 Have the spiritual gifts cease to be? Are they no longer in operation in the church today? This is a fiercely debated issue, and I'm not going to be able to address every point of contention in just a matter of minutes. My goal, rather, is to just get you thinking in the right direction, the biblical direction. We must recognize first and foremost that our foundation is the Word of God. No debate's there. So, does the Word of God teach that the gifts have ceased to be? Not by any stretch of the imagination. The belief that the spiritual gifts have ceased is called cessationism. Those who believe that the spiritual gifts have ceased are called cessationists. Of course, that's an oversimplification of the terms as there are varying beliefs even within cessationism. But for the sake of conversation, we'll stick with the simpler definitions I just gave to you. So, upon what exactly does the cessationist base their faulty interpretation of reality? There are a few things. Here are the foundations of the arguments for cessationism. Number one, you'll notice they often use speculation. Number two, they use arguments from history. And number three, they use poor biblical interpretation. Number one, speculation. First, you'll notice they use a lot of speculation, something they would discourage in any other context. Here's an example of speculation. Paul the Apostle instructed Timothy to use wine as medicine for his stomach. Why, the cessationist will ask, didn't Paul just heal him? Then they'll conclude that because Paul didn't heal Timothy or because Timothy didn't just heal himself, that the spiritual gifts had already stopped operating. This is faulty logic for a couple reasons. Firstly, there are many examples in Scripture where godly men died, suffered, or remain sick. This by no means leads to the conclusion that therefore God just picked some subjective spot on the timeline of history to end his demonstrations of power. This just means that God's sovereignty still applies even in the context of the miraculous. His sovereignty and his miracles have never been in odds with one another. So, there are instances both in the Old Testament and New Testament when God didn't demonstrate his power as people thought he should. Simply put, God exercising his sovereignty to withhold a miracle never means that miracles are no more. Secondly, the other problem with speculation is that it's just that, speculation. There's nothing in all of Scripture that even comes close to indicating that God's power has stopped working. Now, here's where things get really interesting. Once you show through Scripture that God's power still works today, the cessationist will dodge the point. They might interject, oh, I believe that God still demonstrates his power. We believe he still does miracles. He just doesn't do miracles through the spiritual gifts anymore. And what a telling dodge that is on the part of the cessation is. They have to play semantics, word games to hold their position. But the position of those who believe the spiritual gifts are still in operation is quite simple. We simply believe this. Just as God moves sovereignly and miraculously through men and women in the past, so he still moves today. As believers who embrace the spiritual gifts, we don't actually believe that we carry power of our own or that we wield a gift independently of God's will, nor does the Scripture teach that. Again, God's sovereignty applies even when spiritual gifts are involved. Sadly, the cessationist rejects God's sovereignty because they box him into their worldview. They rely upon their own personal experiences or lack thereof rather than the word. That's ironic being as how the spirit-filled believer is the one often accused of relying upon or focusing too heavily upon experience. Number two, arguments from history. If it's not speculation the cessationist is using, it's going to be an argument from history. For example, they may say that the early church fathers didn't pray in tongues or that there were some who believed that the spiritual gifts had ceased. In the first place, there are thousands of actions all of us perform every week for which there will never be historical record. How can we know what the early church didn't practice? We would need a complete record of every early church member's life to know that. Still, the cessationist might be able to point to some early church father who believed the gifts had ceased. But all that does is demonstrate that there were even cessationists back then. There were debates and differences of opinion even then. Now, we honor the early church, but we shouldn't idolize them. The Bible, not historical Christian figures, is the final authority. The question is not, what did the early church believe? The question remains, what does the Bible teach? So then after you rightfully dismiss the cessationist's philosophical or historical arguments, the question arises, does the cessationist have any good biblical reason for his position? Which leads to number three, poor biblical interpretation. Now, the best a cessationist can offer is a poor interpretation of this verse. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless, but love will last forever. Now, our knowledge is partial and incomplete, but the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture. But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. That's 1st Corinthians chapter 13 verses 8 through 10. So the gifts will cease to be in operation at the time of perfection. So when does that take place? The Bible clearly tells us in the next two verses. Verse 11, when I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror. But then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete. But then I will know everything completely just as God now knows me completely. That's 1st Corinthians chapter 13 verses 11 and 12. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know anyone who knows all things as God knows me. Some cessationists might think so. The scripture in this context is most certainly talking about eternity. Until then, the gifts are still available to the church. Now, I can already see the comments that people are going to leave on this video. Of course, there are angles that I couldn't address in this short amount of time. But I assure you that whatever the angle, whatever the argument, cessationism has been biblically, thoroughly debunked. And I want you to pay close attention to the comments that cessationists leave on this video. I want you to notice that all of the comments will fall under the categories of either speculation, historical arguments, or forced interpretation of scripture. Many will reference their bad experiences with the spiritual gifts. Many will misunderstand several of the points made in this very video. Some will say I misrepresented cessationism. I didn't. Some will say I twist the scriptures. I don't. Some will say there's plenty in scripture to show cessationism to be true. There isn't. No amount of scriptural gymnastics can produce this counter-biblical view. So the next time someone tries to tell you that the spiritual gifts have ceased, ask them for the specific chapter and verse. Don't be intimidated by those who love to debate. Stand on the word. There's no debating with the word of God. I'm David Diga Hernandez, and that is your Moment of Truth. This teaching was taken from my book, Praying in the Holy Spirit. 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