Prophecy, Tongues, and Revelation Today

The Question Before Us

Do the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and words of knowledge continue in the church today, or did they cease when the age of the apostles closed? This is one of the sharpest questions surrounding the movement we have been studying, and honest, Bible-loving Christians have answered it in two very different ways. This unit sets both answers before you fairly, as we did with the millennium and with the meaning of "the perfect" in an earlier unit — not to hand you a verdict, but to help you weigh the Scriptures for yourself.

Two questions must be kept apart, or the whole discussion falls into confusion. The first is whether the revelatory gifts continue at all. The second is a different question that arises only if they do: how any prophecy given today relates to the Bible — the completed, closed collection of Scripture. Much of the fear and heat around this subject comes from running these two questions together, as though believing the gifts continue must mean adding to the Word of God. It does not, as we shall see. Let us take the questions one at a time.

What Both Sides Agree Upon

Before the disagreement, it is worth resting on the wide ground both sides share, for it is wider than the quarrels suggest. Both cessationists and responsible continuationists confess that the canon of Scripture is closed. The sixty-six books are complete; no one is writing a sixty-seventh; nothing said in a meeting today stands beside Isaiah or Romans as the Word of God. Scripture is the final and sufficient authority:

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God… that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NKJV)

Both sides also agree that the Spirit is at work in the church now — in conviction, conversion, sanctification, and the ordinary graces of Christian life — and that whatever gifts God gives are meant to build up the body and glorify Christ, never to exalt an individual. So the argument is not over whether the Spirit works today, nor over whether the Bible is finished. It is a narrower argument about one class of gifts. Keeping that in view will spare us from treating brothers and sisters as enemies over a question the whole church has long debated in good faith.

The Cessationist Position

The cessationist holds that the revelatory and miraculous sign-gifts — prophecy, tongues, healings, words of knowledge — had a particular purpose in the founding era of the church, and passed away once that purpose was fulfilled. The case runs like this. The church was built "on the foundation of the apostles and prophets"; a foundation is laid once, not repeatedly, and the gifts that accompanied the apostles' ministry belonged to that founding work.

"…having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone."Ephesians 2:20 (NKJV)

These gifts, the cessationist argues, served to authenticate the apostles and their message before the New Testament was written and gathered. The writer to the Hebrews speaks of the great salvation confirmed to us by those who heard the Lord, "God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit" (Heb 2:3–4). Once that testimony was confirmed and the Scriptures completed, the scaffolding could come down. On this reading, "when that which is perfect has come" (1 Cor 13:10) points to the finished revelation and the maturity it brings — the view we met earlier as Reading A — and the sufficiency of the completed Scripture means the church no longer needs new revelatory gifts. At its strongest, the position is a high view of Scripture's finality: God has spoken fully in His Son and in the Word, and we are to look there, not for fresh voices.

The cessationist often adds a further observation drawn from the shape of Scripture itself: the great clusters of miracles and prophecy did not fall evenly across the ages but gathered at the hinges of redemptive history — around Moses and the giving of the Law, around Elijah and Elisha as they contended for the covenant, and around Christ and His apostles as the gospel broke into the world — and grew sparse in the long stretches between. On this reading the outpouring that accompanied the church's birth belongs to such a hinge. The apostolic office, moreover, had no successors; it closed with the men who had seen the risen Lord and were commissioned by Him, and the sign-gifts bound up with that founding office closed along with it. What remains for every later generation is the completed Scripture those apostles and prophets left behind, which is enough.

The Continuationist Position

The continuationist holds that the gifts described in the New Testament remain available to the church until the Lord returns, and answers the cessationist point by point. Scripture, he observes, nowhere plainly states that the revelatory gifts would cease before the second coming. Paul's instructions to the Corinthians are given without any hint of an expiration date:

"Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy."1 Corinthians 14:1 (NKJV)

He presses the point with a further text. Writing to these same Corinthians, Paul says they “come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:7) — binding the church's possession of the gifts to the whole stretch of waiting that ends only at Christ's appearing, not at the close of the first century. And he lays down a challenge: let the cessationist produce the verse that plainly announces the gifts' withdrawal, for the continuationist searches and finds none. Where Scripture has not spoken, he argues, we are not free to forbid what it elsewhere commands. On this account the gifts are not a temporary scaffolding taken down once the building rose, but part of the ordinary furniture of the church, given and withheld as the Spirit wills, until the Lord returns.

And plainly, "do not forbid to speak with tongues" (14:39). The continuationist reads "when that which is perfect has come" as the return of Christ — Reading B from the earlier unit — since the "face to face" seeing and full knowing of the next verse (13:12) belong to glory, not to the closing of a book; and if the gifts last until then, they last now. He points to Peter at Pentecost citing Joel: "in the last days," God says, "I will pour out of My Spirit… your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17–18) — and "the last days" name the whole span between Christ's first and second comings, our age included. And he notes that Paul grounds the gifts in the Spirit's ongoing choice: "the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills" (1 Cor 12:11). At its strongest, the position is a plain reading of commands that were never revoked and a refusal to forbid what the apostle told the church not to forbid.

Prophecy and the Closed Canon

Here we reach the question that troubles many, and it deserves a careful answer: if prophecy continues, does that not threaten the Bible? The answer, on any responsible continuationist account, is no — and the reason is a distinction that must be grasped. The prophecy that became Scripture, given through apostles and prophets, carried the full authority of God and is now closed; nothing is added to it. Any prophecy in a congregation today is of a different and lesser kind: not new Scripture, carrying no canonical authority, and always to be tested.

The Scriptures themselves guard their own finality. Jude writes of "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) — once for all, not added to in each generation — and the Revelation closes with a solemn warning against adding to the words of the book (Rev 22:18–19). So the canon is shut. Even the believer who expects the gift of prophecy to continue does not expect it to rival, correct, or extend the Bible; he expects, at most, a fallible word of encouragement or warning that must itself be weighed by Scripture and may well be mistaken. Hold this distinction firmly and the fear dissolves: to affirm a continuing gift is not to reopen the Word of God.

The New Testament itself shows prophecy of this lesser kind at work. A prophet named Agabus foretold a coming famine (Acts 11:28), and later, taking Paul's belt and binding his own hands and feet, warned of the apostle's arrest at Jerusalem (Acts 21:10–11). This was genuine prophecy, yet it was never gathered into Scripture; and in the second instance the disciples drew from Agabus's word a conclusion Paul himself did not accept, pleading with him not to go up — so that even a true prophet's message had to be weighed, and its application could be mistaken by those who heard it. Here, within the pages of the Bible, stands prophecy that is real and useful and still to be tested: not a rival to Scripture but a servant beneath it. This, says the continuationist, is exactly the kind of gift he expects to continue — edifying, fallible, and always subordinate to the written Word.

Test All Things

Whatever a believer concludes about continuation, Scripture presses one duty on everyone, and it is the great practical safeguard: everything claiming to be from the Spirit must be tested by the Word. Paul commands neither a reckless acceptance nor a scornful dismissal, but a weighing:

"Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good."1 Thessalonians 5:20–21 (NKJV)

He gives the church a rule for its meetings: "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge" (1 Cor 14:29). John adds, "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). The measure in every case is Scripture, which stands over all claimed words and cannot be overturned by any of them. A prophecy that contradicts the Bible is false, whatever power seems to attend it; a prophecy that agrees with the Bible tells us nothing the Bible did not already say with more authority. This testing protects the church from both errors that surround the gifts — the credulity that swallows every claim, and the coldness that quenches the Spirit's genuine work.

This testing is no New Testament novelty; it reaches back into the Law. Israel was given a twofold measure: a prophet's word must come to pass (Deut 18:22), and even a sign or wonder that does come to pass must never draw the people after other gods (Deut 13:1–3). Truth and fulfillment together formed the test, and the second guarded against the first being abused by a lying wonder. The church inherits the same double safeguard: no claimed word, however striking or however moving, may be received if it leads away from the God and the gospel already made known in Scripture.

A Word on Tongues Today

The same discipline applies to tongues. Whether or not the gift continues — the very question we have been weighing — the New Testament's rules do not change: in the gathered church tongues are to be interpreted, exercised in order, and never made a badge that divides the "haves" from the "have-nots" (1 Cor 14). And the two questions we separated in an earlier unit stay separate here: whether the gift is real is one matter; whether speaking in tongues is required as the proof of the Spirit's baptism is another, and to that second question the answer given throughout this course is no. Let those who exercise any gift do so under love and in submission to the Word, and let no one despise a brother for having, or for lacking, a particular gift.

Holding the Question with Humility

On the central question — do the revelatory gifts continue? — this course renders no verdict, because faithful Christians who honor the same Bible have long stood on both sides, and each can point to Scripture for its case. What the course does insist upon is the ground that is not open to negotiation: the canon is closed, Scripture is sufficient and final, everything must be tested by it, and Christ is the center. The Lord Jesus said the Spirit came to glorify Him (John 16:14), and that remains the aim of every true gift and the test of every claim. So weigh the Scriptures, come to your conviction, and hold it with humility — receiving as brothers those who have weighed the same texts and landed elsewhere.

Looking Ahead

In the next unit we turn to a painful subject that must be faced honestly: the prosperity gospel and other excesses that have grown up alongside the movement. We will ask what Scripture says about wealth, faith, and suffering, and how to reject a distortion without condemning the many faithful believers it has wounded.

Discussion Questions

• Why does keeping the "do the gifts continue?" question separate from the "how does prophecy relate to the canon?" question calm much of the fear around this subject?
• Read 1 Corinthians 14:1 and 14:39 alongside Ephesians 2:20. How does each position account for both texts?
• What does it look like, in a real church meeting, to "test all things" without either despising prophecy or swallowing every claim?
• How would you explain to a worried believer that affirming a continuing gift does not add to or threaten the Bible?

Ministry Application

Think of a setting where someone claimed a word from God. Write two sentences describing how you would weigh that claim by Scripture, and one sentence you could say to honor the person while keeping the Bible as the final authority.