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As bradimus has indicated, this is a tricky issue, because projecting the modern debate of cessationism vs. continuationism onto church fathers is anachronistic. That said, some figures in the early church do talk about or infer a decline or end in at least some types supernatural occurrences, sometimes to what are often referred to as "spiritual gifts."
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answered Aug 28 '17 at 14:47
Nathaniel is protesting
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1. Schools of the Prophets in the Old Testament
Many well known commentaries explain the "sons of the prophets" referred to on multiple occasions in the Old Testament [1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:3,5,7,15; 4:1,38; 5:22; 6:1; 9:1] as:
...the schools of the prophets... - Benson, Pulpit, Matthew Henry
...a school of the prophets... - Gill
...schools....
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The New Testament does not give us a method for receiving the gift of tongues. On the contrary, we are taught that the Holy Spirit distributes various gifts according to His own will. Thus, it may not be His will that you or me receive the gift of tongues.
The twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians is the key text on all of this:
4 Now there are varieties of ...
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The Articles of Faith are a set of simple statements of belief, taken from a letter written by Joseph Smith to explain various aspects of Mormonism to a non-Mormon audience. The church later accepted it as a canonical statement of doctrinal points.
The seventh Article of Faith states:
7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, ...
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The gift of tongues is just one of many spiritual gifts. The Bible provides examples of many people throughout history who had been imparted with various Spiritual gifts. For instance, Isaac had the gift of granting blessings (Gen 27). Balaam had the gift of cursing (Num 22). Daniel (Dan 2) and Joseph (Gen 40) had the gift of interpreting dreams. Elisha ...
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Ronald A. N. Kydd in his book Charismatic Gifts in the Early Church mentions several second-century quotes that he argues refer to glossolalia, what we call speaking in tongues. His work clearly deals with the first century as well, but in that period he mentions only prophecy, not tongues.
The first evidence for speaking in tongues that Kydd mentions ...
answered Jun 19 '17 at 15:48
Nathaniel is protesting
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Wikipedia has a decent article on this subject. There are a few places in the Bible where lists of spiritual gifts occur, which are, according to Wikipedia, as follows:
Romans 12:6-8:
Prophecy
Serving
Teaching
Exhortation
Giving
Leadership
Mercy
1 Corinthians 12:8-10:
Word of wisdom
Word of knowledge
Faith
Gifts of healings
Miracles
Prophecy
...
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Christians from both sides of the continuation of spiritual gifts debate understand Irenaeus's quote here more charitably than Gibbon, and do not see it as evidence that people were being raised from the dead in the late 2nd century. I'll refer to the writings of cessationist B. B. Warfield and charismatic Ronald A. N. Kydd.
Warfield addresses Gibbon ...
answered Jul 1 '16 at 18:16
Nathaniel is protesting
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Short Answer: There are all sorts of opinions on this topic, but I will present what I believe to be the most clear and coherent argument - from Scripture, logic, history, and observation - which is that the gifts have always been "offered", but not always "accepted". Thus, it can be seen that both the cessationist and non-cessationist views are built upon ...
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This is from Why I Am a Continuationist by Sam Storms:
New Testament evidence of miraculous gifts among Christians who are
not apostles. In other words, numerous non-apostolic men and women,
young and old, across the breadth of the Roman Empire consistently
exercised these gifts of the Spirit (and Stephen and Philip ministered
in the power of ...
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According to Roman Catholicism, believers receive these gifts at baptism, which are then made more perfect by the rite of Confirmation. Consider the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1285,
"The reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace." For "by the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are ...
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The bulk of the teaching on tongues in the Bible is not in Acts, but in 1 Corinthians. While there are a couple of instances in Acts that do mention people speaking in tongues, only Acts 2 mention that the words are understood by the bystanders. In 1 Cor 12-14, it is clearly understood that tongues require interpretation in order to be understood.
...
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Joseph Smith taught:
There is a difference between the Holy Ghost and the gift of the Holy
Ghost. Cornelius received the Holy Ghost before he was baptized, which
was the convincing power of God unto him of the truth of the Gospel,
but he could not receive the gift of the Holy Ghost until after he was
baptized. Had he not taken this sign or ...
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In addition to the list given by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12, Moroni 10:8-18 lists a number of the Gifts of the Spirit, and Doctrine and Covenants 46 lists these and others. These are overlapping but not comprehensive lists. It is specified in scripture that every member of the church is entitled to at least one such gift, although there are some who ...
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Yes, there is no doubt that Irenaeus was speaking of some raising the dead in his own time. The following extract contains the words by Irenaeus that appear to be cited by Eusebius and criticised by Gibbon. Irenaeus is comparing the powerlessness of his opponents to perform miracles with what the Christian brotherhood is capable of performing. After ...
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Spiritual Gifts Inventory (SGI) is a type of material that is associated with the Church Growth Movement (CGM). It combines theology with sociological methodologies, including questionnaires, in this case for identifying Spiritual Gifts. All SGI materials are based on the assumption that gifts are given once and then remain with the bearer for life, a ...
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Its important to point out that some of the gifts listed are an essential part of Christian life. Faith, for example, is essential to all Christians and there is no question that it is, and should be, active today. Likewise wisdom. The only controversy is the 'supernatural' gifts (which are often called 'charismata'), so I'll restrict the rest of the answer ...
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Abstract
The spiritual gift of tongues serves one purpose: communication where ordinary language skills do not serve. Paul saw prophecy as useful to non-believers even though its primary purpose is for the edification of believers. But speaking in a language the unbeliever does not understand fails to accomplish any purpose at all.
A little context is in ...
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You are overlooking the most important word in your question, and that is 'gift'. A gift is something that is freely given - the giver chooses whether or not to give, and the receiver can only choose whether or not to accept it - if it is given. If the receiver can compel the giver in any way, or tries to earn it, then it isn't a gift. It's long been part of ...
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Francis Gumerlock provides a survey of the views of church fathers in "Tongues in the Church Fathers." He concludes that "the early church had no such concept of the gift of tongues as unintelligible speech," but rather that they referred to the real human languages of the nations around the Apostles.
Citations [of church fathers], along with two ...
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Are there others who actually practice the gift that consider the purpose to be different?
The gift of tongues has a minor, though important, role in Mormon theology. In the Articles of Faith, a simple, short enumeration of basic LDS beliefs written by Joseph Smith, the seventh article mentions spiritual gifts, and the first one listed is the gift of ...
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There are (non-mutually exclusive) two lists of spiritual gifts in the early church, one found in Ephesians 4, the other in 1 Corinthians 12:
Here they are:
To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom,
to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts ...
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I tend to agree with your diagnosis: they are mostly bogus. Besides the problems you listed, they also don't tend to be particularly faithful to the Biblical definitions of the "gifts" in question. That being said they enjoy rather wide circulation in various parts of Christianity, with more charismatic traditions tending to hit them up a lot more frequently....
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Here are some of my thoughts on this:
1) John 20:21 "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Jesus' ministry included much healing. If we are sent as Jesus was, wouldn't we also be sent with the ability to heal?
2) Matt 28: 19-20 "Therefore go and make disciples ... 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
Jesus had sent ...
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From the table of contents of the book you linked to*, the 19 are:
The Apostolic Gift
Prophecy
Evangelism
Shepherding
Teaching
Exhortation
Knowledge
Wisdom
Helps
Hospitality
Giving
Government
Showing Mercy
Faith
Discernment
Miracles
Healing
Tongues
Interpretation
*To see the list yourself, click on the link to the amazon product listing, click the book ...
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Answer: No.
The whole point of 1 Corinthians 12 is very simple and very straight forward - you should not boast about your Spiritual gift, because gifts don't make anyone special.
Indeed, if one is arguing about which gifts are "better", then you are missing the point of - get this - the gift. A gift is not dependent on the work of the recipient, but ...
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The setting in 1 Cor 11-14 is the church gathered for worship. At such gatherings Paul expects participation from lots of people using spiritual endowments, given in that moment for the edification of the church.
However, there is a grave danger of people abusing those endowments for the attention and prestige. There is also a danger of "the flesh" lying, ...
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1Cor 14:21 In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
1Cor 14:22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.
Isa 28:...
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There are different kinds of knowledge, and according to your comment that "wisdom is applied knowledge," I infer that your definition of knowledge might be
Information that is not yet applied to a situation (for example).
If I'm correct, then I think you're on the right track. Knowledge IS information, and when it comes to spiritual gifts, God is able ...
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