Tell us what your view is! Spiritual Gift Poll for this episode

1. Welcome

• Updates and shout outs! (Thank you for your patience for the missed episode last week, I had family obligations, sorry for the delay!)
• This episode: spiritual gifts
• Unity, humility, love for the church in the Gospel.
• The text we will mainly look at today is 1 Cor. 13.

2. The Debate

Cessationists: See gifts as serving a foundation-laying role in the early church, but that they ceased after the Bible was canonized.

Continuationists: Gifts are still active and useful today in the church.

The debate often centers not on if God can do miracles, but on whether the gifts are normative for the church.

1 Cor. 13

 When the “perfect” comes:

• Cessationist perspective: is the canon fulfilled, maturity of the church. 
• Continuationist perspective: is Jesus’ second coming. Jesus is the "perfect".
  • John Piper on this
• Validate each side, scripture, church history, experience.
• Compelling Truth on this
• Personal position/view on spiritual gifts: Continuationist, fully submitted to sola scriptura, the gifts are critical to church health, don’t operate like they did in the 1st century. John Piper and Matt Chandler are two solid teachers on this, among many brilliant bible teachers. Wayne Grudem too.

2. How we got here

Early Church (1st–3rd c.): In the early church, spiritual gifts were assumed to be active, rooted in both Scripture and experience. By the 4th century, voices like Chrysostom noted the gifts seemed to fade, though this wasn’t formal doctrine. 

Medieval Period: In the medieval era, miraculous claims shifted to relics and saints, shaped more by experience and church authority than Scripture. 

Reformation (1500s): At the Reformation, Calvin and Luther emphasized Sola Scriptura and were cautious of miracle claims, especially when Rome used them to justify authority.

18th–19th c.: By the 18th and 19th centuries, Enlightenment rationalism reinforced skepticism toward the miraculous, and many Protestants concluded the gifts belonged only to the apostolic age. 

Early 1900s – Pentecostalism: The Azusa Street Revival reignited belief in tongues, prophecy, and healing as active, with experience once again interpreted through Scripture. This spread through the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. 

Today: Today, Christians are divided: some see the gifts as foundational and tied to the apostolic era, while others see them as still active and edifying. The debate isn’t whether God can do miracles, but whether the gifts are normative for the church now. 

3. How this looks today

4. What can we do?

5. Tak

What's your favorite Bible verse?

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