The Charismatic Gifts
THE CHARISMATIC GIFTS: THEIR USE, FUNCTION,AND CONTINUITY
Joseph Oliveri
Bible 364 - Acts
August 16, 2013
Introduction Their is much debate surrounding the use of the charismatic gifts in Acts. Many questions arise about how to use such gifts, and whether or not they can be used today in the first place. The debate regarding the continuation and the cessation of the spiritual gifts, the meaning of which we will clarify in a moment, is a relatively modern one. Although we read about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the early church of the New Testament, history is more or less silent on this issue. It was not until the early twentieth century, with the dissatisfaction of the current Methodist denomination for various reasons and the resulting movement toward revivalism and other ecclesiastical bodies, including Pentecostalism, that we see the “gifts of the Spirit” become a popular subject and practice among many evangelical protestants1. The centrality of this debate, as we will see, is concerning those extraordinary gifts manifested by believers in the early church and the nature of their permanence. Also central to this topic, are the questions, how should we go about understanding the particular issues involved, and what are their implications for believers today? For the purposes of this paper, we will deal with how these gifts were used in the New Testament, and with two primary views regarding the functional status of the gifts. These views are known as the continualist view and the cessationist view. The continualist position is essentially that in which most, if not all, of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament have continued to be available to believers today, as opposed to the cessationist position that some, if not all, of those gifts did not continue, but did in fact cease. My goal in this paper is to defend the cessationist
Joseph Oliveri
Bible 364 - Acts
August 16, 2013
Introduction Their is much debate surrounding the use of the charismatic gifts in Acts. Many questions arise about how to use such gifts, and whether or not they can be used today in the first place. The debate regarding the continuation and the cessation of the spiritual gifts, the meaning of which we will clarify in a moment, is a relatively modern one. Although we read about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the early church of the New Testament, history is more or less silent on this issue. It was not until the early twentieth century, with the dissatisfaction of the current Methodist denomination for various reasons and the resulting movement toward revivalism and other ecclesiastical bodies, including Pentecostalism, that we see the “gifts of the Spirit” become a popular subject and practice among many evangelical protestants1. The centrality of this debate, as we will see, is concerning those extraordinary gifts manifested by believers in the early church and the nature of their permanence. Also central to this topic, are the questions, how should we go about understanding the particular issues involved, and what are their implications for believers today? For the purposes of this paper, we will deal with how these gifts were used in the New Testament, and with two primary views regarding the functional status of the gifts. These views are known as the continualist view and the cessationist view. The continualist position is essentially that in which most, if not all, of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament have continued to be available to believers today, as opposed to the cessationist position that some, if not all, of those gifts did not continue, but did in fact cease. My goal in this paper is to defend the cessationist
Bibliography: Boyd, Gregory A. and Paul R. Eddy. Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009. Ferguson, Sinclair B. The Holy Spirit: Contours of Christian Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996. Gaffin, Richard B. Jr. Perspectives on Pentecost. Phillipsburg, NJ: Prespyreian & Reformed, 1979. Gonzales, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day. Peabody, MA: Prince Press, 2004 Grudem, Wayne A ________, Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, and Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994. Lloyd-Jones, D. Martin. Great Doctrines of the Bible, Vol. II, God the Holy Spirit. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003. Lutzer, Erwin. The Doctrines that Divide. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1998. Owen, John. Pneumatologia, in The Works if John Owen. Edinburgh: Johnstone & Hunter, 1850-53 Packer, J.I http://www.johnowen.org/media/packer_quest_for_godliness_ch_13.pdf (accessed July 6, 2013).