuted and killed the offspring of the woman since time immemorial.

However, you'd have to know how to read the Bible properly to see that.

Read the Psalms. Look for this theme. Read Revelation. Look for this theme. It's really all over the Bible. The offspring of Satan (the serpent) are at war with the offspring of the seed (Jesus and his followers).

There is a good book which alludes to this by Nancy Guthrie called "Even Better than Eden".

Anyways it disgusts me that Christians today look at their own countries and think the world revolves around them. To be honest, Christianity here in North America is heading the same direction as Christianity in Europe. Asians are the ones picking up the baton now.

You said they were PCUSA?

I would agree that PCUSA is a liberal, false denomination. Once a group goes down the road of women leadership, the next step is gay leadership, and even worse things after that.