Why We Teach That Miraculous Gifts Have Ceased
Reprinted from The Spiritual Sword 1999
David R. Pharr

Every good gift is from above (Jas.1:17).  This includes those gifts which are natural abilities, such as skills in singing, in speaking, in helping others, etc.  These are talents which are developed through study and practice, but they are nonetheless gifts from God.   It is important to distinguish, however, between natural gifts and the supernatural abilities described in the New Testament.  Those miraculous gifts were not mere talents, but special powers provided by the Holy Spirit.

Those gifts were real, genuine miraculous gifts.  No believer can doubt that various ones were empowered to heal the sick, to receive revelations, to discern spirits, to speak languages they had never learned, etc.  A list of nine such gifts is found in I Corinthians 12:8-10.[i]  We believe and teach that the Holy Spirit actually gave such powers to various ones.  But we do not believe that the Spirit is giving miraculous gifts to people today.  Why do we teach that miraculous gifts have ceased?  Why do we believe that those things served only a temporary purpose?

Rightly Dividing

One of the basics of “rightly dividing” (II Tim. 2:15 KJV), or “handling aright”(ASV) the Bible is to discern to whom, or about whom, things are addressed.  Of course there are many  instructions and promises which apply to everyone, but there are other things that pertain only to certain ones.  For example, there is a specific promise of unequaled wisdom and great wealth in I Kings 3:11-13, but we know that this does not apply to us, only to Solomon.  Again, we can find a prohibition against preaching in Asia (Acts 16:6), but we understand that this was intended only for Paul. These obvious examples demonstrate the necessity of determining to whom specific things apply.  That miraculous gifts are named in Scripture is not the issue.  Rather, we must determine whether those references apply to Christians in every age, or did they pertain only to certain ones in New Testament times?

Apostolic Foundation

Understanding the temporary purpose of miraculous gifts begins with the place of the apostles in the beginning of the church.  The apostles were the Lord’s “ambassadors” (II Cor. 5:20), his commissioned agents (John 13:20; Matt. 18:18; I Cor. 14:37; 11:1-2;).  They laid the foundation by preaching the gospel (I Cor. 3:11), and through their teaching and writing the church was guided and shaped into the institution the Lord intended (Matt. 28:20; I Tim. 3:15; II Tim. 2:2; II Thess. 2:15).

Jesus had promised the apostles that they would have the miraculous assistance of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:16-18).  On Pentecost, therefore, they were “baptized” with the Spirit (Acts 1:5), which gave them “power from on high” (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:1ff).  Jesus promised that the empowering Spirit would guide them “into all truth” (John 16:13), would provide them with miraculous memory (John 14:26), and would reveal things they had not yet been told (John 16:12).  Thereby they set in place and defined Christ’s church.  Thus, the church was “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Eph. 2:20).

The point to be emphasized is that the apostolic role was unique, pertaining only to the beginning.  They delivered the faith “once for all” (Jude 3 ASV).  Their office was in the foundation.  It was, therefore, a temporary  office. They still have authority over the church (through the inspired record), but no provision was made for others to take their place then or now, and any who claim the apostleship are liars (Rev. 2:2; II Cor. 11:13).[ii]  As Everett Ferguson explains:

We teach that miraculous gifts have ceased because they were intrinsically connected with the administration of the apostles.  The apostles were a part of the formation of the Christian system, not of its continuing history.

Unique Apostolic Sign

This is important in understanding the cessation of miraculous gifts because signs and wonders in the first century church were directly and essentially connected with the work of the apostles.  Their commission to be apostles was confirmed by their ability to do miracles (II Cor. 12:12; cf. Rom. 15:18-19; Mark 16:20; Heb. 2:3-4).  These miraculous signs included healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, etc.  Of particular importance in this study, however, was the sign of imparting supernatural gifts to others.  Hebrews 2:3-4 says that the teaching of Jesus was confirmed to “them that heard him” (apostles), and that God bore them witness with “both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost” (emp. added).  They certified their apostleship by conferring gifts of the Spirit to others.  Though many other Christians in the New Testament were empowered to do various other miracles, only an apostle could impart such powers to others.  This ability to bestow spiritual gifts was a unique apostolic sign.

Imposition of Hands

The apostles conferred the gifts by the laying on of their hands.  It is significant that for a time following Pentecost there is no reference to anyone except the apostles themselves having any miraculous powers  (Acts 2:43; 3:1ff; 5:33; et al).  But when the apostles had laid hands on seven chosen men in Acts 6, it is recorded that afterwards at least two of them, Stephen and Philip, could then do miraculous wonders (Acts 6:6, 8; 8:5-6, 13).  The first reference to their being empowered followed the imposition of the apostles’ hands.

This was demonstrated even more clearly when two apostles came to the very place where Philip himself had been doing miracles in order that his converts  “might receive the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 8:15-17).  It should be carefully noted that though Philip had been empowered by the Spirit to do miracles (by the apostles laying hands on him), he could not himself transmit the Spirit to others.  It was necessary, therefore, for Peter and John to come to Samaria that those recently baptized might be given the Spirit.  And it is specifically stated that the Spirit was given when “they laid their hands on them.”  The Bible then reinforces the point by stating that “Simon [the converted sorcerer] saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given” (Acts 8:18; cf. Acts 19:6).  Simon had seen Philip doing miracles, but this special miracle—the power to give others gifts of the Spirit—was not something he ever saw Philip doing.  We teach the miraculous gifts have ceased because the authority to confer them was reserved to the apostles alone, and when the apostles were no longer here, the gifts were no longer given.

Extended Their Ministry

When the apostles conferred these gifts to others, it not only affirmed their apostleship, it also extended their ministry.  In the absence of the completed New Testament, such gifts served to “establish” congregations.  Paul wrote the Roman brethren that he wanted to visit them “that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established” (Rom. 1:11).  This did not mean “establish” in the sense of beginning, but to more fully assist them in being all that the Lord wanted.  (Do not overlook the implication that Paul would have to be there in person to impart these spiritual gifts, which could only be done by the imposition of apostolic hands.)

This purpose is in view in Ephesians 4:7-16 where what was given to the apostles and their fellow workers was said to be “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (vv. 11-12).  But the text goes on to show that miraculous endowments were intended only “till” their purpose was completed (v. 13).  The following paraphrase by Macknight shows the thrust of the text:

The gifts were necessary in the infancy of the church to bring the plan of God to maturity, which he describes with the metaphor of a “full grown man” (ASV).  In the completed revelation the church is fully formed.  We teach that miraculous gifts have ceased because the New Testament provides a perfect pattern and nothing miraculous is needed either to amend the plan or to confirm that it is from God.  To say otherwise would be to deny that we have a perfect revelation.

Gifts to Cease

The 12th chapter of I Corinthians lists various gifts and discusses their place in the church, especially emphasizing that they are intended for harmony, not division.  Then in chapter 13 Paul continues by showing that love is far superior to any of the gifts.  In pressing the point, he names three of them, as typical of the rest, and declares plainly that a time would come when their purpose would be ended.  “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge [miraculous knowledge, I Cor. 12:8],  it shall vanish away” (I Cor. 13:8).  In verse 13, he adds faith and hope to charity as things that would “abide” (continue) after the miraculous gifts had ceased.  He is not, of course, pointing to the heavenly state as when the gifts would cease because there will be no place for hope in heaven (Rom. 8:24-25).  Instead he is pointing to a time in the Christian dispensation when the gifts would “fail,” “cease” and “vanish away.”

This would be when their purpose was completed.  These gifts had the purpose of  receiving and confirming divine knowledge.  At that time revelation was not complete.  “For we know in part and we prophesy in part.”  When this was written the gifts were still needed.  But when revelation would no longer be “in part,”  when it would be compete (“perfect”), “then” the gifts would cease.  “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away” (v. 10).  The time when gifts would cease is specifically stated.  It was “then”—when prophecy was not longer “in part.”  “Then” the need for the gifts would be finished.

Paul illustrates the reasonableness of this by the fact that a man reaching maturity no longer has a need for “childish things” (v. 11).  The gifts were needed during the developing, childhood, phase of revelation, but when their purpose was finished, it would be unreasonable for them to continue.  This is analogous to the metaphor of the “full grown man” we found in Ephesians 4:13.  In a second illustration he compares the period when the New Testament was yet “in part,” not complete, to seeing only a dim reflection in a mirror.  But the time would come when one could look “face to face,” fully, at the revealed plan of God (v. 12).  In his third illustration he again refers to the “in part” state of revelation (“I know in part”) and points to the time when one could “know fully” (ASV), as surely “as also I am known.” This does not refer to one’s intellectual grasp of the revelation, rather to the revelation itself.  During the lifetime of the apostles “all truth” was revealed (John 16:13).  There is nothing more that God intends for us to know.

We teach that miraculous gifts have ceased because we have the plain Bible declaration that they would cease.  They were needed while revelation was incomplete, but no longer needed when the New Testament was in place.  To teach otherwise would be to contradict the Bible.[v]

Endnotes:
[i] Is it not logical that if some miraculous gifts are still with us, it should follow that all of them would be?  Yet those who claim certain gifts usually ignore others.  Those who claim the gifts often cite Mark 16:17-18 as authority for tongues and healing, but except for a few fanatics, they want no part of the snakes and poison.

[ii] Mormons, and a few other cults and sects,  claim to have apostles, but unlike the true apostles they were not chosen directly by Christ, are not eyewitnesses of Christ, do not have inspired memory, are not guided into all truth, and can make no valid claim of the signs of an apostle.

[iii] Everett Ferguson, The Church of Christ, (Grand Rapids:Wm. B. Eerdman’s Pub. Co., 1996), p. 306.

[iv] James Macknight, Apostolical Epistles, (reprint, Nashville: Gospel Advocate Co., 1954), loc. cit.

[v] The last chapter of The Book of Mormon copies portions of I Corinthians 12 regarding spiritual gifts and then brazenly contradicts the Bible: “. . . all of these gifts . . . never will be done away, even as long as the world shall stand . . .”  However, what Mormons contradict in their “scripture” others contradict in their claims, when they say they still have the gifts.
 

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