Editorial Exercise

Ryan Freed
Editorial Exercise
Biblical Interpretation
May 2, 2006

The topic of this persuasive essay concerns spiritual gifts, particularly the sign gifts mention in 1 Corinthians 13 and else ware. In my own journey, I have run into vastly different views on these gifts and have had trouble in discerning truth related to them. The position that I have come to is extremely cautious acceptance of them as gifts for today. Hopefully, I can expound upon what I mean.
Cedarville University, a school affiliated with the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, teaches the cessation view. This is the view that all prophecy and tongues ceased once the canon of scriptures was finalized. They view these gifts as imperfect evidence of Christ’s message that the apostles were given to use until “perfection comes”.
This perfection is found in 1 Corinthians 13:8-11 “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” They use the part where it says that these gifts will cease when perfection comes and then claim that the Bible is that perfection.
I find this to be very shaky ground. Much rests on what is meant by “perfection”. If it means the canon, then this view could have grounds, but the passage does not say that. To me, it more likely means that when the end comes, and all believers are with God, receiving their final reward, which never ends; that is a better picture of perfection. These gifts would certainly no longer be needed then.
Another problem I have with this view is that the passage does mention that knowledge will cease as well. I didn’t hear that mentioned much by cessationists, because of course, knowledge hasn’t and won’t cease. It seems to be a fairly clear case of taking a scripture and construing it to mean what you would like it to mean.
That being said, I have real problems with those that place huge emphasis on these very same sign gifts. It seems that many times when they are practiced, there is no interpreter for tongues; prophecy, to me, is often not fulfilled. It makes me feel very suspicious. These gifts often allow for real abuses. Those practicing it can have real, almost magical, “power” over others. For example, someone speaks in tongues or prophecies a vision for the church body. It is interpreted or discerned that this message is what the church should do. Now, what one person has said, or set in motion dictates what course the church will take. If one wants to argue with them, suddenly one is arguing with “God’s Messenger”. Now there is a real discussion stopper. On top of all this, the danger from “false Prophets” is very real. The Bible repeatedly has bad things to say about them. In 1 John 4, it says, “test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” I have and believe the Bible has very strict qualifications for a prophet. A prophet must receive their message from God, and that message must be always correct, and it must agree totally with scripture.
If any of this is not true than that person is a false prophet and as I have said, the Bible comes down very, very hard on them. While attending an event at Rosedale two years back called “The Edge” I listened to a speaker who prophesied about the worship team, saying that he saw the worship leader leading many large crowds in worship. Now this is hard to test, since of course, I believe that worship leader is still living. I haven’t heard from him since, but this doesn’t mean that it wont come to past. I have my doubts, since I was not impressed with him at all. This made me so skeptical that it fairly ruined the conference for me, which was supposed to a training time for youth leaders.
All of this to come to my conclusion; I would like to agree with the cessationists. I really would. I cannot justify their interpretation of 1Corinthians 13. Therefore I cannot agree with them. I also can’t go the other way, totally accepting the sign gifts as for today and for common use in our churches. Although hard to discern, tongues and prophecy should only be used when clearly of God. Therefore, churches should have processes in place to perform discernment and wisdom when the gifts are used. If it is found that it is of God, then appropriate steps should be taking to embrace the vision given to the church, not a vision given solely to the individual. If it is believed that the vision is not from the Lord, then steps most be taken to restore the messenger, for they are clearly out of step with God’s will, and need guidance and counseling to find out what the real problems in their life are.
In all, the main thrust of 1 Corinthians 13 should be applied. Love is the preeminent gift, given to all believers. Love one another. Love never fails, Love never quits, and Love should our rule actions. The False Prophet deserves our love, if not our belief. The person who speaks in tongues incorrectly, or with the wrong motives, they are entitled, as a creation of God to our Love. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”