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When Christ ascended, He received gifts for men, including the gift of prophet. Christ told the scribes and Pharisees that He would send forth apostles, prophets, and wise men. After Christ's ascension, Peter said that the scripture was being fulfilled that God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. So while Christ is the ultimate revelation of God to man, and far superior to God speaking only through prophets, Christ's birth, death, burial, and resurrection did not do away with prophets, prophecy, or revelation-but rather brought a new outpouring of it as the Spirit was given to the church.

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The Bible 'leaves us hanging' by leaving the teaching out there that there are gifts of the Spirit in the church. The Bible does not 'cancel' this teaching. So we need to believe it. God does deal with mankind as a whole, with the church as a whole. But He also deals with individuals through gifts of the Spirit.

The Bible doesn't leave us hanging and we don't need more prophets. God has provided all the prophecy we need and Jesus Christ is the FINAL WORD! Today the church needs pastors and teachers that neither add nor subtract from God's revelation to us in His Word. A preacher must take a text of previously revealed truth and seek to expound it, and his authority extends only so far as the correctness of his interpretation of that text.

Whatever Happened to the Miraculous Gifts?


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No purpose would be served by seeking miraculous gifts today; their purpose has already been served. The church has a validated and confirmed revelation from God, and that is all she needs. Further, if a man will not believe the Scripture today, neither will he believe the miracles. There have been enough miracles to establish the fact. It is not now a question of miracles but of faith. This was precisely Jesus' point in Luke 16:30-31 where He spoke of the rich man in hell calling for Abraham to send someone from the dead to testify to his brethren: "If they hear one from the dead, they will believe!" he cried. The reply: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." This, of course, is precisely true -- Jesus Himself rose from the dead, an indisputable fact of history, yet His Word is rejected.

Peter makes an astounding claim in his second epistle. While speaking of the miraculous event of the mount of transfiguration he speaks of Scripture as a "more sure word of prophecy" (II Peter 1:16-21). Even in comparison to miraculous events personally experienced, God's Word is supreme. The idea prevalent today is that experience is normative; not so with Peter. For him, Scripture alone is completely trustworthy. God intends for faith to rest on something much more credible than miraculous experience -- His Word. "We walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7) or signs.

In light of the fact that Scripture is established and confirmed, asking for further signs would be exactly contrary to faith (see Luke 11:29 and John 4:48). "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29).

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It is the teaching of Scripture that certain gifts were never intended to be permanent in the life of the church. They were only for that foundational stage of the church. To return to them, then, would be a return to infancy (I Corinthians 13:11). Christians today are far more blessed. They need not a return to those revelations but a new and honest confrontation with Scripture, the all sufficient guide for faith and practice.



Wes

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. - Isaac Watts