Donna,

I'm glad that you brought up Perry Stone, and I'll explain that, a little further down.

I was referring to the gospel of the grace of God, preached in this church age dispensation, as compared to the gospel of the kingdom preached to Israel.

I had also mentioned that the pentecostal preaching of the gospel is the correct gospel.

Some years ago, up in Chicago, there was open air preaching of the gospel, in the club area, where people were constantly walking around, and going from club to club.

And in the warmer weather, there were a number of sidewalk cafes.

Various different churches had members come there, each weekend, to preach the gospel, to the people on Friday and Saturday nights.

However, I was struck by how the gospel was the same, preached there, regardless of what their church affiliation was.

They were not all preaching their own particular doctrines.

i.e. Campbellites (Church of Christ) and Baptists were not preaching about water or getting baptized.

Adventists were not preaching about keeping the sabbath, and reformed Evangelicals were not preaching the 5 points of Calvinism.

Also, the Pentecostals were not preaching about miracles and wonders.

It was rather amazing to hear, but they were all there to ensure that those large numbers of people had the gospel preached to them.

They all desired that those people would not only hear the gospel, but believe on Jesus, and not go to hell.

Once in a while, some of the ones not currently preaching, would argue a non-gospel related doctrine, with another from a different kind of church.

Yet, those arguments never seemed fruitful, but rather contentious, and served more the pride and flesh of the two involved.

The preaching there, those nights, was about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus:

I Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

  2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

  3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

  4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

And none of them, at least there, were preaching any works based gospel, but rather the gospel of the grace of God, involving saving grace:

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

  9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

How could all this happen like that, unless the Spirit of God directed the gospel preaching, to stay on track?

Anyway, the differences of those various churches primarily were manifested in the discipling of Christians, back at their home churches.

Many of those differences appear to be related to some confusing of the dispensations.

e.g. reformed Evangelicals tended more towards replacement theology, where they applied all the promises to Israel, and Israel's future, to the church, now.

The Adventists, like the Galatians had gone back to, were placing themselves under the law.

And some Pentecostals seemed to be taking the signs of the kingdom for Israel, to enjoy those themselves, rather than to provoke Israel to jealousy, back to the LORD.

There had been promises made to Israel, like those by the prophet Joel:

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

  29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

This was miraculously fulfilled to Israel on the day of Pentecost, where Jews from all over the world, who had come to Jerusalem, saw and heard these things.

Then there was a dramatic and powerful sign that day, these visiting Jews heard the disciples preaching to them in the language of the nation that they had come from.

There was no way that some Galilean fishermen would know all those languages, let alone preach in those languages at the same time.

This was a tremendous sign to those Jews, the speaking in tongues, and so they listened to the preaching, repented, and believed on Jesus.

The next time this sign is mentioned, is when the Holy Ghost had led Peter to preach to Cornelius, a Gentile.

The Jews accompanying Peter, and later, those back at Jerusalem, would have rejected what Peter had done, had it not been for the same sign.

Those new Gentile believers began speaking in tongues, and this sign convinced those Jews, and the ones back at Jerusalem, that this was of the LORD.

The next time this sign is mentioned is when Paul came across some Jews that were disciples of John the Baptist.

So Paul preached, they believed, and they also spoke with tongues, confirming what John had prophesied about Jesus baptizing with the Holy Ghost.

Then there was a work begun in Corinth:

Acts 18:1 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth;

  2 And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.

  3 And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.

  4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.

It began with Paul working with two other Jews, Aquila and Priscilla.

Then Paul reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath.

It said he persuaded the Jews and the Greeks, there in that synagogue, so those referred to as Greeks, there, were apparently Hellenistic Jews, not Gentiles, in the synagogue.

When some Jews opposed and blasphemed, Paul said that he would go to the Gentiles.

Yet, the beginning of the church still seemed very much related to the Jews:

Acts 18:7 And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

  8 And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.

The new church appeared to have started in a house joined hard to the synagogue, possibly sharing a common wall.

Then the chief ruler of the synagogue was saved, and all his house.

Though some Jews continued to fight against Paul's preaching, including the next ruler of the synagogue, what about many of the other Jews, there, in Corinth?

Jesus had said to Paul:

Acts 18:9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

  10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.

Apparently, that, "much people", included a number of Jews.

So, the sign gift of tongues played a great part there, in Corinth, as a sign to the Jews.

The only epistle where Paul talked about tongues, was in his epistle to the Corinthians.

Clearly they were speaking in tongues in Corinth, but it is not even mentioned once in any of the epistles to other churches.

So, we cannot say whether those other churches had this sign gift, and were speaking in tongues, or not.

But, it was an extremely important thing happening in Corinth.

It seemed that this was because of the Jews there in Corinth, it was a sign to them, so that they would hear the gospel, believe, and be saved.

Paul told the Corinthian church that in particular, the Jews require a sign:

I Corinthians 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

It doesn't say, there, why they require a sign, but Jesus had mentioned something to a certain nobleman:

John 4:46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.

  47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.

  48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

Even so, Paul told the Corinthian church that the Jews require a sign.

However, he then also said to them:

I Corinthians 14:22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

So, why were the Corinthian believers speaking in tongues?

It seems that their speaking in tongues was for a sign to the Jews, there in Corinth, that were not believers yet.

Most people I know, that tell me that they speak in tongues in their private prayer closet, sadly are not witnessing to the Jews around them.

If tongues are for a sign, and the Jews require a sign, then if they truly believe that they are speaking in tongues, then they should do so, in the ears of Jews that are not saved yet.

So, getting back to Perry Stone: I enjoy listening to his messages, and have listened to hundreds of them.

Very many of those messages seem to have been preached by him, in the land of Israel.

Therefore, whether I agree with all the same doctrines that he holds, or not, it sure seems that he does not want to stray away from what Paul wrote to the Corinthians.

.