"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears." (NIV)
Some might say that the word "perfection" is to heaven and the Lord's return. But does that really make sense? Because if you continue to read after verse 10 you get to verse 13 which says, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love..." (NIV) So it does not make sense to think we will still need hope.... and faith, in heaven does it? There is nothing left to hope for and nothing left to have faith in, our salvation has come.
2) Speaking in tongues is definitely an interesting one to talk about. My first reason to doubt this practice is because of my first point (mentioned above), but my second point is this, why do we not "speak in tongues" like the apostles and people back in the early church "spoke in tongues?" What I mean is that people in the early church spoke in tongues because they had to spread the gospel to many foreign people whose language they did not speak, but in today�s church everyone only speaks in the one "tongue" of "utterances to God." In other words no one has the gift of speaking in French, or the gift of speaking in Swahili, everyone only has the tongue of "utterances to God." Therefore it does not make much sense to me that we have the same gifts of the spirit as they did.... yet we only apparently have that one aspect of the gift of tongues. What happened to the other kinds?
3) When talking about the gift of healing you have the two clear cut sides. The people that can't and won't believe it for a million bucks and the side that believes it wholeheartedly. There is not very much room for a middle ground in this area. However if there is a "middle ground" I am on it. The reason why is because I believe God can do anything, but I do not believe he gives certain people the "gift" of healing the sick, blind, and helpless. Again my first point relates to this section as well, but other than that I just think Benny Hinn and the other "faith healers" are not the same as the early church people with the gift of healing. For example... some people aren�t healed at Benny Hinn's meeting and even more than "some" are not healed at other people's meetings. I have gone up for prayer before at some of those meetings and did not get healed... was it a lack of faith? I don't think so, because people were healed to show that Jesus was who God said he was and that they needed to believe on him also. So many people may not have even known about who these guys were or what faith they were preaching until they saw miraculous signs and wonders, which in turn opened them up to hear the gospel. That is why these gifts were needed if you ask me.
4) As far as prophecy goes I think with all the misguided attempts of Christians to prophecy major happenings this "gift" should have already been disproved. If you thing a "prophet" or person with the gift of prophecy given to them by God says something that is not right, they are not of God and not speaking for him. So when someone�s "prophecy" does not come true they may say well he just didn't hear correctly. But does that follow God's pattern? What if something Isaiah said was completely off or just flat out didn't happen... would he still have been a credible speaker for God? I think not. Therefore with the lack of authority and power our Christian prophets have in today's world, I must think that the true gift of prophecy has passed. But who knows I could be wrong, and if you would like to show me how I am wrong I would love to hear from you. That is what learning is all about... being shown your mistakes and correcting them. That is why I think studying with non-believers and believers in other religions are the best and most beneficial way to have a Bible study.
5) Maybe I will add more later, but I gotta do some other things for now. But there is a little food for thought.