ARE THE 9 HOLY SPIRIT GIFTS (PROPHECY, TONGUES, HEALING ETC.) VALID TODAY?

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Welcome! We hope this finds you and your family doing well. Within the Body of Christ, there is considerable division on a number of fronts, and the number of fronts of division appears to be growing.  One issue that has existed for centuries is the disagreement as to whether the 9 Holy Spirit gifts per 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 (prophecy, tongues, healing etc.) ended with the early church over 1,900 years ago, or remain valid today.  The cost of the division itself has been and continues to be major, but is just part of the cost.

 

I suggest an even larger cost is being incurred by the camp that is wrong. If the “Continuationist” camp (notably Charismatics and Pentecostals who believe the gifts remain valid today) is wrong, then how much of what has gone on and is going on today in this camp is of the devil, is fake, psychosomatic etc.? I suggest a great deal.  And if the “Cessationist” camp (those who believe the gifts ended with the early church) is wrong, then how many millions of blessings are being foregone each and every day through non-delivery of gifts of healing, prophetic words, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, gifts of faith, discernment of spirits etc. to the many believers in this camp?  Furthermore, how much of an additional cost will be borne by leaders and teachers of the camp that have taught what was wrong and contributed to the major costs borne by those they influenced? After all, per James 3:1, aren’t teachers held to a higher standard?
 

To many of us lay people, this division is rather confusing as God is not the author of confusion, and yet there are many accomplished, Jesus-loving theologians and many tens/hundreds of millions of believers on opposite sides of the issue. In my research, a major contributing factor as to why this division continues is that people in general, believers and non-believers alike, tend to be much more loyal to current beliefs than we are to seeking the truth.  Many, perhaps even most of us humans, are unwilling to objectively look at evidence that contradicts our beliefs on a wide variety of topics, not the least of which is politics and faith. And this misguided commitment to beliefs is - in my view - a major reason why this Cessationist vs Continuationist divide has gone on for centuries.  Moreover, given beliefs are greatly influenced by one’s family, it is also why - in so many cases - we have situations of ‘once a Baptist, almost always a Baptist’,  or ‘once a Pentecostal, almost always a Pentecostal’, or ‘once a Catholic, almost always a Catholic’, or ‘once a Muslim, almost always a Muslim’ etc ... unless God says otherwise!
 

My 4 books originated because of this divide and provide new evidence and insights on the issue of whether the 9 gifts ended with the early church or not.  A few examples:

cessationist Argument #1:  Cessationists and Continuationists alike agree that the 9 Holy Spirit gifts are active from Acts 2 through to Acts 21. Cessationists, however, contend that there is noticeable decline in Acts 22-28 which is cited as evidence that the 9 gifts were on the way to ending.

     ConflictinG EVIDENCE: In Cessationist commentaries on this issue, I have seen many general commentaries, but I have never seen actual counts on the number of times where 1 of the 9 Holy spirit gifts is being used in the book of Acts.  I’m a numbers kind of guy, and thus I completed numerical counts of the number of times each of these Holy Spirit gifts was used in each chapter of Acts. I then totaled the counts for each chapter and examined the chapter total counts in 4 different ways. The result: the analysis shows no reasonable justification that the gifts were on the decline. In fact, the numerical analysis shows the gifts were on the increase as Acts come to a close.

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cessationist Argument #2:  A second Cessationist argument is that the books following Acts do not make much mention of specific usage of the gifts. As a result, that is viewed as additional evidence that the gifts ended with the early church. 

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      ConflictinG EVIDENCE:   I agree with Cessationists is that there is minimal mention of specific gifts being used in the books after Acts. But there is much more to this story. 

To begin, this second argument is related to the first argument in that both arguments inherently believe there is a direct correlation between the frequency of mention of the gifts being used in the Bible and the frequency of actual occurrence of the gifts. The more the gifts are mentioned, the more the gifts were in use. The less the gifts are mentioned, the less the gifts were in use. And no mention of the gifts being used means the gifts were no longer in use, or if in use, to a minimal extent.
 

To analyze the evidence in the other New Testament books after Acts, I excluded Revelation as it is such a controversial book. The remaining 21 books (27 New Testament books less the 4 Gospels, Acts & Revelation) were examined.  While the standard Cessationist analysis views 21 books as 'the books following Acts", my approach examined the 21 books according to when they were written.  

At least 4 books - James, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians were written between the events of Acts 2 (Pentecost) and Acts 19-21 (Paul’s travels to Ephesus and surrounding areas). These 4 books were written at a time when Cessationists agree the gifts were in full operation. Consequently - according to the Cessationist argument - there should be frequent mention of the gifts being used in these 4 books.  Yet, there is not one mention of a specific Holy Spirit gift being used in these 4 books. As a result - to me - this shows there is no direct correlation between frequency of occurrence of the gifts and frequency of mention of gifts, and thus lack of mention of the gifts in the other 17 books is not a reliable indicator that the gifts were decreasing and on their way to cessation.

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cessationist Argument #3: A third commonly held Cessationist reason for believing the gifts ended over 1,900 years ago is that there were only 2 key reasons as to why the 9 Holy Spirit gifts came into being:

1. help prove Jesus was the Messiah; and

2. help powerfully launch the gospel.

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With these 2 purposes completed by the early church, the Cessationist camp contends the 9 Holy Spirit gifts including prophecy and tongues were no longer needed.

     ConflictinG EVIDENCE:  My review of New Testament scriptures showed there were many other reasons for the 9 Holy Spirit gifts including the following:

1. make it easier to share the gospel, and to spread the gospel;

2. confirm God’s Word;

3. glorify God;

4. provide signs for believers and unbelievers;

5. demonstrate the power of the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth;

6. demonstrate and using authority over demons;

7. show God’s compassion;

8. send specific people a warning message; and

9. provide general forewarnings.

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Isn’t there value in seeing these gifts used today to bless God’s kingdom in the above 10 (1 + 9) ways?  I suggest there is.

cessationist Argument #4: Another Cessationist argument is tied to the issue of “Sufficiency of Scripture” which - in very general terms - contends that all that believers need from God today (outside of God meeting our prayer requests) can be found in His Word, and that no born-again believer personally hears from God today. As a result, when a born-again believer claims they hear from God personally, or they claim they received a Holy Spirit gift in the form of a prophecy, tongue, interpretation of a tongue, word of knowledge or word of wisdom, they are not hearing from God.

    ConflictinG EVIDENCE:  To some extent, I agree with this Cessationist view.  Without a doubt, I believe there are many people who claim to hear from God today but who do not actually hear from God.  God’s word is clear there will be many false teachers, false prophets etc.  However, consider the book of 1 Corinthians which was written somewhere around 55AD, ~25 years after the cross, ~25 years after the events at Pentecost. At the time this book was written - according to the Cessationist point of view - the original apostles and prophets, and other early church believers who were given the privilege of operating in these roles and the 9 Holy Spirit gifts had been doing so for many years with the exception of perhaps the 12 disciples at Ephesus in Acts 19 who only began to speak in tongues and prophesy a few years before Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.
 

The end result is that at the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians - in fact years before Paul wrote 1 Corinthians - no other believers were given not would ever be given the privilege of operating in these 9 gifts, or functioning in the role of a prophet or an apostle. Given that, consider the following verses in 1 Corinthians.

"RULES" GIVEN TO MEN & WOMEN FOR Using the 9 Holy Spirit gifts / "rules" for ProphetS

1. 1 Corinthians 11:4 Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. 5 But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.

2. 1 Corinthians 14:29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.

3. 1 Corinthians 14:23 Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?

4. 1 Corinthians 14:13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue is to pray that he may interpret.

5. 1 Corinthians 14:26 What is the outcome then, brothers and sisters? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things are to be done for edification.

6. 1 Corinthians 14:27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, it must be by two or at the most three, and each one in turn, and one is to interpret;

7. 1 Corinthians 14:32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; 33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.  As in all the churches of the saints,

By the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, isn’t it reasonable to think the original apostles and limited number of other early believers who were given the privilege of operating in the gifts already knew these rules?  And thus - why did Paul give instructions on how to use the gifts if (i) everybody involved in these gifts already knew the rules, (ii) such gifts only had a matter of years left before they were totally finished and (iii) at the time Paul wrote these verses, he would have known that no other believers would be given the ability to operate in these gifts?
 

Similarly, given (i) there were very few believers who were given this role of prophet after Pentecost, (ii) given no more believers would be given this role (iii) given it would have been very rare that 2 of these prophets would be together in locations such as Corinth, and (iv) given Paul knew there would be no more prophets, why would Paul include such instructions on the proper functioning of prophets?

On the other hand, if the gifts and the role of prophet did not end with the early church, would inclusion of such rules be totally understandable?

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Encouragement to Use the Holy Spirit gifts

1. 1 Corinthians 14:39 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.

2. 1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

3. 1 Corinthians 14:5 Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.

4. 1 Corinthians 14:31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted;

5. 1 Corinthians 14:39 Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues.

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If the gifts ended with the original apostles and/or earliest believers, why is Paul encouraging believers at Corinth (and by extension the hundreds of thousands of other believers living elsewhere at that time - and the hundreds of millions of believers living today) to pursue the gifts such as prophesy?  And why does Paul write that all can prophesy - if they couldn’t back then and we can’t today? And why was the command put in scripture not to forbid another believer from speaking in tongues? Were ordinary believers at Corinth or elsewhere known to be forbidding the apostles and other early church believers who spoke in tongues not to do so?  Or were tongues to continue as part of the regular Christian life and not to be forbidden because of their uniqueness?

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False Prophets / Testing the Spirits

1. 2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

2. 1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

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If prophets and prophecies ended with the early church, wouldn’t all valid prophets and prophecies be done by the time Peter and John wrote these verses? And thus, for all intents and purposes, wouldn’t all future prophecies and prophets thereafter not be of God - and must be false? And if so, why did they tell believers to test to see what was false?  Why didn’t John and Peter simply say that all future prophets and prophecies would be false and to ignore them?  Was testing required because there would be both valid and false prophets and prophecies?

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If you’re a Cessationist or Continuationist, a Protestant or a Roman Catholic, please know I care for all people in all such camps. (Ok, confession. I may like some of you less than others but that’s a different story. And God tells us to love all, not to like all doesn’t he?)  If you are 100% committed to your beliefs on matters of faith, and no one can change your mind on anything no matter what, then my books are probably not for you, and I pray God blesses you and your family radically.
 

Also please know I don’t engage in criticizing or attacking individuals, or addressing the misbehaviors of individuals or organizations.  Having said that, please also know that Ceased? and my 3 Points to Ponder do not avoid ‘hard to hear’ truths in God’s Word, nor do I do a politically correct dance around issues so no one’s feelings get hurt.  Scriptures, questions and other considerations are presented that will conflict with views of people in many different denominations and groups including Protestant Charismatics, Pentecostals and Cessationists, and Roman Catholic Charismatics and mainline Catholics. Such material may be upsetting, but please know such information is provided with the intent of helping readers make up their own minds as to some key truths in God’s Word so they can walk more fully in the blessings, love and power of God. 

Lori and I pray Ceased?, the 3 Points to Ponder books and/or the 2 Lists of 50 Questions will be a blessing to you, to your family, and to those you influence and do life with.