We have done the unusual; we have gone to the text and looked at the verse in context that is under discussion. Next, we will consider the REASON this verse and verses already listed are so interesting to the denominational world. By the fact they blatantly can cry out, “God does not change”, they THINK they can protect their pet doctrines which in any fair discussion would be seen as completely false!! Those doctrines focus around two subjects: that miracles STILL exist and they can work such, and, the Jew is STILL God’s chosen nation, so one BETTER take care not to offend national Israel or one who claims such. We will look at both errors and find the Bible answer!
The fact that miracles have ceased needs not to be controversial; it is answered in totality in 1 Corinthians 13:8-14. The apostle Paul is writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (it is not his opinion) when he states; “love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” Interestingly, the verse is either not read or not believed when read!! It would help to do a word study on the word “fail” as used in this text. The word “fail” is from the Greek word katargeo, the first part of the word is kata, an intensive and the second is argeo, to be idle. It means to render inactive, idle, useless, and ineffective. The kata gives to the intransitive argeo the transitive meaning of to make to cease, see its use also in Hebrews 2:14 (translated destroy). With Paul this word always means to cause a complete cessation! There go the prophecies!! Paul continues, whether there be tongues, they shall cease, pausontal, meaning to stop some action, such as speaking, see Luke 5:4, Christ had stopped speaking, Luke 11:1, Christ was praying and He ceased, He stopped. Do you get the picture, tongues stopped!!
Finally, “where there be knowledge, it shall vanish away”. The Greek word is katargethesethai, it means to make idle or useless, waste, abolish, do away with, and destroy. Basically, if you believe the Bible to be the Word of God at all, you MUST come to the conclusion the use of tongues, knowledge, and prophecies are no longer, by the power of God!! I can only pause to cause you to remember, God changed His way of preaching the gospel, God Changed, when the complete revelation concluded!!
Now, to the Jew. As with the purpose of tongues, knowledge, and prophecies; when they were no longer the method of use, God changed! What was the purpose of the Jew from the beginning of the Jew? With whom did God start this arrangement, and when did it end? God started this with Abraham, Genesis 12. God INTENDED His Son have a “pure blood-lineage” when He came into the world!! This is the reason God “put up” with the Jew so many years!! Matthew and Luke have the lineage of Joseph and Mary, both trace the lineage back to Abraham, the lineage of Mary even goes back to God!! The Jew had laws against marrying people of other ancestries so the ancestry of Christ would not have gaping holes. When the Israelites came out of captivity, Ezra commanded them thusly; “you that transgressed and have taken strange wives….make confession and do the pleasure of the Lord God of your fathers, and separate yourselves from the strange wives and some of them had wives by whom they had children. Ezra 10:1-44. Why would God not want these to keep the wives of their captivity? It would diminish the clams God would demand for the purity of the Jewish nation, that purity in fact that would be true when Christ came unto His own. Once the purpose of the Jewish people was concluded, they could marry anyone they wanted to marry!!
