No one in his right mind would ever doubt the sincerity of those in the charismatic movement today.  Among those who call themselves Christians, few are as fervent in their belief, as steadfast in their attendance at church, as excited about their faith as those who participate in the practice of the “sign” gifts.

     However, being fervent, steadfast or excited does not equate with fruitfulness.  It is altogether too easy to persuade someone to join a congregation out of excitement or emotional ecstasy than it is to persuade a person to accept the sinfulness of his estate and to repent, trusting God to deal justly, yet mercifully, with his sins.  Salvation does not accrue to the sinner because he joins a congregation or because he speaks in tongues, or submits to some healing process, or is baptized.  A person is saved because he has heard the gospel presented plainly, has understood it and has believed it.  The immediate manifestation of his salvation will not be through the exercise of some supposed spiritual gift, but through his desire for the bread of life and his growth in the knowledge of God. 

     Is it wrong to be excited about one’s faith?  Absolutely not!  But when the emphasis is upon the gift and not upon the Giver, the emphasis is misplaced.  When the focus is upon the spectacular and not upon the spectacle at Calvary, the focus loses definition.  Every Christian ought to be excited about what God has done for him, and about what God will yet do through him.  Where the emphasis is upon the “charismatic” gifts, the glory goes to the one practicing that gift, not to the One who is the only Giver of gifts.  

         Charismatics believe that some sort of physical display of the presence of the Holy Spirit is manifested through the demonstration of visible spiritual gifts in every truly saved person.  Conventional Protestantism teaches that the use of those spiritual gifts began to rapidly dissipate, and vanish, around the end of the first century of the Church Age.

Two important passages are:  Eph 4:8, 11-14; and 1 Cor 12-14 (all three chapters).  The Corinthian passage shows us that we all receive spiritual gifts, and tells us of those gifts and regulates their use.  The Ephesians passage shows us that many of those who receive the spiritual gifts are themselves gifts to the church.  Due to the limitations of space, this article will deal mostly with the 1 Corinthians passage.

Paul begins by informing the Church that he does not wish us to be ignorant of the doctrine of spiritual gifts (12:1).  We should be aware that spiritual gifts exist, and we should understand what they are and how they are and were used.  There is much difference between the exercise of spiritual gifts today and the way they were employed in the first century or so of the Church Age. 

The problem arises when one studies the Bible with the mindset that proclaims every word of Scripture to have been written directly to its present reader.  That is rarely the case.  Usually, one person is speaking to another, or to a group of others, about things from which we may draw understanding, but which do not necessarily apply to us.  Rightly dividing the Scriptures is the only pathway to understanding, and one of the first principles in rightly-dividing any written material is to determine who is being spoken to, by whom, for what reason, and what is being said.

In the second verse, Paul reminds the Corinthian believers how fickle they were in their understanding of worldly concerns.  They followed after first one idol and then another.

In verse three, Paul refers to the Corinthian principle that is so common in charismatic churches today: if a person’s salvation is dependent upon speaking in tongues, then Jesus’ death meant nothing.  It is no outward show that proves a person’s salvation, but an inner faith in the sufficiency of the sacrifice the Son of God made at Calvary.  To judge a person’s salvation by an outward show is to judge a person to be saved based upon his works rather than his faith. 

We are told in verses four through eleven that it is the same Spirit who both gives and energizes the spiritual gifts.  He makes a point here that he reemphasizes at the close of this passage, to wit, that it is the Lord who administers and orders the use of the spiritual gifts.  While the gifts differ in their function, it is the same God who works all of the gifts in all who have them. 

          The early Church used the sign gifts to authenticate their testimony because they had no New Testament.  They testified to the gospel, and then spoke in tongues so that the unsaved could know that their words came from God.  Or they performed healings, or miracles, or they prophesied.  These were outward signs that were used until the completion of the Scriptures. 

Paul says that there are diversities of gifts.  In fact, in these verses, he delineates nine different spiritual gifts.  He makes it clear that the Holy Spirit gives no man every gift, but that He does apportion them out, severally to each Christian.  Not everyone spoke in tongues.  Not everyone performed healings.  Not everyone could perform miracles.  But everyone could and did possess several spiritual gifts (cp 1 Cor 7:7).  That remains true today.

In verses twelve through thirty-one, we find that no gift is more valuable than another.  Every gift is equal in God’s eye.  It is the person’s stewardship of his gifts that matters to God.  We are all baptized by one Spirit into the same body, and each Christian has his function in the body.  God is no respecter of persons, and gives gifts to all of us.  In fact, the least honorable men and women in the eyes of the world are the more honored with gifts (vv 23-24).

          Verses twenty-seven through thirty-one establish the order of rank, if you will, of the gifts:  Apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healings, helps, governments, tongues.  He goes on to state that not everyone has every gift.  There are gifts that are to be used in the local assembly and gifts that are meant to be used outside the local assembly.  Any church whose preoccupation is with the “sign” gifts has its focus misdirected.  Our preoccupation is to be with  the Light, Jesus Christ. 

Turning to chapter thirteen, we find the direction shifting somewhat.  The gist of chapter thirteen is that the Christian has three resources in the application of his spiritual gifts: faith, hope and love.  However, this passage is also where the cessation of the sign gifts is found. 

          One would not exercise spiritual gifts without both faith and hope.  There would be no reason to do so.  If we did not believe, why would we practice such things when the world would count us senseless for doing so?  The only verse in this chapter that even mentions faith or hope is the last verse.  The point of the “love chapter” is that, without love, spiritual gifts have no value at all.  It is not only possible, but is often the case that spiritual gifts are exercised without love. 

Let us coin a term:  Emotionalizers.  These are those who reduce the gospel to what they feel, seeking the physical thrill, the euphoria of emotions in which they suddenly “break out’ in tongues or engage in other types of “spiritual” ecstasies.  These are those who whip their congregations up into an emotional frenzy that has little to do with either spirituality or love. 

          Love is not about what you say.  It is not even about what you feel.  Love is about what you do.  It is an attitude, in which one does those things for the object of his love that love demands.  Many charismatic churches exhibit a veiled xenophobia in which they outwardly profess to love and accept visitors, but their eyes and hearts reveal a clannishness that stands aloof from strangers unless and until they have given some visible proof of their own devotion to charismatic “gifts.”  When a non-charismatic enters into conversation with charismatics about doctrinal issues, the response is usually almost militant, angry, defensive, no matter how gently the differences are introduced.  Many times the responses are almost spat out venomously.  It is a testimony to the emotionalism of the charismatic movement that such should be so, but clearly, it is so.  Sobriety gives way to euphoria.  And much is lost in the giving.  Spiritual maturity is lost in the giving.

        And then we come to verses eight through ten: 

Love never fails.  But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease.  Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part.  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

        Verse eleven explains it:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:  but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

        These are controversial verses, to be sure.  The charismatics want to make “that which is perfect” to be the Second Coming of Christ, so that tongues would not cease until then. 

Many non-charismatics today use these verses to show that, when the Bible has come, the partial witness in the sign gifts would be done away.  The answer is not to be found in the verses themselves;  but in the succeeding chapter, the issue becomes clearer, more certain. 

          These four verses show that the sensational gifts would cease.  If they are not to end at some point during the Church Age, why does Paul even mention it?  He is saying that these are childish things, used until such time as the Church reaches some level of maturity.  When we see what the sign gifts were used for, then we will more readily see that their end came as predicted.  During the era when the sign gifts were practiced, the Church saw “through a glass, darkly”  Paul said, “For now…”   That is, in that day and time.

What is said in the last two verses of chapter thirteen is also revealing.  The glass darkly.  “Now,” Paul said.  “For now we see through a glass darkly;  but then, face to face:  now I know in part;  but then shall I know even as also I am known.”  In Paul’s day, there was no body of Scripture.  They had nothing to show to the peoples in the lands where they lived.  They were attempting to sow the seed of Christianity in a pagan world, and they had no Holy Writ.  And yet, the Word grew and multiplied.  Operating in pagan lands, God empowered these early Christians with gifts which would authenticate their ministries as being from God. 

The word of knowledge.  It shall vanish away.  Long since has it gone.  It went with the apostles, who alone had the power to impart spiritual gifts through the laying on of their hands.  Today we would call them gifted teachers who have knowledge, and so they are, but they have not this word of knowledge that was imparted to the first century Church.  When the teacher spoke then, he knew whereof he spoke, and he spoke truly.  Then one might be called upon by the Holy Spirit to speak in another tongue, to authenticate the teacher’s knowledge.  Where that happened, another man would interpret the language spoken.  The interpretation would validate the teacher’s lesson in some way.  Today, we do not need the word of knowledge.  We hold the entire Word of God in our sinful hands every day, taking it for granted.  We are not left without clear and positive proof of the verity of our words.

 Jesus is the Word of God (Jn 1:1, 14).  The Bible is that written Word.  Until the Bible was completed, no one could look into the face of God in the Person of Jesus Christ, at least, not after the ascension.  Now, we can look into both the face and the heart of God in His Word.  Neither the word of knowledge nor the word of wisdom reside in any Christian today in the manner in which it was necessary in the early Church, for they had no Scriptures.  We are not without wisdom today. But those who had the word of wisdom or knowledge in the early Church were men who spoke with great authority, whose doctrine never contradicted itself, whose facts always bore out truly.  Our wisdom comes today from that which is perfect, the Word of God.  It is not imparted through the laying on of the hands of the apostles, for the apostles are all long dead.

The gift of prophecy would fail.  Nothing struck the Gentile mind like the fulfillment of prophecy.  That continues to be the case today.  What religious book besides the Bible itself has mass appeal in Gentile markets more than books on prophecy? 

In the first century, select men were gifted with the ability to predict future events.  They would present the gospel, and then they would tell their listeners what to expect.  Shortly, their prophecies would come to pass.  It might be in some local matter, or in some natural phenomenon, but they would use those prophecies as signs to authenticate their testimony.  All of the “miraculous” signs, including the working of miracles, were used in the early Church as methods of validating the testimony of those to whom the Scriptures had not yet come.  We have the Word of God today.  In the first century, the church knew “in part.”  They knew what they were to speak in that moment.  Today, we have it all right in front of us.  Then, it was through a mirror darkly.  Now, the light of the Gospel shines brightly in His Word.

Those who insist upon the use of the sign gifts today demean the Word of God.  What they are saying, in effect, is that the Word of God is not sufficient, but we must now add our works to it so that you can know that it is real.  Paul was trying to get across to these Christians at Corinth in chapter thirteen the simple fact that love is so much more important than any of the spiritual gifts.  Our “mission” on this earth is not to make spectacles of ourselves, but simply to preach the Gospel. 

Now let us move to chapter fourteen.  Paul reduces the value of the sign gifts to only two, tongues and prophecy.  Chapter fourteen is not a polemic against tongues, but it raises the value of the gift of prophecy so far above the gift of tongues as to almost seem to be such a polemic.  In this chapter, Paul gives us understanding of how the gift of prophecy was used in the early Church.  He did not say in chapter thirteen that prophecy would cease, but that prophecies would fail.  But he did say that tongues would cease altogether.  In chapter fourteen, more than anywhere else, Paul rigidly sets forth the regulations for the use of the sign gifts in the early church.

He begins by saying that we should follow after love.  No matter what spiritual gifts we are given, without love they are useless.  For such, there is no reward.  The right use of spiritual gifts, however, produces much fruit, which results in much reward at the judgment seat of Christ.  Love is the key that unlocks the mysteries of fruitfulness.  Love is the fuel that makes the spiritual gift effective.  Love is the Spirit of God in us, reaching out to those whom He would love through us.

Paul says that we are to desire spiritual gifts, but rather that we may prophesy.  He diminishes the importance of the tongue gifts by showing how superior the gift of prophecy is.

          Paul is speaking about the way these gifts are used in the local church.  He says, “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.”  The gift of tongues will convert no unsaved person.  Tongues are used to speak to God, but not to men.  Rather, one prophesies, and then one speaks in tongues to validate his witness, and then one interprets in order to validate the one who speaks in tongues.  The tongues themselves are not a form of witness, but are a validation of witness. 

In the early Church, God spoke directly through those who had the gift of prophecy, so that their words carried the same weight as the word of those who penned the Scriptures.  The New Testament prophet builds up his listeners’ store of knowledge, exhorting them to study and devotion and service.  The one who speaks in tongues is building up himself; the one who prophesies builds up the whole church.  Paul says, without interpretation, the gift of tongues is useless.  The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues insofar as he is edifying those members of the body of Christ to whom he ministers.  The one who speaks in tongues bears no fruit.  Paul said he wished that all spoke in tongues.  That would mean fruit from his labors, for if they were speaking properly in tongues, that would mean that the gospel was being preached. 

          Paul said that he would be of no profit to the local church at all if he spoke in tongues.  He said that only by speaking from spirit-inspired revelation, or by the word of knowledge, or by teaching sound doctrine, or with the gift of prophecy, could he edify the Church.  He had earlier said, in chapter thirteen, that the use of the sign gifts equates with spiritual immaturity.  Now, he says that tongues are not of profit to the church.  To further illustrate the futility of using tongues in the worship services, Paul likens the unknown tongue to a musical instrument that plays a discordant note.  Sound doctrine must always harmonize with every other doctrine.  If there is contradiction, the whole must be discarded as unreliable.  If the one who plays the trumpet sounds the retreat when he ought to sound the charge, how shall the army win a battle?

          In verse ten of this chapter, Paul says, “There are… so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification…”  Here, more than anywhere else, are those “sensational” gifts called “sign” gifts.  He implies that they are a crude form of testimony, but they serve till that which is perfect has come.  Who will say that Christians cannot use the Bible as their authority in witness?  It is the Word of God that quickens.

          Paul says that he will pray with the Spirit, and with understanding also, that he will sing with the Spirit and with the understanding also.  Be careful.  Charismatics will say that praying with the Spirit and with understanding are two separate things that are done together.  What Paul is saying here is that they are one and the same thing.  When you pray with the Spirit, you are praying with the understanding.  The very next verse (16) clarifies that. 

Paul says (18) that he speaks with tongues more than them all.  But what does he say next?  In the church, he would rather speak five words that could be understood than ten thousand that could not.  And then a word of rebuke:

          “Be not children in understanding… in understanding be men”  Get over your child-like fascination with tricks!  And then he states plainly:  “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.”

Paul is saying that tongues are not for use in the church services, but as a tool for validating the testimony of those who bear witness to the gospel.

          The gift of prophecy today is different in character than it was in the first century or so of the Church Age.  Then, the prophets could foretell; today, they forthtell.  That is, the Holy Spirit no longer guides the words of the prophets today.  The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet (v 32)  That is why they fail. 

Let us now go back to verses 23 – 40 and look at some of the ways in which the use of tongues and prophecy were regulated in the early Church.

Paul starts this passage by saying that if an unbeliever were to come into your worship services, and people were speaking in tongues, he would think you were crazy.  But if he comes in and someone is prophesying, he will know that he is hearing the truth, will be convicted and be saved, and will report to all that God is in you.

          Paul goes on to rebuke them again.  He speaks harshly against the great babbling of a thousand voices in their worship services, with each one having a psalm, a doctrine, a tongue, a revelation, and interpretation.  He says, “Calm down!”  “Chill out!”  “Let us have a measure of decorum in God’s house!”  No more than three can speak in tongues at any given service of the church, and there must be an interpreter or everyone is to remain silent.  Period.  The same is true of the prophets.  Two or three could speak at a meeting, and the other prophets in the church were to judge what they said.

          Whereas not everyone spoke in tongues because not all had the gift (I wish that ye all spoke in tongues…), everyone in the early church, and presumably today as well, could prophesy.  It was a function of preparation, of study, of exercising the ability to rightly divide the word of truth.  Paul is very clear in his next statement as well.  He says, “Let your women keep silent in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law” (34).  Apparently, this was a problem in the early Church.  It is certainly a problem today.  In those churches that are charismatic, it is often the women who are the main practitioners of the sign gifts.  Where such is the case, the clear and stern warning of the Scriptures is violated arrogantly.

          Paul closes this out by saying, “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.  But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant” (37-38).  It is in light of this statement that he also says, “…covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak in tongues” (39).  You cannot allow one to be ignorant if you forbid him to speak in tongues.  If a man is going to exercise those gifts that no longer obtain, then let him, but do not be caught up in the vain practices with him.  Let all things be done decently and in order.

        There, then, is the major passage on the spiritual gifts; at least, those gifts that continue to be controversial today.  No one argues over whether one might be gifted in, say, teaching, but there remain the fires of controversy surrounding the sign gifts.  This latter-day resurgence of the signs is not inspired by God, but is the fruit of the reasonings of men.  It is resisted in conservative churches, and bears the stigma of Arminianism almost everywhere it is found.  Many charismatic churches reject the eternal security of the believer.  

    We have seen in other articles in this issue that all Christians have spiritual gifts.  In experience, we find that many people do not know how to recognize their gifts.  Most Christians want to know what gifts they have, but are unable to discern what those gifts might be.  Some pray occasionally for God to reveal their gifts so that they can use them, but seem to receive no answer.  Most Christians, however, rarely think about spiritual gifts at all. 

     To be perfectly honest, it is not all that easy a thing to discern.  One cannot simply pick up his Bible and go to a particular verse to find out what gift he has.  Neither can he say a prayer and expect to receive some sort of brief enlightenment, like a telegram, giving him that information.  Rather, it takes an active ministry for a person to slowly realize what his gifts are.

     Some people have several gifts, and some only a couple.  Nobody is gifted in every way, but everybody is gifted in some ways.  We learn what our gifts are by using them.  That sounds like a paradox, but it isn’t.

     Until a Christian becomes committed to some form of personal ministry, he cannot determine what gifts God has given him.  But as one begins to minister, both to saved and unsaved alike, he finds that some things are easier for him, more productive, more effective.  He begins to see that he is good at certain things, and not so very good at others.

     Many are the Sunday School teachers whose gift is not teaching, but some other gift, lying dormant all through their lives simply because they believe that the only job available to them in the church is to teach Sunday School.  Perhaps that person would be a powerful evangelist.  Or maybe he is one who is gifted with great insight, able to counsel spiritually.  Or maybe his gift is in administrative functions.  Perhaps his real gift is giving.  Many are the wealthy members of churches who are given the resources with which to advance the mission of a ministry, but who hang onto their wealth jealously, fearing that someone is trying to get what is theirs.  Some are called upon out of love and devotion to pray those intercessory prayers that are so effective in the lives of others. 

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging symbol. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” 1 Cor. 13:1-2.

            In these two verses, according to the Apostle Paul, the possession of spiritual gifts is useless, bearing no fruit, if the one in whom they dwell does not have love.

“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” 1 Cor. 13:3.

         The words “tithe” and “tithing” are found in the New Testament only seven times.  In every instance they pertain to the Jews, under the Law of Moses.  Not one church in a hundred uses the right approach to giving.  Most are afraid that they will not receive enough money if they do not insist upon the tithe.  However, in the New Testament church, giving is a spiritual gift (Rom 12: 6-8).  While there is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a tenth to the church, just as there is nothing wrong with adhering to any other of the spiritual principles espoused under the Law, the Church is not a legalistic organization.  It is, rather, a spiritual organism.

    The next passage (Eph 4:11-16) does not regulate the use of the sign gifts, but establishes that there are other spiritual gifts that God gives to the churches.  These are not those gifts which the congregation exercises as a body, but these are men who exercise spiritual gifts in and among the congregation.  That is, there are certain men and women who are themselves gifts to the church.  Oh, how many people have thought they were gifts to the church when they were only usurping positions that God had given to other men!  And how often men and women who are God’s gifts to the Church fail to recognize their true estate, being timid to the point of becoming ineffective.  For that is not true humility, nor a virtue at all, though it is often mistaken for one.  The servant of God must not presume to grab more power or authority than he is given, but it is equally important that he recognize and practice the authority that he is given.

    C.I. Scofield begins this passage of the Scriptures with two footnotes.  They are here quoted in entirety:

1.) In 1 Cor. 12:8-28 the Holy Spirit is seen as equipping the members of the body of Christ with spiritual gifts, or enablements for a varied service; here certain Spirit-enabled men, i.e. apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are themselves the gifts whom the glorified Christ bestows upon His body, the Church.  In 1 Corinthians, the gifts are spiritual enablements for specific service; in Ephesians, the gifts are men who have such enablements.

2.)     The Lord, in bestowing the gifted men, determines providentially (e.g. Acts 11:22-26), or directly through the Holy Spirit (e.g. Acts 13:1-2; 16:6-7), the places of their service.  “Some” (churches or places) need one gift, as, e.g. an evangelist; “some” (churches or places) need rather a pastor or teacher.  Absolutely nothing in Christ’s service is left to mere human judgment or self-choosing.  Even an apostle was not permitted to choose his place of service (Acts 16:7-8).

(Holy Bible, New Scofield Study System, Oxford Univ. Press, 1998, Pgs 1489-90)

    What we find then is that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to men, and that He then gives those men to the church, placing them where He needs them when He needs them there.  Not only does God not give every spiritual gift to every Christian, He does not always place those gifted men in every church except as each church has need for a particular gift.

   Note also that the Holy Spirit is responsible to place an appropriate pastor in a given church.  The modern processes of pastoral selection often work against the Holy Spirit, and are largely responsible for the apostasy that characterizes the professing church today.  There is a rigidity in many churches, where the process becomes more important than the needs of the church, as if the determinations of the search committees ought to supersede the determinations of the Holy Spirit; as if the process has become more important than the result.  Where the Holy Spirit has placed a pastor in a church, it is generally found that the pastor enjoys great longevity in his church.  The converse is also true:  where men have made their selection based upon some sort of formula, the pastor usually finds himself in disfavor sooner rather than later, and is soon looking for a new church.  The spiritual maturity of a congregation may often be determined by the rate at which the church goes through pastors

    After Paul delineates the various sorts of gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to the local churches in the men He assigns to them, he goes on to explain the purpose of both the gifts and the church.  It is not, as so many suppose, that the local church ought to be a place where the saved can bring the unsaved in order that they might hear the gospel.  Not at all.  The purpose of the local church is to prepare those who are already saved to go out into the world with the Gospel.  The purpose of the local church is not to save the lost, but to educate the saved so that they may become fruitful witnesses themselves.