Regarding whether spiritual gifts are available today in similar fashion to the early church, I think for the purposes here, it would be good to quote the key passage (if others would like to address other portions of scripture, feel free).
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1 Corinthians 13:8-12 (KJV)
A central part of this is what the perfect mentioned in V10 is intended to mean. Many point to the canonization of scripture. For myself, I think it is the coming Kingdom (and thus the future from our viewpoint).
Consider V12: Instead of seeing Christ darkly, we will be face to face and not in need of additional expanding knowledge nor in the gift of prophesy nor tongues nor healing. If the perfect referred to the Bible, we would expect that we would not need further know Lord or ourselves.
We can see that the Bible as good as it is, and it is perfect in that it accomplishes the task the Lord set, does not contain all Truth about God.
There are many reasons why we do not perceive the same gifts as did first century believers.
Much that we see and do every day that would be seen as miraculous to the believers in Corinth. The would be more than metaphorical but to their understanding would actually be miracles.
At the same time and on the other side of the same coin, when the miraculous is observed today, we deem it a magic trick, or an illusion, or look for a natural explanation, as if the natural world were not a manifestation of God. If we find a trick, we brand all such as trick. If we find a natural world explanation, we therefore miss Gods part in that. One of the greatest points of these gifts is to promote belief but man himself hinders that.
By the way, while I see the utility of words like cessationist, labels like this just draw lines that may not be fundamental and invites us to take sides.
I have done as many others and tried to consider all the teachings of this one Scripture. I guess it comes down to what we enter the understanding of the Scripture and what we actually want it to say.
No one has to agree with me on anything and all I can do is state what I see the Scripture actually says.
Now when we take close look at the verse whose phrase is in question: 1 Corth. 13:10 we see........
“But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away”.
Did you see it?? This verse says
nothing about
us going anywhere, but it
does teach that
something is
coming to us.
Something
coming to us and us
going somewhere are two completely different situations.
Often, because of verse 12, 1 Corinthians 13:10 is conflated with 1 John 3:2. However, 1 Corinthians 13:12 and 1 John 3:2 are
not cross-references—the contexts are discussing separate issues.
Now with ALL respect and Christian love........ many well meaning and great Christian people have assumed that 1 Corinthians 13:10—
“when that which is perfect is come”—is descriptive of us going to heaven and seeing Jesus for who He really is, when we no longer wonder what He looks like but when we actually see Him
“face to face.”
Yet, beloved, those words "Face to Face" is from a hymnal and is
not our authority; it is
not inspired of God. Just because someone wrote a hymn lacking doctrinal clarity and accuracy, does
not mean that we are to accept the hymn for sake of tradition. We should discard the hymn and we should believe the Bible for what it says rather than that what it is presumed to teach. After all, the hymn is to be written based on Bible truth; the Bible is the authority, not the hymnal. It would save us much disappointment and misery when we realize that the opinions of men are
not going to profit us in eternity.
IMO........The phrase
“when that which is perfect is come” has
nothing to do with us dying and going to heaven. Please feel free to disagree and we will still be the best of friends as you may be right and I may just be wrong.
Again, the actual and literal words of the Scripture in question is talking about something
coming to us, not us going to a place.
Again, IMPO and having come out of the Pentecostal Charismatic religion, the real reason why people they take the view of us dying going to heaven in reference to 1 Corinthians 13:10 is so that the spirituals gifts—especially the gift of tongues—can be viewed as still operating today for, it is said, by that them the spiritual gifts will not cease until we go to heaven.
Again, 3rd time but I am old so I have an excuse, this is a very faulty position to take, for there is
nothing in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 about dying and going to heaven.
Consider for a moment........“When that which is perfect is come” is a reference to when partial knowledge and partial prophesying are done away.
Verses 9 and 10 again:
“[9] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. [10] But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”
This seems to me is talking about the completion of the Bible’s canon of books, which was settled in God’s mind in the first century A.D. Once John wrote his Revelation the Bible was complete, and there was no more revelation needed from God (cf. Colossians 1:25 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
To me, This is the only view that the
context of 1 Corinthians 13:10 allows. For God to have us grow up spiritually is something He wants
now,
not when we go to heaven (view #1) or when Jesus return again: God wants mature Christians
now .