About Spiritual Gifts

I'm a continuationist. Here i'm going to explain why.

That means that i believe it is still possible to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Since, by the Holy Spirit is that we receive such gifts, and the Holy Spirit never ceased to be in us. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the seal of God to the believer.

I'm sorry to be heavy with this, but i believe cessationists don't have the faith of the size of mustard seed, they literally don't believe in miracles anymore. And that is one of the reasons it doesn't happen to them. There i no way i can't look "too heavy" over people, when i have to explain such things in such way.

Check my writings about "1 Corinthians", it already shows very good reasons to believe, in my opinion.

"Do not extinguish the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt"

1 Thessalonians 5:19-20

Since we got the Holy Spirit by our faith and loyalty to God. Then we should not extinguish the Spirit, and by the Spirit we can attain prophetic capacities. Would be strange that nowhere in the bible says the gifts were ceased, instead, we see lot of warning and information about prophecies, like it is something we should care and pay attention to.

In Acts 21:8-9, we can see that an evangelist had daughters capable of prophecy.

In Acts 21:10-12, Paul was also met by another prophet (Agabus) that warned Paul that he would be bound by the Jews. Not only that happened, but, nobody that heard the prophet opposed him. People have not treated his prophecies with contempt.

It also shows that meeting a prophet is not something rare as we see today. Something is happening, people are extinguishing the spirit, or considering the act of prophecy as something overly whimsical. As i said in my article of 1 Corinthians, i think lot people have a moment of prophecy and don't even noticed, because they don't consider such not-so-whimsical moment as a prophecy, because they are scared to say that what they experienced is something that, we humans, consider "so much" (in terms of believing that a prophecy is "wow, so much, only special beings with favoritism from God have it!").

"All the circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and exalting God".

Acts 10:45-46

So, it is about the Holy Spirit being poured for it to happen, it can happen even to Gentiles, confirming my interpretation of 1 Corinthians 12.

Verses to take in consideration:

Acts 6:8; Acts 8:6; Acts 19:6; Galatians 3:5; Hebrews 2:4; Matthew 7:22; 1 Peter 4:10-11; Romans 12:6-8.

Cessationist arguments:

1 Corinthians 13 was addressed in my bible reading page.

Some of their "apostle arguments" are:

"The TRUE marks of an apostle — signs, wonders, and miracles — were performed among you with great perseverance".

2 Corinthians 12:12

That makes absolutely no sense, i don't know why they use this as an argument. Especially considering that 1 Corinthians 12 was preached to gentiles and said to be "in ALL people". The question here is to show that apostles in special do have such gifts, and not that non-apostles don't have.

That is like saying "the guy with a degree in engineering made this robot. That means, people that don't have degree are incapable of making robots".

"So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who affirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders".

Acts 14:3

I give the same explanation as i gave for Corinthians verse. In fact, i would say it proves them otherwise. It seems that "speaking boldly for the Lord" was what cause the signs and wonders to happen. This verse in no moment affirms: "gifts are special to apostles".

"Men of Israel, listen to this message: Jesus of Nazareth was a man certified by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know".

Acts 2:22

For me, this proves the opposed, since God sealed the faithful with the Holy Spirit, and that gifts are fruit of the Holy Spirit, then, this verse shows that we require a "certification by God" to do such feats. It is cherry-picking, we can see that they ignored the own chapter, since it is said:

"In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams".

Acts 2:17

Take that in mind, this is not my argument, just a note, my argument is about what is written next:

"When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit".

Acts 2:37-38

If when God pours his spirit to people is what makes them prophesy, then, we can see that the ones that repented and were baptized would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is not about being an apostle. This is also clearly show in Acts 10:45, where the Holy Spirit being poured is what made GENTILES to speak in tongues.