Concerning "sign Gifts" or "Apostolic Gifts"--Does the BIble Really Teach Cessationism?

It is true that the Bible contains all that we need for life and godliness, but it is not biblical to take a cessationists viewpoint that some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit no longer exist because the Bible has been translated into our language. How does that help the rest of the world who doesn't have the Bible yet in their language? The gift of tongues was always a gift in the Bible used in evangelism for cross-cultural ministry when the Lord sent his apostles (the "sent" ones) to places that spoke other languages and the apostles didn't need years of language school because the Holy Spirit either allowed the apostles to miraculously speak to the people in their native tongue or for the people to hear the apostles preaching the gospel to them in their native tongue.
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Jesus never refused to heal anyone that came to Him for healing and He asked them, "What do you want me to do for you?" It was clear to some people that came to Him that they had a deeper need to be spiritually healed, but others only cared about Him on a surface level of wanting Him to heal their disease or infirmity, or cast out the demons that were living in them. These signs that accompanied the message were particularly important to the Jewish people as they were told to test a prophet by asking for signs and there is still a place for such gifts to accompany the gospel (not apart from the gospel) to point people to Christ. The same one who has the power to cause the lame to walk, the blind to see and the dead to be raised can be at work within us to heal our souls and make all things new.

We know that the Lord still gives visions and dreams in parts of the world to people He is preparing to hear the gospel or sometimes to those who refuse to read His Word and this is the time when He can speak to them and they can't refuse to listen. No dream or vision should contradict what is already revealed in Scripture and we should not be looking for something "new" and "fresh," but instead is a tool that the Spirit uses to connect missionaries with those that they are being sent to (Like Paul's call to go to Macedonia).

Words of prophecy (if we know what prophesy actually is) are encouraged in Scripture in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Prophecy is professing what the Lord has already spoken and speaking authoritatively saying "Thus says the LORD." Most of the time this means quoting Scripture. The gift of prophecy is not about fortune-telling. That is the demonic twisting of this gift. It is true that God sometimes reveals to a prophet what is going to happen in the future, but it is for the purpose of calling His people to repentance and for the sake of the gospel. Hopefully you see a theme here that all these spiritual gifts when used biblically are used to advance the gospel and to bring our attention to Jesus (not to ourselves and not even to the Spirit).

Putting ourselves in a position where we teach that certain gifts of the Spirit no longer exist is hard to support biblically. The closest we're going to get there is 1 Corinthians 13:8-10, "8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away." Two schools of thought here is that the "perfect" has already come in the form of the canon of Scripture being closed (the viewpoint of the original poster) and that all these gifts that Paul lists in this passage have therefore ceased. However, there's a problem with that as we see that in the end times (after the canon of Scripture has been closed) we are told that "your young men will have visions and your old men will dream dreams" (Joel 2:28) and we see in the book of Revelation that the Lord sends two prophets to the people whose message is accompanied by signs and wonders. That creates some serious problems for the "just read your Bible" crowd.  Another school of thought says that everything today is still the same as it was in the days of Jesus and the early Church and that we should be expecting to experience these "sign gifts" all the time and some even go the extreme of saying that this is the only way to validate that someone has really been saved.  I feel like both of these viewpoints are ditches on the side of the road that we can slide into if we take one extreme or the other.  As my friend Shawn said when I showed him what I was writing this article, I'm not a 0 or a 10, but somewhere between a 4 to a 7.  Ideally, I'd try to take my lead from what the Bible does say--not what it doesn't say, and not what I want it to say, but what it actually says.  That being said, I think that the Bible gives some good "guardrails" on this topic (which is the next major topic I'll discuss).

I'd say the "perfect" that is coming is the New Heaven and the New Earth that we see at the end of the Book of Revelation.  No one will need to be convicted of sin, so there will be no more need for prophecy.  No one will need to be taught anything, because God will cause us to know everything we are to know.  We will not need the gift of tongues because we will all be able to understand each other and there will be no one else to share the gospel with.  However, we will love each God and each other completely and be loved by Him completely.  Now to those "guardrails" we were talking about that help us understand how the Spirit uses these gifts both in the past and today..

If you have access to the Word of God, and you aren't reading and studying it, shame on you. It contains all that you need for life and godliness and has the very words of life. If you have access to the Word of God as a Christian and aren't speaking it, singing it and sharing it in every way possible with everyone around you (even those who are brothers and sisters in Christ), shame on you, because it should be at the center of everything we say and do. If you have access to the Word of God, say that you believe it and are living a life that contradicts your message, double shame on you--the Bible clearly says that such a person who lives in a way where they are clearly controlled by the flesh and not by the Spirit needs to examine themselves (and be judged by the Church through church discipline) to see if they are really saved, and the Spirit and Bride (the Church) say "Come" while there is still time to repent and believe. Read, study, and live in such a way that the Word of God is at work in you and through you, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to bring glory to Father and the Son for the gospel that they planed and carried out, and to make you look more and more like Jesus every day. If the Spirit chooses to do that with gifts of wisdom, discernment, prophecy, tongues, or healing, so be it. If the Spirit does that with gifts of administration, teaching, preaching, exhortation, mercy, giving, or any of the other gifts listed in Scripture, so be it. I know that the Spirit has equipped me with every gift necessary for the work that has been prepared for me in Christ Jesus and refuse to covet someone else's gift nor to be upset with the Lord for giving me a gift that I do not want. He is the giver of every good and perfect thing and if He gave it me, it's for me to use for the ministry that He has called me to.

I hope this adds to the discussion from my blog post recently which touched on some of this. https://www.danielwestfall.com/.../saving-faith-leads-to.... Specifically, my friend William Rhebergen deserves a full and complete answer to my position here as this is conversation not easily had by text message.

Last, but not least, remember to test the sprits as we are told to do in 1 John 4. Not every spirit that claims to be of God is of God and the demons have been empowered to do signs and wonders as well to trick and deceive those whose hearts have been hardened. We cannot assume just because we see or hear something miraculous that it is the work of the Spirit--that is why I tried to hammer the point home throughout this that the Sprit makes us focus on the Son and specifically on the gospel. If you see signs and wonders that point people to the person performing them, the sprit by which the signs are performed, to doctrine contrary to the Word of God, to material outside the Bible that one is claiming to be Scripture or equal to Scripture, or is professing a false gospel either by words or by lifestyle, then that miraculous sign should not be attributed to the work of the Spirit of God. That is a judgment that Bible commands us to make and says that sometimes our faith will be tested by God allowing those who claim to be genuine by have a false message to do these things to see if we'll evaluate their words and their lifestyle through the lens of Scripture.