Cessationism vs. Continuationalism?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

This might be something that is only debated within evangelical circles, but I wanted to see what people thought of the continuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  I am a continuationalist, but I also see extreme pitfalls with "charismania".  The gifts of the Spirit are legitimate and still exist in the present day, but not every believer will receive every gift- and they should not be used for show.

[Del Tachi]

1 Cor 13:8-12 is some pretty strong scriptural evidence for Cessationism, which is the side of this debate I more broadly agree with.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Orthodoxy tends towards a soft continuationism, and there are testimonies of gifts of the Holy Spirit existing in modern times. Moreover though, we see it as dangerous to fixate on these and make them a goal of your spiritual life, instead of the more exalted purpose of union with God. St. Paisios the Athonite has an excellent quote on this point:

Ask for repentance in your prayer and nothing else, neither for divine lights, nor miracles, nor prophecies, nor spiritual gifts—nothing but repentance. Repentance will bring you humility, humility will bring you the Grace of God, and God will have in His Grace everything you need for your salvation, or anything you might need to help another soul.

[Georg Ebner]

We West&East-Roman Catholics can follow such a debate only with irony: For us the Holy SPIRIT is The Church (cf. the Credos, where the Church follows immediately the SPIRIT) and is not limited to "parapsychological" phainomena within agnostical sects, which claim, that HE can be found sola in scriptura. Instead, we do not just think&believe - we see&detect, that HIS first fruit was the beauty of the kosmos; then the drive of the animus into human beings and - resulting from an antagonism animus above anima - the birth of the supra-animalic anima with her selfConsciousness. Then the special graces to the genial men of culture (vates, prophets, saints, historians, the works of composers&painters, responsible-minded statesMen). And only then finally the revelations specifically to Jews and Christians, stored in Bible or traditions.

[nicholas.slaydon]

Miracles were for signs pertaining to the end of the age, they have no place in the modern and have ceased. The office (for lack of a better word) of prophets and miracle workers had ceased from Israel, and it was prophesied by Joel that they would not come back until the last days. Peter in Acts chapter 2 identifies those days that he was living in to have been the last days, hence the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, bearing forth the miracle of speaking in tongues (which were actual languages not the gibberish that Charismatics call tongues). However, those days are not these days. Continuationalism rests on the presupposition that we are in the last days, which were the days in which miraculous gifts were to be outpoured upon the people. However, I am certainly of the opinion that the last days have long since been past, and with them went demonic possessions, exorcisms, miracles, speaking in tongues and such and so forth. St Augustine for example said " These were signs adapted to the time. For there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to shew that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening, and it passed away”. This is of course referring to the words of Christ on the Mount of Olives when he said "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come". Well, Paul in Colossians said " because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit", signifying that the Gospel had already gone into all the world in the first century. Therefore, the miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit were given to the followers of Christ in the First Century for the purpose of witnessing to the nations until the end of the age which would come once the gospel had gone into all the world. Paul says that the Gospel had gone into all the world sometime around the middle of the First Century, and Christ said that the end of the age would come before the people he spoke to personally would die (Matthew 24:34, Matthew 16:28 among many others), signifying that the end of the miraculous workings of the Holy Spirit was in the First Century.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Write-in: Science

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

1 Cor 13:8-12 is some pretty strong scriptural evidence for Cessationism, which is the side of this debate I more broadly agree with.

As a countinuationalist, I see those verses as talking about eternity when God will dwell with us.

As for our current timeframe and up to the millennium, the gifts are in play.