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Particulars
of Christianity:
310
Pentecostalism, the Charismatic
and Faith Movements
What Happened
to the Authentic Gifts?
What
Happened to the Authentic Gifts?
Comparing Theories to Historic
Documentation
Comparing Theories to Scripture
(Part 1)
Comparing Theories to Scripture
(Part 2)
What Happened to the Gifts:
Scriptural Indications (Part 1)
What Happened to the Gifts:
Scriptural Indications (Part 2)
Section 1 | Section
2 | Section 3 | Section
4
| Section 5
(NOTE:
Please read our Preliminary Proof
section before reading this section.)
A large portion of this series of articles has dealt with
the historically documented fact that the authentic charismatic
gifts had passed out of occurrence by the time of Augustine
(354-430 AD) and John Chrysostom (347-407 AD) in the fourth
century AD. We have dedicated most of the previous sections
to discussing whether or not the modern occurrence of the
charismatic gifts can be considered authentic. But, in this
section, we turn our attention to the question of why the
charismatic gifts passed out of existence in the first place.
The reason we are taking a look at this controversial question,
is because many incorrect answers have been given in the past
and are now in circulation in the modern Church. These explanations
for why the gifts passed away needs to be examine in light
of both scripture and history to see if they are correct.
The goal of this examination is not to be dogmatic about why
the gifts passed away, but merely to evaluate the legitimacy
of the popular theories. Likewise, part of the purpose of
this section is to discuss whether God intended that the gifts
would pass away or whether God intended the gifts to remain
and they passed away for some other reason.
It should be noted that the most popular theories presuppose
that the gifts, to one extent or another, were intended by
God to pass away as if they were on a timer or countdown.
Once that countdown was complete, the gifts passed away just
as they were supposed to, or so goes the theory. There have
been several suggestions made as to what event may have marked
the end of the countdown. The four most popular of suggestions
in modern times appear to be the following.
1.) The death of the last of the 12 apostles.
2.) The close of the canon of scripture.
3.) The destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.
4.) The maturity or establishment of the Church.
We will now show that all four of these suggestions are incorrect
due to a combination of the following reasons.
1.) A theory relies upon eiso-gesis, which is the reading
of one's own biases into the scripture along with other concepts
that are foreign to the scripture itself.
2.) A theory is incompatible with Biblical statements.
3.) A theory is incompatible with documented history.
Now, the first three of these theories can be easily disproved
by documented history. The fourth, being sufficiently undefined
and vague, will require further examination. But, for now,
we will turn our attention to the first three.
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