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Over the past couple of months, I have been doing a series on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the importance of spiritual gifts. It has attracted the attention of cessationists who don’t believe the spiritual gifts are for today and that they ended with the death of the last apostle, John, around 100 AD.
Along with this, I have garnered a few negative comments about my series including one that reads:
“If you believe what God said, tongues are for a sign and the Jews require a sign. This took place in apostolic times. Signs of the apostles. When they died, those times and signs died with them. Paul said in the passage this man alludes to that he would rather speak 5 words with understanding than 10,000 words of an unknown tongue. This man perverts the whole chapter. Today’s unknown tongue is either rehearsed and fake or they come from an unclean spirit. Stick with the Book.
The writer is pretty blunt insinuating that those speaking in tongues are either faking it or even worse being influenced by the demonic.
So it’s time to tackle this theological controversy on whether the gifts of the Holy Spirit are intended for today and in this first of my two-part series I will look at five of eight reasons why I believe the spiritual gifts are not only intended for today, but are necessary.
As part of this, I will also hopefully deal with some of the arguments that cessationists use to oppose the gifts.
First, the Gift of the Holy Spirit was promised to everyone
Let’s look at the day it all started and the words of the Apostle Peter after the Holy Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost and the 120 disciples poured out into the streets of Jerusalem speaking in tongues in Acts 2.
In his sermon, Peter told those gathered to repent and believe and they would “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:38-39).
Peter said the gift of the Holy Spirit was not only for them and their children but also for those who were a far off, or those who hadn’t even been born yet.
Then to make sure that everyone understood, what he was saying, Peter adds that this gift was intended for “as many the Lord or God will call to himself.”
This is in the future tense.
Anyone who believed in Jesus could receive this gift of the Holy Spirit if they wanted it, because, like today, even back then some didn’t, as they accused the 120 of being drunk in Acts 2:13.
They had spiritual gift naysayers in 33 AD and we still have them 2000 years later.
Secondly, nowhere does the Bible say that spiritual gifts would last only a few years
The Day of Pentecost was a very explosive introduction to the Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts and the biggest problem with such a dramatic entrance is the bigger the unfurling, the greater the need for clarity and closure if the gifts were going to come to an end.
In fact, the Bible is full of verses that do exactly the opposite. In 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul tells the Corinthians to ‘earnestly desire’ the spiritual gifts. Then in 1 Corinthians 14:39, Paul expressly tells the Corinthians to both earnestly desire the gift of prophecy and then warns “do not forbid speaking in tongues.”
There is no hint in these verses that the gifts were soon coming to an end, in fact, it is quite the opposite.
There is only one verse that specifically addresses the end of the spiritual gifts, when Paul writes quote, “but if there are gifts of [c]prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease” (1 Corinthians 13:8).
Paul then explains when this will take place, when he writes quote, “For we know in part and prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes the partial will be done away with (1 Corinthians 13:9-10 NASV).
Paul says that when the perfect comes, the spiritual gifts will done away with because they will no longer be necessary as we will have full knowledge.
So everything hinges on what Paul was referring to when to he wrote about the arrival of the ‘perfect.”
A few diehard cessationists argue that the ‘perfect’ refers to the completion of the New Testament canon, and the writing of the Book of Revelation around 90 AD t0 100 AD.
Continuaitonists counter this by saying that the perfect refers to the second coming of Christ when we will have full revelation and the spiritual gifts will no longer be necessary.
Because Paul goes on to say:
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
(I Corinthians 13:12 NASV)
When Paul is talking about seeing face-to-face, he is not talking about a book.
While a few cessationists still use this verse to promote their position, most now agree that Paul is referring to Christ’s second coming. Some even grudgingly admit that the verse suggests that the gifts are intended to function till the second coming of Christ.
Thirdly, cessationists argue that continuing the gift of prophecy would result in the writing of more scripture
This is one of their classic cessationist arguments opposing the gift of prophecy. They suggest that if God is giving people prophetic words, this would be equal to the scripture, meaning that we could arguably add more chapters to the Bible.
This argument makes no sense because thousands of Old and New Testament prophecies were not included in the Biblical canon.
Even one of Israel’s most reprobate kings, King Saul, started prophesying when he encountered a company of prophets in 1 Samuel 10:10.
Why weren’t his prophecies included? Why aren’t they there.
In 1 Kings 18:4, we know that aside from Elijah there were at least 100 prophets in Israel, who would have uttered hundreds if not thousands of prophecies.
Why weren’t their prophetic words not included?
They were not included for the same reason that prophesies given in the Corinthian church were not part of the New Testament canon. They were personal for the individual or one particular body of believers and they were not intended for the whole church.
So for the same reasons that thousands of prophecies given in the Old New Testament periods were not included in the scriptural canon, modern prophecies are not included.
Nevertheless, as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 14:4, prophecies of this nature can edify and build up individuals or churches, for whom they are specifically intended.
Fourthly, cessationists argue that the Holy Spirit stopped releasing spiritual gifts after the death of the last apostle, John
However, that is simply not the case because we know from the writing of the early church fathers decades after John’s death that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were still very much in operation.
In his book Dialogue with Trypho, Christian apologist Justin Martyr who lived between 100 AD to 165 AD wrote, “For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time.”
Early Christian theologian, Origen of Alexander, who lived between 185 AD and 253 AD, wrote that he had seen many instances of healing and prophecy but didn’t go into much detail about them because he was scared of being ridiculed.
Yes, it appears there were cessationists then too.
Fame theologian Augustine, who lived around 400 AD, cited several dramatic divine healings, some that came with God-inspired dreams, in his book City of God. He even complained that the church wasn’t doing enough to tell the world about them.
Now it’s true, that the usage of the gifts did fall off for several hundred years after around 400 AD, but this should not surprise us, because the same thing happened in the Bible. We had periods of time when the gifts were not functioning.
In 1 Samuel 3:1, we read, “And word from the Lord was rare in those days; visions were infrequent.”
The rarity of the word of the Lord or prophecy at that time was due to the backslidden nature of Israel.
The prophet Amos even warned there would be days of a “famine of hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11). There would be days when the gift of prophecy would be rare.
We also know that after Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, there was another period of 400 years when the prophetic gift rarely functioned, again due largely to the backslidden spiritual climate at that time.
From roughly 400 AD on, we don’t see powerful displays of the Holy Spirit until the Great Awakening which started in the 1700s.
Again this happened for much the same reason it took place in the Old Testament, people’s hearts were cold.
But even during this dark period, there were groups, such as the Cathari and the Waldenses, in the 12th and 13th centuries who functioned in the spiritual gifts. The Roman Catholic church labelled them heretics and brutally slandered and persecuted them.
While cessationists typically discredit these groups by calling them heretical, If modern continuationists and even cessationists lived at that time we would have all been branded heretics as well.
Fifthly, cessationists like to cite the abuse of the gifts
When you watch cessationists videos, they often cite the abuse of the spiritual gifts, with video examples, as a way to discredit the spiritual gifts.
Certainly, there is plenty of that to go around, from the false prophecies regarding Trump to the misuse of the gift of tongues.
But is this evidence that the gifts are no longer for today?
It isn’t because the same thing took place in both the Old and New Testaments.
Paul wrote about the misuse of the spiritual gifts in the services at the Corinthian church where everyone was speaking in tongues at the same time causing mayhem. Paul added that anyone visiting would think they were “insane” in 1 Corinthians 14:23.
Paul’s warning suggests that the Corinthian services were bordering on the chaotic so did he tell people they could no longer speak in tongues? No, he said the opposite, he said ‘forbid not tongues.’
But he did bring order to the services by limiting how many people could speak in tongues and prophesy during a service to three each.
In the Old Testament, they had the same problem. Moses warned of false prophets, as did Jeremiah, who said the false prophets in his day spoke words from their imagination in Jeremiah 23:16. Obviously, the gift was being abused even then.
We not only have abuse and misuse of the spiritual gifts taking place in the Old and New Testament periods, in Matthew 24:24, Jesus warned that in the days leading up to His second coming, false Christs and false prophets will make an appearance.
Spiritual gifts would also be abused in the future.
Now this would have also been an ideal time for Christ to tell everyone that prophecy would no longer exist, but He didn’t. Instead, the Lord just warned about the abuse.
In order to have false prophets, you must have true prophets.
Ultimately, the abuse of the gifts is not the fault of the spiritual gifts, but rather the users.
In the second of this two-part series, I will discuss my final three arguments on why spiritual gifts are for today. And as part of this, I will provide several examples of how the Holy Spirit manifests His gifts among those who don’t even believe in them. Yes, words of knowledge, gifts of tongues, and even prophecy are being released to cessationists. It’s hard to believe, I know, but it is true.
Thanks for joining me on my podcast, and I will catch you again.
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