When Are the Gifts of the Spirit Done Away with?

1Corinthians 13:10 “but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.”

The only scriptures I’m aware of Bible teachers use to assert the “gifts of the Spirit” already ceased are 1 Corinthians 13:10 and scriptures surrounding it. So let’s look at that in context.

“8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Verse 10 speaks of the incomplete aspect of these gifts ceasing. Paul also identified the time period when this occurs, by labeling it when the perfect (or when the complete thing) arrives in vs 10. He was contrasting the abilities Christians had then with those abilities they will posses in the future in vss 11 and 12. And in vs 12 Paul states that he will personally be affected when that happens. How? By having a much more complete picture, meaning fuller knowledge about some things concerning God when this perfect thing comes.

Now Paul wrote these words just a few years before he died. So what could he have meant by this perfect thing coming that would give him a better understanding of some things having to do with God? That complete thing couldn’t be the completion of the Bible, as Watchtower teaches. Why? Because Paul died well before the Bible, as we know it today, was completed. So, it doesn’t make sense in light of Paul’s scriptures that he wrote of the Bible’s completion as the arrival of that perfect thing.

So ask yourself, first, did the Spiritual gifts the early church possessed cease when Paul died? No. And second think, since Paul made personal application of this time and occurrence, isn’t it obvious he was referring to a time after he died? And since the coming of this perfect thing came to Paul after his death, the increased knowledge for him obviously came while he was in heaven, not while on earth.

But that time period that applied to Paul could not be applied to all other Christians. Why? Because that perfect or complete thing brings a deeper knowledge to all other Christians also. See vs9, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” And Paul’s death didn’t affect all Christians receiving this complete knowledge from God. Therefore, he had to write about a time period when each individual member of Christ’s church experiences a heavenly resurrection themselves. See 1Thessalonians 4:15-17. Only then could they have the same knowledge Paul claimed he would possess, a perfect or complete knowledge.

I know not all the gifts of the Spirit have ceased. There are too many Bible teachers teaching false ideas for God to allow that. Today God counters their false claims through biblical truths taught by members of Christ’s church.

 23“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.24“God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24.

Let’s look at some of these gifts of the Spirit:

“7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by the same Spirit,9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions them to each one as He determines.” 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

Those who claim these gifts of the Spirit have ceased will try to have you focus on speaking in tongues, prophecy, or other miracles. Why? because they personally have never seen a miracle, and they believe the same is true of you. But look again at the preceding paragraph. By teaching the “gifts of the Spirit” have ceased, whether they are aware of it or not, they are admitting they do not have wisdom from the Spirit (vs8), faith from the Spirit (vs 9), or knowledge from the Spirit (vs 8). If they do not have knowledge from God’s Spirit why would you want to follow them in their teaching about God’s scriptures? The knowledge they teach has to have come to them from their own limited reasoning ability, affected by other sources that are inferior to God’s granting of knowledge. Some of those sources might even be demonic, such as false interpretations that become solidified inside a Christian church.

God is not going to allow the truths about his word to be silenced by false teaching, just because the Bible was completed. Some Bible teachers teach these gifts were only given to help establish the first century Christian church, and once that was done the gifts ceased. But those teachers make that claim without any scriptural support at all. No scripture states that.

Also, please note the scriptures say nothing about God ever ceasing to perform miracles on earth or God ceasing to personally contact people today. Some religions claim these same scriptures support those false claims also, not just the gifts of the Spirit disappearing, but also godly miracles and personal contacts by God disappearing. These scriptures don’t even mention those things, which shows how far eschew their teaching is. Claiming those things ceased is adding ideas to their Bible teaching that are unscriptural. God still does provide gifts of the Spirit to his chosen church members as he sees fit to distribute those. God still does contact individual Christians today.

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Contacted by God