I spent a little bit of time over the summer working through a personal study on the spiritual gifts and I made a chart that I hope will be helpful to you as you work through this very important and controversial topic!
The chart above is my attempt to bring together into a visual format the theology of Thomas and Dane (books below). The chart ties together 3 pieces (the 5-fold ministry, all of the gifts, and the pinnacle).
I believe that the ministry Apostle and Prophet ceased in the first century, and that along with the cessation of these two ministries, the miraculous gifts also ceased, as they were expected to do when the perfect (1 Cor. 13:10) comes. Dane does an excellent job in his work exploring this topic and finally after years of sitting on the partial cessationist camp, he has convinced me that the perfect has come and it came through the maturation of the church in the 1st century. At the pinnacle of the triangle the importance of “faith & hope” must be wrestled with in accordance with Paul’s statements in 1 Corinthians, but the most important is the absolute eternality of love! It is love that is the greatest.
These are two excellent defences of the Cessationist position that I highly recommend:
Well done, the pyramid is helpful! I wasnt familar with the Dane book but may have to grab it. I read Thomas’ work when I worked through this topic recently for a paper/presentation.
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I am glad that it was helpful Tim! Definitely get Dane’s work, it was helpful in dealing with 1 Cor 13:10.
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