Spiritual gifts fall into two areas: Temporary sign gifts and Permanent service gifts
In Part One, we learned from Michael Horton that sign gifts were temporary. The apostles used “the signs of an apostle” (2 Cor 12:12) to lay the foundation of the church. When apostles laid the foundation of the church (Eph 2:20) and passed off the scene. the sign gifts were no long necessary. I am going to build on Horton’s arguments.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:22 states that the Jews require a sign. There have been three periods in the history of Israel when there have been sign gifts performed because Israel refused to believe God’s messengers and their God-given message.
Three periods in the history of Israel when there have been sign gifts
1. Moses and Joshua (Exodus 4:1-9)
2. Elijah and Elisah (1Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:18-37)
3. Christ and the Apostles (Matthew 8:1-18; 10:8; 12:22-32; 2 Corinthians 12:12). Just as sign gifts did not follow Moses and Joshua and Elijah and Elisha eras, sign gifts did not follow Christ and the Apostles because, in the last era, the canon of Scripture was completed.
The phrase “that which is perfect is come” in 1 Corinthians 13:10 is a reference to the completion of the canon of Scripture. The context proves that “perfect” means the completion of the canon and not the return of Christ. Paul was regulating the sign gifts until they ceased in 1 Corinthians 14.
In verse nine Paul said that the sign gifts through which God revealed knowledge were still in effect because revelation was incomplete: “for we know in part and we prophesy in part.” But in verse 10, Paul referred to the completed canon when revelation would no longer be incomplete: “But when that which is perfect comes, then that which is in part shall be done away.”
Also, the word “perfect” (Greek teleiov) is a neuter noun. If perfect were referring to Christ the noun would have been masculine.
Teleiov has a wide semantic range in meaning. One of the common meanings of teleiov which fits this context well is “complete” as in Hebrew 5:9. Christ was made complete in His incarnation to be our High Priest after the order of Melchisedec. When the canon was complete, the sign gifts were no longer necessary as a means of revelation.
Now for the explanation of specific sign gifts not operative today
1. The gift of apostleship was foundational for the early church (Eph. 2:20; 2 Cor. 12:12) but not needed today. Through the preaching and writing of the apostles, we have the Scriptures. To be an apostle one had to have seen the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:22; 1 Cor. 9:1) which is no longer possible after the ascension of Christ.
2. The gift of prophecy was a gift of the first century when God was giving revelation which included the mystery of the Church (Eph. 3:5). In 1 Corinthians 13:10 this gift ceased with the canonization of Scripture as explained before.
3. The gift of miracles was performed by the official apostles who witnessed Christ in His resurrection body and that office is no longer in existence as argued earlier. In Hebrews 2:3-4 the author stated the confirmation of the apostles with the gift of miracles was past.
4. The gift of healing is no longer operative today because this gift also was an apostolic sign gift which has ceased like the other apostolic sign gifts. The apostolic gift of healing included the ability to raise the dead (Acts 9:36-43; 20:6-12). The dead are not being raised today by faith healers who claim to possess the gift of healing.
5. The gift of tongues. Paul declared that “whether there be tongues, they shall cease.” As previously discussed the Jews require a sign. God is temporarily no longer dealing with the Jews as a nation according to Romans 13:11-18 and therefore signs are not necessary today. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul was only regulating the legitimate gift of tongues until that gift ceased with the passing of the official apostles and the canonization of Scripture which church history confirms as happening.
Non-cessationists (or continualists) believe the sign gifts (tongues, healing, and prophecy) are still active today. Examples of non-cessationists are Wayne Grudem, Sam Storm, John Piper, and Jack Deere. This is the position that Michael Horton refuted.
Cessationists teach that the sign gifts were foundational to the new people of God, the church, and were temporary until the passing of the apostles. Advocates of cessationism are John MacArthur, Michael Horton, Robert Thomas, and Daniel Wallace.
“Hard” and “Soft” Cessationism
I would add that this debate over the sign gifts is not only divided into the two camps of cessationism and non-cessationism but has further divided cessationism into two camps of “hard” and “soft” cessationism. Daniel Wallace distinguishes between “hard” and “soft” cessationism.
“Soft” or concentric cessationists believe the sign gifts may be operative when the gospel is presented for example, for the first time in third-world countries. As the gospel moved out from the first century, “like the rippling effect of a stone dropping into a pond, in a space-time expanding circle away from first century Jerusalem, the sign gifts will still exist on the cutting edge of that circle.” This view is also known as the “open-but-cautious” belief held by Robert Saucy and D. A. Carson. Soft cessationists would be more skeptical of sign gifts in ‘worked over’ [where the gospel is prevalent] areas as here in the States.
“Hard” or linear cessationists would take “a chronological approach that the sign gifts” ceased at the end of the first century. Wallace stated: “I take a hard line. What I affirm about the Holy Spirit’s ministry today should not be perceived as being generated from a closet charismatic.”
Michael Horton states that non-cessationism is neither exegetically sound nor historically compatible with Reformed theology (White Horse Inn.org). Horton warns against the call for a Reformed Charismatic synthesis in his circles. Daniel Wallace in a lecture at the Evangelical Theological Society’s regional meeting in 1994 identified himself as a hard cessationist in his article The Uneasy Conscious of a non-Charistmaic Evangelical (click to open).
The same arguments against non-cessationism, that the sign gifts were foundational and temporary, must be used against soft cessationism. If sign gifts are operative even in remote parts of the world, then sign gifts are still valid today which include healings, prophesying new revelation, and raising the dead.