The following article so significant for our day, is reprinted from a monthly publication, THE BANNER OF TRUTH.
The witness of so many leading preachers, theologians and commentators in the history of the disappearance of the miraculous gifts of the apostolic age is a factor of considerable importance, especially as among them were men mightily used of the Spirit to awaken Continents to faith in Christ, men who in no way could be charged with grieving the Holy Spirit.
John Chrysostom (c 347–407) writes in his commentary on spiritual gifts: “This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place” (Homilies on First Corinthians, Vol. XII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Hom. 29.2).
Augustine (354–430) writes: “In the earliest time the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spake with tongues, which they had not learned, ‘as the Spirit gave them utterance.’ These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, and to shew that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth-That thing was done for a betokening and it passed away” (“Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John,” Vol. VII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, VI, 10).
Thomas Watson writes in 1660: “Sure, there is as much need of ordination now as in Christ’s time and in the time of the apostles, there being then extraordinary gifts in the church which are now ceased” (The Beatitudes, 14).
John Owen writes in 1679: “Gifts which in their own nature exceed the whole power of all our faculties, that dispensation of the Spirit is long since ceased and where it is now pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as an enthusiastic delusion” (Works, IV, 518).
Matthew Henry writes on July 13, 1712: “The gift of tongues was one new product of the spirit of prophecy and given for a particular reason, that all nations might be brought into the church. These and other gifts of prophecy, being a sign, have long since ceased and been laid aside, and we have no encouragement to expect the revival of them; but, on the contrary, are directed to call the scriptures the more sure word of prophecy, more sure than voices from heaven; and to them we are directed to take heed, to search them, and to hold them fast, II Peter 1:29” (preface to Vol. IV of his Commentary vii).
Jonathan Edwards writes in 1738 that the extraordinary gifts were given: “in order to the founding and establishing of the church in the world. But since the canon of the Scripture has been completed, and the Christian Church fully founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased” (Charity and its Fruits, 29).
George Whitefield, because of his frequent testimony to the person and power of the Spirit of God, was charged with “enthusiasm” by some Church leaders and he was credited with believing that apostolic charismata were revived. This belief Whitefield firmly denied: “I never did pretend to these extraordinary operations of working miracles, Or speaking with tongues,” (“Answer to the Bishop of London,” Works IV, 9). For failing to distinguish the ordinary and extraordinary work of the Spirit and for considering both to have ceased he blamed the Bishop and clergy of Lichfield and Coventry, “who reckon the indwelling, and inward witnessing of, as also praying and preaching by the Spirit, among the karismata, the miraculous gifts conferred on the primitive church, and which have long since ceased” (“Second Letter to the Bishop of London,” Works, Vol. IV, 167). Whitefield’s friends also defended him from the same false charge. Joseph Smith, for example, Congregational pastor in South Carolina, wrote of the English evangelist: “He renounced aU pretences to the extraordinary powers and signs of apostleship, peculiar to the age of inspiration, and extinct with them” (In Preface to Sermons On Important Subjects, George Whitefield, 1825).
James Buchanan writes in 1843: “The miraculous gifts of the Spirit have long since been withdrawn. They were used for a temporary purpose. They were the scaffolding which God employed for the erection of a spiritual temple. When it was no longer needed the scaffolding was taken down, but the temple still stands, and is occupied by his indwelling Spirit; for, ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you’ [1 Cor. 3:16]” (The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, 34).
Charles Haddon Spurgeon in a number of sermons testifies to this same view. The apostles, he preached, were “men who were selected as witnesses because they had personally seen the Saviour—an office which necessarily dies out, and properly so, because the miraculous power also is withdrawn” (Met. Tab. Pulpit 1871 , Vol. 17, 178). And again, “Although we may not expect and need not desire the miracles which came with the gift of the Holy Spirit, so far as they were physical, yet we may both desire and expect that which was intended and symbolized by them, and we may reckon to see the like spiritual wonders performed among us at this day” (Met. Tab. Pulpit 1881, Vol. 27, 521). Again, “Those works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier miraculous gifts which have departed from us. The work of the Holy Spirit, by which men are quickened from their death in sin, is not inferior to part of the credentials of the Apostles as the authoritative agents of God in founding the Church. Their function thus confined them to distinctively the Apostolic Church and they necessarily passed away with it” (Miracles: Yesterday and Today, 6).
Arthur W. Pink writes in a book which appeared in 1970: “As there were offices extraordinary [apostles and prophets] at the beginning of our dispensation, so then were gifts extraordinary; and as successors were not appointed for the former, so a continuance was never intended for the latter. The gifts were dependent upon the officers. We no longer have the apostles with us and therefore the supernatural gifts [the communication of which was an essential part of ‘the signs of an apostle,’ II Cor. 12:121 are absent” (The Holy Spirit, 179).
Surely there is considerable significance for the Christian in the accumulation of testimony from men of this caliber who teach the same lesson over such a long period of time and who come from so many different denominational and cultural backgrounds. When to this is added the fact that no notable theologian or preacher before the 20th century ever made any claim to possess miraculous gifts or even to have witnessed them in his sphere of contacts· then this should certainly give us pause. The testimony of church history is that miraculous signs of the Spirit were a feature of the apostolic age. If they were intended to remain why did they disappear? If they are essential to the life of the Church why did they disappear? If they are essential to the life of the Church why were they withheld by God from his people? The answer is to be found here, that what the gifts of miracles and signs did in the history of redemption is now done in the history of the Church by the miraculous and self-authenticating Word of God.
The argument is sometimes raised that these gifts were not given because they were not “claimed.” But it must be stressed that God’s bestowal does not wait upon man’s request. God’s gifts are of grace that they might not he of works. Furthermore, throughout this century we have had large Pentecostal denominations all “claiming” these gifts with similar and conspicuous lack of achievement.
Occasionally the position outlined above is portrayed as teaching that there are no amazing providences, healings of the sick and deliverances from danger since the time of the apostles, and the recounting of such providences from dependable biographies or personal experience has been considered enough to destroy this position, but this is not what is being maintained. Of course there are amazing providences, and a consideration of the ministry of angels is much neglected by Cod’s people; the sick are healed and rich experiences of the Lord are the privilege of many believers. The main concern of historic Protestantism has centered upon miraculous gifts bestowcd upon men. What is contended for is a fir m opposition to a magical view of gifts. If a man has a gift for ministry he should be scrutinized by the church and the gift call be recognized and then exercised in the fellowship. The gifts bestowed upon Cod’s servants are subject to them; they arc not given one day and removed the next. Peter could stand up on the day of Pentecost and preach the Word; some days later he and John could pass a lame man at the gate of the Temple and simply give him his health without any conditions of a prior regimen of searching and self-emptying. Thus was manifested the gift of healing; it was exercised just as normally as the gift of the ministry of the Word, for the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. Today the preacher continually exercises his gift in the fellowship of the church as do the other elders and deacons. nut the Pentecostal view is (1) that no distinction should be drawn between the supernatural gifts of the Spirit and the more generic gifts, and (2) that until all the Apostolic gifts are functioning in an assembly as in N.T. times, there is no N.T. Church. There can be an agonizing and fruitless pursuit of the supernatural gifts. An ethos of permanent frustration may characterize such groups, relieved only by the excitement of an occasional unusual phenomenon and sustained by reports from situations 1000’s of miles away of the supposed presence and exercise of these gifts. Ecstatic utterances or tongues of course are about, but the writer’s own opinion is that it is impossible to demonstrate that these are one of the miraculous gifts spoken of in the N.T. A few ministries are cited as evidence of the existence and power of these gifts in building large congregations, but what is significant about the ministers involved is not the presence with them of miraculous gifts but their evident ability to preach the Word of God. They are usually intelligent able men at the height of their preaching powers ministering to churches in large urban centers. With such men in these places it is little wonder that there is growth.
Historic Protestantism has clearly recognized the cessation of the apostolate in the first century and so is basically committed to the principle of temporary gifts. It has also agreed that apostolic signs have ceased and one such characteristic of the signs of an apostle is the communication of supernatural gifts. It has also insisted on the cessation of revelation from God to man since Christ is the very climax of revelation. In the above I have simply sought to amplify and expound these various strands of teaching.
The witness of so many leading preachers, theologians and commentators in the history of the disappearance of the miraculous gifts of the apostolic age is a factor of considerable importance, especially as among them were men mightily used of the Spirit to awaken Continents to faith in Christ, men who in no way could be charged with grieving the Holy Spirit.
John Chrysostom (c 347–407) writes in his commentary on spiritual gifts: “This whole place is very obscure: but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place” (Homilies on First Corinthians, Vol. XII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Hom. 29.2).
Augustine (354–430) writes: “In the earliest time the Holy Ghost fell upon them that believed: and they spake with tongues, which they had not learned, ‘as the Spirit gave them utterance.’ These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, and to shew that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth-That thing was done for a betokening and it passed away” (“Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John,” Vol. VII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, VI, 10).
Thomas Watson writes in 1660: “Sure, there is as much need of ordination now as in Christ’s time and in the time of the apostles, there being then extraordinary gifts in the church which are now ceased” (The Beatitudes, 14).
John Owen writes in 1679: “Gifts which in their own nature exceed the whole power of all our faculties, that dispensation of the Spirit is long since ceased and where it is now pretended unto by any, it may justly be suspected as an enthusiastic delusion” (Works, IV, 518).
Matthew Henry writes on July 13, 1712: “The gift of tongues was one new product of the spirit of prophecy and given for a particular reason, that all nations might be brought into the church. These and other gifts of prophecy, being a sign, have long since ceased and been laid aside, and we have no encouragement to expect the revival of them; but, on the contrary, are directed to call the scriptures the more sure word of prophecy, more sure than voices from heaven; and to them we are directed to take heed, to search them, and to hold them fast, II Peter 1:29” (preface to Vol. IV of his Commentary vii).
Jonathan Edwards writes in 1738 that the extraordinary gifts were given: “in order to the founding and establishing of the church in the world. But since the canon of the Scripture has been completed, and the Christian Church fully founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased” (Charity and its Fruits, 29).
George Whitefield, because of his frequent testimony to the person and power of the Spirit of God, was charged with “enthusiasm” by some Church leaders and he was credited with believing that apostolic charismata were revived. This belief Whitefield firmly denied: “I never did pretend to these extraordinary operations of working miracles, Or speaking with tongues,” (“Answer to the Bishop of London,” Works IV, 9). For failing to distinguish the ordinary and extraordinary work of the Spirit and for considering both to have ceased he blamed the Bishop and clergy of Lichfield and Coventry, “who reckon the indwelling, and inward witnessing of, as also praying and preaching by the Spirit, among the karismata, the miraculous gifts conferred on the primitive church, and which have long since ceased” (“Second Letter to the Bishop of London,” Works, Vol. IV, 167). Whitefield’s friends also defended him from the same false charge. Joseph Smith, for example, Congregational pastor in South Carolina, wrote of the English evangelist: “He renounced aU pretences to the extraordinary powers and signs of apostleship, peculiar to the age of inspiration, and extinct with them” (In Preface to Sermons On Important Subjects, George Whitefield, 1825).
James Buchanan writes in 1843: “The miraculous gifts of the Spirit have long since been withdrawn. They were used for a temporary purpose. They were the scaffolding which God employed for the erection of a spiritual temple. When it was no longer needed the scaffolding was taken down, but the temple still stands, and is occupied by his indwelling Spirit; for, ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you’ [1 Cor. 3:16]” (The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, 34).
Charles Haddon Spurgeon in a number of sermons testifies to this same view. The apostles, he preached, were “men who were selected as witnesses because they had personally seen the Saviour—an office which necessarily dies out, and properly so, because the miraculous power also is withdrawn” (Met. Tab. Pulpit 1871 , Vol. 17, 178). And again, “Although we may not expect and need not desire the miracles which came with the gift of the Holy Spirit, so far as they were physical, yet we may both desire and expect that which was intended and symbolized by them, and we may reckon to see the like spiritual wonders performed among us at this day” (Met. Tab. Pulpit 1881, Vol. 27, 521). Again, “Those works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier miraculous gifts which have departed from us. The work of the Holy Spirit, by which men are quickened from their death in sin, is not inferior to part of the credentials of the Apostles as the authoritative agents of God in founding the Church. Their function thus confined them to distinctively the Apostolic Church and they necessarily passed away with it” (Miracles: Yesterday and Today, 6).
Arthur W. Pink writes in a book which appeared in 1970: “As there were offices extraordinary [apostles and prophets] at the beginning of our dispensation, so then were gifts extraordinary; and as successors were not appointed for the former, so a continuance was never intended for the latter. The gifts were dependent upon the officers. We no longer have the apostles with us and therefore the supernatural gifts [the communication of which was an essential part of ‘the signs of an apostle,’ II Cor. 12:121 are absent” (The Holy Spirit, 179).
Surely there is considerable significance for the Christian in the accumulation of testimony from men of this caliber who teach the same lesson over such a long period of time and who come from so many different denominational and cultural backgrounds. When to this is added the fact that no notable theologian or preacher before the 20th century ever made any claim to possess miraculous gifts or even to have witnessed them in his sphere of contacts· then this should certainly give us pause. The testimony of church history is that miraculous signs of the Spirit were a feature of the apostolic age. If they were intended to remain why did they disappear? If they are essential to the life of the Church why did they disappear? If they are essential to the life of the Church why were they withheld by God from his people? The answer is to be found here, that what the gifts of miracles and signs did in the history of redemption is now done in the history of the Church by the miraculous and self-authenticating Word of God.
The argument is sometimes raised that these gifts were not given because they were not “claimed.” But it must be stressed that God’s bestowal does not wait upon man’s request. God’s gifts are of grace that they might not he of works. Furthermore, throughout this century we have had large Pentecostal denominations all “claiming” these gifts with similar and conspicuous lack of achievement.
Occasionally the position outlined above is portrayed as teaching that there are no amazing providences, healings of the sick and deliverances from danger since the time of the apostles, and the recounting of such providences from dependable biographies or personal experience has been considered enough to destroy this position, but this is not what is being maintained. Of course there are amazing providences, and a consideration of the ministry of angels is much neglected by Cod’s people; the sick are healed and rich experiences of the Lord are the privilege of many believers. The main concern of historic Protestantism has centered upon miraculous gifts bestowcd upon men. What is contended for is a fir m opposition to a magical view of gifts. If a man has a gift for ministry he should be scrutinized by the church and the gift call be recognized and then exercised in the fellowship. The gifts bestowed upon Cod’s servants are subject to them; they arc not given one day and removed the next. Peter could stand up on the day of Pentecost and preach the Word; some days later he and John could pass a lame man at the gate of the Temple and simply give him his health without any conditions of a prior regimen of searching and self-emptying. Thus was manifested the gift of healing; it was exercised just as normally as the gift of the ministry of the Word, for the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. Today the preacher continually exercises his gift in the fellowship of the church as do the other elders and deacons. nut the Pentecostal view is (1) that no distinction should be drawn between the supernatural gifts of the Spirit and the more generic gifts, and (2) that until all the Apostolic gifts are functioning in an assembly as in N.T. times, there is no N.T. Church. There can be an agonizing and fruitless pursuit of the supernatural gifts. An ethos of permanent frustration may characterize such groups, relieved only by the excitement of an occasional unusual phenomenon and sustained by reports from situations 1000’s of miles away of the supposed presence and exercise of these gifts. Ecstatic utterances or tongues of course are about, but the writer’s own opinion is that it is impossible to demonstrate that these are one of the miraculous gifts spoken of in the N.T. A few ministries are cited as evidence of the existence and power of these gifts in building large congregations, but what is significant about the ministers involved is not the presence with them of miraculous gifts but their evident ability to preach the Word of God. They are usually intelligent able men at the height of their preaching powers ministering to churches in large urban centers. With such men in these places it is little wonder that there is growth.
Historic Protestantism has clearly recognized the cessation of the apostolate in the first century and so is basically committed to the principle of temporary gifts. It has also agreed that apostolic signs have ceased and one such characteristic of the signs of an apostle is the communication of supernatural gifts. It has also insisted on the cessation of revelation from God to man since Christ is the very climax of revelation. In the above I have simply sought to amplify and expound these various strands of teaching.