I think if you look at I Corinthians 13 and Paul's statement in verses 9 and 10, he says, "For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete. But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will be done away with." (ISV). Other versions say, "but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.". It certainly speaks of our future in Heaven when we shall know as we are even known. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary says:
All things are dark and confused now, compared with what they will be hereafter. They can only be seen as by the reflection in a mirror, or in the description of a riddle; but hereafter our knowledge will be free from all obscurity and error. It is the light of heaven only, that will remove all clouds and darkness that hide the face of God from us. To sum up the excellences of charity, it is preferred not only to gifts, but to other graces, to faith and hope. Faith fixes on the Divine revelation, and assents thereto, relying on the Divine Redeemer. Hope fastens on future happiness, and waits for that; but in heaven, faith will be swallowed up in actual sight, and hope in enjoyment. There is no room to believe and hope, when we see and enjoy. But there, love will be made perfect. There we shall perfectly love God. And there we shall perfectly love one another. Blessed state! how much surpassing the best below! God is love, 1Jo 4:8,16. Where God is to be seen as he is, and face to face, there charity is in its greatest height; there only will it be perfected.
But it is also speaking of the complete revelation of God. Supernatural prophets are not needed once God's revelation is complete. However, in verse 8, Paul says, "Love never fails. Now if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with." (ISV) The God's Word Translation says it, "Love never comes to an end. There is the gift of speaking what God has revealed, but it will no longer be used. There is the gift of speaking in other languages, but it will stop by itself. There is the gift of knowledge, but it will no longer be used." I think the hangup is in thinking that all these things have to happen at the same time, which it doesn't say, or in thinking the meaning may only be speaking of one type as many Bible teachings do. In Barne's Notes on the Bible, he addresses the sense of these things ceasing to be useful, "The sense is, that while other endowments of the Holy Spirit must soon cease and he valueless, love would abide, and would always exist. The "argument" is, that we ought to seek that which is of enduring value; and that, therefore, love should be preferred to those endowments of the Spirit on which so high a value had been set by the Corinthians."
What is interesting is he goes on further to say:
There be tongues - The power of speaking foreign languages. They shall cease - Macknight supposes this means that they shall cease in the church after the gospel shall have been preached to all nations. But the more natural interpretation is, to refer it to the future life; since the main idea which Paul is urging here is the value of love above all other endowments, from the fact that it would be "abiding," or permanent - an idea which is more certainly and fully met by a reference to the future world than by a reference to the state of things in the church on earth. If it refers to heaven, it means that the power of communicating thoughts there will not be by the medium of learned and foreign tongues. What will be the mode is unknown. But as the diversity of tongues is one of the fruits of sin Genesis 11, it is evident that in those who are saved there will be deliverance from all the disadvantages which have resulted from the confusion of tongues. Yet love will not cease to be necessary; and love will live forever.
I believe it is relevant that the manifestation of speaking in unknown languages/tongues DID cease. The early church fathers barely mentioned it and some even did say it was no longer there. It HAS only been in the last few centuries that a new "movement" has occurred and is markably different than that of the first century. Just like the miraculous gift of healing - which the Apostles demonstrated - ceased with them. Gifts of Healings (special healers) and Tongues - shall cease - The miraculous gift of different languages, that soon shall cease, as being unnecessary as would Healers, because the Gospel would be confirmed not by signs and wonders of preachers of the Gospel but by the power and authority of God's word - which changes hearts.
WOW....doesn't that just nail it!
Yes exactly......and that makes perfect sense to believers because it's written that with these end-times false Christs and false prophets will appear and 'perform' signs and miracles to deceive ....and there will be MANY of them and MANY who believe these.
Matthew 24:11 states..." and MANY false prophets will appear and deceive MANY people."
and further stating...2 Thessalonians 2:9......" The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders."
So it is not hard to see these false teachers and prophets of our day are setting the stage for people to believe the anti-Christ who will perform such feats....they will already be wired to believe what he will perform for them.
One would wonder what possible reasoning they could do to not believe, since they are already well fed the counterfeit now.
2 Peter 2:1....states...." But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. ....They will SECRETLY introduce destructive heresies,..... even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
Here's another story of Copeland...
It was said of Copeland during one of his gatherings , while he was rambling on extensively in tongues and the crowd was all hyped up... that when another preacher began praying and going from one to the other the micophone picked up Copeland saying..."Take the mark of the beast".....but the people themselves were so wired up they weren't even listening to what was being said to them.
And that's one area of the charismatic movement which is so telling. Lots of show (the gifts) and little substance (fruit of the Spirit).
Jesus said that by their FRUIT you shall know them and even went as far as to say that for those who appeal to signs and wonders that were done in His name, that He never knew them. So clearly, the displays of power and the *miraculous* are no indication at all of spiritual life or growth.
What's that David said? Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.
Let me first say that due to the excesses and often problematic nature of discerning true vs. false (so-called) “sign gifts,” then part of me is more desirous to hold to the cessationist position. However, objective analysis on my part of the arguments pro and con would not allow me that position, and which conclusion I came to while still a part of a fundamental Baptist church in which the pressure was on to condemn all Pentecostals along with cults. And yet i hold many cessationists in high regard as often being the better preachers overall.
While as you can see, I do not sanction the untouchable status or extremes certain faith healers presume and teach, but neither can I give God a sabbatical rest from doing as he ever did (especially in Acts) in confirming his word with the supernatural attestation of miraculous signs and wonders, through His instruments, as promised. (Mk. 16:17,18)
The problem is such sign gifts can be fabricated or imitated by the devil who seeks to operate in the same level that God does. Thus the first three miracles of Moses were duplicated by magicians. Faced with such some choose to take the safe but somewhat sterile route, that of the disallowing all miracles, or at least those done through man. On the other extreme of those who open the door so wide that both souls of God as well as demons could work such in the church.
However, faced with evil, God through Moses overcame them with good in showing greater power, and and gave the law. God will never be outdone by the devil, and and provides good laws for the use of things.
And it is a gospel promise that "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. " (John 14:12)
While "greater" here can mean in quantity, usually afforded by having more than 3 1/2 years in which to do miracles and other works, and perhaps "he" (which actual word is not in the Greek), is in the general sense, the point is that the church of the living and true God is manifested to be such not simply in character but also by supernatural attestation, for God has confirmed his word through the ages with supernatural manifestations, without which we would not even have the Scriptures (people did not listen to Moses because he had the right credentials from college). And therefore, the early church "went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. " (Mark 16:20) .
While this supernatural attestation is indeed primarily through the preaching of "the Gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24b) which convicts souls of sin and righteousness and judgment, and which effects manifest regeneration by faith in the risen Christ to save them by his sinless shed blood, the gospel promises in the record of Acts extend beyond that.
While the most overt supernatural attestation can be seen being given to new revelation, as in the case of Moses and the Lord Jesus and Peter and Paul and the other apostles, yet the working of miracles was not restricted to the apostles (the deacons Philip and Stephen also did miracles), nor simply to instituting the new covenant, but in both Testaments the Lord confirmed His word with supernatural attestation, and by which truth is established, and not simply by proclamation. "For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. " (1 Corinthians 4:20) There is nothing that foretells that God would cease from doing as he ever did, and if we claim to be the New Testament church of the living God then we dare not put the book of Acts in a Museum.
Your argument that has God giving gifts in order to confirm His gospel but removing them as unnecessary because the Gospel is confirmed by the “sign and wonder” of the authority of God's word changing hearts, would also render the former class of supernatural attestation as unnecessary in the first century, as the gospel most certainly changed hearts then in manifest ways. But God giveth more grace.
The larger argument is that the New Testament, having being completed, then the attestation of signs and wonders was no longer needed or warranted. However, while we believe the New Testament is complete, yet apart from evidence the lost now are no more likely to be convinced of this or of the Divine inspiration of any of the Bible than the lost were that the words of Paul, etc. were inspired by God in his day.
Nor is it reasonable that the supernatural attestation which my be given in providing warrant for faith should be more restricted in scope or instrumentality than what the very Book we call them to believe testifies to.
In short, the supernatural attestation of both the changed life as well as other supernatural signs which are correspondent to the promises of Almighty God can be no less efficacious or needful today to the lost believer who is a seeker of truth, Especially in the light (or rather the darkness) of the pervasive plethora of persuasive perverted competing persuasions.
[It is true that those who will not hear Moses would not be persuaded even though one should rise from the dead. But this certainly does not mean that one must even know that there is an Old Testament out to be saved, as helpful as that would be, as seen in cases of Scripturally illiterate Gentiles in Acts, and in the light of Romans chapter 2, but it is needful that that they hear the truth given them, whatever essence of the law they had, and the words of the gospel, and such can be provided warrant to believe that gospel by supernatural Divine attestation.]
It it true that the cessationist rejection of gifts being given to men to work miracles does not disallow that God sovereignly can do miracles, yet not only does cessationism tend to foster little expectant faith that God would even sovereignly supernaturally heal etc., but this is a restriction that is more of a tradition of men than sound exegesis. The Holy Spirit says nothing in passages such as first Corinthians 12 which makes a distinction between other gifts and "sign gifts" as regards that the latter gifts are there only for limited time.
And thus the cessationist argument almost rests entirely upon first Corinthians 13 and the meaning of "that which is perfect." It is argued that the Greek word for “perfect” there is in the neuter and therefore cannot refer to Christ. However, I do not see it referring to Christ per se but to the perfect revelation of Christ. And as said, the characteristics which are to accompany the coming of that which is perfect do not fully correspond to what is realized with the completion of the New Testament Canon, but Scripturally this most easily is seen to refer to what will be realized with the coming of Christ.
It is also argued that that in the book of Acts we see less accounts of miracles in the latter chapters. However, this is due to the change in the narrative, from accounts of Paul's missionary activity as in chapter 19, in which "God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul," (Acts 19:11) to his latter captivity, which offered few occasions to do miracles. Yet, consistent with other , when such an occasion presented itself even in the last chapter of Acts Paul then we see exercising his gift to do miracles. (Acts 28:3-9)
As for the argument that little mention of miracle working is testified to by so-called “church fathers,” besides it being held that that we known only a small portion of what they all wrote, (and there is disagreement as to who they all were), yet a lack of the truly miraculous would be consistent with the slow spiritual declension of the church. Yet if the testimony of CFs is given weight in disallowing sign gifts in the post apostolic age, then it must be consistent, which it is not. It is said that,
“even Augustine of Hippo (a.D. 354- 430), who had originally adopted the view that miracles had ceased with the apostolic age, changed his opinion during the last two or three years of his life... A renowned twentieth-century specialist in Augustine, Peter Brown, stated that Augustine attempted to bring together various incidents of miracles "until they formed a single corpus, as compact and compelling as the miracles that had assisted the growth of the Early Church." http://www.grmi.org/Richard_Riss/evidences/37mir.html
Of course, not all miraculous claims are true or of God, for as said, the devil is an imitator, and having defended the perpetuity of all gifts as a doctrine, i will now say that I personally consider that perhaps most claims of the operation of these sign gifts today are falsely attributed or abused.
As regards the former I speak mainly as concerns claims to prophecy, almost all of which I have heard were false when predictive, or without substantiation as having been spoken before the claimed fulfillment, while the rest mostly sound contrived, taking the Lord's name in vain, tickling ears with promises of great blessings, revival and favor to a church that in reality desperately needs to hear more of James 4, in repentance and cleansing. Or unjustly condemning others in order to elevate themselves. However, I do believe God can give someone a word from him, though such does not have the level of authority of Scripture and it is subject to it.
I also think that even some cessationist have gifts such as the word of wisdom or discerning of spirits, even though they are not be aware that it is a a sign gift.
Claims of healings also often have a poor record of verification, yet I'm certain that God does heal through persons so gifted as well as sovereignly, and I myself have been the beneficiary of healing through the former. As for tongues, while I cannot say that most are false, rarely are they exercised after the biblical manner in an assembly.
Yet the fact that something is often fabricated or abused does not mean the genuine does not exist, or that the practice must necessarily be placed in suspension, as the Scriptural response to abuse seen in 1Cor. 14 was to institute regulations so that it may be efficacious.
Cessationists also challenge those who believe in the perpetuity of gifts with the question as to why they do not go to hospitals and heal all the sick that are therein. That seems like a valid question if the those who believe in the perpetuity of gifts believe that is God's will to always heal souls, in which itself is not as a true doctrine.
Some cessationists also argue that the church that had the most spiritual gifts was also most carnal, which is a very dangerous argument for it infers that spiritual gifts fosters carnality. But what it does show is as said before that charisms do to not equal character.
In summation, doctrinally i do not find that cessationist arguments (and i have not dealt with them all here) to be warranted, either in precept or in principle, and pray that God will do more, especially in the present skepticism and militant attacks on the faith, for in the face of such the early church prayed, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. " (Acts 4:29-30)
However, i myself am sadly hardly much of an example of a Pentecostal, yet i must oppose the abuse and excess and (worst of all) fabrications that so often characterizes such, to which leaders mainly will get an account. But while this effects a negative testimony of the gifts and the faith, and is Pentecostalism's own worst enemy, yet it is also true that, as regards excesses, it is the pot that boils over that gets the attention, and not the one that is not even simmering. That being the institutionalized church, which is easy to slip into unless we seek to live a life of faith in such a way that if the Holy Spirit was removed and God did not manifestly act then all would collapse or die. Otherwise it must resort to other means, from the sword of men to Bingo to other worldly ways and gimmicks and hype.
A Christian from a persecuted country is said to have wryly remarked after visiting America, “the one thing that amazed me about American Christians is the great things they can do without God.”
Thank you for considering the long explanation my understanding of this issue. May walk in the light that God gives us and our consecration keep pace with His revelation.