Spiritual Gifts and the Burden of Proof

Phil Johnson writes:

If you believe any of the miraculous spiritual gifts were operative in the apostolic era only, and that some or all of those gifts gradually ceased before the end of the first century, you are a cessationist.

If you believe all the spiritual gifts described in the New Testament have continued unabated, unchanged, and unaltered since the initial outpouring of tongues at Pentecost, you are a continuationist.

I'm not sure if Phil draws lines that I'm happy with here. He continues to draw out an argument, that as I understand is based on the following:

1) If you are an evangelical, you believe canon is closed.
2) That means that there are no longer Apostles (since they would be able to add to scripture)
3) Therefore you are a sort-of-cessationist if you are an evangelical.
4) Therefore unless you can argue from the Bible that the canon has stopped, you shouldn't expect cessationists to argue from the Bible that the other gifts have stopped.

I do believe the canon is complete. In the 66 books of the Bible we have all of scripture, which is God-breathed. I would say that's a presupposition, or starting point for all my beliefs. This seems to be justified, as evidenced by its unity, its accuracy (in terms of historical detail), and the fact that it claims to be exactly that. There doesn't seem to be a reason to deny that presupposition (or logical starting point for all my other beliefs).

Given that, I read Paul talk about spiritual gifts to the Corinthians and the Romans, and talk about the sorts of people found in the church, in Ephesians. I believe that his instruction to those people in the first century A.D. was true and correct, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Now, as far as I'm aware, no-one is attempting to argue that we're in a different dispensation to then; that is to say we are still in the church age, where the Holy Spirit lives in believers. It seems to me that the burden of proof lies firmly on the cessationist side.

1 Corinthians 12:7 - "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." - different manifestations of the Spirit, or gifts of the Spirit are given for the common good- that is to unite and build the church.

Paul then lists some manifestations, or gifts of the spirit, which includes gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and distinguishing of spirits.

Then comes 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. "

To summarise, the Holy Spirit unites the many believers into Christ; that is, all those of the church age are in the same body. We all have the Spirit, and we all have the blessings of Christ in heaven.

Since the role of gifts was to edify, or to build up the Church, the body of Christ, and in this context Paul includes the miraculous gifts which cessationists (proper ones, I'm not using Phil Johnson's definitions here) say have ceased. In fact, the passage talking about the unity of the church by the Spirit and his manifestations includes primarily those miraculous gifts.

So to close, it is the evangelical cessationist who has the burden of proof in this argument. They have to show scriptural reasons why we shouldn't directly relate such passages about the church to our position in the church age now. We still have the Spirit and He still edifies the church, and He still does so by manifestations.