In my previous post on the gifts of the Spirit, I emphasized my concerns with much of the Charismatic movement. I did make clear that I did not believe that all Charismatics believed in what I was writing, but that what is happening can be found often in a Charismatic church.

I also heavily emphasized the greatest gift–love. As I expected, that was well received by all readers, and the true mission of the post had been accomplished. But, as I also anticipated a negative response to my view that the gifts of prophecy, knowledge, and tongues had ceased. It was evident in most of the comments.

The HippoCritic started by saying, “1 Cor 13:8 is clearly about gifts ceasing in the context of the return of Christ. To make any inference that gifts cease some point prior to this is purely conjecture. There may be other scriptures to back up a essationist view, but 1 Corinthians 13 isn’t one of them.”

Kirk joined in with her objections, “If tongues and prophesy have ceased, why did Paul tell us how to use them? If they were only for the apostolic age, why did he not write a letter concerning these things for the people at that time and not worry about putting it in for us ages down who don’t need to see it? Another thing, Romans 12:6-8 mentions prophesy along with ministry, teaching, exorting, giving, leading, and showing mercy. Why would Paul mention a gift we cannot have with ones we can unless, suppose some of us do have a gift of prophesy (by which I mean God shows us things not as he did the prophets of the old testament but like Agabus [Acts 21:10-11] who prophesied but not infallibly).”

SecDef chimed in and reiterated the HippoCritic by asking, “When do the gifts cease? According to Ephesians 4, there will be Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, and Pastors and Teachers…UNTIL (key word) the Body of Christ reaches maturity and unity in the faith. Has the Church reached that point yet? No.”

He continued by saying that “If we are to no longer prophesy or speak in tongues, then we must reject the rest of the gifts also (evangelism, mercy, healing, etc.).”

It’s evident that what finally needs to be presented is a better defense of the cessationist viewpoint. But before I present these defenses from various sources, I want to make it clear that I look at this discussion as I look at the Calvinist vs. Arminist debate. It truly does not affect our salvation, unless you are a hyper-Charismatic, or believe that speaking in tongues is essential to salvation.

But I digress. Let’s look at the cessationist viewpoint in more detail.

Here’s one source:

Without a doubt, tongues, prophecies, and knowledge are going to disappear, which leads to your question of when. The answer, as you pointed out, is in verse 10. However, you misunderstand what Paul is referring to when he writes “that which is perfect.”

Going back to the original Greek in which the letter was written, the word “perfect” in verse 10 means “complete” rather than “without blemish” (Christ). So the meaning is “When that which is [complete] is come, that which is in part will be done away.” Notice the parallelism of the sentence when this definition of “perfect” is used.

It is important to remember the reason for spiritual gifts in the 1st place: They were given as aids to the Christians who otherwise would not have had access to the teachings of Christ, other than whatever they could remember from the teachings of the person who had baptized them. However, this was an incomplete solution, and the Lord knew that. So He set limits on the duration of the gifts: only the Apostles could pass a spiritual gift on to another person. That person could not pass the gift to anyone else (Acts 8:13-24).

By the time the last people to have the gifts were dead or dying, most if not all of the New Testament had been recorded. It was at that point that “that which is in part” was done away because “that which is perfect” had come. When the New Testament arrived, there was no longer a need for the spiritual gifts.

Another interesting look at it comes from this source:

“Tongues “Will Cease”
In I Corinthians 13:8 Paul made an interesting, almost startling, statement: “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away – if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.” In the expression “love never fails,” the Greek word translated “fails” means “to decay” or “to be abolished.” Paul was not saying that love in invincible or that it cannot be rejected. He was saying that love is eternal – that it will be applicable forever and will never be pass. Tongues, however, “will cease.” The Greek verb used in I Corinthians 13:8 means “to cease permanently,” and implies that when tongues ceased, they would never start up again.

Here is the question that this passage poses for the contemporary charismatic movement: if tongues were supposed to cease, has that already happened, or is it yet future? Charismatic believers insist that none of the gifts have ceased yet, so the cessation of tongues is yet future. Most non-charismatics insist that tongues have already ceased, passing away with the apostolic age. Who is right?

It should be noted that 1 Corinthians 13:8 itself does not say when tongues were to cease. Although I Corinthians 13:910 reaches that prophecy and knowledge will cease when the “perfect” (i.e., the eternal state) comes, the language of the passage – particularly the middle voice of the Greek verb translated “will cease”- puts tongues in a category apart from these gifts. Paul writes that while prophecy and knowledge will be “done away” (passive voice) by “the perfect,” the gift of tongues “will cease” in and of itself (middle voice) prior to the time that “the perfect” arrives. When did this cessation of tongues take place? The evidence of Scripture and history indicate that tongues ceased in the apostolic age.”

Sounds similar to what I’ve said before.

And finally, I believe this source that I found was extremely interesting:

“Verses 8-12 state that such gifts would some day cease to exist, and that such would happen “when the perfect comes.” According to Thayer’s lexicon, the word “perfect” is from the Greek word teleios (actually to teleion, neuter gender) which means something that is “brought to its end, finished; wanting nothing necessary to completeness; perfect.”

It is suggested by some that this “completion” or “perfect” refers to the second coming of Christ (thus allowing for the gift of tongues, etc. to continue until the end of time). However, such would ultimately contradict what Paul says later in this chapter. Not only does he speak of gifts that will cease, but also of three gifts that will abide: faith, hope, and love (v13). Surely a gift that will abide has to last longer than a gift that will cease. However, the Bible teaches that faith and hope will, in fact, one day cease, when faith becomes sight and when hope is realized at the return of Christ. Love, the greatest of gifts, not only is abiding, but eternal.

Since faith and hope will cease at the return of Christ, and these are referred to as gifts that abide, the gifts that will cease (prophecy, knowledge, tongues) MUST cease prior to the return of Christ. This in itself does not say exactly when, but it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the miraculous gifts must cease PRIOR to the return of Christ, not AT the return of Christ.

Looking again to v8-12, the context of the passage itself dictates what is being completed. Paul said in verse 10, “When the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” What was partial? The answer to that is in verse 9: “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.” At the time Paul wrote these words, their knowledge and understanding of God’s will was only partial. God was still revealing His will to the relatively-infant church through the Holy Spirit who was inspiring the apostles in their teaching. It was therefore apparently God’s intention that such miraculous gifts would continue throughout the time of the apostles, and that these miraculous gifts would thus pass away as the apostles themselves would pass away.

History does seems to support this in that there was little or no mention of such in the 2nd century and beyond. Philip Shaff, in his renowned work History of the Christian Church, appears to represent the majority of scholarship when he spoke of “the miraculous gifts of the apostolic church, which gradually disappeared as Christianity became settled in humanity, and its supernatural principle was naturalized on earth” (Vol. 2, p423).”

If you want more information you’ll need to visit Adrian Warnock’s site, or better yet, visit the Pyromaniac. The main source of links can also be found here.