Relationship Of Spiritual Gifts To The Bible-2

February 24 Relationship Of Spiritual Gifts To The Bible-2

 


God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. 1 Cor. 12:28, RSV.

The Chritian Connexion made a large impact upon early Sabbatarian Adventism, including its view of spiritual gifts.

We learn of the connexionist view on the topic through the writings of William Kinkade(b. 1783), one of the movement's foremost theologians, Kinkade wrote in 1829 that he had in his early years refused to call himself by "any name but that of Christian" and that he would take no book for his "standard but the Bible."

He was certainly clear on the supreme authority of the Bible in religious matters. However, in his extended discussion of the "restoration of the ancient order of things" he claimed that he could not settle for "one inch short" of the New Testament order.

And at the center of New Testament order, he aruged, were spiritual gifts, including, he wrote, "the gift of prophecy, set forth in such places as 1 Corinthians 12:8-31 and Ephesians 4:11-16. The presence of spiriutal gifts in the church, is the Christianity. To say that God caused these gifts to cease, is the same as to say, God has abolished the order of the New Testament church. . .These gifts constitute the ancient order of things."

Kinkade argued that they were not temporary gifts that ended with the apostolic age. Rather, "these gifts, as they are laid down in the scripture, compose the gospel ministry" as set forth in the New Testament.

William Kinkade's New Testment theology of the perpetuity of spiritual gifts in the context of the Bible as the only source of authority is important for unfounders had been Seventh-day Adventism since two of the denomination's three founders had been acitve in the Christian Connexion. James White and Joseph Bates entered Sabbatarian Adventism from a movement that held to both the Bible as the only determiner of faith and practice and the continuation of spiritual gifts.

The delicate balance between the two is reflected in the writings of James White, which set the tone for the proper function of spiritual gifts in the church.

God our Father, we thank You that You have cared enough for Your church to pour out the gifts of the Spirit. Help us to be wise in our use of Your gifts.