By Avalanche and Bullhorn

Originally Posted by Nihil Obstat

Okay, but the passage itself isn't talking about unbelievers of the gifts, but unbelievers of Jesus - and I don't see faith playing a part here either: if you're a member of the body, you have a gift that supports the life of the body; an eye doesn't exert "faith" in order to see, nor does an ear need "faith" to hear, but these parts of the body (especially of Christ's body, which is in focus here) work thusly naturally on their own, for this is how God composed the body. (I'm a nit-picker, sorry!)

Yet the "natural" working of the Body doesn't happen anymore because some parts of the Body have introduced man made doctrines that stop that natural coordination between all the parts.

How is the entire Body to work and function properly when parts don't even believe in all the parts operating in all the Gifts that God has given to the Body, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit? Some eyes or ears stop believing or never believe because their doctrine says they don't work anymore. So they refuse to be obedient to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and those as an eye or an ear... they render the Body powerless or unbalanced and effectively non-functioning properly according to the scriptures. Compound that with those today who are in the same error as the Corinthians were, and this makes it even worse for the Body of Christ.

This is why I figure the term "unbelievers" also encompasses those who have faith in Christ but don't "believe".

Originally Posted by Nihil Obstat

Slug, I've been thinking more on this, and you're so right - it's so sad. I think cessationism probably stems from misunderstanding "the perfect" as the closing of the canon, when it really pertains to the maturity of the body (as in Eph. 4:11-16), or put simply, love. "In part" has to do with non-communication between the members of the body. But once the body functions properly, then the eye can fully enlighten the body, and the ear can fully attune the body, and the feet can fully propel the body, all parts operating in tandem and for the sake of the whole, under the direction of the head, who is Christ. Therefore the gifts do not come to an end "when the perfect comes", but quite oppositely function to their full capacity, for Christ's heavenly body no longer slumbers, and will never again die. Amen!

Hooah, AMEN!

Keep this in mind also... when a specific Body of Christ (any given church) says that they don't need the gift of tongues because they are "mature", this is a false belief birthed of that doctrine.

Any given moment a person walks in off the street and sits down in that church... they are NOT so mature anymore, are they. When that person listens and accepts Christ, the church has a milk drinker amongst all those meat eaters... are the meat eaters gonna stop God from manifesting any specific Gift of the Holy Spirit for the help and blessing toward that new Christian.

They won't do it and this is why they show NO love as God would show that new Christian love.

When Christ returns, tongues, prophetic words and words of knowledge will end... WHY?

This is because the "perfect" is available face to face as per the scriptures. You will find out that the cessationist doctrine is based solely on a single scripture and that one is 1 Cor 13:10. When you discuss the context of that single scripture with the full context of the Word of God, especially verses 11-13 and this reveals that the perfect is about a relationship and also "face to face" with the perfect... they ignore that scripture and will NOT discuss it. Some will but not in accordance of scripture, they sideline it as meaning something else and the randomness of what that meaning is, changes from person to person so I cannot give you an example of how they sideline away from those scriptures that according to scripture, support that the PERFECT is Jesus and when He returns, we'll be face to face with the Perfect.