Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The comments in this segment refer to Chapter 21 of Batsell Barrett Baxter's book, The Family of God.  This chapter covers some important information about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as taught in the Bible, and what the position of the church should be.

First let me say that I believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit described in the New Testament were real and miraculous.  I believe that God has worked in miraculous ways at certain times, and that He has the power to do His will in miraculous ways at all times.  Yet, I do not believe that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are active in the church today.

I once had an extended discussion with someone who described my position on the matter as not believing in miracles.  I hope that by reading the paragraph above, you will see that I do.  So, how can someone who believes in what is written in the New Testament say that miracles have ceased?  Is it just a position we choose and then develop elaborate logic to defend it?  Do we have the Holy Spirit, as promised in Acts 2, or do we not?  And, if we do, why not the miraculous gifts?

The nine gifts are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.  In the very next chapter, 13:8-13, Paul says that they will be done away with, and other things will go on instead.  John, in John 20:30-31, shows their purpose, that we might believe in Jesus, and in believing have the abundant life.  The Christian who is educated by God through the Bible knows what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are, knows their purpose, and also knows when they were manifested.

There are only two sources of miraculous power in the church.  One is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which happened only twice and for a good purpose each time.  The second is the laying on of the apostles' hands.  As long as they were around they could provide other church members with miraculous abilities by laying on hands, but those people could not pass on the abilities.  Therefore, when the apostles were gone, the ability to pass on miraculous gifts disappeared.

1 Corinthians 13:8-11 shows that the miraculous gifts would cease, provided that we properly understand that "when the perfect comes" does not refer to the end time but refers to the establishment of the church in its maturity and the completion of the New Testament.  If you think it refers to the end time, then you see no reason why miraculous gifts should have ceased.

Yet, this passage only mentions a few of the gifts.  Also, it says that the manifestation of the gifts would cease, but life would go on and other things would be continued.  That can't be the end time.  For example, faith, hope, and love would remain, yet at the end time faith will be sight and hope will become realization.  There will be no need for faith and hope at the end time, but they will remain when the perfect comes, according to Paul's inspired and authoritative writing.

It is good to view miraculous gifts as a type of scaffolding for the church.  Once a building is complete, scaffolding is taken away, because it is no longer needed.  With the New Testament written and canonized and the church in fully complete existence, the scaffolding that is the miraculous gifts is no longer needed to point the way to Christ.

God has done other things like this.  He created a man, and then He created no more men.  After Adam and Eve, people reproduced and populated the earth.  He will not do the same thing for me that He did for Adam.  He caused Jesus to be born of a virgin, yet neither I nor anyone else has reason to think that he might have provided such a birth for us or would do it for our children.

Modern teaching on miraculous gifts varies from group to group, but God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor 14:33).  Christians should respect and revere the miraculous gifts, but all Christians should be of one mind that they have ceased.

Above all, we in the church need to fully and completely lay claim to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, in the measure that exists in all Christians, knowing that we are blessed not only with the hope of eternity, but with the wonderful blessings of today because we have the Holy Spirit working in our lives now and accomplishing many great things for us in the present time.  No one who claims to have miraculous powers can take that away from us.

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