The Early Church & Spiritual Gifts

                                     

"These signs shall [future tense] follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Mark 16:17-18 KJV.  These follow-ing signs were to confirm the Gospel word (Mark 16:20). Again, all future tense. Then the tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit, with His gifts, in Acts Chapter 2. Peter explained that this is that prophes-ied by Joel in Joel 2:28-30.   

That is, it was needed. Otherwise, the Way of Christ would likely be totally rejected as it was brand new and appeared to contradict the status quo.  There was another outpouring, on the Gentiles (Acts 10:44-48) to show that they too were accepted, and to expand the Kingdom.  1st Corinthians Chapter 12 rec-ords that the spiritual gifts continued to be highly prevalent in the earliest Church.  Consider that the Church was still tiny and she lacked completed Scripture and/or its proliferation. And still relatively un-known. 

In Irenaeus Against Heresies chapter XXXII, circa AD 180, he notes that all the spiritual gifts continued in his era, as opposed to ceasing at the completion of Scripture.  Then in Origen Against Celsus Chap-ter VIII, circa AD 248, Origen declared that the spiritual gifts have diminished, though there are still traces of them.  Then in De vera religione (On true religion) 25.47 circa AD 390, Augustine said that after the Church was founded and diffused throughout the world, greater miracles were not allowed to continue till our time, lest we should always seek visible things, and humanity should grow cold by be-ing accustomed to these former novelties. St. John Chrysostom also said something similar, in that spiritual gifts were disappearing. 

Subsequent Church fathers rarely if ever mentioned spiritual gifts (charismata).  Today we have cessa-tionists: those who contend that all spiritual gifts have completely vanished permanently.  And continua-tionists: those who contend that all spiritual gifts continue to this day. I never had any spiritual gift and never met anyone in my United States who could demonstrate any spiritual gift.  But I won't say that nobody on Earth has any, as I don't want to potentially become guilty of the black swan fallacy. 

What everyone should agree on is that eventually, all spiritual gifts will vanish, as Scripture says so (1st Corinthians 13:8-12). It just doesn't say when.  And that today, spiritual gifts, if continuing, are very rare.  I do know that in my United States, most spiritual gifts are fake.  For example, rich televangelists who make a Las Vegas show of lifting people from wheelchairs, when there's no documentation that any of them couldn't walk to begin with, unlike Acts 3:6-10, or Jesus' healing the blind man in John 9:1-33. Plus, televangelists don't visit hospitals to heal people there. 

As for tongues, there were two types: Being able to fluently speak a known language you never studied, as in Acts 2:4-8, and speaking in an unknown tongue accompanied by an interpreter, as in 1st Corin-thians 14:27-28. But today, supposed tongue speaking is not understood and there is almost never any interpreter. So, we cannot know whether they are actually the gift of tongues, or that people are pretend-ing or think they have it but are just making random sounds. Those attempting to prophesy but failing even once for their prophecy to come true, would make them a false prophet.  

A group known as Signs Pentecostals handles serpents in imitation of the Mark 16 passage.  But only rattlesnakes, whose bite is less deadly than numerous other species, including the viper that bit Paul in Acts 28:3-6.  And they give off warning rattles before striking, thus saving lives.  Also, Scripture's point was that those with the healing gift would never be harmed by any serpent, unlike today where the rattlesnake sometimes harms their handler. And their drinking any deadly thing to imitate that passage has been limited to purposely drinking strychnine, which can actually work as medicine in low doses and in higher doses pass through a healthy person without harm.  Unlike other poisons like cyanide which are deadly in the smallest dose.   

Fake gifts are an attempt to legitimize unorthodox doctrines and/or gain popularity and/or fortune.  Like I said, phoniness dominates this claim today.  And that true spiritual gifts clearly proliferated in the early Church. So, this is a reason among the others I listed which verify the early Ante-Nicene Church as be-ing the Church that Christ established. And that all subsequent churches and their doctrines which opp-ose her are in error. That is, my posts and videos on the earliest Church titled Pillar of Truth 1 and 2.  

Some, me included lament that we performed so much but got so little power or influence in return. But nobody today can ever approach the influence of men such as Apostles Peter or Paul. Back then Christ-ianity was new, while today most everybody already heard of it and already made their decision one way or another. All famous Gospel preachers today, without exception, preach a compromised, counterfeit, or perverted Gospel, and will face God's wrath for it. 

I would not seek spiritual gifts to tackle the lack of power and influence problem. Consider that in Paul's opinion, Christian texts were God's word. He wrote that they were quick, powerful, sharper than two-edged swords, could even divide soul, spirit, joints, marrow, etc. (Hebrews 4:12). In other words, if people are not convinced by completed Christian scripture, they won't be convinced otherwise. Human stubbornness knows no bounds. Please reread everything I have stated until you fully understand this subject.